Countless historians, archaeologists, and scientists study cave paintings. Some try to figure out the meaning of the ancient images, while others try to understand the purpose of the paintings, and still others study how those early artists did what they did, from figuring out the process of making paint to going and putting it on a cavern wall. The methods, techniques, and tools used to make prehistoric cave paintings tell a lot about the beginnings of graphic design technology by answering how prehistoric people created them.
REFERENCES
White, R. (2003). Prehistoric Art: The Symbolic Journey of Humankind. Harry N. Abrams Inc.
Clottes, J. (2008). Cave Art. Phaidon Press Limited. 9780714845920
Neumayer, E. (1983). Prehistoric Indian Rock Paintings. Oxford University Press. 9780195613872
Ruspoli, M. (1987). The Cave of Lascaux: The Final Photographs. Harry N. Abrams Inc. 0810912678
Myron, R. (1964). Prehistoric Art. Pitman Publishing Corporation. 0273438611
Stokstad, M., & Cothren M. W. (2011). Art History: Ancient Art (4th ed.). Pearson Education. 0205744222
This is Incomplete Design History: The Illustration Files, a podcast that explores overlooked and ignored topics in graphic design history. It is our goal to deepen and expand the knowledge, understanding, and interpretation of design history.
Because history is messy. It’s incomplete.
Thank you for joining us today, I am your host, Renee Martin.
Intro
Countless historians, archaeologists, and scientists study cave paintings. Some try to figure out the meaning of the ancient images, while others try to understand the purpose of the paintings, and still others study how those early artists did what they did, from figuring out the process of making paint to going and putting it on a cavern wall.
The methods, techniques, and tools used to make prehistoric cave paintings tell a lot about the beginnings of graphic design technology by answering how prehistoric people created them.
Based on archaeological footprints, it is assumed that these prehistoric artists carried rudimentary lamps, paint minerals, food, and tools when they traveled to find cave surfaces.
Some of the cave paintings use illustration techniques we usually think of as more modern inventions. In the Chauvet-Pont-d'Arc cave in France, the paintings are clear examples of pointillism.
The pointillism effect was achieved by the prehistoric artist painting a dot on their hand, and transferring it to the chosen cave surface (White, 2003). This technique was applied over and over again until it resulted in multiple dots to form an image.
These prehistoric cave paintings show how the artists made choices about color, application techniques, tools, and even location. While it might feel odd to discuss ancient cave paintings in the context of graphic design and illustration, we must recognize that this is literally where both begin. What the historians and archaeologists and scientists have revealed is a set of creative choices illustrators and graphic designers still use today, thousands of years later.
Paint: Pigment & Binders
Prehistoric art historian Robert Myron writes how the prehistoric designer was also a primitive scientist to create multiple colors from natural pigments. “These colors, in every hue except green and blue, came from ochres, manganese ore, charcoal, and blood” (Myron 10) as well as hematite, limonite, chalk, and charcoal.
In the paintings at Lascaux, most of the iron oxides and pigments came from the surrounding areas in the cave along with ochres (Ruspoli 170). 158 fragments and 20 tubes of powdered pigment have been excavated at various painting sites.
Pigments found in Lascaux at the end of the Axial Gallery were “produced [in] black, red, pink, brown, and yellow material; the Chamber of the Felines contained red, white, and pink pigments and, at the far end of the gallery, ‘manganese in a powdered state, a nugget of mineralized manganese and a piece of yellow ochre the size of an orange’” (Ruspoli 194).
Pigments sourced near the cave site suggests that the location was selected first then the colors rather than the other way around.
After selecting the site and sourcing the pigment, prehistoric artists needed a binder, something to hold the color and stick it to the cavern wall.
There were many of these natural binders: water, blood, honey, glue, fat, urine, saliva and bone marrow all served this purpose. Researchers and historians have concluded through experimentation that the best binder was made using cave water “which is rich in salts of dissolved calcium that ‘fix the pigments in the crystalline mass and form a very hard coloured calcite’” (Ruspoli 194).
Using cave water makes a lot of sense since, like the pigment, it was right there and readily available. Nothing had to be carried to the cave site.
Iron oxide was also used for preparing pigment along with possible glue and resin according to archaeologist Erwin Neumayer. This iron oxide material was called geru in India and was mixed with water to be activated. It was applied to the rock and chemically reacted with the mineral content of the cave surfaces causing oxidation to allow the pigments to permanently stick to the surface. This lets the pigments of the painting show brightly even after the surface of the cave erodes (Neumayer page 6).
Surface Preparation & Application
And speaking of surfaces, archaeologists have reason to believe that prehistoric artists prepared the surfaces they painted by first scraping and washing the stone so that their strokes of paint would appear more realistic.
Myron theorizes that prehistoric designers were inventive and skilled enough to create scaffolding out of vines and wood to reach higher cave surfaces.
Once the paint was mixed and the surface was ready, cave painters then made decisions about how to apply the paint.
Based on the other innovations like the scaffolding, it’s reasonable to believe that prehistoric artists formed other tools to apply paint, however the method for which there is no doubt is the use of their own hands. Existing cave painting include literal handprints which would have required the artist to dip his or her hand into the paint and press it up against the cave wall.
It’s also reasonable to believe that at least in some cases the pointillism effect was achieved with a simple fingertip.
We can even say that prehistoric artists came up with the idea for spray paint and airbrushes.
One design found in cave paintings is a negative hand print with color surrounding it like a stencil. There are many experiments done by historians and remains at cave sites to support the theory of spray painting. The two most commonly found possibilities for spray painting were spitting paint through hollowed-out bones or spitting from the mouth directly.
Author Mario Ruspoli theorizes that the “spray gun” method was seldom used, but it was achieved by being blown through the mouth or a hollow tube like a bone. French prehistorian Dr. Jean Clottes agrees, writing “Hand stencils are made by blowing or spitting red or black paint onto a hand laid flat against the wall.” For spitting or blowing, pigment was placed in the mouth, where it mixed with saliva creating the “paint” before being sprayed onto the cave surface.
Location, Location, Location
It’s already obvious that prehistoric cave painters thought about their tools and methods, it only makes sense that they put as much thought into where they put their art. Long before we had the mantra Location, Location, Location, prehistoric artists chose their painting sites intentionally. We might not fully understand what those places meant to them, but the work that went into painting where they did suggests these sites weren’t just the nearest cave wall.
Because of these discoveries, historians have concluded that prehistoric cave painters traveled to find favorable cave sites and packed survival gear for the journey.
Myron mentions how some painting locations, like the ones made in southeastern Spain, “were not made in the darkness of caves, but on the sun-drenched surface of cliff walls, overlooking the dwellings of Mesolithic man” where over time rock deposits created a transparent film that preserved the images on the cliff.
However, there’s sufficient evidence that suggests these people traveled to the caves and surfaces they chose to paint on, and not just because their pigment was sourced near those locations.
Archaeologists found numerous rudimentary lamps and lighting sources at cave painting sites. This discovery led them to believe that prehistoric painters invented ways to light their work for long periods. The lantern or torch would in theory have to burn long enough for the painter to find the surface in the cave, prep the surface, complete a design, and leave the cave. Processing the pigments took place outside the cave to preserve lamp fat or oil.
Ruspoli goes into great detail about the variety of lamps found at Lascaux and mentions that more than one hundred and thirty lamps have been discovered throughout the cave. He goes on to split the lamps into two categories, natural and modified lamps. Natural lamps were more common as basic pieces of limestone or sandstone that ranged from six to eleven inches long and held a small well for fuel.
Modified lamps are also made from limestone, but they are advanced with cups to hold the fuel of the lamp. Ruspoli also mentions the remnants of possible torches writing that “although in most instances the wood has disappeared, one still finds the charcoal fragments that were scattered on the ground as people came and went, as well as the ‘smears’ and black ‘marks’ on the walls where torches were ‘scraped’ to revive them.”
There are theories about the possibility of survival packs used by traveling prehistoric designers. The prehistoric traveling artist carried the lamp along with fat for lamp fuel, strands of moss and wicks for the lamp, fat-soaked twigs, dry wood, crude harnesses, ropes, and sustenance such as smoked meat or fish. These travelers were prepared for danger and difficult obstacles sometimes tackled alone.
CONCLUSION
Contrary to the stereotypes of primitive humans, prehistoric cave painters were innovative and intentional about their designs, methods, and locations. Artists, illustrators and designers still make the same kinds of creative decisions as the cave painters did thousands of years ago.
In that respect, we owe a debt of gratitude to those first artists for heeding the urge to make the first marks on a wall and pass that knowledge on so that we could have the kind of art, illustration and design that we know today.
Credits:
This episode was produced with the aid of a grant from the University of Central Oklahoma
Research & Writing credits for this episode are from Renee Martin
Story editing provided by Spencer Gee
Sound design/engineering – By the University of Central Oklahoma’s Center for eLearning and Connected Environments
Music by Christina Giacona and Patrick Conlon of Onyx Lane
Contact:
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