Cave painting are pretty amazing: art made by humans who were basically the same as us, but living in what is essentially a totally different world. In the last few years, a new — and when you think about it, pretty obvious — way of seeing them has emerged. And it’s all to do with fire.
For years, researchers have been clambering into these deeps caves to catalog cave art, blazing bright lamps at them to capture every detail. Some of the drawings were odd — bison with eight legs or several tails, drawings of the same animal overlapping. But hey, these were cave people, maybe they were just shite at drawing. And then, not very long ago, someone had an idea.
These deep-cave drawings were always made in flickering light, either from torches or small fires. So what happens if they were viewed in the same way? Since open flame couldn’t be used, in case the ancient art was damaged, special lamps were developed to simulate the light and flicker of flame. And then — wow! For the first time in thousands of years, these drawings came to life. Literally.
In turned out that many of the drawings had been made so that the uneven flicker of open flame would cause them to “animate”. The light, flickering across the uneven stone, highlights different parts of the images at different times, giving an effect of motion. Tails swish, animals run. It wasn’t, in fact, that stone-age people painted bison with eight legs because they were idiots, it’s that these extra legs, in flicking firelight, making it seem like the animal is running, and alive. Overlapping outlines became a charging beast. By taking the art of its context, we had missed the most interesting thing about it.
Regarding cave art, another question always comes up (in fact it comes up in this article): why did they paint them far, far inside a cave, in a place where a substantial effort would be needed to even see them? As an introvert, it’s obvious to me — because they wanted to get the fuck away from the noise and activity of a busy clan and to a place where nobody could disturb them. Where they could focus on what they were doing without having to listen to some arsehole going on and on about the latest berries, or admiring someone’s carved stone, or enduring endless smalltalk about the bloody weather.
When you want to see cave art in the proper way, use a flame. And when you want a question answered about silent, hidden places and why people would bother to go there, ask an introvert.
/ Paddy
Paddy K 