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Other Caves

In the cavern of Midi District of France the drawing of woolly rhinoceros and hairy bear have been found. Somefootprints and handprints of man are also there. It appears that these drawings have been made over some previous work.

In the caves of Pyrenees at Font-De-Gaume in France many single animals except that in processionof mammoth have been found. The most marvelous is the position of legs and feet of the running animals that have been painted as if captured with a camera. It means that those cave men had eyes, memories and hence they saw, retained and then reproduced the swiftest movement of animals in flight.

The cave in Perigord in Dordogne valley has a mammoth truly, masterly and hundred of other animal studies. A lamp of sandstone has also been found with a picture of an ibex signed on it. With such lamps the artist worked in the dark interior of the caves.

A cave in a tiny village of Morella- la- Vella in Spain has the first specimen of tribal warfare with bows and arrows; the human figures are in action.

At Baranco, Devalltorla there is a painting of realistic deer hunt. These caves vary in depth from a few hundred to some 4000 ft.

Mostly the paintings are in the dark interior of the caves. Tiny lamps were used filled with fat of animal with a wick perhaps made of moss. For drawing outlines pieces of red and yellow ochre were used and for painting these colors were powdered to be mixed with animal fat. Shoulder bones or pelvis were used for palate, brushes of animal hair were used. The stone scrapers for smoothing the wall and sharp flints for engraving outlines were used.

Essential Characteristics of animal were drawn with a bold continuous line first engraved with the flints and then filled in with colors. Short lines wherever used were for shading.

In the caves of France and in Altamira in Spain there are large-scale reproductions of single animals with no human figure except one in Lascaux.

In the caves of Spain other than that of Altamira there are drawings of animals few inches in size. Animals are in groups and there are also human figures hunting, fighting and dancing.