Paleolithic Cave Paintings - A 20,000 Year Project - The Stream of Learning.....

Prehistoric cave paintings... by hearing this term the "Bison in Altamira Cave" comes into my mind.One of the earliest signs of human creativity.I still remember that black & white picture in my sixth standard history book.Looking at that picture I used to visualize a shadowy dark cave with almost extinguished fire in the centre,group of men dressed in animal skins,talking in weird languages,painting bison in that psychedelic studio.Later I have found several references to this painting including Satyajit Ray's last movie "Agantuk".This has been always a topic of interest and wonder to me.



I was always puzzled by the question why they suddenly started painting?Fighting for his own existence against all odds of nature with his primitive tools and intelligence, was painting necessary to survive,sustain the animal instincts.Certainly not.The answer is difficult to find.But it's for sure that these paintings mark the beginning of mankind achieving a higher level of consciousness,ability to communicate and bring forward worldviews of their own.
Today an article related to prehistoric cave paintings caught my attention.It states that experts have now come up with a new technique for precise dating of this paintings known as Uranium Series dating.As per their studies it took around 20,000 years to complete these paintings as we see them today.Does it mean that it took so long just to complete these paintings.Given the form and content it does not appear to be so.I think they were preserved and maintained by so many generations.Just the way we do it in our art galleries and cathedrals today.What those paintings meant to them?.Some form of art or something religious or something else.Whatever be the case the preservation over a span of 20,000 years clearly points out there was a sense of tradition.So along with initial sparks of creativity,these paintings also signify growth of belonging to the roots emotion in mankind.
The different layers of those paintings by artists at different times symbolizes the gradual process of evolution and development of human knowledge.Nothing is original so to say.We always build upon what was there already.Sometimes when we don't find answers using the teachings of the past we try to question some of the axiomatic assumptions and alter them a little.This is the "paradigm shift".Some notions of the past can be wrong in the light of modern knowledge and understanding.But that should never be rejected as irrelevant.
Renaissance gave us the perspective in the three spatial dimensions,twentieth century artists then added one more to it.But the existing three prevailed..

The article can be found at:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/10/05/eacaveart105.xml