Cave Paintings: Lascaux And Chauvet Caves In Spain

Introduction

Cave paintings have been discovered all over Europe over the past century, four of the most famous discoveries are that of the two caves of Altamira and El Castillo in Spain as well as the Lascaux and Chauvet caves in France. These painting have been described as around 40,000 to 14,000 years old, dating to the Upper Palaeolithic era. Since the discovery of these cave sites, many archaeologists, scientists, anthropologists, geologists and practically anyone who was interested in these discoveries created theories in order to explain these paintings and the significance behind them. However, despite the amount of effort spent looking into the matter, no final answer has yet to be reached, although just about everyone seems to

In spite of this theory, many scientists and other fields looking into these cave paintings were not convinced. Therefore, disregarding this hypothesis of “art for arts’ sake,” I will look into three other scientific interpretations that have been suggested over the past century for these cave paintings found in France and in Spain. The three scientific interpretations that I will be evaluating are: the use of hallucinogens and an altered state of consciousness, cave paintings as a form of ritual, and lastly that symbols found amongst the cave art were a form of communication. These are not the only interpretations for the cave paintings out there but these three are some of the most mainstream ideas for this prehistoric

Even if they ingested these plants and had ‘trips’ which would make them see these distorted shapes that are common in drugs today, it would not explain the act of drawing on these walls. Even f these plants were able to grow in the temperatures described, there is no proof that these plants were present at these times. There are no drawings of these plants on any of the caves discovered thus far, and the tests that these theorists have administered does not have conclusive results that have persuaded me to believe that it is similar to that of the cave. I believe that hallucinogens could have been present at the time, and it could have been a component to the drawings at these caves, but as an explanation to provide significance to the cave art, to me it does not add up. Hallucinogens could have been a part of the overall reason to why some of these painting were so abstract, but the reason for the paintings themselves due to hallucinogens and an altered state of consciousness does not