Prisoner Of Ice
10-17-2013, 10:52 AM
http://www.nbcnews.com/science/prehistoric-cave-prints-show-most-early-artists-were-women-8C11391268
Alongside drawings of bison and horses, the first painters left clues to their identity on the stone walls of caves, blowing red-brown paint through rough tubes and stenciling outlines of their palms. New analysis of ancient handprints in France and Spain suggests that most of those early artists were women.
This is a surprise, since most archaeologists have assumed it was men who had been making the cave art.
It's not so surprising when you realize that until recent historic times europe has always been extremely matriarchal. Not crazed, weird, angry feminism like today, but women would fight alongside men and do everything men did, and did all the choosing of mates instead of being forced into it by parents or a chief.
The new paper includes details from 32 stencils found in 11 caves in Spain and France, where some of the hand prints date back almost 40,000 years.
40k years ago means it was neanderthal.
La Scaux and El Castillo and similar neanderthal sites are actually many times more advanced than what "modern" humans produced after neanderthals got absorbed by outsiders. For tens of thousands of years art devolved from what rivals modern standards to stick figures and violent images. Only in about 1400 AD did complex art featuring perspective and similar advanced features we take for granted reappear!
One of my favorite neanderthal finds was a 50k year old paint and makeup kit with dozens of little wooden pots full of various color pots that looked like something Wilma Flintstone would use to do her makeup.
Alongside drawings of bison and horses, the first painters left clues to their identity on the stone walls of caves, blowing red-brown paint through rough tubes and stenciling outlines of their palms. New analysis of ancient handprints in France and Spain suggests that most of those early artists were women.
This is a surprise, since most archaeologists have assumed it was men who had been making the cave art.
It's not so surprising when you realize that until recent historic times europe has always been extremely matriarchal. Not crazed, weird, angry feminism like today, but women would fight alongside men and do everything men did, and did all the choosing of mates instead of being forced into it by parents or a chief.
The new paper includes details from 32 stencils found in 11 caves in Spain and France, where some of the hand prints date back almost 40,000 years.
40k years ago means it was neanderthal.
La Scaux and El Castillo and similar neanderthal sites are actually many times more advanced than what "modern" humans produced after neanderthals got absorbed by outsiders. For tens of thousands of years art devolved from what rivals modern standards to stick figures and violent images. Only in about 1400 AD did complex art featuring perspective and similar advanced features we take for granted reappear!
One of my favorite neanderthal finds was a 50k year old paint and makeup kit with dozens of little wooden pots full of various color pots that looked like something Wilma Flintstone would use to do her makeup.