Edit: Topic split from "Ask a fellow Gnet member a question!" -- Nephele

I've got a question that isn't personal, but instead involves some searching skills. Can anyone here find and point me to an online list (as complete as possible) of all the species of animals that appear in prehistoric cave paintings? I've found a few, but they all seem so incomplete (listing just the obvious horse, aurochs, deer, etc.).

TIA.

-- Nephele

I tried....and failed Nephele
I did however find this which fascinated me, when I think of cave paintings I think of really primitive drawings, but these are really impressive! The carvings/sculptures too, I didn't even know they did that, but they look like they could have come from ancient Greece, never mind the stone age!

[edit]
Oh, this may be closer to what you're looking for, it has a chart at the bottom which seems to show the animals depicted in cave art "Bison, Aurochs, Horses, Ibex, Reindeer, Mammoths, Deer, Rhinoceros"

Thanks, Milky! That chart you found is pretty good, although it doesn't include the lions and hyenas from the Chauvet cave.

And, yes, cave paintings make up some impressive art! I'm fascinated with our primal beginnings, and what may have inspired our prehistoric ancestors in the way of art and music. The music we can only guess at from primitive flutes and such that have been found, but the cave paintings at least survived to indicate some of their art.

Anyone else here fascinated with prehistoric art? Do you ever imagine what it might have been like to live back then? Simpler times, I'm sure, and more dangerous. Or maybe not more dangerous? Our modern society can be pretty dangerous, too.

-- Nephele

I am not as fascinated as I could be, though I often wonder what it was like to live back then. I wonder at brain sizes and differences in cognition that I would experience and if my behavior and ideas would be much changed because of not only rain structure but lifestyle. What would it be like? It' such an interesting question. I think that i why The Cave of Forgotten Wonder really touched me. The man with the crooked finger- what kind of life did he live, I wonder...I still think about it.

(Fixed it for you. )

Me, too. The man with the crooked finger was clearly an artist, and I wonder whether he made those paintings because he felt a need to express himself through art, or because it was part of a ritual? And also, how many other people in his tribe were artists?

Were artists in prehistoric times a rarity, because the people had greater concerns with gathering food and just surviving? I wonder what other members of the tribe thought of the artists among them. Did they revere artists, or merely tolerate them as some sort of eccentrics in the group?

-- Nephele

oops (:oops:) yes, Dreams. Sorry about that!

Yes it would interesting to know what was going through his head when he did his art and had his hand imprinted for all times on the walls of the cave. I wonder if it were normal or abnormal at the time and why he did it- why they did it. I see it from a psychology/neurology perceptive more than anything. I wonder- if millions of years from now earth still exists and intelligent life still lives here- if these same questions will be asked of our lives.

One of those sites I linked to suggested that the shaman of a tribe was the only member who actually painted anything.
It also said they had flutes, I would love to be able to hear what kind of music they were playing.

Tabellen zum Vergleich der Häufigkeit der Tiermotive in der europäischen steinzeitlichen Wandkunst wurden z.B. von den Forschern André Leroi-Gourhan 1965 und Georges Sauvet 1988 angelegt, die Ergebnisse der beiden Forscher stimmen weitgehend miteinander überein.

Tables to compare the frequency in the european stone age cave painting were made by André-Leroi-Gouhan 1965 and Georges Sauvet 1988.

1 Horses
2 Wisents
3 Ibexes
4 Aurochses
5 Deers
6 Hinds
7 Mammothes
8 Human Beeings or mixtires between human beeings and animals
9 Reindeers
10 Bears
11 Lions
12 Rhinos
13 Fishes

As well as mixtures of animals like Unicorns etc. For furher details you'd better read one oft these scientists book.

There is to add, that there were loots of rock and cave paintings found in Africa. In Algeria they found 25000 pictures for example.

Thanks for the list, demon.



Providing paleontologists with clear evidence that some Stone Age artists were bronies.

-- Nephele

Bronies? What's that?

The Internet Meme Database has the answers to life's puzzling questions.

-- Nephele