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Cave Paintings

ca 28,000-11,000 BCE | "Cave paintings of 15,000-30,000 years ago are almost entirely of animals and the artists rarely portrayed the animals as being hunted or eaten." (Richard Ryder, Animal Revolution, "The Ancient World" [offsite-preview only]).

"Paleolithic art, from beginning to end, is an art of animals.
…European Ice Age rock art, often called 'cave art', is well-known all over the world, probably because of the high quality and antiquity of its images. So far, about 350 sites have been discovered, from the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula to the Urals.…When the Abbe Breuil published his big book "Four Hundred Centuries of Cave Art", he pointed out what he called 'The Six Giants', one in Spain (Altamira), the other five in France : Lascaux, Niaux, LesTrois-Freres, Font-de-Gaume and Les Combarelles. No doubt that nowadays he would at least add Chauvet, Cosquer, Cussac and Rouffignac to the list." (Jean Clottes, "Paleolithic Art in France")

In the Chauvet Cave [ca 30,0000-28,000BCE] hundreds of animal paintings have been recorded …including horses, cattle and reindeer…as well as predatory animals - lions, panthers, bears, owls, rhinos and hyenas. As one would expect, there are no human figures, except [one] at the very end of the gallery…where there appears to be a Venus figure. (Bradshaw Foundation, "Chauvet Cave")

In Cussac [ca26,000-19,000 BCE]…at present, more than 100 complete or partial figures have been counted. They all represent the traditional bestiary of the Paleolithic world: mammoths, rhinoceros, cervids, and especially, bison and horses. The originality of the iconography of this site lies the presence of species, such as birds, that are rarely represented in this context. (French Ministry of Culture, "The Cave of Cussac")

The Cosquer Cave [offsite virtual tour] [ca25,000 and 17,000 BCE] contains a large number of drawings depicting various land animals: horses, bison, aurochs, ibex and chamois, various members of the cervidae family, a feline, and some as yet unidentified animals.…Marine animals…rarely found in decorated caves from the Paleolithic era make up a significant portion of the overall number of figures. Drawn or engraved in the rock were penguins, seals, fish, and various figures that may stand for jelly-fish or octopuses. (French Ministry of Culture, "Cosquer Cave")

The Cave of Lascaux [offsite virtual tour] [ca 15,000-13,000 BCE] is magnificently decorated with engraved, drawn, and painted figures, in all some 600 painted and drawn animals and symbols and nearly 1,500 engravings. (Encyclopædia Britannica, s.v. "Lascaux") The wall decorations in the Great Hall of the Bulls…is composed of three groups of animals: horses, bulls and stags. In fact these themes recur repeatedly in the different areas of this underground sanctuary…The Painted Gallery Chamber of Engravings, the Main Gallery, The Chamber of Felines and The Shaft of the Dead Man. ( French Ministry of Culture, "The Cave of Lascaux")

In the Altamira cave [ca14,000-11,000 BCE]…the bison figures that dominate were first engraved and then painted. Other featured animals include horses and a doe…the biggest figure on the ceiling, as well as other creatures rendered in a simpler style. (Encyclopædia Britannica, s.v. "Altamira")

Font-de-Gaume [ca 12,000 BCE]…contains about 230 engraved and painted figures, including 82 bison, horses, mammoths, reindeer, a woolly rhinoceros, and a wolf. Its most famous images are a leaping horse and a scene in which a male reindeer licks the forehead of a female. (Encyclopædia Britannica, s.v. "Font-de-Gaume")

In the LesTrois-Freres cave [ca 12,000BCE]…most of the pictures in the [are] of animals, together with a couple of therianthropes (half-human, half-animal figures).…The Sanctuary…is filled with some 280 often-overlapping engraved figures of bison, horses, stags, reindeer, ibex, and mammoths. (Encyclopædia Britannica, s.v. "Trois Freres")

Of Les Combarelles [ca 12,000 BCE] cave's, "hundreds of sometimes superimposed engravings…most of the images depict horses, bison, deer, and mammoths, but the cave also contains noteworthy images of bears, rhinoceroses, a big cat, and numerous "anthropomorphs," or humanlike figures" (Encyclopædia Britannica, s.v. "Les Combarelles").

Like most caves, Niaux [ca 12,000BCE-11,000BCE] contains panels showing bison and horses drawn in outline.…The cave is also important for its surviving drawings engraved into the clay floor, including fish and a bison. (Encyclopædia Britannica, s.v. "Niaux'")

At Rouffignac [ca 11,000 BCE], the dominant theme is the mammoth. The walls and ceilings of this labyrinth bear 154 images of these pachyderms. Despite the enormous prestige this animal has, it was not often depicted by prehistoric artists, who generally preferred to depict horses and bison. As in most cave art, a central theme is surrounded by other objects. This is especially the case on the Great Ceiling, a vortex of 65 assorted animals…The inevitable horses and bison are accompanied by rhinoceros - which are very rare in cave art - and by ibex, as the animals that surround the Grandfather, the most complete mammoth figure in the cave. (Grotte De Rouffignac, "Grotte Préhistorique de Rouffignac")

Transcriber's Notes

Bradshaw Foundation, "Chauvet Cave," Bradshaw Foundation.

Jean Clottes, "Paleolithic Art in France," Bradshaw Foundation.

Encyclopædia Britannica, s.v. "Altamira," Britannica Online.

Encyclopædia Britannica, s.v. "Font-de-Gaume," Britannica Online.

Encyclopædia Britannica, s.v. "Lascaux Grotto," Britannica Online.

Encyclopædia Britannica, s.v. "Les Combarelles," Britannica Online.

Encyclopædia Britannica, s.v. "Niaux," Britannica Online.

Encyclopædia Britannica, s.v. "Trois Freres" Britannica Online.

French Ministry of Culture, "The Cosquer Cave," French Ministry of Culture.

French Ministry of Culture, "The Cave of Cussac," French Ministry of Culture.

French Ministry of Culture, "The Cave of Lascaux," French Ministry of Culture.

Grotte Rouffignac, "Grotte Préhistorique de Rouffignac" Grotte Rouffignac Official Website.

Richard D. Ryder, (Animal Revolution: Changing Attitudes Towards Speciesism , [First Edition: Oxford & Cambridge: Basil Blackwell Ltd., 1989] Revised & Updated Edition Oxford, 2000). References are to the Revised & Updated Edition.

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