Prehistoric Cave Paintings


Today we examined prehistoric cave paintings from France and Spain. These paintings are the first known examples of art created by humans. They are beautiful.

The students came up with lots of different theories about why these paintings were made...

Meg: Animals may have been a sort of spiritual/sacred thing for the hunter-gatherers, because they gave them food and tools.

Marin: The paintings were a way of respecting the animals that got killed, or maybe they were used to teach people what/how to hunt.

Ryan: If the people discovered a new animal, they may have painted it in their cave.

Sofia: Maybe they used these paintings to show which animals are easy to hunt, or safe to eat or get close to.
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At the end of class, however, Malcolm, Berra and Nicole were still pondering why the paintings were made. They asked: Were the cave paintings meant for beauty, or were they symbols that represented something, or were they being used to tell stories?

What about you? Why do you enjoy painting, drawing, or another kind of art? 

Do you use your art to tell stories or to express your feelings ... or do you just like to make something beautiful?!

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