Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1913-03-14
THE STONE AGE ARTISTS.
Remarkable Pictures Discovered in
the PaIaeoIithio Cave DWELLINGS.

neTharkapie FictureS discovered IN
the PaIaeolithio Cave Dwellings.
The paintings in the Altamira Cave
were found by Don Marcelino de Saul
uoalo, Spanish nobleman who. after a
visit to the Paris International Exhi-
hilton of 1873, where he had been spec
tally interested by the prehistoric col
leetiens resulting from discoveries
made in the caves Of Southern France,
thought of exploring certain caves
near his estate at Santander
While lie was occupied in digging in
the floor Of the cavern of Altamira, his
little daughter, tired of watching him
unearth bones of extinct animals flint
implements. and the usual palaeolithic
debris. was looking about her. and sud-
denly cried ont. "A bull. pointing at
the same time to the roof of the cave,
on which her father saw large paint
ing of crowd of figures faithfully
representing bulls. horses. deer. etc,
some of them life-sze i'm q great xari-
ETY. of movements and attitudes. Don
Marcclino brought this discovery be-
fore the Archaeological Congress of
| 1879 and published Il full description of
it in 1880 but it was received with
uttp SCtpllCISIu IL WAS only III i5VD
that the authenticity OF the painting
was at last recognized and is now fully
admitted.
The authors of these wonderful
paintings belonged to the palaeolithic
| race known as the Aurignacians who
lived during part of the glacial peri
od-some say between twenty and
| thirty thousand years ago. The con-
| ditions of life being favorable Europe
at that time teeming with game, tile
| Aurignacians experienced no great
| hardships in procuring food. and found
| leisure to take advantage of their Won
derfGi artistic gifts. decorating many
| of the cave dwellings, with representa-
| tion1 of subjects which most pleased
| them-those of useful animals perhaps
! acting under some kind of superstition
| which led them. as a rule, to eschew
depicting savage beasts. and only
| scantily to draw the human form,
| which they appear to have studied.
| from the artistic point of view. by no
| means so deliberately as they did the
| lower animals. The work was admir-
able
| It is now possible to follow the art
| lists at work. The colors they employ
| ed we're natural oxides, yellow and red
| ochres, the black oxide of manganese,
| etc. These colors were ground in NOR
| tars and on Hat stones, with the aid of
| granite pestles; examples of those they
| used have been found. once ground.
| the color was mixed with bone-mar-
row. and preserved in the hollow leg
| bones of deer. Crayons were also
made of the different eolors. The art
| lists also used brushes to spread the
| tones and blend them in the most per-
| feet fS shion. thus obtaining Il corr ect
| modelling. The BURN, or craving tool,
| was also employed by the Aurigna-
Clans who used in their best fms ned
work to engraye a deep outline round
| the figure, as well as certain details, + he
carving in low relief of the figures
lately discovered by DR.. Lalanne sIg-
sests the Egyptian intaglio. The pu-
cite used for painting was the scapula
of some animal; the brushes, one may
infer from the Bushmen's practice.
We're made of feathers, or consisted of
The ehewed end Of stick.
1t should be remarked in passing that
the Aurignacians were not altogether
tnacqnainted WITH the representation
of the human fgure, and carvings in
ivory, although mitch inferior in crafts
manship to most of the paintings, pre-
ceaed them, one might have supposed
in the artistic development of the race
had not the recent discovery Of DIR.
I.alaane of the carving Sof figures on
some rocks Of Lausset Gordogne)
shown an advanced representation of
the human form. @
NM. Breuil and Cartailhac have
come to the conclusion that the.painted
caves must have been sacred spots
The conditions under which the paint
inEs were made were. in most places
painful for the artist. especially; in the
Altamra Cave, where the roof is so
low In some places that the painter
could work only in crouching posture
or lying on his back. The merit of the
artist was, tits argued, hereby inereas-
ed and there is every possibility that
only a belief of a religious kind could
have melted him Another matter for
wonder is, how could these caves be il
Illuminated to render the work possible I?
Strangely enough, no traces of smoke
are uiscernible in any of them. The ex-
PLANTATION is TO be found, possibly. in
the use of lamps such as those of the
Tcskimos which, when well trimmed
and kept give a clear, smokeless light
On rhe other hand. it has been noted
that none of the inhabited grottoes has
preserved a vestige of smoke or SCOT
despite large hearths. In the course of
time, the oxygen of the air has de-
stroyed the smoke, without affecting
Che paintings F. in the Illustrated
London News.
istE
The Eyes of Plants,