Most often, animals or hunting scenes were painted. Sometimes hands are there too. Rarely, there are also more abstract patterns.
The paintings were drawn with red and yellow ochre, hematite, manganese oxide and charcoal. Sometimes the silhouette of the animal was put into the rock first.
André Leroi-Gourhan (1911-1986) has classified the paintings into different styles:
There are different theories, what could have led people to paint in caves. The most common explanations are given below:
A painting on the wall of an Indonesian cave has is about 44,000 years old. It shows a buffalo being hunted. Last year another painting was found in Borneo.
Radiocarbon dating
Radiocarbon dating, also known as the C14 dating method, is a way of telling how old an object is. It is a type of radiometric dating.
The method uses the radioactive isotope carbon-14. Most organic matter contains carbon. Carbon has different isotopes, which are usually not radioactive. C is the radioactive one, its half-life (time it takes to reduce its radioactivity by half) is about 5,730 years. This makes it possible to tell the age of substances that contain carbon. The method works to about 60,000 years old. Dates obtained are usually written as "before present" ('present' is 1950).
Plants take up atmospheric carbon dioxide by photosynthesis, and are eaten by animals, so every living thing is constantly exchanging carbon-14 with its environment as long as it lives. Once it dies, however, this exchange stops.
In 1958 Hessel de Vries showed that the concentration of carbon-14 in the atmosphere varies with time and locality. The relatively short-lived C is constantly renewed by cosmic ray bombardment on atmospheric nitrogen. Since the bombardment is slightly variable, and for other reasons, the C taken into organic matter is also slightly variable. That leads to errors in the chronology. However, under about 20,000 years the results can be compared with dendrochronology, based on tree rings. For the most accurate work, variations are compensated by means of calibration curves.
The method was developed by Willard Libby and his colleagues at the University of Chicago in 1949. In 1960, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for this work. He first demonstrated the accuracy of radiocarbon dating by accurately estimating the age of wood from an ancient Egyptian royal barge of which the age was known from historical documents.
Passage tomb
A passage tomb or passage grave is a tomb which can be reached through a (usually low) passage. Most of these tombs were constructed during prehistoric times. Most often, large stones, called Megaliths were used to construct them. These kinds of tombs can be found in large numbers in Ireland and Scotland.
Hallstatt culture
The Hallstatt culture is named after Hallstatt, a city in Austria in which the first artifacts were found. It lasted from about 1200 BC to about 275 BC.
There were different periods that are now told apart mainly by the kinds of brooches used. The brooches changed rather rapidly and permit a good estimate. Hallstatt culture sites have been found in the east of France, in Switzerland, in the south of Germany, in Austria, in Slovenia and Croatia, northwestern Hungary, southwestern Slovakia and southern Moravia.
In this time, the social structure developed into a hierarchy. That can be documented by various things that were added to graves, such as at Magdalenenberg. In the Bronze Age, people lived in big settlements. As iron became available, trade routes changed. A new upper class could establish itself. Unlike before, the upper class liked to live in big houses in the countryside to show their power.
Funerary cults also changed, from cremation burials, to burials with sarcophagi. The new upper class used its wealth for import goods, mostly from the Mediterranean. People started settling there around the 2nd millennium BC.
Hallstatt culture: the real thing.
La Tène culture
The La Tène culture existed from about 500 BC to about 100 AD. Named after a town in Switzerland near Neuchâtel, it was greatly influenced by the Roman and the Greek cultures. There are two sources for this:
The Celts basically lived in clans, which were led by leaders, the druids and the bards. Women were much better off than under the Romans and were of a similar status to men. There were both polygyny (a man could have several women) and polyandry (a woman could have several men).
Ringfort
A ring fort is a fortified settlement. Ring forts were made to protect villages, mostly in the Middle Ages. In Ireland where many such forts can be found, they are also known as ráth, caiseal, cathair and dún in the early Irish sources.
A "ráth" (anglicised rath), was made of earth, "caiseal" (northwestern Ireland, anglicised cashel) and "cathair" (southwestern Ireland) were built of stone. A "dun" is a more prestigious site, the seat of some kind of ruler, the term is applied to promontory forts as well.
Capitol
Capitol can mean:
Beowulf
Beowulf is an Old English heroic epic poem. It is not known who wrote it, and there is no agreement as to when it was written. Estimates for the date range from AD 608 right through to AD 1000, and there is no consensus. The poem has only one manuscript source, written about 1010. "Beowulf" is 3182 lines long. Tolkien describes and illustrates many of the features of Old English poetry in his 1940 essay "On translating Beowulf".
The protagonist of the poem is Beowulf. In the poem, Beowulf fights three monsters: Grendel and Grendel's mother, and later in his life an unnamed dragon.
Hrothgar, a Danish king, has built a big mead hall, which is called Heorot. Hrothgar and his people live a good life and celebrate in Heorot. But then they are attacked by Grendel, who comes to Heorot every night and kills some of Hrothgar's people.
Beowulf is a warrior from Geatland (modern southern Sweden). He hears of Hrothgar's troubles with Grendel. Beowulf and his men leave Geatland to help King Hrothgar.
Beowulf and his men stay the night in Heorot. When Grendel comes to kill them, Beowulf fights him. Beowulf tears Grendel's arm off from his body and sticks it on the wall as a trophy. Grendel runs to his home in the marshes, where he dies. Everyone is happy that Grendel is killed and celebrates.
But the next night, Grendel's mother comes to Heorot and kills many people for revenge and grabs Grendel's arm. Beowulf then goes to the marshes where Grendel and his mother lived. Beowulf fights Grendel's mother and kills her.
Beowulf later becomes a king. He fights a dragon that was living in a barrow. With the help of the young man Wiglaf, Beowulf kills the dragon. Beowulf is wounded in the final battle and dies and crowns Wiglaf as his successor.
The story of "Beowulf" has often been told in books, plays, and films. Sometimes the full story is told, sometimes just parts of the story. Sometimes the plot is altered. Sometimes only ideas or themes are taken from the story.
Some examples are:
Romana (Doctor Who)
Romana, short for Romanadvoratrelundar, is a fictional character in the British science fiction television series "Doctor Who". She is a Time Lady from the planet Gallifrey, and she was a companion of the Fourth Doctor.
Because she was a Time Lord, Romana was able to regenerate, having two on-screen incarnations with somewhat different personalities (called Romana I and Romana II by fans). Romana I was played by Mary Tamm from 1978 to 1979. When she became pregnant and chose not to return for another series, the part was recast. Romana II was played by Lalla Ward from 1979 to 1981.