My family recently made the three hour trek down to Moab, Utah. Moab is a staple vacation for every Utahn; famous for jeeping, mountain-biking, and white-water rafting. For my family (who loves all three), Moab is a frequent destination for adventure. We took our cars up “Elephant Hill,” a Jeeping trail our friends promised was “really easy” (the internet later clarified it was “moderately challenging”). Corbin and my brother drove most of the way while my dad directed them from outside. The rest of us clung on for dear life. Jeeping is a great option if you want to practice your mindful breathing exercises while facing a dangerous situation. Just saying.
On our way to the trailhead, we stopped at “Newspaper Rock,” a wall featuring hundreds of petroglyphs. Two-thousand year-old Anasazi, Fremont, Navajo, and Pueblo people– as well as European trappers from the 1800’s– all left their mark on “Newspaper Rock.” (Wikipedia, 2024) It was hypnotizing.
As an artist, I’m not immune to falling asleep during a three-hour Renaissance art lecture. How long can we analyze flying buttresses before nodding off? Seriously. Despite my historical ignorance, I love marveling at our ancestors' artistic accomplishments. The Sistine Chapel in Vatican City left me speechless. The Louvre in Paris inspired (and exhausted) me. I stared at every square inch of Monet’s “Water-Lillies” with teary eyes. But to this day, nothing has captured me like prehistoric cave art.
It’s unclear exactly when humans began making representational art (life-like images rather than abstract scratches). It seems the more we investigate, the further back we push the dates. This year, Indonesian scientists found a cave painting of a wild pig and human figures dating back at least 51,200 years (over 5,000 years older than the previous “oldest” cave art). “The painting tells a complex story. It is the oldest evidence we have for storytelling. It shows that humans at the time had the capacity to think in abstract terms… Humans have probably been telling stories for much longer than 51,200 years, but as words do not fossilize we can only go by indirect proxies like depictions of scenes in art,” (BBC, 2024).
If that doesn’t impress you, the oldest musical instrument in the world is the “Neanderthal Flute” from Divje Babe in Slovenia. Early humans made the flute more than 60,000 years ago from the left thighbone of a young cave bear and– get ready for it– the musical intervals on the flute are the same used today. If you’d like to hear what it could have sounded like, check out this video of Ljuben Dimkaroski playing Albinoni’s “Adagio in G” using the “Neanderthal Flute.” (NMS)
After admiring the striking artwork inside Spain's Altamira caves, Pablo Picasso emerged shaking his head. When asked about his reaction, he simply replied "We have invented nothing." (Ancient Art Archive, 2022) I'm tempted to make a similar statement.
So what do we learn from all the carbon-dating, best guesses, and cryptic images? We're still not sure. The intent behind cave art is hotly debated, but I'd like to think of it as a storytelling tool. Though the packaging is different, stories– supported by art and music– are important enough that we're still sharing them 60,000 years after the "Neanderthal Flute."
If early humans sat around listening to the flute, painting on walls while braving prehistoric-sized bears and lions, I’m confident illustration isn’t going anywhere. In the age of outsourcing, automation, and AI technology, I hope we’ll remember our primal need to paint on walls, carve flutes, and generally use our hands to make stuff.
Thanks for reading!
Citations:
Ghosh, P. (2024, July 3). World’s oldest cave art found in Indonesia showing humans and pig. BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0vewjq4dxwo
Neanderthal flute. NMS. (n.d.). https://www.nms.si/en/collections/highlights/343-Neanderthal-flute#:~:text=The%20oldest%20musical%20instrument%20in%20the%20world%2C%20a%2060%2C000%2Dyear,and%20has%20four%20pierced%20holes.
Wikimedia Foundation. (2024, May 5). Newspaper Rock State Historic Monument. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newspaper_Rock_State_Historic_Monument
Alvarez, S. (2022, March 30). Pointillism is 38,000 years old. we have invented nothing " ancient art archive. Ancient Art Archive. https://www.ancientartarchive.org/pointillism/#:~:text=%E2%80%9CIn%2015%2C000%20years%2C%20we%20have%20invented%20nothing.%E2%80%9D&text=There%20is%20a%20story%20that,the%20cave%20shaking%20his%20head.
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