Prehistoric Cave Paintings and Religion

By 1900 a modest collection of prehistoric European art mobiles had been gathered and classified as belonging either to the Palaeolithic or Neolithic eras, primaeval periods labelled as such by Sir John Lubbock.¹

Later archaeologists added a Mesolithic era in between. The stone figures and engraved fragments of ivory were baffling, because it seemed inconceivable that primitive nomads could have fashioned such objects with so much apparent skill.

The discovery of decorated caves, beginning with Altamira in 1879, had opened new possibilities. At first the bison paintings were dismissed as being of recent vintage, but further discoveries such as Font de Gaume and Les Combarelles in Provence convinced sceptics that Palaeolithic man was an accomplished artist, and that these rock paintings and engravings survived from the Ice Age.