The practical origins of art

CEBU, Philippines - Many people regard art as simply a frill reserved for the affluent. Also, art is often used by some to attain a certain public image - particularly that of being highly cultured and erudite. But, in fact, art has had very down-to-earth origins.

About 40,000 years ago our ancestors seem to have made an enormous creative and cultural leap in the advancement of tool making and in the creation of art. They were hunter-gatherers who, for very long prior to this time, were content with simple and crude stone tools to aid them in their day-to-day life.

The website www.humanjourney.us  notes, however, that in much earlier times human artistic and creative abilities already existed, although far less widespread. "Portable representations of the human figure have been dated as far back as 502,000 BC from Africa and 302,000 BC from present-day Israel," the website states. "But from about 35,000 years ago, and over the next fifteen thousand years, throughout the last Ice Age, artistic expression of the Cro Magnon reached a critical mass and spread not only all over Europe, Asia and Siberia but also appeared in Australia and Africa - throughout the old world."

It is interesting to note that creative insight and actions have flourished as a human response to problems encountered in the life journey. Venus figurines from the olden times have been found over an expanse of territory from the west of Europe into Russia. This "suggests that people were linked across these vast distances, communicating and developing social relationships that would be advantageous at a time when food resources were limited or depleted in specific areas," according to the humanjourney.us website.

Curiously, the most intense artistic activities are noted when the Ice Age (approximately 40,000 - 15,000 years ago) reached its most severe, and then about 10,000 years ago, it virtually disappeared as the Ice Age ended. This leads some anthropologists to think that our early ancestors made art to help them survive the Ice Age world. But in what sense did art help?

For those early humans living in Europe 35,000 years ago, the sudden climate change must have been extremely hard to comprehend and quite terrifying. Within a few years their climate transformed from one very much normal and temperate to one more like Siberia, with brutally cold winters that lingered through spring and summer. Freezing temperatures prevailed, with very little respite.

For years, endless snow and ice simply accumulated and deepened, covering Europe with glaciers, forcing many humans to flee, die out, and, for some, to adapt. About 20,000 BC the landscape was glacier-dominated; a mile-high polar ice cap enshrouded Scandanavia and most of northern Europe. In other places, harsh conditions brought about grassland that provided fodder for large grazing mammals such as mammoth, bison, aurochs, horses, reindeer and elk.

Within that 25,000-year period - more than twelve times the age of Christianity - extraordinary cave art covered all of Europe, from Andalusia in Spain to the Ural Mountains of central Russia. Today, approximately three hundred of these sites have been discovered. But many more remain to be discovered. Scholars suggest there must have been thousands.

These cave paintings, engravings and carvings are the very first records of the human ability to create two-dimensional art. These may well be the first recorded human stories, revealing realistic portraits of the magnificent animals our early ancestors lived alongside with, perhaps preyed on or in some cases were the prey of.

Some cave arts were perhaps created to show how animals were tracked, or to describe herd movements that not only aided hunting, but might also have predicted climate change. Others may have been created for reasons of sympathetic magic. In the Chauvet Cave of southern France, dangerous animals such as cave bears, rhinoceroses, lions and even a spotted leopard are depicted. Scholars feel that these may well have been selected for their symbolic power. Cave images have been found, such as in the Lascaux caves in southwestern France, that appear to have pockmarks made by pointed spears, possibly thrown in a ritual to 'wound' the animal and so ensure future hunting success.

According to Harold Dibble, associate curator of European Archaeology at the University of Pennsylvania Museum, "With just one line, the artist defines an animal's rump, the back, and the body. A few more lines, and antlers and muscles stand out. The artists rarely made mistakes." Those early artists were precise observers of the animals around them. They also understood the craft of illusion, and adapted their art works to cave cracks and protuberances to create the illusion of movement and three-dimensionality in flickering torchlight.

And our ancestors were not only masters in visual art. Some caves appear to have been chosen for their echo quality. Bone flutes have been found on cave floors indicating that ceremonies involving music took place there.

As stated in "Thoughtful Foragers: A Study of Prehistoric Decision Making" (1990, S. Mithen): "…this art was part of modern human ecological adaptation to their environment. The art functioned to extend human memory, to hold concepts which are difficult for minds to grasp, and to instigate creative thinking about the solution of environmental and social problems."

Thus, art has come around in response to the human hankering to find deeper meaning to earthly existence.  And, as the humanjourney.us website, puts it - "we can say that our ancestors not only physically but psychologically became modern human beings" with the aid of art. Even today, art remains to be a reliable therapy for relieving people of their psychological and spiritual burdens. (FREEMAN)