Reply To: What do the pictures mean?

[tmbergan]

I feel like some of the cave drawings could have been used as storytelling tools. Kids in our day have picture books to help them see what’s happening in the story that they’re listening to, so some of the cave drawings may have been used in similar ways. Think of the movie Brother Bear and how Kenai and Koda found the cave drawings with the animals and then the larger painting of the bear and man facing each other in a fight. A lot of them may have also been used in religious ways for rituals or they may have created some of the figures to worship or keep in hopes of promoting fertility. The Woman of Dolni Vestonice and Woman of Willendorf are all seen today as depictions of maturity and fertility, so perhaps people would have a carving like that in their home with hopes of being blessed by the goddess it represented. All of the art could have been teaching tools as well, whether they were trying to teach each other how to paint, carve, or work with clay, or they were trying to teach children what the animals were, how to hunt them, and where to find them.