Ancient art,

Today we saw the only caves that have the original painting and you can still visit them, right now 180 people a day are allowed in them and they will probably not be open the public much longer. We went through a dark cave, the cave is warmer than outside (outside was VERY cold) but all of the heat is from the humidity. The cave is very big and has a lot of different paths you can take, so I’m not sure how they got around with only a torch to guide them.
The first drawings we saw were a long line of bison. The bison’s legs were in different positions and the woman said when the people came in the fire would flicker and to them it would make it look like they were running. When we carried on there were also deer and antelope looking animals.
As we went through the rest, seeing more animals, we found the bison were the most popular to paint/draw. The colours they used were mostly red, brown, and black. They sometimes used blue, yellow, and purple.
After that we went to a new museum, it was all about the history of Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon man. Neanderthal man died out though, one of the theory’s how they died is Cro-Magnon man killed them off. I think this is the most-likely theory because Neanderthal man died out around the same time Cro-Magnon man was coming around.
We also learned a lot about their home life there. In each cave (home) they had a fire going right in the center. Two sources of fuel the used were wood and bones. They were alive in the ice-age so it was tough to stay alive.
They wore their clothing with the fur on the inside, to keep them warmer, and always had a fire going in their home-caves. They also lived in a cave in the valley; the valley did not freeze over in the ice age making it easier to have shelter, but one of the main reasons they were there was because there was a thin strip of plant life growing in the valley. The plant life would attract animals while also giving the people food. When the animal wandered in looking for the plants, the people could easily kill and eat them.
So by living in the valley, which made life easier, people had spare time to do stuff like drawing, and drawing is exactly what they did.