Lascaux cave paintings (E448/0081) Crewneck Sweatshirt

Cave paintings. This is the Great Hall of the Bulls, in the Lascaux caves in France. They are around 17,000 years old. The superimposed dots of light are the stars as seen in the sky 17,000 years ago. This is illustrating a theory that the positioning of the paintings demonstrates ancient knowledge and use of astronomy. The animals seen here are horses, bulls and stags. The paintings were done by Cro-Magnon man, an early European culture of modern humans (Homo sapiens sapiens), using red and yellow ochre. The paintings may have had religious and artistic significance. See image E448/080 for the paintings without the star map.