What Can Cave Paintings Tell Us About Our Ancestors? | Ancient Earth | BBC Earth Science

Clues from the lives of prehistoric humans can help us to understand our past and comprehend our future. So what can we find piece together from what they left behind?

Ancient Earth (2023)
Discover the astonishing four-billion-year story of the place we call home, told over five dramatic episodes. This revealing biography of Earth explores the planet’s most epic moments. From the first raindrops that turned it into a water world to the arrival of its most incredible inhabitants, us. But humans take a back seat in this narrative. Instead, Earth is placed centre stage. We see what happened to our world before we even crawled from the mud – including massive bombardments from space, extreme changes in climate and the collision of whole continents. The series uses the trademark dramatic storytelling techniques of The Planets to bring this unique story of creation to life.

[rms]

The guest just loves what she does and that is great!

[kidmohair]

I am always taken aback by the sophistication of the line and use of colour.
25, 000 years ago.

[gatopardoantico]

i liked the slightly preposterous comment that it is totally obvious to correctly identify the mammoth. Btw hunter- gatherers material consumption did not fall behind agricultural societies. The mainstream explanation is that the former required much more land and so couldnt support high population densities as farming.

[olorin]

They could use electrical flickering lights for the display.

[bhays]

I like the ones with UFO's and spacemen suits, how about one on that.

[ronkirk]

Anthropologists studying modern day hunter gatherer societies have found that they have more free time for leisure activities such as making art than people in so-called civilized, market economy societies.

[MS-rodm]

What if the artist was an abstract painter?

[SomeRandomGuy_id]

The Last image sure is not from Earth LOL

[flatoot]

Its interesting to think our ancestors are called primative cave men. Living through an ice age, in a cave where there's free underground heating plus its a ready made shelter. Then going out and hunting or gathering what few options there were was a consequence of environment not lack of intelligence in my opinion.

[lucidmoses]

How far back does evidence for speech go?

[JohnDoeTheTroll]

That they didn't take art classes?

[hasnainhaider]

The real deal here is to use material that would last this long or longer, also using caves to store the information. Dont know why they are called primitive. They seem to be pioneers of their time and for times to come. What do you think will last a nuclear armageddon, fragile made in China things we have now or these and other paintings, my bet is on the paintings. Also most underrated being the ones from Australia of aboriginal people.

[necessaryevil]

That they killed off so many animals, they had to draw a picture of the way things were, to show their children.