Ice Age Cave Art: Unlocking the Mysteries Behind These Markings | Nat Geo Live

When it comes to European Ice Age cave art, researchers have primarily focused their attention on the animal and human art, largely ignoring the geometric signs found to the sides of these beautiful paintings. At most sites, the geometric signs outnumber the animal paintings by two to one. That intrigued Genevieve Von Petzinger, a 2016 National Geographic emerging explorer. What could these rarely studied signs mean? Von Petzinger takes the stage to talk about her passion for exploration and her quest to uncover the hidden meaning behind these markings.

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For more information about Genevieve's work check out her recently published book:

PRODUCER: Hilary Hudson
EDITOR: Monica Pinzon
TECHNICAL DIRECTOR: John McDonald
SERIES PRODUCER: Chris Mattle

The National Geographic Live series brings thought-provoking presentations by today’s leading explorers, scientists, photographers, and performing artists right to you. Each presentation is filmed in front of a live audience at National Geographic headquarters in Washington, D.C. New clips air every Monday.

Ice Age Cave Art: Unlocking the Mysteries Behind These Markings | Nat Geo Live

National Geographic

[alexheyd]

Is absolutely fascinating!! I'm going on a research binge all about cave art!!

[bigbensarrowheadchannel]

We should give our ancestors more credit than we do. Their achievements are phenomenal.

[kevinhoward]

It's amazing how vibrant the colors are even 40, 000 years later.

[tisbutascratch]

To me, walking so far into the cave likely was meant for the people going there to believe as if they were entering another world. To get to the sacred messages on the on the wall, one should walk far into the caves depths out of respect as a kind of pilgrimage. Making it less accessible keeps it better preserved and having to walk so far to see it makes its reveal far more fantastic. I also think maybe they would use the time walking to tell stories or maybe they were in complete silence. Either way, it would be a transcending experience.

[hell-hollowfarmer]

Hey Nat Geo, bring her back for more content! Genevieve Von Petzinger put on a great presentation as always!

[raccoonresident]

5:48 are directions from one feeding ground to another. It is writing it is words and sounds.

[alecbrown]

There was what could be called a neolithic Rosetta stone deciphered recently on a rock outside, that was full of geometric patterns, that the archaeologists discovered was an accurate 3D map of the area ( i believe it was adjacent to the river Gironde in south west france. That used geometric designs for the rivers, streams, mountains, and possibly farmsteads and settlements, including pathways and tracks. It too used the geometric forms discussed in this fascinating lecture.

[Known-unknowns]

Maybe these are just the ones left. Maybe they painted on trees and walls everywhere, but they’ve all gone. Maybe there were many paintings up the front of the cave, but they’ve all gone. Now you’re only left with the ones right at the back. I suspect their world was covered in their art.

[hardworkhardplay]

I don’t like blank walls in my house either.

[LiveFreeOrDieA]

Maybe they didn’t start their art until 3/4 of a mile into the cave for very obvious common sense reasons.. like the fact the outside world was harsh and dangerous, so it wasn’t until being able to venture that far into the cave did their guards drop enough to fully relax and get creative/artistic. Perhaps this cave was used as a nursery of sorts when needed? The women would be brought to this cave near the end of pregnancy, give birth, and remain for a while when mother/child were most vulnerable.. being so deep in the cave helped muffle the cries of a screaming infant that may alert rival clans to your vulnerable location. They would revisit over the years, adding more art to the nursery walls, and use as teaching tools as their children grew.. passing on knowledge to the next generations. The added benefit of not starting any of their cave art until so deep in the cave, would also be that any outsiders who happened upon it would have to venture as deep as they did before being alerted to a prior presence— and— even any cave art created by outsiders as deep as 1/2 mile in the cave would be spotted by them and let them know outsiders had been in the cave since they last were.

Anyways, I don’t know!.. those are just a couple of reasons off the top of my head for why the art doesn’t start until 3/4 mile in!!— it’s not hard to imagine a ton of potential reasons why! I just didn’t understand the speakers perplexity at the thought of logical reasons

[deandeann]

The abstract art near animal figures - I wonder if it sometimes could record what time of year certain prey animals migrated through the local area? And/or recorded how many were seen?

[petergrant]

I think the key to understanding all of this prehistoric art is to consider it as part of the education system of people with no written language. With no written language, all knowledge must be transferred from 1 generation to the next verbally. As demonstrated by the Australian Aboriginal culture, this can be done very effectively by encoding knowledge in the form of colourful stories which can be very memorable. Such stories can be very effectively supported by music, dance, rituals, actions and pictorial supports. Such an education system is far from simple. While it is age graduated, much like modern education systems, it is not divided into 'subjects'. Cultural, religious, scientific, family, historical, geographical, botanical, zoological, etc. etc, are all blended into holistic knowledge appropriate for the age group and gender. Cave and rock art can (at least in part) be viewed as visual aids and actions to support the education system. Of course, despite surviving very effectively for tens of thousands of years, the education system fails when whole generations and cultures are destroyed. The stories, language, music, dance and meanings of art and symbols are lost together with all the knowledge they conveyed. The loss of this world knowledge is the legacy our colonial history leaves.

[lessartico]

I saw some animation about caves and for 4 hours straight I watched these documentaries, I'm high af too

[bonnitaclaus]

The lines at the angle or the diagonal remind me of tattoos found on the iceman from The Alps.

[markjennings]

Those human figures at 3:04 are amazing.

[johnishikawa]

People from across time reaching up to us . Nobody had any written language, as far as is known, and everyone on the planet lived in hunter gatherer communities . Life was simple and short for our ancestors from those times, but the constellations that they saw in the night sky - not considering light pollution - were virtually unchanged from the ones that we can see now .

[woodyz]

Listened to this lady before! She is amazing! We should be funding her research!

[TexRenner]

It just dawn on me, these aren't the only ones our ancestors made. They are the few we've discovered of those which lasted. They may have painted everything, everywhere.

[brianaallbright]

This is cool :D I'm a sophomore high schooler in AP World History and we've been learning about this kind of thing. It's super interesting. Thank you for uploading!

[barbusie]

They were using the length of the cave as a time line..