Prehistoric Cartoons: How Paleolithic Artists Set Their Art in Motion | FULL DOCUMENTARY

Did you think the first movies were screened in a cinema? According to groundbreaking discoveries, our prehistoric ancestors may have invented the concept while drawing on their walls. Over the past 150 years, we have discovered many examples of amazing prehistoric art, most of which are fascinating representations of animals.

Today, a new reading of these paintings and engravings has revealed the existence of numerous cases of the breakdown of movement. A horse painting from the Lascaux caves in France, for example, is made up of many versions of the animal representing different positions of movement. Director and archeologist Marc Azema extracts these individual images and displays them in succession, demonstrating how they play back like a cartoon.

This documentary takes us right back to the beginnings of Homo sapiens’ artistic heritage to discover these graphic narratives, in a unique investigation into the cultural DNA of humanity.

Documentary: Stone Age Cinema (2015)
Directors: Pascal Cuissot & Marc Azéma
A co-production by ARTE France, MC4 & Passé Simple

#fulldocumentary #documentary #film #prehistoric #prehistory #prehistoricart #paintings #drawings #cinema #protocinema #caves #art #artist #cartoon #movement

[cdeweijer]

The prehistoric people knew exactly what the animals looked like, they knew how to look at them. They are so incredibly beautiful depicted, just awesome✨

[sunbird]

As a child with a wild imagination, i suppose like many other country children, our family spent many wonderful Christmas holiday weekends in a very beautiful cave high in the Drakensberg Mountains of South Africa. How wonderful to find your spellbinding narrative and animation here. For I well remember the remarkable stories told late into the night by older brothers and my parents, sitting around a warm camp fire, and many of those stories were accompanied by our flickering shadows upon our cave wall, representing the hunting scenes depicted by Bushman (San) rock art... mingled now with time those moments of rapture for me as a small child are as real as anything in my mind.
So all I can say is that your wonderful ideas have been so enjoyed by a now much much much older child in this modern era...
Thank you, and good hunting! Kind regards Keith.

En tant qu'enfant doté d'une imagination débordante, je suppose que, comme beaucoup d'autres enfants de la campagne, notre famille a passé de nombreux merveilleux week-ends de vacances de Noël dans une très belle grotte située dans les montagnes du Drakensberg en Afrique du Sud. Comme c’est merveilleux de trouver ici votre récit et votre animation envoûtants. Car je me souviens très bien des histoires remarquables racontées tard dans la nuit par mes frères aînés et mes parents, assis autour d'un feu de camp chaleureux, et nombre de ces histoires étaient accompagnées de nos ombres vacillantes sur les murs de notre grotte, représentant les scènes de chasse représentées par les Bushman ( San) l'art rupestre... mêlés maintenant au temps, ces moments de ravissement pour moi en tant que petit enfant sont aussi réels que tout ce qui se passe dans mon esprit.
Tout ce que je peux dire, c'est que vos merveilleuses idées ont été tellement appréciées par un enfant désormais beaucoup plus âgé de cette ère moderne...
Merci et bonne chasse ! Cordialement Keith.

[victoriacarella]

The cave art should be viewed by flickering fire light which is what the Elders would have used. Not by present day light sources. The flickering fire light would have created motion on the cave walls.

[dianesmigelski]

This was an interesting take on the way cave art can be viewed. I enjoyed the viewpoint shown here. I thought it was quite amazing!

[AramLoukanikos]

Add some mushrooms, thought singing, harmonics, instruments and flickering fire light. The place would have been kicking off.

[hlemmen]

I think that Marc Azema adds a relevant aspect to the knowledge of prehistoric pictures by investigating and proving earlier theories about movement. This, unlike many who produce a constant flow of vague and questionable theories about prehistoric art.
Another substantial contribution about prehistoric drawings, was the publication a few years ago, about the discovery concerning the mysterious dots, depicted alongside many drawn animals. The number of dots proved to match the number of months of the depicted animal’s pregnancy. Thank you Marc.

[izabelabhering]

What an extraordinary research and documentary! Congratulations!💐

[joe]

I'm curious why these people so carefully drew animals but never made images of themselves with the same fidelity.

[NicolaHenry-ln]

I watched a video by Praveen Mohan which showed this technique used in ancient Hindu temples. It’s amazing to watch the animation come to life!

[cpamfly]

Thank you so much for your work! I am greatly enriched watching this presentation.

[IdentityCrisis]

As detailed as these cave paintings are. I wonder about details lost over time. Did they use a sharpened stick as a stilus dipped in pigment to make fine detailed lines? And those didn't last? I guess I'm pondering just how much detail these paintings had when they were new that didn't last over time. I wonder if new technology could pick up some of these lost details. And maybe remenants of older cave paintings that we can't see with our eyes.

[ellen]

This is amazing! I'm so glad others have noticed the motion in the cave art, and even took it further by duplicating the little disc and spinning it to reveal the picture of the bison being shot. I hope there are more of those discs found. I thought about the ducks carved at the base of a T pillar at Gobekli Tepe. When I first saw those I said they would look like they were walking if there was a fire near them to cast shadows. Brilliant documentary!

[JohnVander]

Cartoons? How about powerful, majestic, spiritual masterpieces?

[tiyanawilliams]

fascinating documentary, and further, what intrigues me more is cave art and spirituality

[Kenshiroit]

I think perhaps not all the murals were exposed at the same time, some were covered and then exposed to living light when the narrative allowed it. Add also sound of drums and maybe animal imitation by ancient priests (?) and mushrooms and here we go....a entire movie open in front of your eyes.

The extraordinary artistry in these ancient caves clearly demonstrates that these humans were not primitive. They just lacked information about the world they were somehow mysteriously born into. What an existential dilemma. Their artistry represents real human sophistication and aesthetic genius. They just needed more information. Imagine being trapped in a world with almost no culture. No sources of information. And no resources other than Mother Nature. And weren't these caves the original Temples and Churches and Theaters? The beginning of both art and religion and culture and intellect?💙

[ckjamn]

The subject is naturally there.
They highlighted it.

[henchyrd]

I’ve often wondered why we don’t use a flickering light to eliminate prehistoric painting/rock art for a more realistic feel.

[manuelavila]

...el artista ya habia nacido, creó el arte, la plasmó y simuló elmovimiento...habria que mirarlo en la obscuridad bajo el serpenteante fuego y un cuadro con rendijas en moviento para contemplar cierta animación...

[PortmanRd]

Artists impressions of animals in later civilizations compare to paintings your child would bring home from school.