Ice Age Art

Our ancestors 30,000 years ago may have spent most of their days hunting for food, but that didn't stop them indulging in art.

The Ice Age Art Exhibition at the British Museum, which is subtitled "Arrival of the Modern Mind", gives a fascinating glimpse of the way in which men (or perhaps women?) as long as 30,000 years ago were aware of the world around them and how to portray objects on stone, ivory, or other materials that were available at that time.   Most of the drawings are not childest representations of objects, but show considerable skill and awareness of reality.

Many of the exhibits are statues, mostly small, and often of women, such as those found in the Lespugue Cave in Haut-Garonne, whihc date back 23,000 years, and are characterised by big hips and big busts.  Perhaps that was what was considered beautiful in those times, or maybe it implied a mother of a large family.

The oldest ceramic figure, dating from 27,000 - 31,000 years ago, is a nude which was found at Dolni Vestonice, Moravia, in the Czech Republic.   It was loaned, as were several other items, by the Moravian Museum in Brno.

The female body was a frequent subject of Ice Age art, with representations made from mammoth ivory, antler, stone or baked clay.   They are found from  France in the west to Eastern Siberia, and although people almost certainly wore clothes at that time, most of the figures are naked except for jewellery.   They cover all stages of a woman's life - young, pregnant, giving birth and old age.    The oldest known portrait of a woman, dating back to around 27,000 years ago, was found at Dolni.   Another female image, carved on a mammoth tusk, was found at Predmosti, in Movavia and is atg least 27,000 years old.

The exhibition not only features images and statues of people, but also of birds and animals.  Some I found of particular interest were the adult and calf aurochs, and the swimming raindeer; the raindeer in particular are extremely realistic.

The oldest item from England in the exhibition is a finely engraved drawing of a horse gallopping, which was found in Robin Hood Cave, Nottinghamshire.    Wales' oldest exhibit is a horse from Kendrick's Cave, Conwy.

This exhibition demonstrates very clearly that people 30,000 years ago were intelligent and artistic, and that they obviously had the time and inclination to indulge in art.   Why did they do it?   Was it because they believed the images carried some special power?   Were the artists commissioned to produce pieces for the more powerful members of the tribe?   or did they perhspa just produce them for thier own enjoymnet?

After all these years, we will never know, but a part of the lives of these people from so long ago lives on in thier work, which we can still admore today.