Restorers and archaeologists from Russia and other countries have discovered an unusual camel pattern in the Kapova cave in Bashkiria, indicating that people of the Stone Age actively exchanged artistic know-how, the press service of Moscow State University reports.
Rock paintings and other manifestations of the fine arts of ancient people - "Paleolithic Venuses" and other figurines - were previously considered an exclusive feature of human ancestors who penetrated the territory of Europe about 40 thousand years ago. Subsequently, it turned out that the Neanderthals knew how to draw, and the most ancient drawings of people - images of babiruss pigs and other animals - are not in Europe, but in Southeast Asia.
In fact, according to paleontologists and anthropologists today, fine art originated much earlier, at least 100 thousand years ago, even before the exodus of man from Africa, just the drawings of those times did not survive to us due to the equatorial climate. In 2011, during the excavation of Blombos Cave in South Africa, scientists found an alleged "palette" - a mollusk shell covered with paint - and the working tools of ancient artists 100-150 thousand years old.
The most famous examples of such an ancient "painting" in Russia are found inside the Kapova Cave, located in the south of Bashkiria in the foothills of the Urals. Cro-Magnons painted dozens of different images here, many of which still remain hidden under the calcite outgrowths. The oldest drawings were left on the walls of the cave about 36 thousand years ago.
Some of these images are in critical condition, and now Russian and foreign scientists are actively studying them and trying to find ways to save them from destruction. During similar works, which were recently carried out by Edoual Guillamé, a famous restorer from Andorra, scientists managed to find a unique camel drawing hidden under cave deposits. It dates back to the time when Eurasia was settled by the first people.
Uranium-thorium analysis of the sediments covering the pattern showed that it was applied during the Upper Paleolithic, not earlier than 37 thousand years ago, but not later than 15 thousand years ago. This makes it one of the oldest examples of rock art in the Kapova Cave.
According to Vladislav Zhitenev, head of the South Ural archaeological expedition of Moscow State University, the way horses, a camel and other elements of the picture were drawn, as well as their location on a stone "canvas", suggests that it was painted by artists familiar with the traditions of art Stone Age, which arose in the south of modern France and the north of Spain. This part of Europe was one of the "centers of civilization" during the last glacier advance and was the most densely populated area of the Earth about 20-37 thousand years ago.
On the other hand, the scientist emphasizes, camels are not found on European rock paintings, they can be seen only in the caves of Mongolia and the Ignatievskaya cave, located relatively close to Kapova. This, according to archaeologists, suggests that artistic traditions developed independently on the territory of the Southern Urals and were subsequently intertwined with artistic know-how from France.
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“The drawing of a camel found on the polychrome panel“Horses and Signs”known since the late 1970s has no analogues in the pictorial complexes of caves in France and Spain, but bears some resemblance to the figure of a camel from the Ignatievskaya cave in the Chelyabinsk region. Now it is probably becoming a significant image of the Upper Paleolithic cave bestiary of the South Urals,”Zhitenev said.
According to the press service of Moscow State University, scientists will continue to study the caves in December, when the walls of the underground halls and galleries will become much drier than in summer, which will allow revealing the smallest details of the drawings, as well as re-assessing their condition, which is necessary to start restoration.