Ice Age Art at The British Museum and a Culture Show Special

Hey,

The British Museum in London is currently holding an exhibition of Ice Age Art/Artifacts that have been borrowed from museums across europe. As a primitive skills enthusiast who also studied archaeology, this kind of stuff makes me drool

www.britishmuseum.org...

www.britishmuseum.org...

this is all portable art, generally made by highly mobile people using the left overs of kills, and manufactured with little more than a flint flake as a tool.

There was a "Culture Show" special on the bbc re this exhibition about 3 weeks ago... it's one the best documentaries i have ever seen and i would recommend it highly for the quality and enthusiasm of it's presentation, as well as for the intelligent analysis by the various contributors. it's in five parts via YT and is a must watch for anyone who finds prehistory fascinating, whether you know it all, or nothing at all:

Part 1: an intro to the exhibition, which contains items up to 40k years old. the host also visits the castillio cave in spain, paintings and all with analysis of the importance of such sites...




Part 2: Discussion and analysis of the nature of ice age art and the psychology and purposes behind it.. also a copy of a 15k yr old clay sculpture of Bulls from a cave in France.. viewing artifacts from the collection, including decorated antler tools and a fine solutrean (or at least thats how it looked to me) blade. the start of a section of a german craftman who reproduces ancient artifacts - a real eye-opener.



Part 3: the last section continues re the artifact reproducer, a mammoth tusk spear thrower (i nearly died and went to caveman heaven at this point). an exceptional section including a sculpture of the female form deep underground.



Part 4: More cave art and ice age artifacts. Sculptor and artist Anthony Gormley drools like a madman over these items



Part 5: Anthony Gormley continues to enthuse, the show concludes.



please watch and enjoy! Documentaries this good dont come around very often

and some visual treats for you all:

Tres cool.

Are you living nearby? Hope you can go, and enjoy it. I know I would. Just a couple of hours north of where I live, there are some paleo indian cave paintings that date from the earliest days of the immigration onto the North American continent.

I'm driving up there next week to check 'em out. It's very advantageous to know people with access...

Hope you enjoy the exhibition.

reply to post by seagull


Hi Seagull, i'm a few hours from London, but excuses to visit The British Museum are always welcome - my last trip was about a year ago, and a day is never enough.

Paleo-indians are fascinating too - i like to flintknap when i get the chance and can put other craft projects aside, and their artifacts provide great inspiration to improve my skills.. enjoy your trip too

Thanks for this, European Ice Age culture is just about my favorite subject to learn new things about. S+F.

reply to post by skalla

Another very good thread and presentation. You are fast becoming one of my favorite thread-creators here. Thanks for this, and for the data.

A bit off topic, but I picked up a few Sahara points at a meeting recently, and they are very small, very well worked, and as miniatures are some of the best I've come across. The collector has hundreds of them, and said they are estimated to be 3,000 to 5,000 years old - not old in this game but of interest. Do you have knowledge of Sahara desert tiny points? Thanks (I haven't checked to see if a thread exists on points in that geographic area, but it would be a good topic for a thread if you have the data and time. At least stick it on your mental list somewhere).

reply to post by Aleister


Many thanks, glad you enjoyed it - when i saw the doc i was entranced

re: the points: i dont, sadly - i really would recommend joining Paleoplanet and asking there, the worlds best knappers hang out there (as well as archaeologists, collectors like yourself and stone-age artifact/material culture experts) and i'm sure that they would be only too happy to help

Originally posted by skalla
reply to post by Aleister

 

Many thanks, glad you enjoyed it - when i saw the doc i was entranced

re: the points: i dont, sadly - i really would recommend joining Paleoplanet and asking there, the worlds best knappers hang out there (as well as archaeologists and stone-age artifact/material culture experts) and i'm sure that they would be only too happy to help

edit on 26-3-2013 by skalla because: (no reason given)

A good idea, thanks. On to topic. I have a feeling that some of the best ice age art is yet to be discovered, and that some of the still hidden caves are going to be as interesting as Tut's tomb. More of a hope and a prediction than a certainty, yet the best ones have to be still out there.

reply to post by Aleister


i'm certain more is yet to come, the only question is "when?"

a great example is Chauvet Cave, which was discovered in 1996 and is over 30k yrs old - it contains the most exceptional cave art. it is thought to have lain hidden by rockslides for about 29k yrs which is astonishing.

Wiki page for Chauvet
en.wikipedia.org...

and the official site - nice tour, though not quite as spookily awesome as the Lascaux one i linked in your Jeremy Norman (sp?) thread
www.culture.gouv.fr...

I dont know if you have seen Wernor Herzog's movie/doc "Cave of Forgotten Dreams" which is solely about the cave - but if not, do seek it out... i was lucky enough to see it in an art house cinema with deep comfy seats, 3D, Malt Whiskies and home made cakes

here are a few pics..














and the trailer...

reply to post by skalla


No, I haven't heard of the film, thanks for bringing ATS readers into "the loop" on things like that. This page is becoming a very good repository of cave and ice age artforms. Must sign off soon, but I'll link some stuff here next time I'm on. I'm going to have to phone Jeremy Norman and see why he hasn't answered my email yet. His site is still one of the best I've seen, and I've only scratched the surface of it.