Alyssa Almendras

Season 1, Origins of Man

Cave Paintings (Cueva de las Manos)

“Cave paintings are a type of parietal art (which category also includes petroglyphs, or
engravings), found on the wall or ceilings of caves.” Cave paintings are often regarded as having
a symbolic or religious feature. The exact meanings of most images in the caves remain
unknown, but there are some experts who suggest they may have been created within the context
of shamanic beliefs and practices. Cave paintings last really long because of the stable
temperature, humidity in the caves, a lack of human contact, and long lasting painting materials
they used. The paint that they used in the cave paintings were usually made with the yolk of eggs
and therefore, the substance would harden to the surface it was applied to. The pigment was
often made from plants, sand, and different soils.

Cave paintings were significant/important because it was what the people did in order to
record their history and culture. And, these cave paintings were also significant to them because
it served as a warning to the people who were to come in the coming days or future. For
example, they could paint/show them the way to kill a beast or warn them of a beast.

The painting I made here is an example of a cave painting. Specifically, this cave painting
is called the Cueva de las Manos (Spanish for Cave of Hands). The Cueva de las Manos is
located in the province of Santa Cruz, Argentina. The art in the cave dates from 13,000 to 9,000
years ago, and this painting is the 6th eldest painting in the world. The images of the hands here
were said to be stenciled. Most of the hands were left hands, which suggested that the painters
painted with their right hand. Lastly, the Cueva de las Manos (Cave of Hands) stood as a witness
to a passage where primitive hunters crossed the valley, and stopped to mark their existence with
a handprint. These prints are now considered one of the finest form of ancient rock on earth.

Sharp Stone Flakes

Sharp Stone flakes or usually called Flake tool is a type of stone tool that was used by the
early humans created by striking a flake from a prepared stone core. Compared to other tools,
people often chose these flake tools during prehistoric times because these tools were often easy
to make, and these tools could be made to be extremely sharp and could be easily repaired.
“Flake tools could be sharpened by retouch to create scrapers or burins.” Through flintknapping,
a process of producing stone tools using lithic reduction, flake tools are created. In order to
achieve the desired tool shape and size, lithic reduction is the removal of a lithic flake from a
larger stone.
 Generally, a flake tool has very sharp edges, which makes it useful for cutting, scraping,
and carving. For an Atlatl or bow, some flakes are worked into projectile points. The early
humans began to strike really large flakes and then continue to shape them by striking smaller
flakes from around the edges.

Nowadays, in order to eliminate the flakes, flintknappers mainly use two techniques:
percussion (striking flakes) and pressure flaking (pushing flakes). “In percussion flaking, the
flinknapper uses a hammerstone first, then switches over to a billet for finer flaking work.” And
in pressure flaking, “flintknappers use a finer tool (like tines from deer antlers) and a pushing-
pressure to remove small flakes in a more controlled manner.”

Domestication of Animals

The domestication of animals began about the same time and place early humans started
domesticating plants, which was 10,000 years ago. Before the early humans began to
domesticate animals, they hunted for food, but the early humans decided to change their way of
life because they wanted to settle in one place only rather than hopping from one place to
another. So what they did was that they started to raise animals for food, like meat and milk, and
they used animal hides for clothing and for tent shelters.

Domesticating animals is, and can be difficult work. And because of this, they
domesticated herbivores first, because the early humans were also domesticating plants during
this time, so it was also quite an easier way to feed the animals. The first animal to be
domesticated were the goats, sheep then followed by the cows. Chickens were also domesticated
later on in Southeast Asia.

Over the years, people then started to domesticate larger animals for transporting and
plowing. By selective breeding, animal domestication occurs. Individuals with desirable
characteristics are chosen to be bred, and these desirable characteristics are then transmitted to
future generations. Lastly, domesticated animals were bred to promote certain traits. That is why
the domesticated animals over time started to vary from their wild ancestors.