Investigating the Past

Archaeologists studied artifacts from early humans to learn about the past and the lives of early humans.


A set of artifacts the archaeologists found were named “Cave art tools.” Cave Art tools had a grinder, colored minerals (in the shape of balls), a white rock, a black rock (slightly larger than the white rock.) These materials are used for cave arts. Early human’s lives were very simple. They used simple tools to make art work with. The tools were mostly natural. For example, the minerals were in natural color, and the minerals are mixed with animal fat and vegetable oil to make paint. These are also natural.


Another cave painting that was left behind by the early humans was a cave painting of animals. This painting has about 11 horses running in different directions. It also had bull in the center, which looked like it was running away from something because its neck is stretched. It’s got something that looks like a small cage in right side of the painting. Also, the painting has different levels of the grounds, and the wise thing that the artist did was he/she painted this painting on different ground levels, so the horses really look like they are moving. The artist that painted this painting was very clever to paint on different ground levels to make his/her painting more realistic.


The last cave painting I am going to introduce to you is a painting of shapes and handprints. This painting has stick deer painted on it. It is a pretty fascinating painting because the things that are painted on it don’t really relate to each other. There are deer, handprints, squiggly lines (zigzags), and something that looks like a target. None of these relate to each other, or maybe it does, just that I don’t recognize it. Or maybe the artist is trying to tell a story by painting on cave walls. Early humans probably had pretty good imagination. To tell a story by painting isn’t that easy. Early humans are also very clever. If it wasn’t that they could think of painting and how to make paint, art probably wouldn’t develop this fast until nowadays.


Early humans’ lives probably weren’t easy, with no electricity and all the technologies we have today.