Basic Needs Brought the Cave Art

Since the beginning, people have constantly tried to adapt to their environment, and they struggled to survive. These struggles for survival brought new inventions and innovations that emerged in line with their needs. Also, art is an innovation that emerged in line with these needs, and the first people invented art basically to communicate and to spend leisure time, as well as many other needs.

By nature, the first humans had a variety of survival needs, but the oldest and most important of these needs is communication because humans must communicate with each other to form a community, get along with each other, survive and make a living. They have also tried and discovered many ways to communicate, such as art, as well as basic requirements such as speaking and writing. For example, in the BBC documentary ‘’ How Art Made the World 2 of 5 - The Day Pictures Were Born’’ (2015) Dr. Nigel Spivey shows that there are animal figures on the cave walls, and they could be used for communication. The first humans they had to distribute various tasks to survive, and it was impossible to be together around the caves all the time. For example, there were hunters involved in meeting their nutritional needs, and they may be drawing pictures of animals while they were going hunting to inform the community that remained in the cave. In addition, the first humans had to educate the generations that came after them to their struggle for survival could continue. At that time, they may have used cave art to set their communication to a more permanent channel and to make the training more beneficial. For instance, in the article ‘’ ‘Humans were not center stage’: how ancient cave art puts us in our place’’ (2019), Barbara Ehrenreich mentions there are detailed and lifelike animal figures on the walls of Lascaux cave. The first humans may have used these pictures as an educational tool to educate future hunting generations, to describe the objects that they see outside, and to show them what they hunted with this way, they may have transformed their communication and training more permanently, realistically, and beneficial. 

In addition to communication and education, the early humans had much more free time compared to today, since there was no hierarchy or established order, there was no regular work or school to go to, and no household chores to do. All they had to do was to meet their basic survival needs and not feed any living creatures. That is why, they had a lot of free time to spend in caves, and they may have used the cave art on their own as a tool to spend their leisure time. For example, in the article ‘’ Ancient Cave Art Full of Teenage Graffiti’’ Bjorn Carey mentions that the pictures on the cave walls were drawn by women, men, girls, and children. This finding may be evidence of the view that anyone else could use cave art to spend their leisure time. Besides, ancient people had to take shelter in the cave in bad weather conditions as well as have a lot of free time due to the lack of work to do, which led them to spend time together and search for activities that would enable them to spend time together and to make use of the leisure time brought by a shelter in the cave. Cave art may have played a role in helping them spend time together in their search for activity. For İnstance, in the article ‘’ Code hidden in Stone Age art may be the root of human writing’’ Alison George refers that there are codes next to the animal figures on the cave walls. When the first people had to take shelter in caves due to bad weather conditions, they may have narrated and told each other their experiences and what they had in the outside world while they were spending their time together, and they may have made their time more enjoyable by providing a more vivid narrative with pictures while telling them. It cannot be denied the possibility that the codes seen on the sides of the animal figures on the cave walls could be also a game or an activity created by the first people to spend time in caves, rather than forming the basis of the writing.

To sum up, in addition to all the possibilities involved in the creation of cave art, there are fundamental needs. The first people had natural needs that came spontaneously as they recognized life and struggled for life. Such as communication, education, and making use of leisure time. As a result of these needs, cave art has emerged and has taken its current form and developed by being passed down from generation to generation.

Resources:

Spivey, N., (2015), ‘’ How Art Made the World 2 of 5 - The Day Pictures Were Born’’ BBC documentary

Ehrenreich, B., (2019) ‘’ ‘Humans were not center stage’: how ancient cave art puts us in our place.’’

Carey, B., (2006) ‘’ Ancient Cave Art Full of Teenage Graffiti’’

George, A., (2016) ‘’ Code hidden in Stone Age art may be the root of human writing.’’