How do we know the prehistoric art pieces we found were not just some back alley graffitis?

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Every suggested meaning of prehistoric art is always either spiritual, proto-scientific, or socially meaningful.

How do we know they weren’t just some random graffitis from random people back then, similar to the tons of shitty wall-arts we see in our cities?

I guess we find them in isolated caves because that’s the only ones that were able to “survive” this long.

In: Culture

4 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

You’re presupposing that back alley graffiti *isn’t* art. The idea of “real art” that is somehow more meaningful than just drawings is something that came long after humans first started creating representational images. The fact that quasi-humans were creating those images at all is what’s significant. It’s a huge step forward in our development as a species. Any additional spiritual or cultural significance beyond that is pure speculation.

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