Prehistoric paintings: rabbit hunt

Prehistoric or cave painting is one of the coollest art topics we could have touched. A trip to the south Spain could not be a better time to do a painting in this style, since most of the prehistoric paintings found are located in the mountain regions of Spain and France.

Caves are cold and dark, we decided to make a painting a close to the sun as possible - we painted this picture on top of one of the highest mountains in Andalusia, Spain. All natural, high quality wax chalks were used, which will still wash out by the end of the summer. Hopefully rare visitor will have a chance to enjoy our little prank till at lasts. "Rabbit hunt" a prehistorically styled wall painting:

FellowRabbit team, Rabbit hunt

Artists

Prehistoric paintings, found in caves, are sometimes dated 32000 b.c., although scientists are having an open-end discussion about the age and meaning of the most paintings found in Europe. It is hard to tell which of them are really from our (hopefully) ancestors from 20-30 thousand years back, or the more recent ancestors - kids from the last century. The ones we've seen now are rough, usually in three colors (black, red and yellow) paintings showing "important" animals (bull, horse, fish) and sometimes a schematic picture of men, mostly hunters.

Aurochs on a cave painting in Lascaux, France

Cave painting of a dun horse in Lascaux, France

We have visited a cave in the south-east of Andalusia, bearing multiple paintings, as usually there were multiple pictures of bulls and horses, and even a hugh picture of a fish:

Cueva de la Pileta, Ronda, Spain

On the one hand these are amazing pictures considering how old those pictures are (supposedly), on the other hand there are many questions:

1. How could it be true that those pictures survived thousands of years? - Most of the survived paintings are on the dry sides of the walls of the cave.

2. Why we found them just now and thousands of people living around those caves never found them?

3. If the cave had been visited after paintings were made but before we discovered them, why nobody left a trace or a newer painting?

4. How old are they really?

5. And so on, so on :)

There was one very interesting but not very often mentioned detail in Cueva de la Pileta cave, the walls were literally covered with "prison marks", eight vertical lines and one horizontal line crossing them from the top. From my point of view if those lines are as old as horses and bulls then it is a much bigger mystery.

The next day we have climbed to the highest pick in the region and decided to leave a fellowrabbit trace. We decided to make a painting on the shadow side of the rock, using water resistant all natural color chalks, it is expected that the painting will be gone by the end of the summer or early autumn.

First thing first, we had to get there, although it was just 1700 meter above see level we climbed almost 900 meters high with a horizontal distance of 3000, it was almost as hard as to get to the top of 900 meter high building, add the temperature above 30 and you might get the picture. The huge motivator was a magnificent view over the whole region: from Gibraltar to Sevilla:

The view towards Sevilla, Spain, Alexandra

After getting some rest we found a rock, big enough to host our picture:

The rock is being tested, Alexandra

Preparing the chalks, Alexandra

Hunted rabbit is looking for a carrot, Alexandra

It took us a while to finish the painting, even I got a chance to draw as it is very difficult to draw on a stone and takes a lot of time to put enough color to the unleveled rock surface.

Rabbit hunt, Alexandra

This is how it looks from the distance:

Rabbit hunt zoom out, Alexandra