INTRODUCTION TO HISTORY AND CULTURE OF SPAIN

Prehistoric Spain II:  The First Artist
 

Upper Paleolithic (Newer Old Stone Age)
First Artist:  Cro-magnon Man
Altamira (most famous prehistoric site in Spain; located near Santander)
Cro-magnon Tools
1.  Needle
2.  Fish hook
3.  Harpoon
4.  Chisel (for flaking tools)
5.  Throwing stick,
6.  Bow and arrow
Paris International Exposition (1878)
Don Marcelino de Sautuola  
María de Sautuola
Juan Vilanova y Piera
Lisbon Congress on Prehistoric Archaeology (1880)
New cave art finds in France (1896)
 Abbe Breuil 
Lascaux (1941)
Chavet  (oldest cave art)
Art:  product of supernatural beliefs?
Reasons for skepticism: 
1.  Paintings too good for cavemen to have done
2.  Enduring Biblical-centered mindset of western man that had plagued and hampered the discovery of man’s prehistoric past
Scientific Revolution vrs. Christian-dominated science
Geocentrism vrs. Heliocentrism
Galileo Galilei
Jacques Boucher de Crevecoeur de Perthes:  discoverer of the Stone Age (c. 1830)
Somme River Valley
First human specialists:  Leader, Toolmaker, Priest, Artist