The importance of location

“Lascaux was carefully chosen as the proper place for these elaborate paintings (92).”
In the beginning of chapter 4, Gregory Curtis discusses the fact that the artists were very aware of their surroundings, which I really enjoy. For cave paintings the surface of the rock, the placement of the cave, the sizes of each alcove, the surrounding area and many other important natural aspects would have been considered by the artist, the placement was just as important as the actual cave paintings. Our teacher Rebecca Roberts talked to us about her own experience with cave paintings and specifically a scene where a stampede of animals are painted and if the audience can envision the flickering of light from torches, then the stampede actually comes to life. To achieve this the artists would have been aware of each placement of each animal, and at what height to anticipate where the shadows of the light would have reached, to achieve the greatest appreciation.
I think that when most people think of cave paintings, the majority of the audience does not consider how much work the artists would have put into each cavern and into each individual painting. Sometimes they do not even consider the fact that these paintings would have had specific important uses in the cultures of the artist, they think of ‘primitive’ art as being unsophisticated and just entertainment for the artist. This is obviously completely untrue, just from the fact that there is evidence that “suggests that ancient people must have entered the cave and explored it sometime before the paintings were made (92).” This evidence shows that the ancient artists were scoping out their canvas before deciding if the caves would be acceptable for what they were intending. These paintings were important to them, and they did not take the picking of their canvas lightly.
The placement of the cave was important as well, more for a practical use. The cave “,like a cathedral built on a cliff above a village, looks out over all the surrounding countryside (93),” enabling the people using it to essentially maintain continual watch and observation. It may have even enabled them to make certain observations that would later become pieces of their art work. It also would have helped with hunting and staying safe. The cave was a vantage point safely tucked away from the outside world and its distractions. As Curtis states “the cave was perfectly suited to their needs and intentions (93),” and these are important aspects to be taken into account when creating archaeological interpretations in what uses these cave paintings may or may not have had in ancient culture.