HOUGHTON MIFFLIN

ILLUSTRATION CREDIT: Joe LeMonnier

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ISBN-13: 978-0-547-01700-6 ISBN-10: 0-547-01700-6

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by Alexandra Behr

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How Old Is Art?

Have you ever wondered when people first started making art? Maybe you’ve seen drawings from the ancient pyramids of Egypt. Perhaps you’ve seen graffiti from the walls of ancient Rome and painted vases from ancient Greece. Art like this was made more than 2,000 years ago.

But art goes back even further—way further—than that. Early humans were making art thousands of years before the Romans, Egyptians, and Greeks! From the time the first humans on Earth started to use tools to hunt and farm, they used other tools to make art.

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Migration route

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How Early Is Early?

Scientists believe the earliest humans lived more than 200,000 years ago in what is now Africa. Over many, many thousands of years, these early people spread out from Africa across the Earth. Early humans probably reached Europe more than 40,000 years ago. Others moved across Asia and crossed an ancient land bridge to arrive in North America.

This map shows how many years ago early people migrated, or moved, to different parts of Earth.

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Early humans used tools made of wood, stone, and animal bones to help them hunt, make clothing, and build places to live.

People started to decorate their tools and create other pieces of art. They carved animal shapes out of small pieces of animal horns, bone, and stone. Then, about 32,000 years ago, some early people started making paintings on cave walls.

This horse was carved from mammoth ivory.

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Underground Museums in France

Ancient cave art has been discovered all over the world. But the most famous examples of this art have been found in caves in Europe, especially in France.

This map shows three of the most important cave-art locations in Europe.

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In 1940, four teenagers in Lascaux (la SKOW), France, found a cave entrance hidden behind a pile of rocks. They crawled inside and uncovered what looked like an ancient underground museum. The cave walls were covered with paintings of cows, horses, antelopes, and bulls. These weren’t just silly scribbles. The animals looked realistic and full of energy, as if they could leap off the cavern walls.

Scientists studied the paintings and figured out that they had been made about 17,000 to 15,000 years ago. They said the paintings were made by many different artists over many, many years.

Bulls and other prehistoric animals cover the walls at Lascaux.

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In 1994, explorers in a different cave in Chauvet (show VAY), France flashed their lights on something amazing. It was a painting of a red mammoth, a giant animal that had been extinct in Europe for thousands of years. As the explorers looked further in the cave, they found hundreds of beautiful stone engravings. They also saw paintings of lions, bears, rhinos, and horses.

A cave drawing found in France.

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The art in the Chauvet caverns helped experts learn more about the skills of early artists. These drawings were more than 10,000 years older than the paintings at Lascaux, but they were just as complex. That told experts that early artists were just as skilled as later ones.

How long ago did early humans make cave art in Europe?

First humans arrived in Europe.

40,000 years ago

32,000 years ago

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Art made in Chauvet Cave.

Art made in Lascaux Cave.

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What Did Ancient Artists Do?

Early artists couldn’t run out to the art supply store to buy paints and brushes. Instead, they made art tools from materials in nature.

Artists made paint by grinding minerals into powder. Then they mixed them with liquids. The paint was so good that it stayed on cave walls for thousands of years.

Early humans used different minerals to add color to their art. They used a mineral called iron oxide to make red, brown, orange, and yellow paint and drawing sticks. They used chalk, animal bones, or seashells to make the color white.

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Tricks and Techniques

Some early cave artists painted with theirfingers. Others used twigs or feathers as paintbrushes. With each technique, they could create different looks and textures.

Early artists even spray-painted cave walls. They blew paint through hollow bones. (Imagine blowing juice through a drinking straw.) By putting one hand on the wall and blowing paint over it, an artist could create an outline of the hand.

Some artists must have used assistants to help them—just like modern artists do. Today, assistants might use tracing paper to make sketches for the artist. In ancient times, assistants might have handed paint up to an artist standing high above the ground. In one cave, a huge horse was painted 14 feet above the ground. At another site, artists painted mammoths 20 feet above the cave floor.

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Why Did They Do It?

No one knows for sure why early humans painted images on cave walls. Most of the paintings show animals that were important to early people’s survival. The painters may have wanted to show their love and respect for these creatures. Maybe they used their art to teach children about these animals. Perhaps these artists were like modern book illustrators, making paintings on cave walls to illustrate stories. The art may also have been used for ceremonies.

Some of these handprints of prehistoric artists were made by blowing paint through hollow bones.

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Today, scientists are still doing research to figure out the mysteries of this amazing ancient art. We may never know for sure why ancient artists painted these pictures. But we do know that from the very earliest days of human life on Earth—and right up to today— people have always felt the need to create art.

A bison head from one of the cave walls in Lascaux.

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RespondingTARGET SKILL   Text and Graphic

Features  Headings, photographs, and maps help you to understand this book. Copy and complete the chart below. 

Feature Example Purpose

Headings How Old Is Art? ?

Photographs ? ?

Maps ? ?

Text to World  How are early artists and their work similar to artists today and their work? How are they different? Write two paragraphs to tell how they are alike and how they are different.

Write About It

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illustrateimagineresearchscribbles

sketchestexturestools tracing

TARGET VOCABULARY

TARGET SKILL   Text and Graphic Features   Tell how words and photos work together. 

TARGET STRATEGY   Analyze/Evaluate  Think about what you read. Then form an opinion about it.

GENRE  Informational text gives factual information about a topic.

cavernceremoniesengravings

graffitimineralstechniques

ExpANd YouR VocAbulARY

ISBN-13: 978-0-547-01700-6ISBN-10: 0-547-01700-6

1031558

3.2.7

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN

Online Leveled Books

Level: R

DRA: 40

Genre:Informational Text

Strategy:Analyze/Evaluate

Skill:Text and Graphic Features

Word Count: 806