Prehistoric cave painters who painted colorful murals on the walls of deep caverns thousands of years ago could have hallucinated due to lack of oxygen.
A new study speculates that artists who have produced numerous underground works across Europe may have deliberately died of oxygen.
Among the paintings mentioned by Israeli researchers are those dating from about 30,000 years ago in the Chauvet Cave in Vallon-Pont-d’Arc, southern France.
Experts at Tel Aviv University, led by Yafit Kedar, speculate that the artists made a deliberate effort to starve themselves of oxygen – a condition known as hypoxia – by going deep underground.
Writing in time and mind: The Journal of Archeology, Consciousness and Culture, experts said that art is a “conscious choice, motivated by understanding the transforming nature of an underground, oxygen-depleted space.”
Ms Kedar told The Times: “The symptoms of hypoxia are very similar to when you use drugs and it occurred to me that maybe we are talking about alternative states of consciousness.”
A new study speculates that artists who have produced numerous underground works throughout Europe may have hallucinated due to lack of oxygen. Among the paintings mentioned by Israeli researchers are those dating from about 30,000 years ago in the Chauvet Cave in Vallon-Pont-d’Arc, southern France. Pictured: Reproductions of carefully guarded works at Chauvet Cave
Researchers have noticed how many Paleolithic cave paintings in Europe are hundreds of meters from the entrances.
The spaces in which they were attracted were accessed through narrow passages and would not have been used for daily activities.
It provoked questions about why the first artists ventured into such narrow conditions.
The paintings, produced in a large area of Europe between 40,000 and 14,000 years ago, depict animals, including mammoths, bison and horses.
To find out if the effects of lack of oxygen could have played a role in the production of the works, researchers in Tel Aviv performed computer simulations based on cave sites in France and Spain.
Paintings and engravings from Rouffignanc, in the Dordogne, which is about 730 meters from the entrance, are included.
The paintings and engravings in Rouffignanc, in the Dordogne, about 730 meters from the entrance, are among those included.
The El Castillo Cave in Cantabria, northern Spain, was also examined. The images there, which include the oldest known cave painting in the world, were mostly in narrow passages, about 200 meters from the entrance.
The El Castillo Cave in Cantabria, northern Spain, was also examined.
The images there, which include the oldest known cave painting in the world, were mostly in narrow passages, about 200 meters from the entrance.
The researchers ‘models indicated that the oxygen in the artists’ bodies would have fallen rapidly to those depths and would have induced hypoxia.
The normal concentration of oxygen in the atmosphere is about 21%, the rest being mostly made up of nitrogen.
The models suggested that oxygen levels would drop below 18% – the threshold for hypoxia – in 15 minutes.
In cases where there were ceilings of less than a meter, expert simulations suggested that levels would fall below 11% within two hours, leading to severe hypoxia.
Researchers have noted how both hypoxia and environments such as deep caves increase the release of the neurotransmitter dopamine.
Hypoxia, which is life-threatening, can lead to hallucinations, euphoria and sensations outside the body, such as floating or flying.
Experts said that in such a state, the works of art on the cave walls could have seemed to float.
Ms. Kedar and her co-authors suggested that the paintings could have been a means of communication with the world’s entities.
Previous research has suggested that prehistoric humans may have been disoriented by the environment of cave systems, causing them to produce rock art.
Lascaux Cave is a Paleolithic cave located in southwestern France, near the village of Montignac in the Dordogne region, which houses some of the most famous examples of prehistoric cave paintings.
Cave paintings at Chauvet, at Pont D’Arc on the river Ardeche, Ardeche, France
The Israeli study is the first to speculate on the possible role of deliberately induced hypoxia in the production of rock art.
The authors wrote: “In this paper, we have shown that hypoxia … could indeed be a plausible trigger for the creation of cave representations.
Moreover, we have shown that hypoxia could be a plausible explanation for many of the locations of representation, which are far from the mouth of the cave and require passage through low and narrow passages.
PESTERIAL ART: WORKS 40,000 YEARS OLD HAVE BEEN DISCOVERED
The most famous rock art is found in Spain and France, but it exists all over the world.
Europe’s famous Upper Paleolithic rock art dates back to about 21,000 years ago.
In recent years, scientists have recorded rock art found in Indonesia, which is believed to be about 40,000 years old – before the most popular European rock art.
The most famous rock art is found in Spain and France, but it exists all over the world. Pictured: hand patterns found in El Castillo Cave in Cantabria, Spain
Expert Shigeru Miyagawa wrote a study in 2018 that examined rock art to try to shed light on how human language has evolved.
He said: “Cave art is everywhere. Every major continent inhabited by homo sapiens has rock art.
“You can find it in Europe, in the Middle East, in Asia, everywhere – just like human language.”
A study in October last year suggested that there was a “common art culture” in prehistoric Europe.
Researchers in Spain have compared rock art – found in three caves on Aitzbitarte Hill in the Basque Country in 2015 – with other arts on the continent.
While the engravings matched the style found elsewhere in Europe, such a design was not known until now in the Iberian Peninsula.
“The work of art in the Aitzbitarte caves consists largely of bison engravings, complemented by the horns and humps characteristic of animals,” said author and archaeologist Diego Garate of the University of Cantabria, Spain.
A “common culture of art” existed throughout Europe more than 25,000 years ago, revealed the analysis of bison engravings found in caves in Spain. In the picture, one of the bison drawings from the Aitzbitarte caves, as seen in the photo, on the left and on the trace, on the right
The animal’s horns and legs are drawn in a very particular style, he remarked – usually without a proper perspective.
“The pairs of limbs are constantly represented as a ‘double Y’ with both legs visible – and the horns are similarly drawn side by side, with a series of lines between them,” he added.
The researchers compared the analysis of Aitzbitarte engravings with other rock art found throughout Europe – finding that it belonged to an existing art style that seems to have been more widespread and varied than previously appreciated.
“This is in line with the artistic style of the Gravettian cultural complex, characterized by specific customs in art, tools and burial practices about 34,000 and 24,000 years ago,” added Dr. Garate.
“This culture is known throughout Europe, but has never been seen in the Iberian Peninsula,” he said.
“The study analyzes the peculiarities of the engravings of Paleolithic animals found in the Aitzbitarte caves in 2015,” added Dr. Garate.
“These prehistoric images, mainly representing bison, were drawn in a way that has never been seen before in northern Spain.”
In fact, he added, they appear in a fashion “that is more characteristic of southern France and parts of the Mediterranean.”
“The study showed the close regional relations in Western European rock art from the earliest times – at least 25,000 years ago.”
The full results of the study were published in the journal PLOS ONE.