The hoard includes red and yellow pigments, shell containers, and the grinding cobbles and bone spatulas to work up a paste - everything an ancient artist might need in their workshop.
Monday, September 17, 2018
Ancient 'paint factory' unearthed
The hoard includes red and yellow pigments, shell containers, and the grinding cobbles and bone spatulas to work up a paste - everything an ancient artist might need in their workshop.
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This article discusses the significance of the new discoveries of what appears to be paints in old caves, suggesting that people started to become more “modern” and artistic earlier than was previously thought. I think it is pretty incredible that thousands and thousands of years ago, people still wanted to create art and I am very grateful that this urge has not gone away over the years and, in fact, has increased, as demonstrated by constant new innovations in the world of art. Despite constant concern that funding for the arts will be taken away and interest in art will be lost, I think discoveries like this point to the opposite being true. The need and desire to create art and to “let one thing represent another in the mind” is not new; it has been around for a very long time and I do not think it will be going away anytime soon.
It is truly extraordinary that some form of art has been practiced since the earliest times of humanity’s existence. It’s even more extraordinary that modern civilization can still find traces of this ancient art upwards of one hundred thousand years later. The article states that the uses of such artistic methods range from body paint to jewelry making. It makes me wonder what significance these practices had to the people doing them. Were they for spiritual or aesthetic purposes? Did they use jewelry in the same way we use it today, or is it recognized as something totally different? What varieties of information did their art communicate? These things are lost with time, but perhaps we will discover them in the future. As long as there are dedicated scientists and archeologists searching for answers to our history, there is hope answers to the many questions we pose about it will be found.
Today, art and the idea of it is very common. There are so many forms of art and there are people who are always experimenting with new are all the time. That being said, it is amazing to realize and to think about how long the idea of art has been around it. This article talks about finding evidence of an artist’s workshop from over 100,000 years ago. It’s also amazing how similar it is to what so many people do today. Besides the actual findings, it is so interesting to read about how they got to the conclusions that they did. They found abalone shells full of residue from Ochre which they knew could be used as a pigment. They found tools for grinding up the Ochre and tools for spreading the paste around. I have always been interested in archeology to some extent and it is always amazing to see it in action helping us learn about our past.
This article really touches the idea that there is still so much about the earlier people of the world that we do not know about. We all have ideas about how we are much much more advanced than them, but as this article points out, they were very advanced as well and it is possible that much has really changed between now and them. This article mentions that these people may have been communicating in fully modern ways and expressing social identity in a similar way to how we do. I also found it very interesting how similar the way they painted and made paint is to how we do it today. This article mentions that they use materials that weren’t only used to make paint to make their pigment. And in an article I read last week about the new pigment, Quantum Blue, they talked about how that color was made from material typically used in electronics. I find the similarities between people a long time ago and us, like the way paint is made, very fascinating.
I’ve never really thought about design in the same way that this article has presented it. To me Design has always about form and function. Is it aesthetically pleasing to the eye? Do the colors work together? Things like that. This article opens me up to a whole list of things that I would not have really considered to be “Design”. I’ve never given much thought to how I problem solve and have never really looked at incorporation of design essentials or different disciplines into the other aspects of my life and work. It is interesting to read about how I could use design skills to problem solve. I also like the grid and found that I could easily incorporate this into my life. I also like how it breaks things down into how each aspect functions, such as the process, structures, ideas, and strategies. I’m going to keep this in my back pocket for later research and see who I can start to incorporate the various parts into my daily life and work.
The idea that art has permeated through countless years of human history is heartening to me. In the current social and political climate there is a trend that has been gaining speed with the sole intent of stamping out art, much to my distress. Whether it is cutting funding or restricting distribution there will always be pushes for policies that prohibit art. I am sure our ancient creative ancestors did not have to worry about their funding cut off, but I do appreciate that there was organized thought put into the creation of this paint factory. The article brings up that the workers of the factory created painting kits in bulk to distribute to citizens. Most modern companies take years of brainstorming to come up with the idea of bundling together pieces to go together like it is a groundbreaking feat. For our ancient ancestors to have already created a system is quite impressive.
I wonder if we should perhaps caution against the idea of calling some paint making materials proof of “art” the way that this article seems to be wanting to define it. They seem to want to rely heavily on the symbolic thought of art, and how paint could be used to make something represent another and that’s clearly what separates man from beast. But I’d posit that animals do the same thing. The earliest practical use of paints were shorthand camouflage for hunters, cave art of stories and warnings and useful hunting strategies, and yeah “art” in the way of mating rituals. This article touches briefly at the end about seashell jewelry. A pretty seashell to an attractive mate is another version of art in early days. Except for recording pictures of how to hunt wooly mammoths, animals also do the same things. There is a species of pufferfish off the coast of Japan that creates beautifully intricate sand art, decorated with seashells, as part of their mating process. It’s probably prettier than some art I’ve seen in a museum and is a great study of geometry. Is that art? Or do we have to wait for a human to photograph it, make copies, and sell it at a ridiculous price for it to become art? And if the purpose of the paints weren’t “art” in the way that this author seems ready to define it, does that make this discovery make this finding any less impressive? I think it’s amazing that we’ve found old paints. I think it’s amazing that we’re seeing how long the species has been evolving, adapting, and creating in ways to help survive the planet Earth. And I think it makes absolute sense we found these things in Africa, and not Europe, after all, we’ve pretty much proved that the first humans were in Africa, haven’t we?
It is fascinating to me to think about first the fact that we were using paints hundred thousand years ago and added into that thought what were we using it for? I think back to otzi who I remember being an interesting mummy due to the fact that of how he was found along with the fact that he had ornamental tattoos and that mummy was from only approximately five thousand years ago. Thus the thought that we were having organized processes to develop paints and ink is really just damn cool to me. I know there a far older examples of inks and paint than otzi but otzi always struck me due to how relatively “uncivilized” he was compared to a lot of ancient civilizations and it just struck me that we really have as a human need to create art. So this new find just adds to wonderment of the idea we a species were so fascinated by by art.
This article on negative feedback really gave me a new and interesting perspective on it. As the article acknowledges, getting negative feedback can be an uncomfortable experience. First, I love that the author recommends stepping back and “reading between the lines” to find out if the person is actually asking for feedback or if they are asking for help or approval. Then I like how he talks about picking one things to say instead of a list. For me, this would definitely intimidate me a lot less in the moment. And then you have to again take a step back and think about why you had the reaction to the idea or project that you did. Ask why it made you feel that way. I think that is very important to help you formulate what to say. And last, think about the consequences of what you say. This is the most important thing as it will help you understand how what you are saying may affect the other person.
It’s mind blowing how systems we use in our shops can be dated centuries ago. Pigment and a binder, that’s how you get paint. Although our materials have changed, the basic notion has not. We need a pigment and something to help those particles stick to a surface. It shows how we have not evolved as much as we tend to believe. These findings also show how unexplored the African continent is. “Europe was really the place where all the big action was taking place - wonderful painted caves 30,000-35,000 years ago, and people decorating their bodies. We now know that this behavior goes further back in Africa.” But because we live in a Eurocentric society we forget there are other places in the world with cultures just as rich and historically impacting as the European. Other cultures history that can change the way we perceive our evolution like this finding for example.
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