A new study has shed light on the circumstances in which ancient cave painters created works of art. According to a report by CNN, researchers from the University of Tel Aviv focused on cave paintings in Europe, and found that the painters chose the deepest and darkest parts of the caves for their works.
The new research, published in Time and Mood: The Journal of Archeology, Consciousness and Culture, explored caves mostly in Spain and France from the Upper Paleolithic period, which stretches 40,000 to 14,000 years ago. This revealed that the use of fire to illuminate the depths of the caves was necessary to create ancient paintings, and that the painters were probably deprived of oxygen as a result of the fires.
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Ran Barkai, a professor of prehistoric archeology at Tel Aviv University who worked on the study, says CNN that the painters may have experienced hypoxia which may cause hallucinations. Barkai said such conditions are deliberately cultivated.
“It was used to tie things up,” Barkai said CNN. “We do not call it cave art. This is not a museum. ”
“It was not the decoration that made the caves meaningful, but the opposite: the importance of the chosen caves was the reason for its decoration,” the study reads.
According to CNNFurther investigation will investigate why children painted in the deep parts of the caves and whether people were able to build up their tolerance to the low oxygen conditions.