One particularly iconic type of early art made by humans is the hand stencil. Often found in conjunction with cave paintings of animals, the interconnectedness of the two types is undoubted, therefore lending support to the belief that these ‘negatives’ of hand prints are art.
The animals found painted in caves such as those at Lascaux are often of unparalleled artistic merit, being uncannily, lifelike and some even evidencing techniques such as perspective. Alongside these exquisite images, sometimes called the Sistine Chapel of the Palaeolithic, are a number of hand stencils. While completely overshadowed by the plethora animal paintings they have, perhaps because of their association become recognised as art.
This brings me to a question that has been bothering me for some years. If they stood alone, without the beautifully drawn aurochs and bison would they be seen as art? Or perhaps would we view them as ancient graffiti, saying simply “I was here”?
Below are some examples from Spain.
Hand stencils at the Fuente del Salín cave, from Ekainberri (2019).
Hand stencils from El Castillo cave, Cantabria, Spain. From Than (2014).
Hand stencils from La Garma cave, from Till (2012).
False-colour image of hand prints from Maltravieso Cave, Spain. From Anon. (2018).
Hand stencil from Fuente del Trucho Cave, Aragorn, Spain. The cave contains 42 hand-stencils, only three of which are outlined in black. This one is most curious, as the ends of the digits are missing. Proposed reasons for this include a clenched fist, loss of the terminal parts of the digits due to frostbite or ritual mutilation. From the Parque Cultural del Rio Vero website (2022)
I do have an ulterior motive for using these, particular images. All the above sites featured in a recent publication by Fernández-Navarro, et al (2022).
Hand stencils are made by blowing pigments through a hollow reed or bone at a hand placed against the surface of the rock inside the cave. Fernández-Navarro, et al (2022), attempted to answer the question “Who created this art?” The results were extremely surprising. The scientists created precise, 3D models and took morphometric measurements.
Taking into account that the hand stencils are slightly larger than the hand they outline, the researchers found that up 27 percent of the hand marks were not large enough to belong to adults or teenagers. They surmised, that they came from children between two and 12 years of age, with the majority of those likely made by three to 10-year-olds.
Whilst the percentages of child hand stencils varied across the 5 caves, it was shown that ALL the caves had some child hand painters. See table below:
Table of the extrapolated ages of hand stencil painters, adapted from Fernández-Navarro et al (2022).
The phenomenon, therefore, seems entirely real!
Coming back to my original question of “Are hand stencils art or a graffito that say I was here?”, this evidence, to me seems to lend weight to the latter theory. If I was a parent in the Palaeolithic, intending to do a bit of symbolic painting, for my spiritual wellbeing say, I may well have distracted the kids with a bit of pigment blowing. Art – no. I rest my case.
References
Anon. (2018). Earliest cave art belonged to Neanderthals, not humans: Study. Arab News at: https://www.arabnews.com/node/1253156/offbeat
Cascone, S. (2022). A Study of Prehistoric Painting Has Come to a Startling Conclusion: Many Ancient Artists Were Tiny Children. Art News, at: https://news.artnet.com/art-world/children-worlds-first-artists-new-study-finds-quarter-prehistoric-spanish-hand-paintings-kids-13-2084734 accessed 15/04/2022.
Ekainberri (2019) Fuente El Salín: el significado oculto de las manos. At: https://www.ekainberri.eus/en/2019/01/23/fuente-el-salin-el-significado-oculto-de-las-manos/
Fernández-Navarro, V., Camarós, E. and Garate, D., 2022. Visualizing childhood in Upper Palaeolithic societies: Experimental and archaeological approach to artists’ age estimation through cave art hand stencils. Journal of Archaeological Science, 140, p.105574.
Parque Cultural del Rio Vero (2022). Paleolithic Art (40,000 B.C.E. – 10,000 B.C.E.). At https://parqueculturalriovero.com/en/cave-art/river-vero-cave-art/paleolithic-art accessed 15/04/2022
Than, K. (2014). World's Oldest Cave Art Found — Made by Neanderthals? National Geographic online at: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/article/120614-neanderthal-cave-paintings-spain-science-pike accessed 15/04/2022
Till, J. et al (2012). Songs of the Caves. Acoustics and Prehistoric Art in Spanish Caves. At: https://songsofthecaves.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/img_0048.jpg accessed 15/04/2022
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