Humans relied on stone tools and weapons for two million years before the use of metals became an alternative about ten thousand years ago. This long period is often called ‘The Stone Age’, which is an unfortunate label that fails to appreciate the use of other materials and the significance of imagining a required tool form inside a shapeless lump of stone then using a complex sequence of skilled actions to obtain it. The brain-eye-hand coordination required to conceive, visualise and produce objects was the root of making things to care about, please and unite communities – just as art does now.

Works of art are about feelings. How they make people feel depends on their personal, social and cultural backgrounds. From 18,000 to 12,000 years ago, small drawings on bone, antler and stone were numerous and larger works continued underground on cave walls. Most show the large animals people lived alongside and depended on for their survival. They suggest various feelings for the living world ranging from awe to fear, joy to sadness and perhaps even apology for the need to kill. Seeing people as part of nature at risk to the gradual effects of natural climate change makes these drawings resonate today.

Ice Age peoples lived by hunting and foraging for food and often had to move their campsites. Anything that had to be carried had to be small. Made between 20,000 and 14,000 years ago, larger sculptures like the clay bison in Tuc d’Audoubert occur in caves and as friezes on the walls of French rock shelters. These include low relief depictions of women and animals sculpted under the overhanging rock faces. Small ivory and stone sculptures like the 15,000-year-old swimming reindeer shown here are rare by comparison with drawings but sculpting also enhances weapons made from antler.

Adding art to tools and weapons does not make them more effective, but even now it communicates identities and connections which may even touch the supernatural. Art frequently occurs on perforated antler batons between 18,000 to 12,000 years ago. Made on trimmed antler shafts with one or up to six holes at the thicker end which originally grew from the top of the reindeer’s head, the possible functions of batons are the subject of some forty theories. Spear throwers began as simple hooked sticks about 18,000 years ago. The addition of sculpted animal forms 16,000 to 13,000 years ago possibly communicated the power, skill and status of the hunter accompanied by an animal spirit.

Images of women occur in and as works of art in many cultures through time. They reflect social and religious attitudes, as well as feelings about relationships. These aspects change through the late last Ice Age. From about 40,000 years ago sculptures and models of women represented all stages of their lives perhaps reflecting their health, status and relationships. These disappeared in western Europe around 22,000 years ago. After this, female figures were occasionally engraved on tools in seemingly random styles until about 16,000 years ago when a preference for silhouettes of women shown in profile without heads or feet emerged. They suggest new feelings about female relationships which followed rules and imposed stylised conformity.

Engraved, carved and painted patterns are a major part of late last Ice Age art occurring on more than twice as many art objects, tools and weapons than animal drawings. They probably communicated a variety of social messages, but their meanings cannot now be decoded. Some patterns such as zigzags are widespread and enduring, while others are complex compositions incorporating up to six elements that may be repeated as many as ten times along an object following clear rules of symmetry and location which, like words, communicated meanings to makers, owners and viewers.

Every day around the world people express their feelings, individuality and relationships through acts of personal art made and used in hairstyles, make-up, clothing, body art and jewellery. These art actions have been common for hundreds of thousands of years, even pre-dating drawings and sculpture. Between 24,000 and 12,000 years ago skillfully made jewellery was worn as hair ornaments, fixed to clothing or suspended as necklaces, bracelets, armlets, belts, aprons and anklets. Beads and pendants are found scattered through camp sites where they were lost or deliberately discarded, and occasionally in place with burials.

Making art requires tools and materials as well as inspiration. A lot of effort went into preparing artists’ materials. Bone, antler, ivory, clay and stone provided the equivalents of paper or canvas. For drawing and engraving, stone tools with specialist tips functioned like pencils. On cave walls paint was applied using soft spongy materials for large areas but fingers and hands sufficed for outlines and details. Charcoal and earth colours mixed with water produced paint. Mixing or heating pigments varied the colour palette. Lighting from stone lamps and wooden fire torches was essential.

Going into a cave, stepping from light into shadow leading to darkness, is an experience that alerts the senses and heightens perceptions. The flickering light intensifies and animates the shadows overburdening imaginations. These dark subterranean regions are the worlds of the ‘painted’ caves. They were not places to live but sanctuaries in which to connect with feelings about unearthly realms given presence through imagery and signs. Here despite risks and discomfort people symbolised their thoughts in art, perhaps trying to feel more at home in nature, reshape or even transcend it.

Art on cave walls cannot be brought into a museum. To provide some sense of the experience of creating and viewing art underground a compilation of images, signs and sounds are imagined and presented in video format projected onto a rock-like surface. This gives an impression of how uneven surfaces were drawn into images and how the play of light animated and shifted their shapes. Images come from the famous caves of Lascaux, Niaux and Pech Merle which were painted in the period 24,000 to 12,000 years ago.

Visitors wishing to avoid a small dark space and flashing light may exit to the left.

Art does not have a single starting point. It did not appear on a particular date and cannot evolve. It emerges when and where people use their talent to show and explore their feelings about life and relationships then disappears or adjusts to meet these changing needs. Such shifting paths and the arts associated with them can be followed through the galleries at Cliffe Castle starting in the natural history section where exhibits show birds and animals that inspired Ice Age artists.

Find and follow the special labels to connect these ideas.