o the world that helped people learn to accept cave art for what it really was, an art. Many sites were uncovered shortly after, dating back to over 32,000 years (Versaware, 1).Since 1981, archeologists have also found art outside of the caves such as engravings of humans, horses, and cattle, which were about 20,000 years old. Paleolithic findings, if surviving erosion, are now becoming more common throughout the world (Columbia, 1).Paleolithic art is often classified in two different categories: figurative and non-figurative (Encarta, 2). The figurative side of art deals with depicting animals and humans. It is found more commonly than non-figurative. Cave art, such as paintings, engravings, and objects that consist of bison, fish, deer, and even some imaginary animals. Many of the numerous images are drawn incompletely. Some are layered on top of one another. Human drawings are less commonly found in this type of category.The second, non-figurative art, deals with depicted symbols and signs. They are more common in cave areas. The structural symbols can be complex, ranging from dots to linear markings, or simple in form, such as handprints (Versaware, 1). When first discovered, cave art wasn’t believed to have held any particular meaning, only for decoration purposes. After scientists discovered many of the same symbols and drawings in different areas, it was studied and found to have some underlying meaning (Mulder-Slater, 1). Because of the developed ideas, many scientists began to develop theories to explain such.The first theory, stated in the early 20th Century, concluded that the Stone Age drew pictures of animals for the purpose of affecting real animals in some way (Encarta, 2). Ritual destruction was used to explain the broken cave figures and was used as a datable theory (Versaware, 1), (Mulder-Slater, 1). Few figurative figurines, animals and humans, have weapons drawn on them, which is inconclusive of the original ri...
