Why would any artist, or group of artists, climb through long, twisting underground passages to find a rock wall to decorate with their paintings? How much light could their lamps and torches provide? How many members of the community ever got to see those paintings?
And why are these pictures–from tens of thousands of years ago–every bit as well-executed as current modern paintings.? Bulls, mammoths, horses, reindeer, lions: the unknown artists’ mastery is astounding.
Thousands of self-portraits of… hands. What was that about–“Kilroy was here”?
Why are animals depicted so realistically, while human figures, if we see them at all, are mostly faceless stick figures? There’s nothing here that’s even close to a portrait.
Why are all the animals shown in profile? We don’t have one frontal image.
Were the paintings tied in with religious rituals? Were they expected to ensure good hunting for the people who’d produced them?
We don’t have the answers to any of these questions. I doubt we ever will.
One last question: Why were these “cave men” so much better artists than people who lived thousands of years later?