Page 512 - Atlas of Creation Volume 2

THE SUPERIOR PAINTING TECHNIQUE IN CAVE ART

In the French Pyrenees, the Niaux Cave is filled with most impressive pictures drawn by people who
lived in prehistoric times. Carbon dating performed on these paintings show that they were completed
around 14,000 years ago. The Niaux Cave paintings were discovered in 1906 and have been examined

in great detail ever since. The most decorated portion of the cave is a side chamber formed by a high
cavity, in a dark section known as the Salon Noir. In his book The Origin of Modern Humans, Roger
Lewin makes the following comment about this section, with its images of bison, horses, deer and
ibexes: "... arranged in panels and giving the impression of foresight and deliberation in their execu-
tion." 11

One important element about these pictures that has attracted the most interest of scientists is the
painting technique employed. Research has shown that the artists obtained special compounds by mix-
ing natural and local ingredients. No doubt that this indicates an ability to think, plan and produce far
beyond the reach of any beings still in a primitive state. Lewin describes this painting technique thus:

The painting materials—pigments and mineral extenders—were carefully selected by Upper
Paleolithic people and ground to within 5 to 10 micrometers to produce a specific mix. The black pig-
ment, as had been suspected, was charcoal and manganese dioxide. But the real interest was in the ex-

tenders, of which there seemed to be four distinct recipes, which the researchers number one through
four. Extenders help to bring out the color of the pigment and, as their name implies, add bulk to the
paint without diluting the color. The four recipes for extenders used at Niaux were talc; a mixture of
baryte and potassium feldspar; potassium feldspar alone; and potassium feldspar mixed with an ex-
cess of biotite. Clottes and his colleagues experimented with some of these extenders and found them
to be extremely effective. 12

This highly advanced technique is evidence that no being that can be described as primitive ever ex-
isted in the past. Ever since Man first came into existence, he has been a superior being, with the abil-
ity to think, speak, reason, understand, analyze, plan and produce. It is completely irrational and

illogical to claim that people who used extender to color their paintings and who successfully mixed
such substances as talc, baryte, potassium feldspar and biotite to obtain such extenders had only re-
cently parted ways with apes and become civilized.

Pigments used in the cave paintings
were made from mixtures that even a
student of chemistry would find it
hard to reproduce. These compounds
have very complex formulae and can
be obtained today only by chemical
engineers in laboratories. It is clear
that paints obtained from such mate-
rials as talc, baryte, potassium
feldspar and biotite require a de-
tailed chemical knowledge. It is im-
possible to describe their makers as
supposedly "newly developed."

510 Atlas of Creation Vol. 2