Page 69 - A Historical Lie: The Stone Age

The people who pro-
duced the cave paint-
ings dating back as far
as 35,000 BCE used
paints containing such
chemicals and sub-
stances as manganese
oxide, iron oxide, iron
hydroxide, and dentine
(the inner part of the
teeth in vertebrates,
consisting of collagen
and calcium). If you
were to ask someone
who had received no
training in chemistry to
reproduce any of the paints used in these pictures, they would not know which chemical to
use, how to get hold of it, and which other substances needed to be mixed together with it. In
addition, the people of the time were also well-informed about animal anatomy, as indicated
by their making use of collagen and calcium powder from the teeth of vertebrates.

The horse at the bottom right is from one of the paintings in the Niaux Cave. Research has
shown the painting to be some 11,000 years old. The close resemblance between this horse
and those living in the region today is noteworthy in revealing the ability of the artist, who
clearly had a
highly developed
artistic sense.
That the paint-
ings in question
were made on
cave walls is defi-
nitely no evi-
dence that the
artists lived prim-
itive lives. There
is a high proba-
bility that they
used these walls
as their canvas
solely out of per-
sonal preference.

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