Activity Summary
This activity gives students a sense of the creative background for ancient cave art. If possible, teachers should enrich the activity with references or Internet materials showing cave art in the United States or Europe.

Educational Goals
Students will be able to:

1. Name three ways that humans have used caves.
2. Give two possible interpretations for cave art depicting animals.
3. Name two possible reasons for ancient cave art.

Teaching Background
Prehistoric cave art inspires us today, even centuries later. Somehow, artists of old can still communicate with us through their simple, monumental rock paintings. In this activity, your students will get a feeling for both making and viewing such art.

If you have Internet access, explore Web pages with search phrases such as "cave AND art" or "cave AND paintings." Internet addresses can change unpredictably, but at the time of publication of this teaching guide, Web pages with graphic cave images include:

http://www.culture.gouv.fr/culture/arcnat/chauvet/en/index.html

This site illustrates French cave painting discoveries, including the recent ones at Vallon-Pont d'Arc. French caves have revealed some of the world's most awesome cave art. Animal depictions may have been the artists' way of keeping records of animals that they had killed. Why the Cro-Magnon artists drew in caves remains a mystery. Some cave paintings are 25,000 years old.

Many Web Sites showing Asian caves are full of exciting art also, but much of it is of an erotic nature and not suitable for young students.

America, the caves of the Anasazi tribes, in the southwest, and Mammoth Cave, in Kentucky, offer impressive prehistoric art. Mammoth Cave is the site of four-thousand-year-old objects, including spoons and moccasins. There is evidence of gypsum mining. Gypsum and other minerals were probably used for body paint, and perhaps for seasoning and medicine.

Cave art is not surprising, when one considers the many ways that humans have used caves over the centuries. These uses include religious worship, storage, mining, and burial. In some parts of the world, entire communities live in caves today, as the Anasazis did in the past.

American history has many stories about caves. Along the route of the Underground Railroad, slaves took shelter during the civil war. Desperado Jesse James is thought to have hidden $100,000 in gold coins in a Missouri cave. Other people have used caves for producing nitrates for gunpowder and fertilizer. Food producers have used caves for cooling chickens and aging cheese.

Over the years, both children and their dogs have played an important role in cave discovery, including the sites of major cave art. Why? Partly because both children and dogs are naturally curious and love to explore. Both are also small. Like Carlos and Jenny in the story, children and their pets can squeeze into small passages.

If your class lives in cave country, or travels in cave country, it is important to emphasize the danger that caves present. Children need to realize that if they find caves, they should not explore them by themselves. Even adults should not explore wild caves except in the company of trained cavers.

Materials Required

• Colored chalk
• Newsprint
• Finger paints or poster paint (large jars)

Procedure
Show the class pictures of cave art from books, Internet, etc.

Choose one of the following approaches:

1. Blackboard as cave wall
   • Invite students to draw one object on the cave wall.
   • Trace children's hand prints in chalk, color in.
   • Draw an animal that a prehistoric hunter might hunt (deer, rabbit, mammoth, etc.)

2. Newsprint as cave wall

3. Personal rock art—ask students to bring a smooth rock to school. Ask them to paint rock art on their stone.

4. Invite students to contribute one piece to the cave wall. Same objects as above, but use brown finger paint or thick poster paint. Create a mural.

All USGS teaching packets are based on National Education Standards.