Caveman existed millions of years ago. But today, we owe them, many of the inventions/tools that take part in our everyday lives. We can say that the caveman are the true creators of many small things like blades and knives, which date back to 2 million years ago, and other more significant things such as different lifestyles, protection, housing, and art.
Without the small, but critical steps the caveman took towards a better and easier way of life, we would not have advanced and gotten to where we are today. Some of their findings and developments are jewelry, weapons and tools, clothing, houses, ways of living, food, and cave paintings.
Caveman wore jewelry such as beads, necklaces, bracelets, and pendants. These were usually made of animal bones, leather, teeth, and stones. They were used to differentiate status, tribes, and family members. Weapons and Tools made by cavemen date back to about 2 million years.
Cave bear- Ursus Spelaeus
Caves on Cave Ridge
English: Lascaux Caves - Prehistoric Paintings. Р...They were used for defense, hunting, cooking, and many others. For clothing they used animal fur and wore moccasins tailored with bone needles.
They created tents from animal skins and huts from branches and mammoth bones in addition to living in caves. They were also nomadic hunter-gatherers with a very developed technology. They ate fruits, nuts, seeds, etc. and in general had a very good diet.
However, of all the many developments they made the one that helped us understand more about them were the cave paintings that they left behind. Around 300 paintings have been discovered in the world with an age fo around 20,000 years. Cave art first came into existence around 40,000 B.P. and was at the end of the Cro-Magnon era. It?s now believed that there was a symbolic or religious meaning to this art. For example a bears skull found perched on a rock could be viewed as an ?altar? The paintings all differentiate from one another, all showing different feelings and emotions that the painter must have felt. In some of them the animals are deformed, had more than 4 legs or were painted in a hideous kind of way. Animal fat lamps and torches that were used by temporary visitors as means of lighting were also found in the caves. Mounds of colored earth (paint) that had been left behind were also found.
Scientists believed that cave art had a symbolic meaning or was considered sacred. They were a place that could have been used as initiation or trial and only a selected few could visit under circumstances of extreme difficulty.
As we can see the caveman were very ingenious people, as they created many things that we still use today with their limited resources and experience. To them we owe many things that are now part of our society. They basis of many artifacts that we still use today were created by the cavemen.
"A hunter attacking a brown bear."
Caveman (1/15/12)