Pleistocene Cave Art

[KRA123]

This is a thread for the appreciation, analysis and discussion of Pleistocene cave art from around the world. Cave art, also called parietal art, includes cave paintings, as well as all forms of engraved rock art, other petroglyphs, and any relief sculpture carved on walls, floors or ceilings. Since this is an animal forum, it's probably best to stick to cave art that represents animals, living or extinct.

For the inaugural post, here is an image of the famous Black Stag painting from the walls of the Lascaux Cave in France. The photo is from Don's Maps

*This image is copyright of its original author

 It is often thought to be a depiction of the well-known extinct deer Megaloceros giganteus, aka the Irish Elk, but I think it is clearly a representation of a far more familiar animal - the fallow deer! I did a full write up of the reasoning which led me to this conclusion, and you can find that here. I think it's a little strange that fallow deer were given such an imposing portrayal in the cave, but there are large paintings of other medium sized animals in the Lascaux caves - in  particular, of horses.
 If this painting is really of a fallow deer, which I think it really seems to be, then that means means there is one less "Megaloceros" depiction to refer to when trying to reconstruct that animal, but the ones in Cosquer and Chauvet are still there, and I think the Black Stag painting was a bit at-odds with these other depictions anyways. Reply