# Prehistoric torchlight-animated cave drawings discovered in France **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 14, 2012, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prehistoric-torchlight-animated-cave-drawings-discovered-in-france/634711 "2012-09-14T19:02:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2012, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prehistoric-torchlight-animated-cave-drawings-discovered-in-france/634711/1 "2012-09-14T19:02:31Z")
[Link.](http://www.webpronews.com/prehistoric-animated-cave-drawings-discovered-in-france-2012-06) > [@](#): > > The cave drawings were found by archaeologist Marc Azema and French artist Florent Rivere, who suggest that Paleolithic artists who lived as long as 30,000 years ago used animation effects on cave walls, which explains the multiple heads and limbs on animals in the drawings. The images look superimposed until flickering torch-light is passed over them, giving them movement and creating a brief animation. Those were some clever prehistoric artists. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2012, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prehistoric-torchlight-animated-cave-drawings-discovered-in-france/634711/2 "2012-09-14T19:31:48Z")
Extremely clever. I have read papers suggesting that cave painting really do have to be viewed in their original locations and by lamplight in order to get the correct effect. The actual shape of the wall or ceiling they’re painted on often corresponds to the shape of the animal, giving a 3-D effect. I must admit that I don’t see how flickering light (I suggest flickering oil-lamp light is more likely than torchlight) would produce the animation effect – you’d have to have the pictures selectively lit, somehow. otherwise, you always see the overlapping images. If these different images were painted on portions of the wall that could be alternately in light and in shade, as if one were at a prominence and the other in a declivity, then I could see it. There are examples I’ve seen of such “sequential art” on ancient pottery, where figures at different points on the pot seem to be in different stages of motion. You can assemble them into an “animated film” today, but it’s not clear if you could have worked the trick in the ancient world: > **[Animation discovered on 5,200-year-old pottery | Boing Boing](https://boingboing.net/2008/03/12/animation-discovered.html)** > > A 5,200 year old piece of pottery from Iran has been discovered to embody the oldest known animation in the world — a wild goat eating vegetation: The wild goat motif can be seen on Iranian p… That stuff was only 5,200 years old. this pushes the date much farther back – by tens of millenia ---
**Author:** ![inedible\_knapsack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/49beb7/32.png) [@inedible\_knapsack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/inedible_knapsack)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2012, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prehistoric-torchlight-animated-cave-drawings-discovered-in-france/634711/3 "2012-09-14T19:40:15Z")
That’s impressive, though I do agree with **Cal** about needing to see these images illuminated by torches to see the animation effect as intended. I don’t doubt that’s what they were trying to accomplish, I’d just like to see how it looks. ---
**Author:** ![Taomist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/53a042/32.png) [@Taomist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taomist)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2012, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prehistoric-torchlight-animated-cave-drawings-discovered-in-france/634711/4 "2012-09-14T19:47:44Z")
Of course it looks best by torchlight; it’s not as if they had flourescents in those days. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Yeticus\_Rex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/a698b9/32.png) [@Yeticus\_Rex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yeticus_Rex)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2012, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prehistoric-torchlight-animated-cave-drawings-discovered-in-france/634711/5 "2012-09-14T20:18:00Z")
Ah, but Algorr came along and… nvm. ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2012, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prehistoric-torchlight-animated-cave-drawings-discovered-in-france/634711/6 "2012-09-14T22:08:01Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > If these different images were painted on portions of the wall that could be alternately in light and in shade, as if one were at a prominence and the other in a declivity, then I could see it. I think that’s the implication. You’d have a picture of a deer, say, with two versions of its head. One might down in a grazing position, the other up in an alert position, maybe separated by a ridge of stone, or one in a declivity. As you walked by with a lamp–which would be too dim to illuminate much by reflection, and would therefore leave anything on the other side of the ridge in shadow–when you passed the ridge, you’d cast the grazing head into shadow while illuminating the alert head. Thus, the deer raised its head to watch you as you went by. Another possibility would be having two sets of legs drawn on an animal, along different contours of the rock. As the flame flickered back and forth, it would illuminate different sets of legs, creating the illusion of a running motion…or it could just be a [wheel o’ feet](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/WheelOFeet) (warning: tvtropes link). That said, I’d have to actually see it, probably in person, to really buy it. The video in the linked article is not terribly illuminating. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2012, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prehistoric-torchlight-animated-cave-drawings-discovered-in-france/634711/7 "2012-09-15T01:52:00Z")
> [@](#): > > I think that’s the implication. Possibly, but why not say so if it is? ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2012, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prehistoric-torchlight-animated-cave-drawings-discovered-in-france/634711/8 "2012-09-15T03:01:57Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Possibly, but why not say so if it is? Perhaps because the article is third-hand information, from an interview, I think, rather than from the [original article](http://antiquity.ac.uk/ant/086/ant0860316.htm). (Which is paywalled, so someone looking to make a quick post probably won’t read it.) The author of the article **Der Trihs** linked to probably didn’t get any details about how it worked.