—What is the most likely purpose for the parietal art created by our early ancestors?

Firstly, parietal essentially means that is is affixed to a stationary point. As in it is not mobile. Parietal art is a simply term for art in caves; this definition usually extended to art in rock shelters under cliff overhangs. We find art on rock walls, but it may also be on ceilings and floors. Thus, the parietal art created by our early ancestors, refers to the use of cave walls as canvases for various forms of art, which was a means of communication and expression. Archaeologists believe that many of these works were created as part of religious or spiritual rituals. For example, paintings of hunting scenes and animal spirits were likely created to honor the animals that were hunted for food and to ask for their continued provision.

Additionally, parietal art may have served as a form of storytelling. Early humans did not have written languages, so they used pictures and symbols to communicate their histories, legends, and myths through generations. Cave paintings illustrating battles or victories may have helped people remember important events and pass them down to future generations.

Furthermore, it is possible that some parietal art was created for aesthetic purposes. Some cave paintings appear to have no practical or symbolic message, and may have been done simply because the artist appreciated the beauty of the work. This suggests that early humans had an appreciation for art and creativity, and created for the sake of beauty as well as function.

These paintings, discovered inside the Chauvet-Pont-d'Arc Cave in France are more than 36,000 years old. They are some of the best-preserved figurative cave paintings in the world, as well as invaluable evidence of human life during Upper Paleolithic period. Chauvet contains a total of over 300 paintings and engravings overall, and can be considered one of the greatest archaeological finds of all time. Within this immense and important site, representating all of our shared human cultural heritage, we find the murals are grouped within the most accessible part of the cave. The images we see are speculated to depict a volcanic eruption as various animals react to the catastrophic event. This, still just a theory, suggests that these cave paintings are indeed the earliest depiction of a natural disaster in history, thus it acts as both a work of art and possibly the first example of a historian recording events. Upon viewing the work we can note the content of the imagery as well as the artistic techniques used to create scenes. Interestingly here, the artist illustrates different types of animals, ones that are those not usually represented in other cave paintings discovered from the era. Though this comparison we know that most of the species depicted in Stone Age art were previously game animals that were usually hunted for food. However, at Chauvet, it is the more dangerous animals - not generally hunted for food - that account for a majority of the images. Furthermore, Chauvet's Stone Age painters employed more sophisticated techniques of drawing, shading, perspective and composition in their murals than was previously expected, at least for the period in question. As a result, Chauvet contains numerous dynamic and powerful compositions consisting of multiple images skillfully executed and arranged to fit in with the contours of the cave chambers. Also as evidence suggests, a significant quantity of the charcoal drawings were painted by a single, master artist (Fig 1). And so, with this knowledge, maybe, we can consider he or she the world's first painter, muralist and historian.