Hand Stencils
Parietal art
Pech-Merle type, Lot
Gravettian
34 000 and 25 000 years
All the hands […] were made in the Australian fashion, by projecting colour onto the wall while the hand is held up against it.
H. Alcalde del Rio, H. Breuil, L. Sierra, Les Cavernes de la Région Cantabrique, Masson et Cie, Paris. 1912
Commentary :
The presence of hands on cave walls, is a widespread phenomenon in Europe and the rest of the world.
Negative hand stencils surrounded by a halo of pulverized colour, are much more frequent, than positive handprints.
They are usually red, or less often black. The black colour is created by wood charcoal or manganese oxide, an intense natural colorant.
Images of hands in cave art, could reflect a desire to signal a presence or passage. In this way, Gravettian groups may have marked their appropriation of underground spaces.
