Are All Prehistoric Cave Pictures Painted in Multi-Colours?
No. Some images are executed in one colour only, usually charcoal black or red ochre, but most of the later Magdalenian painting is polychrome. The most common Stone Age pigments are black and red. How Did Prehistoric Painters Obtain Their Colours? In Stone Age art, painters relied on several different types of material to make coloured paints. Clay ochre was the main pigment and provided three basic colours: yellow, brown and numerous hues of red. For black pigment, artists typically employed either manganese dioxide or charcoal. These colourants were first ground up to powder (using animal shoulder bones as mortars), then mixed with cave water (high in calcium carbonate) animal fats, vegetable juice, blood and urine to help it adhere to the cave wall. In addition, they used extenders like feldspar and biotite, or ground quartz and calcium phosphate (from crushed animal bone). Sourcing Colours Prehistoric painters seem to have discovered that pigments from earthy iron oxide deposits d
