When Did Prehistoric Man Develop a Real Sense of Aesthetics or Art?
Leaving aside questions like “What is true aesthetics or art?”, there is a huge debate among paleontologists (people who study the origins of the human race) concerning the development of “modern” forms of behaviour. Stone tools were clearly developed during the Lower Paleolithic, and had reached an advanced stage by the Middle Paleolithic. Here the disagreement starts. Some experts believe that modern behaviour (characterized, for instance, by language and art) appeared quite recently during the Upper Paleolithic (40,000-10,000 BCE) in Europe; while others theorize that such behaviour originates earlier, coinciding with the appearance of Neanderthal Man, one of the variants of archaic Homo sapiens, some 200,000 years ago. The most recent archeological investigations at the Blombos Cave complex and in the rock shelters of Bhimbetka (see below), tends to support the notion that human aesthetic sensibility emerged earlier rather than later. What is the Earliest Rock Art of Asia? The firs
