Many years ago visitors into the cave did so by torchlight or lanterns. These forms of light created sooty residue on the upper surfaces and this residue in turn provided a "scratch board" for artists to render their work.
This is a pretty good representation of Samuel Clemens, a.k.a. Mark Twain. Our cave tour guide Sean told us that there were over 500,000 signatures in the cave. And one mans graffiti is another archaeologists historical record. Caves must be a natural spot for graffiti because man has been created art in caves for a very long time. A cave in Lascaux, France is a very good example. Talent abounded way back when.
When I think about it, more recent signatures have a graffiti tone to them, but something happens when a signature is dated 1853.....it seems more legitimate. Why is that do you think?
The Lascaux painting is awesome but the scratch image of Clemens is pretty good too especially considering it was about 10 foot up the rock face. And no, Sean didn't let us out of his sight long enough to "sign" the cave, and that's definitely frowned upon so there won't be many entries from 2007.
1 comment:
The older signatures are a piece of history and probably done with such a purpose. Today's 'artwork' (in this form) just seems excessive and unnecessary - a blemish that doesn't belong.
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