ABSTRACT
History has exonerated him. In recent years the people have come to understand that Homo sapiens began its art career by representing large animals in caves and shelters. No cave yet discovered enjoys the reputation and close scrutiny of the best known and publicized cave—the one that appears most often in art books and histories—near Lascaux in southern France. The Lascaux cave is indeed magnificent. Like many other pilgrims, the author have stood speechless before its vast array of animals, some up to eighteen feet long, with sixty horses, twenty oxen, a wounded bison with a lance across his hindquarters, and a whole array of prehistoric beasts. Three kinds of magic have been suggested: fertility magic, to create new animals and food; death magic, to allow hunters to kill their prey; and propitiation magic, to appease the dead animals, and ensure the continuance of the hunt.
