The Real Cave Paintings that Inspired Spaceship Earth
Spaceship Earth is a slowmoving dark ride at Disney’s Epcot that tells the story of human communication throughout history, starting at the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age and moving into the development of mass communication in the 19th and 20th centuries. But did you know that the cave paintings in the first scene are all based on real cave paintings in what is now France and Spain, with one um mammoth exception. The first part of the scene shows a shaman telling stories to a group of people in a cave. And we can see drawings on the wall behind him. Let’s start with the handprint. This is called a negative handprint where a person held their hand against the wall and then spit pigment over it to leave a void in the shape of their hand. And this is what the child at the end of the scene is doing, even though it’s kind of hard to see. This motif can be found in cave art from all over the world. But these examples are from Peshmerl, a cave in the south of France and are around 30,000 years old. And did you know you can actually visit this cave and see the real cave art? Next to that, we can see two superimposed animals. The deer is from a cave in northern Spain called Las Chima. The drawings in this cave are about 20,000 years old, and it can also be visited. The outline of a bull, the predecessor to our modern cow called an orox, is drawn over the deer. And this is a common thing in the Paleolithic to have superimposed drawings. But this bull is from a completely different cave, Lasco in France. The drawing is based on the outline of this bull at Lasco, whose paintings are probably between 12 and 15,000 years old. On the other side of this scene, you can see a painted horse, also from Lasco. While you can’t visit this cave, you can visit an excellent replica of it at a site nearby. But back to the shaman scene. Underneath the animals is a strange black drawing. No one is sure what it could be, but it is found in only one cave, Altameira in northern Spain. This cave is more famous for the amazing bulls, two of which are on the other side of this scene where a man is painting on the wall. But while he’s painting them on the cave wall, the real bulls of Altameira are painted on the ceiling. You can visit a replica of this cave, too. To the right are some more drawings. Some simple black outlines of a horse and bison. They are all from Neo Cave in the Pyrenees Mountains in France. They are also around 12 to 15,000 years old. You can visit this cave and see the actual artwork. You walk with a group into the cave with just flashlights to light the way, or you can see a replica of the art at an archo park nearby. There is one other animal depicted in this scene, but it’s kind of hard to see. Right at the beginning, there’s an outline of an animal. I did my best to show you, but it’s pretty dark in there. But this is also based on a real cave painting, also from Neo Cave, and it’s known as the weasel because that’s sort of what it looks like, but there’s nothing else like it that’s been found in cave art. What do you think it could be? Now, it’s time to talk about the elephant or woolly mammoth in the room. There’s an animation of a mammoth hunt visible on the wall, but sometimes it isn’t working when you’re visiting. And here’s the exception that I mentioned earlier to the drawings all being inspired by real cave art. While there are many depictions of mammoths in Paleolithic art, there are no scenes of a mammoth hunt. In fact, there are no scenes of any humans hunting animals in any European Paleolithic art. There are drawings and engravings and figurines of humans, and there are animals that were hunted by humans, but there are no drawings of humans hunting mammoths or any other animals, and no one knows why. So, this is a purely invented scene, but all the other drawings are from real cave art. Well, since you made it this far into the video, please give it a thumbs up and subscribe for more history and travel videos.
Did you know that the cave paintings in the first scene of Spaceship Earth at Disney’s Epcot are all based on real cave paintings in what is now France and Spain? Find out the real inspiration behind the cave art in the ride!
Here are some links on how to visit the places featured in the video:
Lascaux: https://www.prehistorictourist.com/lascaux-reproduction
Niaux: https://www.prehistorictourist.com/niaux
Pech Merle: https://www.prehistorictourist.com/pech-merle
Parc de la Prehistoire in Tarascon-sur-Ariege: https://www.prehistorictourist.com/parc-de-la-prehistoire
#paleolithic #history #prehistoric #disney #disneyworld #waltdisneyworld #epcot #art