Text: Art News. “The Largest Cave Drawings in North America Have Been Found in Alabama.” https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/cave-drawings-spirits-archaeology-1234627524/
Extract: “The largest cave drawings in North America have been discovered in Alabama, according to a study by Jan F. Simek, Stephen Alvarez, and Alan Cressler in the archaeology journal Antiquities.
The five large figures discovered include three anthropomorphs (human-like figures), one swirling, enigmatic figure, and a snake, most likely an eastern diamondback rattlesnake which was sacred to Southeast Indigenous people of the time. The smallest figure measures about 3 feet and the largest, the snake, stretches to about 10 feet in length, marking the largest known known cave drawings in North America. The drawing were not made with pigment but rather incised into the walls.”
What are the ways in which an artist can interpret the cave paintings?
What are the ways in which a historian can interpret the cave paintings?
According to the the prescribed title, the artist will have more freedom (and therefore more “ways”) to interpret the cave paintings.
In this case does the artist’s freedom lead to an a better understanding of the past?