The technology and techniques used by Upper Paleolithic people in creating material forms of representation are complex and diverse. They range from sculpting in stone, bone, ivory and antler; engraving in these same materials; modeling in clay; and finally painting in monochrome, bichrome and polychrome. In certain cases, such as Lascaux (Delluc and Delluc 1979), scaffolds were built to give painters access to otherwise inaccessible walls. Sculpted and engraved objects were worked first with flint tools, and were frequently finished using abrasives. Recent research by Lorblanchet on materials and techniques used in cave painting serve to illustrate these techniques (see Box on Lorblanchet).
In the past two years detailed analyses of the pigments that constitute particular cave paintings have led to the identification of the paint "recipes" of Upper Paleolithic artists. In particular, Scanning Electron Microscope work by Clottes, Menu and Walter (1990) on the Pyrenean cave of Niaux indicates that all of the paintings in the cave were produced using two discrete paint recipes. They have even suggested that the recipes identified enable them to recognize paintings executed from the same palette, and therefore perhaps at the same time.
The recipes include components that modern pigment specialists describe as binders and extenders, indicating that Upper Paleolithic painting rested on a sophisticated and specialized technological foundation. Significantly, Clottes, Menu and Walter have been able to relate the paint recipes used in the cave of Niaux to residues on paint preparation tools in the nearby living site of La Vache. We are therefore close to being able to answer the question, "where did the people live who painted a given cave?"