What was the purpose of cro magnon cave art?

What is the purpose of any form of art?

Communication.

To impart something to others that is beyond spoken language alone.

Art is one of the very few things that separates human beings from other species.

And, indeed, art is the only evidence that prehistoric people saw the world in symbolic terms, as we do, today.

While many anthropologists see religious significance in all prehistoric art, some of it undoubtedly was nothing more than an aesthetic response to seeing the world as beautiful. Only human beings see the world as beautiful.

Cave paintings are usually seen as totemic, or as prayer.... painting images of the prey animals you wanted to find.

And atlatl ( spear thrower ) carved into the shape of a horse's head may have been believed to magically guide the spear to the horse.

Or maybe the carver of the atlatl simply thought the horse to be beautiful.

Human beings are the only species that KNOW they are symbolizing their experience.

Through language, music, performance, and visual arts, we create the method to communicate that seems to be the most affecting.

While a wolf might lay on the brow of a hill and notice the chill in the air and changing colors of the leaves and realize that winter is coming on...

we can be certain that the wolf will never see the oncoming winter as a metaphor for his own advancing years, and the "winter" of his life.

We can be certain of this because if the wolf was capable of such an insight, he would be capable of communicating that insight to his fellows through some form of art.

The ability to perceive metaphor evolved hand in hand with the ability to speak, and to create.