Big Shadows on the Cave Wall

1994 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 385-386
Author(s):  
Peter Crabb
Keyword(s):  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Jones ◽  
◽  
Maurizio Mainiero ◽  
Maurizio Mainiero ◽  
Benjamin T. Auch ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
pp. 3-11
Author(s):  
N. Sal'kov

The translation "Descriptive geometry" is not entirely accurate. In fact, the phrase should be translated as "Narrative geometry". Based on this translation, it can be confidently stated that the science under consideration serves not only as a theoretical basis for orthogonal projections, a special case of which are ordinary drawings, but also for any images – in this the author of the article fully agrees with such authorities as N.A. Rynin, N.F. Chetverukhin, V.O. Gordon, S.A. Frolov, N.A. Sobolev and many others. The paper considers the origins of one of the directions of geometry – descriptive geometry. The hypothesis is put forward that in reality descriptive geometry, or rather, its elements, was originally involved in ancient times, during the primitive communal system when making drawings on the walls of caves and rocks. Orthogonal projections were used in the ancient world and in the Middle Ages, and Gaspard Monge at the end of the XVIII century systematized all the existing disconnected developments on descriptive geometry, adding his own research. Most likely, geometry in general was the very first science that originated when our ancestors who lived in caves faced the problem of increasing the living area due to population growth. And descriptive geometry began to develop from the moment when the first artist depicted scenes from life on the cave wall: hunting, fishing, tribal wars, events that shocked people, etc. Ancient artists existed on all continents of the globe, except perhaps Antarctica, since rock carvings were found on all other continents. And the earliest was performed somewhere 25-30 thousand years ago. Thus, the hypothesis that the elements of descriptive geometry originated in the primitive communal system can be considered proven.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christoph Spötl ◽  
Yuri Dublyanky ◽  
Gabriella Koltai ◽  
Lukas Plan

<p>Recent years have seen an increasing number of studies suggesting that hypogene processes are more important in the origin of cave systems than previously thought. Recognizing such hypogene caves has important implications for e.g. paleohydrology and has been primarily based on morphological criteria, which to some degree are subjective and difficult to quantify. Apart from caves containing coarsely crystalline spar backed by evidence of elevated paleotemperatures based on isotopes and/or fluid-inclusion data, there are no well-established physico-chemical tools to validate a hypogene model for a given cave.</p><p>In a systematic approach we have studied a number of cave systems showing morphological features diagnostic of upwelling fluids, and examined the composition of the rock immediately behind the cave wall using small-diameter drill cores. We commonly observed two features in this wall rock: (1) an increase in porosity (partly later occluded by carbonate cement) and (2) a change in the rock colour (bleaching of initially grey rock, or reddening). We also identified dedolomitisation of the dolomite host rock, which may locally lead to the formation of boxwork. The most diagnostic feature, however, is a systematic shift in the carbon and/or oxygen isotopic composition along wall rock drill cores. None of these petrographic and geochemical features were observed in wall-rock cores of epigene caves, opening the door to use this approach in order to identify, and in some cases quantify, paleo-water-rock interactions associated with hypogene speleogenesis.</p>


Author(s):  
C. Swindells ◽  
B.A. Po ◽  
I. Hajshirmohammadi ◽  
B. Corrie ◽  
J.C. Dill ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  

1981 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 60-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Malcolm

In 1962 I offered an analysis of the Line and Cave which (1) maintained that the four main divisions of each are parallel and (2) interpreted the three stages of ascent in the Cave allegory as representing the three stages in Plato's educational programme: music and gymnastic, mathematics and dialectic. At that time a major portion of my task was to counter arguments which purported to show that the Line and Cave could not be parallel. The present situation is quite different since recent writers, for the most part, not only take the four main divisions of the Cave as parallel to those of the Line, but also accept the restriction of the Cave allegory to moral and mathematical education as a crucial step in the establishing of this fact. This last move, which is clearly in harmony with the form and content of the Republic, enables us to allow for the ordinary unenlightened man to be at the bottom level of the Cave without our having to suggest that he confuses the shadows of visual objects with their originals, which could well be the case if the Cave were taken to represent all sense perception as such.Despite fairly general agreement on these basic points of interpretation there remains, however, a wide divergence of opinion as to the significance of the various levels of education or moral awareness portrayed by the Cave. In keeping with several recent papers on this topic I shall focus my attention on the bottom two stages of this allegory: the state (C1) of the prisoners viewing shadows on the cave wall and that (C2) of the released prisoners, still in the cave, but turned around and looking at the puppets which cast these shadows.


2003 ◽  
Vol 68 (1) ◽  
pp. 159 ◽  
Author(s):  
Satoshi Kanazawa
Keyword(s):  

2019 ◽  
Vol 75 (3) ◽  
pp. 71-82
Author(s):  
Anna Popkova ◽  
Svetlana Mazina

Investigation presents the assessment of species composition and structure of microbiota communities in the Otap Head Cave. Species were identified using standard approaches and cultivation methods. The abundance of algae and cyanobacteria was estimated applying 5-point Brown- Blank scale. Biodiversity of biofouling communities was revealed. Cyanobacteria were the dominant group of phototrophs colonizing cave wall and water streams. The most frequently documented cyanobacteria were species from genera Chroococcus, Gloeocapsa, Oscillatoria, Phormidium. Among micromycetes prevailed Ascomycetes (genera Aspergillus, Penicillum, Trichoderma). The development of so-called lamp flora around artificial lights was not observed. The presence of sulfate-reducing and sulfur-oxidizing bacteria was detected. It can indicate that a small circulation of sulfur occurs in cave at the present time.


Author(s):  
Ricardo Etxepare ◽  
Aritz Irurtzun

Several Upper Palaeolithic archaeological sites from the Gravettian period display hand stencils with missing fingers. On the basis of the stencils that Leroi-Gourhan identified in the cave of Gargas (France) in the late 1960s, we explore the hypothesis that those stencils represent hand signs with deliberate folding of fingers, intentionally projected as a negative figure onto the wall. Through a study of the biomechanics of handshapes, we analyse the articulatory effort required for producing the handshapes under the stencils in the Gargas cave, and show that only handshapes that are articulable in the air can be found among the existing stencils. In other words, handshape configurations that would have required using the cave wall as a support for the fingers are not attested. We argue that the stencils correspond to the type of handshape that one ordinarily finds in sign language phonology. More concretely, we claim that they correspond to signs of an ‘alternate’ or ‘non-primary’ sign language, like those still employed by a number of bimodal (speaking and signing) human groups in hunter–gatherer populations, like the Australian first nations or the Plains Indians. In those groups, signing is used for hunting and for a rich array of ritual purposes, including mourning and traditional story-telling. We discuss further evidence, based on typological generalizations about the phonology of non-primary sign languages and comparative ethnographic work, that points to such a parallelism. This evidence includes the fact that for some of those groups, stencil and petroglyph art has independently been linked to their sign language expressions. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Reconstructing prehistoric languages’.


2018 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 441-452
Author(s):  
Drago Perovic

This exposition attempts to explore the question of the relationship between thinking and reality in the current technico-technological disappearance-in-appearance. All fundamental philosophical questions are covertly related with it, and above all the question of the possibility of thinking ?from? or ?beyond? the reality which appears/disappears. The contemporary debate thus returns to the transcendent-immanent character of the thought which, as a question of possible justification of philosophical knowledge, can be compared with its traditional forms and modes of execution in spite of the new situation in its (dis)appearance. The field of this dance is a new ?cave wall? that stages technics and technology in their powerful performance.


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