Closely Observed Animals, Hunter-Gatherers and Visual Imagery in Upper Palaeolithic Art

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 59-72
Author(s):  
Derek Hodgson
Keyword(s):  
Visual Imagery ◽  
Upper Palaeolithic ◽  
Hunter Gatherers ◽  
Palaeolithic Art

Thematic changes in Upper Palaeolithic art: a view from the Grotte Chauvet

Antiquity ◽  
1996 ◽  
Vol 70 (268) ◽  
pp. 276-288 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean Clottes
Keyword(s):  
Upper Palaeolithic ◽  
Palaeolithic Art

Trustworthy dates on charcoal from the classic European painted caves have given a sharper view of images and their making in the later Palaeolithic. The new Grotte Chauvet has its own original themes, revealing a striking and an unexpected Aurignacian art with — again — dates from charcoal in which one can have confidence.

Altered States of Consciousness and Palaeoart: an Alternative Neurovisual Explanation

2006 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Derek Hodgson
Keyword(s):  
Alternative Explanation ◽  
Altered States Of Consciousness ◽  
Viable Alternative ◽  
Altered States ◽  
Upper Palaeolithic ◽  
States Of Consciousness ◽  
Palaeolithic Art

There has been much controversy recently regarding Lewis-Williams's assertion that altered states of consciousness and shamanism can explain Palaeolithic art. Evidence now seems to be accumulating that this account is unable to provide a sustainable explanation for Upper Palaeolithic depictions. This proposition will be explored and substantiated by examining further weaknesses contained therein. Additionally, in response to claims by those defending altered states that no alternative explanation for palaeoart has been proposed as a viable alternative, it will be shown that such a description does exist but has not been given the attention it deserves because of a misplaced concern for shamanism.

Wrestling with Analogy: A Methodological Dilemma in Upper Palaeolithic Art Research.

1991 ◽  
Vol 57 (01) ◽  
pp. 149-162 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. D. Lewis-Williams
Keyword(s):  
Western Europe ◽  
Upper Palaeolithic ◽  
Prehistoric Art ◽  
Scientific Opinion ◽  
Art Research ◽  
Analogical Argument ◽  
Palaeolithic Art

In 1902 Emile Cartailhac published hisMea Culpa d'un Sceptique. His acceptance of the high antiquity of prehistoric art in western Europe followed Capitan and Breuil's convincing discoveries in Font de Gaume and Les Combarelles and reflected a widespread change of opinion. Despite previous scepticism, researchers were beginning to allow that the parietal as well as the mobile art did indeed date back to the Upper Palaeolithic. But this swing in scientific opinion opened up an even more baffling problem: why did Upper Palaeolithic people make these pictures? In the year following Cartailhac's turn-about Salomon Reinach tried to answer this question by developing an analogical argument based on ethnographic parallels. He could see no other way of approaching the problem: ‘Our only hope of finding outwhythe troglodytes painted and sculpted lies in asking the same question of present-day primitives with whom the ethnography reveals connections’ (Reinach 1903, 259; my translation, his emphasis).

Sexual dimorphism in Upper Palaeolithic hand stencils

Antiquity ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 80 (308) ◽  
pp. 390-404 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dean R. Snow
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Dimorphism ◽  
Adult Male ◽  
Human Hand ◽  
Upper Palaeolithic ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Sexual Roles ◽  
Adult Females ◽  
Palaeolithic Art ◽  
Cave Art

Sexual roles in deep prehistory are among the most intriguing puzzles still to solve. Here the author shows how men and women can be distinguished by scientific measurement in the prints and stencils of the human hand that occur widely in Upper Palaeolithic art. Six hand stencils from four French caves are attributed to four adult females, an adult male, and a sub-adult male. Here we take a step closer to showing that both sexes are engaged in cave art and whatever dreams and rituals it implies.

scholarly journals How Do We Explain ‛Autistic Traits’ in European Upper Palaeolithic Art?

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 262-279
Author(s):  
Penny Spikins ◽  
Callum Scott ◽  
Barry Wright
Keyword(s):  
Psychotropic Drugs ◽  
Autistic Traits ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Autism Spectrum Conditions ◽  
Local Processing ◽  
Upper Palaeolithic ◽  
Processing Bias ◽  
Local Processing Bias ◽  
Palaeolithic Art

AbstractTraits in Upper Palaeolithic art which are also seen in the work of talented artists with autism, including most obviously an exceptional realism, remain to be explained. However any association between the famously evocative animal depictions created in the European Upper Palaeolithic and what is commonly seen as a ‘disorder’ has always been contentious. Debate over these similarities has been heated, with explanations ranging from famous works of Upper Palaeolithic art having been created by individuals with autism spectrum conditions, to being influenced by such individuals, to being a product of the use of psychotropic drugs. Here we argue that ‘autistic traits’ in art, such as extreme realism, have been created by individuals with a cognitive extreme of local processing bias, or detail focus. The significance of local processing bias, which is found both as a feature of autism spectrum conditions and in artists with exceptional talent at realistic depiction who aren’t autistic, has implications for our understanding of Upper Palaeolithic society in general, as well as of the roles played by individuals with autism spectrum conditions.

Light, Human Evolution, and the Palaeolithic

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Pettitt ◽  
Stefanie Leluschko ◽  
Takashi Sakamoto
Keyword(s):  
Western Europe ◽  
Human Perception ◽  
Evolutionary Significance ◽  
Middle Palaeolithic ◽  
Upper Palaeolithic ◽  
Low Light ◽  
Light Production ◽  
Constituent Component ◽  
Palaeolithic Art ◽  
Cave Art

Human light-producing technology (i.e. the controlled use of fire) evolved during the Palaeolithic. Among its more obvious advantages to survival (heat, cooking, protection), fire-provided light in the form of hearths and lamps probably had considerable evolutionary significance. As human symbolic systems spread with the late Middle Palaeolithic and Upper Palaeolithic in Eurasia, it became a constituent component of European cave art. After reviewing the biological basis of human perception in low-light situations, we examine the existing evidence for the evolution of controlled use of fire (light production), and focus on its use in the performance of Upper Palaeolithic art and other activities in the deep caves of Western Europe.

The Lascaux Cave

1951 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 50-51
Author(s):  
Hallam L. Movius
Keyword(s):  
Western Europe ◽  
Forest Type ◽  
Phase 2 ◽  
Upper Palaeolithic ◽  
Art Galleries ◽  
Upper Pleistocene ◽  
The One ◽  
Lascaux Cave ◽  
Palaeolithic Art

The Lascaux Cave, one of the most important single sites of upper Palaeolithic art ever discovered, is located near Montignac (Dordogne), 16 miles up the Vézère River from the famous town of Les Eyzies. It was found in September 1940 by two French schoolboys out rabbit hunting. Called the “Versailles of Prehistoric Man,” Lascaux ranks among the world's oldest and most remarkable art galleries. It has been completely sealed off from the outside world since late upper Pleistocene times, and it is now generally believed that the majority of the paintings are upper Perigordian (Gravettian) in date—Phase 2 in the upper Palaeolithic art sequence of western Europe. That they were produced during a time of climatic amelioration, possibly the one known as the Achen retreat, is borne out by the fact that the animals depicted belong much more to a steppe and forest type of fauna, than they do to a colder tundra group. For example, there are no mammoths and no reindeer shown, but there are many horses, a considerable quantity of cattle, bison and several ibexes.

scholarly journals A New Look at the Berekhat Ram Figurine: Implications for the Origins of Symbolism

2000 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 123-167 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesco d'Errico ◽  
April Nowell
Keyword(s):  
Near East ◽  
Upper Palaeolithic ◽  
Upper Pleistocene ◽  
Volcanic Material ◽  
Late Emergence ◽  
Lower Palaeolithic ◽  
Palaeolithic Art ◽  
New Look

This article addresses the nature of the evidence for symbolling behaviour among hominids living in the Near East during the Middle and Upper Pleistocene. Traditionally, Palaeolithic art and symbolling have been synonymous with the Upper Palaeolithic of Europe. The Berekhat Ram figurine, a piece of volcanic material from a Lower Palaeolithic site in Israel, described as purposely modified to produce human features, challenges the view of a late emergence of symbolic behaviour. The anthropogenic nature of these modifications, however, is controversial. We address this problem through an examination of volcanic material from the Berekhat Ram site and from other sources, and by experimentally reproducing the modifications observed on the figurine. We also analyze this material and the figurine itself through optical and SEM microscopy. Our conclusion is that this object was purposely modified by hominids.With comments from Ofer Bar-Yosef, Angela E. Close, João Zilhão, Steven Mithen, Thomas Wynn, and Alexander Marshack followed by a reply from the authors.

Recent Discoveries of Upper Palaeolithic Art in Moravia

Antiquity ◽  
1958 ◽  
Vol 32 (125) ◽  
pp. 8-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bohuslav Klima
Keyword(s):  
Upper Palaeolithic ◽  
Palaeolithic Art
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