Paleolithic Art

The defense of Heritage is intrinsically linked to the Association of Portuguese Archaeologists (AAP), the oldest association in Portugal and one of the oldest in the world, created in 1863 with the aim of preserving and defending the Architectural and Archaeological Heritage. Over these 158 years, countless battles have been fought and institutional collaboration with various entities has made the AAP one of the institutions frequently heard at the parliamentary level. When the Côa Valley was discovered, the AAP took a public position to preserve and study the engravings, recognizing their scientific and heritage importance. Over these 27 years, AAP's support to Vale do Côa has been quite diversified, never giving up on the preservation, divulgation and study of this all world-renowned artistic complex.

This article unveils imagery that seems intended to be recognized in phases from such sites as Font-de-Gaume (pg. 24), Laugerie-Basse (pg. 35-37), Isturitz (pg. 37-38), Saint-Cirq-du-Bugue (pg. 38-39), and Guy-Martin (pg. 26-35), after describing the first Paleolithic sculpture of an animal reported in the Ile-de-France. These include: 1) The extended panel of Ségognole 3. The grotto is known for a vulva between 2 faint horses, but its largest graphic element is a groove that has been explained away as a “border”. The groove is actually the caudal line of a 1.9 meter-long bas-relief of a bison that has been overlooked because of the failure to apply the same conventions of the vulva – figurative realism, monumentality, and the use of natural forms – to the engraved line, although it is identical in manufacture. The wisent composed by natural relief accentuated by incising, flaking, and polishing confirms that the ensemble is Paleolithic. 2) A survey of Paleolithic parietal images wh...

В рецензируемой монографии П. А. Куценкова проводится система представлений о палеолите, развивающая  концепцию «прерывности» Б. Ф. Поршнева, с одним лишь отличием: по мнению автора, "перерыв" в эволюционном развитии фиксируется не между неандертальцем (который не был биологическим предком Homo sapiens sapiens) и кроманьонцем, а именно между палеолитическим «кроманьонцем» и мезолитическим человеком.
Иными словами, максимальная продолжительность истории, по П.А. Куценкову — "не более 12 тыс. лет".
В подтверждение этих положений автор пытается опереться на данные психологии, нейропсихологии, психолингвистики и т. д.
Разумеется, междисциплинарные разработки в данной области можно приветствовать. Однако попытки «опрокинуть  в прошлое», выводы психологов, сделанные на современном материале  (и даже связать их с какой-то конкретной эпохой), в лучшем случае, гипотетичны и требуют большой осторожности. А незнание (дилетантское полузнание!) самой основы основ - первобытной археологии - просто недопустимо. Иначе «новая методология» оказывается просто тенденциозной подборкой «подходящих» (но не всегда проверенных) предположений и цитат из работ ученых-смежников.
К чему это приводит на практике, становится ясно на примере того, как П. А. Куценков «расправляется» с культурой палеолита...

En primer lugar, se valOJ'an las distintas etapas de la investiga cion del arte paleolitico del Mediterraneo peninsular con la iDteD cion de comprobar la validez del concepto de provincia artist ica mediterranca. Los hallazgos del ultimo decenio penniten es tabl ecer una diversidad de soportes (abrigos, cuevas profundas y sa las ilu minadas) que indican la complejidad de la expresion grMica a nivel regional. En segundo termino , se estableccn distiDtas comparacio nes entre la sec uencia proporcionada por la co leccion de plaquetas de Parpallo y los ha llazgos parietales de la verti ente meditemlnea iberica, con especial atencion a los inici os del ane a nivel regional, durante el Gravetiense, Y la importancia del artc so lutren sc. Final mente, se traza un panorama del ane magdaleniense y del compo nente regional propio de su final, Desde el ano 1915, fecha eo la que el Abate H, Breuil public6 en colaboraci6n con H. Obermaier y W. Verner los resultados de su estudio de la cueva de la Pileta en Benaojim, hasta la fecha del descubrimiento de los grabados de la Cova dc les Meravelles, en el ano 2003, una serie de hallazgos y trabajos de investi gaci6n han ido jalonando eJ conocimiento y sistema tizaci6n del arte de la regi6n mediterranea peninsular. Es nuestra intenci6n en estas paginas dar cuenta de la situac i6n que, a finales del 2004, es posible trazar para esta regi6n , fijar la atenci6n en las nuevas perspectivas que han suscitado los descubrimientos de los ultimos dos decenios e iniciar una reflex ion sobre la necesidad de abordar con mayor detalle la posiblc existencia de difercncias de caracter regional que reposan en la pro pia distribuci6n telTitorial de los gmpos paleoliticos del ambito meditenaneo peninsular.

REsUMEN. -Las bases sobre las que se asienta el estudio del arte rupestre deben ser revisadas a la luz de los nuevos presupuestos y técnicas de análisis. La cronología, los datos de las excavaciones, la consideración del artista individual y el análisis estilístico pueden ofrecer puntos de vista renovadores sobre este tema. Ans-r&icr.-Theoretica/ approaches and new analítica? techniques are changing our perspective about the Palaeolithic rock art Chrono/ogy, archaeological excavations, stylistic ana/ysis and the study ofthe artist as an individual can offer new invigorating points ofview on the subject PALABRAS CLAVE: Arte Rupestre Paleolítico. Cronología. Artista individuaL Análisis Estilístico.

The writings of Carl Schuster (1904-1969) represent the single most important body of work ever assembled on traditional art and symbolism yet they remain unknown to the general public. This paper will summarize a work he published in 1964 titled “Skin and Fur Mosaics in Prehistoric and Modern Times” supporting it with several other articles he published on related topics. I will discuss his findings and explain how they are of relevance to scholars studying paleolithic symbolism and rock art and in a more general sense, to all students of traditional art.

In their creative and collaborative response to the de-extinction of the Woolly Mammoth, speculative artists are guided by a paleo-imaginary impulse that structures our cultural fascination with reversing the negative impacts of Anthropogenic change. Lisel Shlock’s “Back from the Dead” illustration (commissioned for the cover of the Autumn 2013 issue of Earth Island Journal) imaginatively depicts the reconstruction of the Woolly Mammoth with a series of levers, ladders, scaffolds, cranes, and red rope by lab-coated scientists, while her supporting piece for the issue features a burgeoning petri-dish of extinct species. Both illustrations visualize a controversial set of ethical and political questions that surround de-extinction science, the crux of which appears more explicitly on the April 2013 issue of National Geographic. Bearing the image of a woolly mammoth spilling from a laboratory beaker, the cover contains a caption with an enigmatic question: “We can, but should we?”.
Other images of species revivalism are plentiful. Signalling a politics of consumption, Emma Conley’s “De-extinction Deli” includes a mammoth hashed with a cross-section of meat cuts, while Raul Martin depicts ATV-mounted biologists at Pleistocene Park voyeuristically gazing at mammoths through binoculars. Elsewhere, woolly mammoths are breaking through museum dioramas and through walls of permafrost. Portraying the temporal combustion of the past and future that de-extinction science elicits, these images reconfigure the aesthetics of co-existence that once subtended parietal art (such as the Cave of the hundred mammoths in Rouffignac, France), but which today juxtapose a prehistoric past with an Anthropogenic future.
These images exemplify an aesthetics of speculation that functions to materially graph or “suture” together what Elizabeth Povinelli describes as “various modes of existence” in speculative philosophy (Geontologies 58). Elaborating on Povinelli’s claims about geontopower and biopower in relation to the speculative art and science of de-extinction, I argue that these visual cultures retrace the fault lines of Anthropocene Studies today, which critiques the narrative of human exceptionalism that is at the heart of these debates, and which also perpetuates a cult of “cool” candidates for extinction according to a rubric of flagship species. Drawing on speculative philosophy (Quentin Meillassoux’s arche-fossil, Timothy Morton’s hyperobject, and W.J.T. Mitchell’s palaeontology of the screen), this article examines how collaborations between speculative artists and scientists working in de-extinction science together renegotiate the political and ethical dimensions of an aesthetics of speculation.

Using the recent discovery of the Hohle Fels figurine as a catalyst, in this article we briefly review the history of scholarship regarding Upper Paleolithic figurines that are often referred to as “Venus” figurines. We integrate this review with a critical examination of the assumptions underlying the “Venus hypothesis”—the perspective that these artifacts are best understood as sexual objects—based on the available data from both inside and outside of the field of Paleolithic archaeology. We suggest that interpreting the figurines in a purely sexual context obstructs their objective, scientific study and has unintended social consequences. Following from this, we consider why the Venus hypothesis persists in the popular media and scholarly research despite decades of reflexive critiques. Finally, building on these critiques, we argue for the importance of contextualization in the study of Upper Paleolithic figurines and discuss new approaches to their study.

The use of undulating or zigzag lines to represent water is a symbol of some antiquity and is well known to art historians and archeologists. Although clearly meant to represent the ripples or waves that appear on moving water or other liquids, these wavy lines have an older but not unrelated provenance involving fertility and procreation. This paper will investigate the history of this motif in Europe and Asia and explain how the shift from Paleolithic to Neolithic culture gradually changed its meaning.

This began as a Supplementary Table to Harrod (2022), Portable Art Sculptures from the Anzick Clovis Cache, Wilsall, Montana. I did it to provide a Siberian/East Asian and North American comparative mythology context to identify Anzick Clovis cache (13,000 years ago) portable art, and identify possible depictions of Siberian/East Asian and North American Afterlife Beliefs, Mortuary Rituals and Psychopomp Motifs, especially involving Milky Way, Path of Souls of Deceased, Bird, Dog, Coyote or Wolf, and Reincarnation. Especially since this Version 2 is 177 pages long, I decided best to upload this separately from my Anzick article, to stand independently, pertaining to global comparative mythology on these beliefs and their symbolism.

The antlers and horns of animals have served a symbolic function from the earliest times. I will summarize the existing evidence and expand it using the researches of the American art historian, Carl Schuster (1904-1969), who collected and analyzed a number of related symbols, including Y-posts, two-headed figures, and shaved sticks. In this way, I hope to get at the basic ideas that lie behind the various manifestations of the symbolism of horns.

Paleoanthropology present a series of documents covering a variety of subjects in the archaeology of the Old World (Eurasia, Africa, Australia, and Oceania). This series encompasses a broad range of subjects -from the early prehistory to the Neolithic Revolution in the Old World, and beyond including: huntergatherers to complex societies; the rise of agriculture; the emergence of urban societies; human physical morphology, evolution and adaptation, as well as; various technologies such as metallurgy, pottery production, tool making, and shelter construction. Additionally, the subjects of symbolism, religion, and art will be presented within the context of archaeological studies including mortuary practices and rock art. Volumes may be authored by one investigator, a team of investigators, or may be an edited collection of shorter articles by a number of different specialists working on related topics.

This paper will explore the motif referred to as the “Shameless Woman” which appears in the art of many cultures around the world. I will discuss some of the meanings associated with it and more importantly, its probable origins, using the work of the American art historian, Carl Schuster (1904–1969). Dr. Schuster believed that the motif was originally a generic ancestor figure—not necessarily a woman—excerpted from a repeating pattern that was once part of an ancient system for depicting genealogical relations.

The attribution of the rock art in Chauvet Cave to the Aurignacian and the challenges to its dating are reviewed. Similarly, the dominant view that the palaeoart of the Early Upper Palaeolithic technological traditions is generally the work of invading modern humans is tested against the lack of evidence of the presence of such hominins. Even the need to account for the physical changes of hominins towards the end of the Late Pleistocene by a replacement hypothesis is refuted. It is contended that what were replaced were not populations, but merely genes, through an unintended domestication selecting neotenous features; and that this process took place simultaneously in four continents.

Thèse préparée à l’École Normale Supérieure, sous la direction de Francis Wolff et de Denis Vialou

L’entreprise philosophique est traditionnellement associée depuis Platon à la sortie de la caverne. Nous nous proposons ici d’adopter l’itinéraire inverse, en interrogeant philosophiquement les grottes et les éléments de mobilier ornés par les hommes qui ont vécu en Europe avant la fin de la dernière glaciation. Cet objet singulier invite d’abord à réfléchir sur la définition de la science préhistorique, qui ne peut être assimilée à l’étude de ce qui précède l’histoire, et sur l’unité de ce qui a été nommé « art paléolithique ». Cependant, au-delà de ces considérations conceptuelles, il convient de prendre acte du double défi dont a été porteuse la découverte de cet art au XIXème siècle. Elle a en effet permis de questionner, d’une part l’identité et l’origine de l’homme, et d’autre part l’unité de la discipline préhistorique, ainsi que sa place dans le champ des sciences. Concernant le premier point, si les interrogations autour de l’existence de l’homme fossile avaient progressivement permis, au fil du XIXème siècle, de le penser contemporain d’espèces animales disparues, la découverte de ses œuvres artistiques, initialement controversée, a fait apparaître ses aptitudes esthétiques, ses capacités spirituelles, et finalement sa pleine humanité. Pour ce qui est de la seconde question, l’art paléolithique a radicalisé et rendu tangible la situation instable des études préhistoriques, au carrefour de plusieurs sciences à la fois naturelles et humaines. L’analyse des discours et des pratiques des préhistoriens montre ainsi que ce terrain de recherche peut être considéré comme un laboratoire où se rencontrent différents modèles scientifiques. Cependant, la conception de l’homme et de la science véhiculée par la préhistoire s’est trouvée, dans les dernières décennies du XXème siècle, remise en question par de nouveaux paradigmes d’anthropologie naturalisée. À l’intersection des sciences naturelles et des sciences humaines, les études portant sur l’art paléolithique s’avèrent ainsi offrir un poste d’observation privilégié sur les rapports entre plusieurs manières de voir le monde, de comprendre l’homme, et de définir les principes de la science.

The collection "Art and Religion of Ancient Societies" is a continuation of the series of the scientific publications which is devoted to the problems of study of the spiritual culture in the primitive societies. The previous edition "Art and Ritual of Ice Age", that was published in 2005, covered a circle of questions directly connected with the theory and practice of study of the Paleolithic Art. In this collection we also address to the same problematic. However, taking into account that the understanding of the most ancient culture stages of the human society is connected to a wide circle of questions of the study of the traditional communities, we think it is necessity to expand the edition’s subjects. Therefore we have tried to capture not only questions directly connected with field and basic study of the ancient art, but also practical analysis of the cultural and ethnographic facts. The questions of the aesthetics and theory of development of the early forms of art are considered as separately subjects in works. The published materials enable the reader to familiarize with the questions and methods of their analysis more in details, which are submitted in works of the researchers from Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, Hungary, Germany, Canada, USA, Australia.

Avertissement Le contenu de ce site relève de la législation française sur la propriété intellectuelle et est la propriété exclusive de l'éditeur. L'ouvrage figurant sur ce site peut être consulté et reproduit sur un support papier ou numérique sous réserve qu'il soit strictement réservé à un usage soit personnel, soit scientifique ou pédagogique excluant toute exploitation commerciale. La reproduction devra obligatoirement mentionner l'éditeur, le nom de l'ouvrage, l'auteur et la référence du document. Toute autre reproduction est interdite sauf accord préalable de l'éditeur, en dehors des cas prévus par la législation en vigueur en France.

Over the past three decades, hypotheses that aim at explaining the origins of art from an evolutionary perspective have thrived. Proving particularly popular are those which put forward sexual selection, social cohesion, or cognitive enhancement as the primary selective contexts in which visual art prospered throughout human evolution. Such proposals, while interesting in themselves, have seldom been assessed in terms of their fit with the archaeological record. In this chapter, I look at each of these hypotheses’ key predictions and compare them to the evidence of early art available from archaeology. The analysis shows that there is an overall discrepancy between the hypotheses and the archaeological data, generating some reflections on the future of Pleistocene art research.

"A pesar de lo temprano del conocimiento del Arte Paleolítico en Andalucía, éste no ha tenido hasta ahora la consideración de tras áreas en el conjunto de ese ciclo artístico. El reciente descubrimiento de yacimientos al aire libre, como Piedras Blancas o la cueva del Vencejo Moro, ha venido a recuperar formas ya conocidas pero no valoradas adecuadamente, tanto al aire libre como en cueva. Andalucía se presenta así como un espacio con representaciones paleolíticas antiguas en ambos soportes, además de poseer una continuidad representativa hasta épocas postpaleolíticas, que nos hace considerar su condición como elemento de referencia, quizás para gran parte del arte rupestre peninsular. Su propia condición, y la existencia de arte Paleolítico en el Este peninsular, presente aunque no de modo continuado, nos propone la posibilidad clara de que el Levante y el Sur de la Península fueran zonas de ocupación importante en el último glaciar, con representaciones artísticas en cueva, y por qué no, al aire libre. "

This paper will concern itself with the ancient and widespread practice of finger amputation and the symbolic significance of handprints. The historical record provides sufficient evidence to show that fingers or finger joints were originally associated with relatives and that they were amputated in mourning for the deceased. I will discuss and comment on some of the evidence as well as a number of related ideas and practices which have an important bearing on the subject.

Abstract
From earth to heaven.
The influence of the Aldeia da Terra project in the conception of a new artistic lan-guage.

The barrística, also the art of the figured in clay, although with previous manifestations founded schools in Portugal, namely in Barcelos, Caldas da Rainha and Estremoz, from the middle of the 18th century. This happened from consolidation of the introduction of the Nativity representation in Portugal, by the construction of the Palace of Mafra and from its Italian influences. Today as a manifestation of folk art is a tradition. How-ever, and especially since the 1970s, many contemporary craftsman / artists look for different expressions in this art. These manifestations, which go beyond the themes of the sacred and profane, of rurality and traditions, often also cross the boundary of what is conventionally called Craft, entering into the universe of erudite or more sub-jective Art and its languages and symbols.
Aldeia da Terra was a project that consciously used the themes of tradition but intro-duced others: The caricature, the social portrait, the humor and the irreverence, ex-ploring new limits. One of these limits, which I propose to explore better in this Mas-ter's work, with the proposal of a new language in barrística, is precisely the indefinite frontier that eventually separates the so-called "Craftwork" from "Art".

Since the discovery of the Grotte Chauvet (Ardèche, France) in the mid-1990s, there has been a debate regarding the accuracy of assigning this site to the Aurignacian period. The main argument stems from a perceived lack of agreement between the radiocarbon age of the imagery (>32,000 years BP [before present]) and its stylistic complexity and technical sophistication, which some believe are more typical of the later Upper Paleolithic. In this paper we first review the evidence for symbolic behavior among modern humans during the Aurignacian in order to explore the question of whether Chauvet's images are anachronistic. Then, using a database of non-figurative signs found in Paleolithic parietal art, we undertake a detailed comparison between Chauvet's corpus of signs and those found in other French Upper Paleolithic caves. While we conclude that there is substantial evidence to support an Aurignacian date for Grotte Chauvet, we also suggest that it may be time to revisit some of the cultural boundaries that are currently in use in Paleolithic archaeology.

Since the 1990s, archaeological publications concerned with Palaeolithic personal ornaments have diversified. This proliferation has resulted in an intense exploration
of the multiple roles, whether symbolic, cultural or social, that these items might have played in prehistoric groups. As a result of this process, there is now a broad consensus that these body adornments are important for exploring the origins of cognitive, artistic and symbolic behavior from an evolutionary perspective. This view contrasts with the conceptualization of Palaeolithic ornaments prevalent during the greater part of the twentieth century. At that time, these objects were rarely considered in debates
concerning human evolution, art and symbolism. To explain this shift in the understanding of beads, pendants and other similar artifacts, we explore in this paper the history and the epistemology of the concept of ‘ornament’ in the field of Palaeolithic archaeology. In particular, we analyse the factors underlying why the same kinds of objects have been historically described in very diverse ways. We conclude by pointing out some of the epistemological challenges posed by the current revalorization of personal ornaments.
Keywords Personal ornaments . Symbolism. Portable art . Technology

This paper will explore various manifestations of the heavenly ladder, an image found in the art, ritual and folklore of many peoples around the world. The heavenly ladder is part of an ancient cosmology and provides a means for spirits to ascend to and descend from Heaven. The American art historian, Carl Schuster (1904-1969), provided solid evidence for the paleolithic origin of this symbol and showed how it had its roots in genealogical as well as cosmological and eschatological ideas.

The status of current research about the distribution of large game during the Upper Paleolithic in Middle and Western Europe and its history can be only investigated and presented through intensive literary research and contact with colleagues locally and abroad. In spite of the navoidable simplification about the history of this research, this portion of the work was necessary, in order to be able to critically consider the data. The marked difference in the number of
established research positions for the study of the Paleolithic in Spain, Italy, France, and Germany is not only a consequence of differing research systems and research institutions, it reflects the importance given to Paleolithic research in each of the different countries and also permits predictions about future reserches (pp. 5–23).

Likewise, a detailed overview of the topography and the climate of Europe, as well as the environnmental changes that occurred, serve as a basis to critically evaluate the distribution of large game during the Upper Paleolithic in Middle and Western Europe from an ecological point of view (pp. 25–37). The importance of the coastal region and its sea level changes have been mapped and emphasized.
For at least 400 kya, especially after the appearance of wooden lances and throwing spears used for hunting, human beings have been considered hunters. During the Upper Paleolithic, the spear thrower was developed and later was followed by the bow and arrow. Thus, there then existed the ability to kill any animal. Many drawings and engrawings from the Upper Paleolithic show scenes in which almost all
species of animals are pierced by projectiles. In addition almost all species have been depicted on spear throwers. This place the Upper Palaeolithic man at the top of the ecological pyramid (pp. 39–47).

For the first time, many of the published depictions of uncommon animal species are brought together: Equus hydruntinus, Sus scrofa, Dama dama, Capreolus capreolus, Alces alces, Megaloceros giganteus, Ovibos moschatus, Rupicapra rupicapra, Saiga tatarica, Phocidae, Cetacea and Pinguinus impennis.
The analysis of the distribution of large game in Middle and Western Europe, on the basis of faunal remains, as well as artistic depictions, provides for numerous hypotheses (especially 49–145). The distribution of specific species, in comparison to that of other species is discussed, such as the significance of animals in overlapping regions that belong to the same family and, sometimes, to the same genus. These
animals exhibited competition-driven ecological adaptations as seen between the Equus ferus and Equus hydruntinus, Coelodonta antiquitatis and Stephanorhinus kirchbergensis and Stephanorhinus hemitoechus, Mammuthus primigenius and Elephas antiquus, Cervus elaphus and Rangifer tarandus,
Alces alces and Megaloceros giganteus, Bison priscus and Bos primigenius, Capra pyrenaica and Capra ibex and Rupicapra rupicapra.
It is especially significant that during OIS4 (oxygen isotope stage), the first glacial maximum of the last ice age, the distribution of species such as mammoth and woolly rhino extended as for south as southern Spain and southern Italy, without the extinction of the forest elephant, forest rhino, and
steppe rhino, which ware living to these temperate regions. Aside from a few definitive pictures of reindeer, researchers have made only a few ambiguous identifications from the „mammuthus-coelodonta“ faunal complex during the time of the Upper Paleolithic, south of Cantabria. There are few Upper Paleolithic remains that have been discovered in Italy and no representations of Mammuthus primigenius,  coelodonta antiquitatis or Rangifer tarandus are reported.
The extinction of the forest elephant, as well as the forest and steppe rhino, did not occur until shortly after 30 kya. At about the same time, the European bison and the giant deer disappeared from southern Italy. Beginning around this period, and no later than the second glacial maximum (OIS2) of the last ice age, the number of fallow deer declined sharply and even may have completely died out in southwestern Europe. This sugeste a strong impoverishment of the larger game in southern Europe. Though not analyzed
in this study, one could also add Homo neanderthalensis to the list of these extinct animals.

The analysis of the few indications of the larger animals in the coastal tract shows that this region was not only later submersed by the sea (sea level has risen more than 100 m) but also that researchers have often forgetten about them. The few sites with elements from the coast, must only represente a small number of such original sites that currently lie underwater (pp.147–165).

In conclusion, the interpretation of the data shows that a direct relationship exists between the natural appearance of a species and its artistic representation. Therefore, both the presence of the species and their representations are more dependent on environmental components than from any cultural components (pp. 167–175).
Finally, this hypothesis would be formulated as follows, that the destiny of Homo sapiens and Homo neanderthalensis, as well as other linked species, is strongly influenced by factors such as climatic and ecological changes during the period between 40 and 25 kya.