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"Cave art"
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Characterizing the chemical composition of red coloring matter samples from the Altamira cave using synchrotron µXRF imaging
The chemical in situ study of red coloring matter from Paleolithic cave art is challenging because the same trace elements can be present both in the matter and in the calcitic support, and the two present a heterogeneous composition. In this study, thirteen red iron oxide-based coloring matter samples obtained at drip points coming from eight locations within the
Techo de los Polícromos
, Altamira cave (Spain), have been analyzed by highly sensitive synchrotron-induced micro-X-ray fluorescence (SR-µXRF). Our analyses improved the characterization of red Paleolithic pigments by establishing characteristic trace element patterns, additionally facilitating a comparison of the distinct representations within the cave. Furthermore, new differentiation criteria between the composition of the calcitic walls and that of the red coloring matter could be established, helping to improve future non-invasive analyses.
Journal Article
Prehistoric rock art : polemics and progress
\"Prehistoric rock art is the markings - paintings, engravings, or pecked images - left on rocks or cave walls by ancient peoples. In this book, Paul G. Bahn provides a richly illustrated overview of prehistoric rock art and cave art from around the world. Summarizing the recent advances in our understanding of this extraordinary visual record, he discusses new discoveries, new approaches to recording and interpretation, and current problems in conservation. Bahn focuses in particular on current issues in the interpretation of rock art, notably the \"shamanic\" interpretation that has been influential in recent years and that he refutes. This book is based on the Rhind Lectures that the author delivered for the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland in 2006\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
Animals hidden in plain sight: stereoscopic recording of Palaeolithic rock art at La Pasiega cave, Cantabria
Cantabrian cave art is familiar from photographs reproduced in textbooks, but these two-dimensional images do not capture the irregularities of the rock surfaces on which animals and other designs were painted or engraved. Here, the authors use stereoscopic photography to review the parietal art of La Pasiega cave. By documenting the uneven surfaces of the cave's walls alongside painted and engraved marks, they identify new animal figures and reinterpret others, previously thought to be partial representations, as complete. The results show the positioning of animal figures to make use of concave/convex surfaces and rock edges to define the outlines of animals, reinforcing the need to record and interpret cave art three-dimensionally.
Journal Article
Cave art, perception and knowledge
\"In the late 19th century in northern Spain and southern France prehistoric mural paintings and engravings were discovered. Cave Art, Perception and Knowledge inquires into epistemic questions related to images, depicting and perception that this rich and much debated material has given rise to. Focusing respectively on the historical and scientific circumstances and controversies and on the epistemic and perceptual problems and questions the discovery of these paintings and engravings gave rise to, the book traces the outline of the doxa of cave art studies. It criticizes the different ways of trying to make sense of the cave art. Furthermore it suggests, with the help of both Cornelius Castoriadis's concept of technique and Ernst Cassirer's notion of symbolic form, a yet untried way out of the hermeneutical impasse where the interpretation of the paleolithic pictures finds itself today\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
Preserving Australia's cave art
A key reason for the need for a national management plan for Australian cave art is that the fifty-four known sites occur on the traditional lands of several different language groups; and they are found on private land, public land and land dedicated to the production of pine trees, but under different management systems and in different states. This complex mosaic of management structures is not conducive to the uniform preservation of cave art. A few sites are already subject to existing management practices, but most are not. Since all face the same preservation issues, they need to be subjected to uniform effective protection and conservation regimes. The key variables for this to be achieved are listed and elucidated, and it is noted that not one of the sites is suitable for tourism. Human visitation of the caves is considered the greatest threat to the conservation of rock art found in them. However, it is recommended to consider the establishment of cave art facsimiles, which have proved extraordinarily successful in France and Spain. The management plan proposed here recommends the creation of an entity responsible for the perpetual preservation of all Australian cave art sites.
Journal Article
Palaeolithic cave art in Borneo
Figurative cave paintings from the Indonesian island of Sulawesi date to at least 35,000 years ago (ka) and hand-stencil art from the same region has a minimum date of 40 ka
1
. Here we show that similar rock art was created during essentially the same time period on the adjacent island of Borneo. Uranium-series analysis of calcium carbonate deposits that overlie a large reddish-orange figurative painting of an animal at Lubang Jeriji Saléh—a limestone cave in East Kalimantan, Indonesian Borneo—yielded a minimum date of 40 ka, which to our knowledge is currently the oldest date for figurative artwork from anywhere in the world. In addition, two reddish-orange-coloured hand stencils from the same site each yielded a minimum uranium-series date of 37.2 ka, and a third hand stencil of the same hue has a maximum date of 51.8 ka. We also obtained uranium-series determinations for cave art motifs from Lubang Jeriji Saléh and three other East Kalimantan karst caves, which enable us to constrain the chronology of a distinct younger phase of Pleistocene rock art production in this region. Dark-purple hand stencils, some of which are decorated with intricate motifs, date to about 21–20 ka and a rare Pleistocene depiction of a human figure—also coloured dark purple—has a minimum date of 13.6 ka. Our findings show that cave painting appeared in eastern Borneo between 52 and 40 ka and that a new style of parietal art arose during the Last Glacial Maximum. It is now evident that a major Palaeolithic cave art province existed in the eastern extremity of continental Eurasia and in adjacent Wallacea from at least 40 ka until the Last Glacial Maximum, which has implications for understanding how early rock art traditions emerged, developed and spread in Pleistocene Southeast Asia and further afield.
Uranium-series dating of rock art from Borneo reveals a minimum date for figurative artwork of 40,000 years ago, and a distinct style of parietal art in Southeast Asia at the Last Glacial Maximum.\
Journal Article
Cave
\"To enter a cave is to venture beyond the realm of the everyday and discover what lies beneath the earth's surface. From huge vaulted caverns to impassable water-filled passages, tiny remote pilgrimage sites to massive tourism enterprises, caves are sites of mystery. Dark spaces that remain largely unexplored, caves are astonishing wonders of nature and habitats for exotic flora and fauna. Cave investigates the natural and cultural history of caves and considers their impact on the human imagination and experience of the natural world. This book explores the long history of human interest with caves, across countries and continents, examining their dual role as spaces of wonder and fear. We encounter the adventurers and 'cave hunters' who pioneered cave science, and the explorers and cave divers still searching for new routes deep into the earth. This book examines the allure of the subterranean world, from caving to cave tourism, and its place in mythology, literature and art. This unique, lavishly illustrated book provides fascinating insight into cave systems and cave lore, the ecology and use of caves, and the extraordinary artistic responses earth's dark recesses have evoked over the centuries.\"--Page 2 of cover.
Book
U-Th dating of carbonate crusts reveals Neandertal origin of Iberian cave art
It has been suggested that Neandertals, as well as modern humans, may have painted caves. Hoffmann
et al.
used uranium-thorium dating of carbonate crusts to show that cave paintings from three different sites in Spain must be older than 64,000 years. These paintings are the oldest dated cave paintings in the world. Importantly, they predate the arrival of modern humans in Europe by at least 20,000 years, which suggests that they must be of Neandertal origin. The cave art comprises mainly red and black paintings and includes representations of various animals, linear signs, geometric shapes, hand stencils, and handprints. Thus, Neandertals possessed a much richer symbolic behavior than previously assumed.
Science
, this issue p.
912
Data from three ancient sites suggest that Neandertals were making cave paintings in Europe more than 64 thousand years ago
The extent and nature of symbolic behavior among Neandertals are obscure. Although evidence for Neandertal body ornamentation has been proposed, all cave painting has been attributed to modern humans. Here we present dating results for three sites in Spain that show that cave art emerged in Iberia substantially earlier than previously thought. Uranium-thorium (U-Th) dates on carbonate crusts overlying paintings provide minimum ages for a red linear motif in La Pasiega (Cantabria), a hand stencil in Maltravieso (Extremadura), and red-painted speleothems in Ardales (Andalucía). Collectively, these results show that cave art in Iberia is older than 64.8 thousand years (ka). This cave art is the earliest dated so far and predates, by at least 20 ka, the arrival of modern humans in Europe, which implies Neandertal authorship.
Journal Article