Conversations with Caves: The Role of Pareidolia in the Upper Palaeolithic Figurative Art of Las Monedas and La Pasiega (Cantabria, Spain)

Abstract

The influence of pareidolia has often been anecdotally observed in examples of Upper Palaeolithic cave art, where topographic features of cave walls were incorporated into images. As part of a wider investigation into the visual psychology of the earliest known art, we explored three hypotheses relating to pareidolia in cases of Late Upper Palaeolithic art in Las Monedas and La Pasiega Caves (Cantabria, Spain). Deploying current research methods from visual psychology, our results support the notion that topography of cave walls played a strong role in the placement of figurative images—indicative of pareidolia influencing art making—although played a lesser role in determining whether the resulting images were relatively simple or complex. Our results also suggested that lighting conditions played little or no role in determining the form or placement of images, contrary to what has been previously assumed. We hypothesize that three ways of artist–cave interaction (‘conversations’) were at work in our sample caves and suggest a developmental scheme for these. We propose that these ‘conversations’ with caves and their surfaces may have broader implications for how we conceive of the emergence and development of art in the Palaeolithic.

The deep past in the virtual present: developing an interdisciplinary approach towards understanding the psychological foundations of palaeolithic cave art

“…In archaeology, its use has primarily been restricted to museum contexts, for example immersive visitor VR experiences of reconstructed historic buildings or landscapes 52 – 54 . Only now is VR being deployed as an interpretive tool in archaeological research to facilitate the examination of fragile archaeological sites 55 , simulate lighting conditions for Palaeolithic art 56 , 57 , or evaluate areas of visual interest within historical buildings 58 . VR can thus integrate both psychological research methods and contextual information from the archaeological record to generate meaningful, and testable, insights into aspects of the earliest artistic behaviours.…”