The Origins of Iconic Depictions: A Falsifiable Model Derived from the Visual Science of Palaeolithic Cave Art and World Rock Art

Abstract

Archaeologists have struggled for more than a century to explain why the first representational art of the Upper Palaeolithic arose and the reason for its precocious naturalism. Thanks to new data from various sites across Europe and further afield, as well as crucial insights from visual science, we may now be on the brink of bringing some clarity to this issue. In this paper, we assert that the main precursors of the first figurative art consisted of hand prints/stencils (among the Neanderthals and early Homo sapiens) and a corpus of geometric marks as well as a hunting lifestyle and highly charged visual system for detecting animals in evocative environments. Unlike many foregoing arguments, the present one is falsifiable in that five critical, but verifiable, points are delineated.

Upper Palaeolithic Installation Art: Topography, Distortion, Animation and Participation in the Production and Experience of Cantabrian Cave Art

“…Figurative art in Europe—overwhelmingly dominated by prey animals such as horse, bovids and cervids—appears after ~37000 cal. bp in our estimation, based on a parsimonious interpretation of the few existing dated examples in western Europe and their associated precision/errors (Hodgson & Pettitt 2018). Formally speaking, the latter relates to the Early, Mid and Late Upper Palaeolithic and to the visual culture of Homo sapiens, persisting in fits and starts until near the end of the Upper Palaeolithic around the Pleistocene–Holocene transition (Bahn 2016; Hodgson & Pettitt 2018; Pettitt 2014; 2016).…”

“…bp in our estimation, based on a parsimonious interpretation of the few existing dated examples in western Europe and their associated precision/errors (Hodgson & Pettitt 2018). Formally speaking, the latter relates to the Early, Mid and Late Upper Palaeolithic and to the visual culture of Homo sapiens, persisting in fits and starts until near the end of the Upper Palaeolithic around the Pleistocene–Holocene transition (Bahn 2016; Hodgson & Pettitt 2018; Pettitt 2014; 2016). Upper Palaeolithic cave art—produced by spitting, finger painting, brush painting, drawing and low-relief sculpture—comprises a wide variety of themes, such as solitary and grouped herbivores and carnivores, geometric signs, finger flutings (drawn lines left by fingers on soft clay), hand stencils and prints and, rarely, anthropomorphs (Bahn & Vertut 1997; Vialou 1998; White 2003).…”

“…This deliberate incorporation of cave topography into early figurative image making—or rather the visual psychology underlying it—has featured strongly in recent hypotheses about the origins and early development of art (e.g. Brot 2012; Groenen 2000; Hodgson 2000; 2003; 2008; Hodgson & Pettitt 2018; Ogawa 2005). Additionally, the shadows cast by topographic features seem also to have been constituent parts of images (Groenen 2000; Pettitt 2016; Pettitt et al 2017).…”

“…Our hypotheses arise out of logical concerns (e.g. Hodgson 2000; 2003; 2008; Hodgson & Pettitt 2018) and both detailed qualitative observations (e.g. Brot 2012; Lorblanchet 2010; Ogawa 2005) and quantitative analysis (e.g.…”

The Natural Inspiration for Natufian Art: Cases from Wadi Hammeh 27, Jordan

“…Here we provide contextual evidence to suggest that patterns on a variety of these objects were used by artisans at the site as geometric motifs which were applied to portable artworks. The idea that interesting natural designs may have prompted ancient artisans to reproduce or abstract them has been recognized for centuries (Hodgson & Pettitt 2018, 597). Yet it is less common to find examples of art objects and similar natural prototypes in contemporaneous and secure archaeological contexts, located close to each other.…”