Upper Paleolithic Art

Abstract: Two decades after the discovery of the unique hominin variant of the FOXP2 language gene, much more has been revealed about the emergence, expansion, and comingling of both hominin populations and hominin genetic variants. Recently, identification of a unique hominin variant of the NF1 gene, and revelations about the importance of art (including objects, music, dance, and story) in the knowledge systems of oral (“non-literate”) societies, have together exposed additional interconnected pieces of the human evolutionary puzzle. Current understanding of NF1 gene function is primarily derived from study of the autosomal dominant disorder, Neurofibromatosis Type 1 (NF1), caused by a germline or early embryonic mutation of the NF1 gene that disrupts the function of its protein product, neurofibromin. This causes progressive development of neurofibromas (benign proliferative lesions of the nerve sheath), involving somatic mutation of the remaining functional allele. Persons with the NF1 disorder also often face challenges with attention/focus, spatial reasoning, executive function, prosodic interpretation, and musicality. Each of these skill areas are optimized in the presence of two fully-functional human-type NF1 alleles. These skills are also central to the knowledge systems of oral societies, especially in memorizing and passing on accurately (sometimes for millennia) vast quantities of life-sustaining information on resources, dangers, and strategies for navigation, cooperation, and survival. This study presents current evidence for the mechanics of, and relationships between, candidate genetic, somatic, and cultural elements of the extraordinary intellectual toolkit that enabled non-literate humans to populate or traverse every biome on Earth.

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.

La cueva de L'Tebellín se sitúa en el Macizo de la Llera. Un lugar de la región cantábrica en el Norte de España, con una densa ocupación paleolítica. Esta cueva contiene una abundante representación de ideomorfos tipo "claviforme". Este trabajo reflexiona sobre el significado de este tipo de signos y su relación con el territorio, así como su cronología.

Most art is made by people with a well-developed concept of art and who are familiar with its forms and genres as well as with the informal institutions of its presentation and reception. This is reflected in philosophers' proposed definitions. The earliest artworks were made by people who lacked the concept and in a context that does not resemble the art traditions of established societies, however. An adequate definition must accommodate their efforts. The result is a complex, hybrid definition: something is art (a) if it shows excellence of skill and achievement in realizing significant aesthetic goals, and either doing so is its primary, identifying function or doing so makes a vital contribution to the realization of its primary, identifying function, or (b) if it falls under an art genre or art form established and publicly recognized within an art tradition, or (c) if it is intended by its maker/presenter to be art and its maker/presenter does what is necessary and appropriate to realizing that intention. Meanwhile, artworlds—historically developed traditions of works, genres, theories, criticism, conventions for presentation etc.— play a crucial but implicit role in (b) and (c). They are to be characterized in terms of their origins.

How art came to be is a longstanding curiosity among archaeologists, psychologists and art historians. Pablo Picasso theorized in documented conversations with friends that art first surfaced from natural irregularities in rocks which were then innovated upon, such as is evidenced in Upper Paleolithic cave art. Picasso’s quotes about the Upper Paleolithic caves of Altamira in Cantabria, Spain and Lascaux in the Dordogne region of France indicate that he had visited them. Little else has been established of the Spaniard’s connection to cave art or his working theory on the origins of art.

In this study over 500 previously published Franco-Cantabrian Upper Paleolithic cave images from archaeological sites that were identified between 1868 and 1950 were examined. The findings include examples of borrowed pareidolia-based characters developed from natural irregularities in the rocks from Altamira and in Grotte de Pair-non-Pair in Gironde, France among Picasso’s paintings and that the Spanish artist’s working theory on the origins of art is consistent with his observations of pareidolia in Upper Paleolithic cave art. This study uncovers that Picasso drew heavily on Upper Paleolithic cave art styles and animistic metaphors in his work.

Tramite l’analisi mitologica filogenetica e areologica si ipotizza che l’arte parietale paleolitica sia l’espressione di miti, dislocati a livello globale e riferibili a narrazioni che risalgono alla dispersione di Homo sapiens dall’Africa. Questa nuova teoria interpretativa sull’arte paleolitica offre maggiori prove documentarie rispetto a quelle formulate nel XIX e XX secolo.

SEMINARI ORGANIZZATI NELL’AMBITO DELLA LAUREA MAGISTRALE QPA, DELLA LAUREA LAA, DEL DOTTORATO DI RICERCA IN SCIENZE UMANE, DEL MASTER E DEI DOTTORATI IN SCIENZE UMANE E ERASMUS MUNDUS IN QUATERNARIO E PREISTORIA

Teaching the locations of constellations in the night sky and the characters that have come to represent them has long been difficult for science educators and an early barrier to observational astronomy. Most of the constellations do not have easily recognizable patterns and the characters that are intended to portray them have dubious visible connections. This difficulty has been partly resolved by a visually engaging method to organize groups of stellar bodies through a pictorial myth found in Upper Paleolithic European cave art which was later interpreted by sky watchers in the ancient world. A participant with a cardinal orientation can point to fifteen Northern Hemisphere Ptolemaic constellations and explain the mythological and geographical reasons for their characterizations and relational positions through the following of one myth. This method enables easier access to observational astronomy and the potential for larger participation.

Google Doc link - https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/14q24uBYW-CJcBdzWptS_1tZV22Jis0d6FFl7P7Wq6Kg/present?token=AC4w5VhKsyx-FH0NoblF-IcRBU51QEe4ww%3A1606161867191&includes_info_params=1&eisi=CKSVr5y7me0CFQ6fHwodwBgEJQ&slide=id.p1

For full text: https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/1417859
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Özet: Sibirya’da Üst Paleolitik Çağ’ın başlangıcı, en azından, günümüzden yaklaşık 47.000 öncesine tarihlenir. Öncül Üst Paleolitik Çağ’ın nasıl ortaya çıktığı ve hangi insan -alt- türüyle ilişkilendirilmesi gerektiği konusunda tartışmalar sürerken, o evrenin başından itibaren görülen dilgi temelli taş endüstrilerinin gün ışığına çıkarıldığı kültür katmanlarından “simgesel davranışlar”ı işaret eden çok sayıda maddi kültür ögesi bulunmuştur. Anatomik açıdan modern insanların Avrasya’ya yayılımı ile ilişkilendirilen “modern davranışlar” (veya “davranışsal modernlik”) ve onun bir alt kümesi olan “simgesel davranışlar” kavramları altında tanımlanan pek çok unsurun Sibirya’da Öncül Üst Paleolitik Çağ’ın başından itibaren görülmesi, o yeni kültürün modern insan topluluklarına atfedilmesi yönünde önemli bir destek olarak görülebilir. Bu makalede, Sibirya’da Üst Paleolitik Çağ’ın başlangıcı hakkındaki hipotezleri, sorunları; o çağda görülen “simgesel davranışlar”a işaret eden bulguları ve öne çıkan örnekleri; ölü gömme ve inanca ilişkin bulgular, süs nesneleri ve takılar, taşınabilir sanat nesneleri, iki boyutlu betimlemeler, kaya ve mağara resimleri başlıkları altında incelemeye çalışacağım.
Anahtar Kelimeler: Sibirya, Üst Paleolitik Çağ, Simgesel Davranışlar, Paleolitik Sanat, Taşınabilir Sanat Nesneleri.
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Abstract:
The beginning of the Upper Paleolithic in Siberia, at least, dates back to about 47,000 years ago. While there are debates about how the Initial Upper Paleolithic emerged and which human species it should be associated with, many material culture elements that point to "symbolic behavior" were found from the cultural layers where blade-based stone industries were exposed from the beginning of that phase. From the beginning of the Initial Upper Paleolithic in Siberia, the occurrence of many elements defined under the concepts of "modern behavior" (or "behavioral modernity"), and a subset of it, "symbolic behavior", which are associated with the spread of anatomically modern humans to Eurasia, can be seen as an important support for the attribution of the new culture to modern human populations. In this article, I tried to examine the hypotheses and problems about the beginning of the Upper Paleolithic in Siberia; findings and prominent examples indicating the "symbolic behavior" seen during the Upper Paleolithic as categorized them under the headings of the evidences that related burial and belief system and the findings including ornaments and jewelry, portable art objects, two-dimensional depictions on osseous plates, rock and cave arts.
Keywords: Siberia, the Upper Paleolithic, Symbolic Behavior, Paleolithic Art, Portable Art Objects

The paper presents the results provided by complex research focused on spatial organization, manufacture technic and function of stone personal ornaments from Ushki sites (Central Kamchatka). After years of excavation sites Ushki-I–V received a representative collection of stone ornaments – volume and flat polished pendants, beads and plaques of various forms. The total number of ornaments for cultural layers VII and VI more than 1250 items. Main elements of stone ornaments’ manufacture technic are located in the remains of houses and separately located fireplace, around which were a work areas. Production techniques employed for manufacturing stone ornaments included several stages: selecting and transportation to the sites raw material, production of blanks by knapping jointing of soft stone, obtaining a half-finished product, processing by shaping, scraping, grinding, ornamentation items by notches or incisions, drilling and polishing. We analyzed of situations of detection the stone ornaments in the context of sacral objects. Results of spatial, technological and use-wear analysis of stone ornaments demonstrate communication of these objects with various functional and semantic systems. Features of location of stone ornaments concentrations and morphology of use-wear traces indicate the use of the majority of beads, pendants and plaques as everyday items - personal wearable ornaments and elements of clothes decoration.

Art, communication and wellbeing In this paper the Authors are considering that deep echoes might possibly exist betrt een prehistoric and today's man. They base their hvpothesis upon their observations made during long sessions of micropsychoanalysis, especially on transfer-ence/counter-transference dvnamics, and on the study of rock Art. From an analytical point of view, such echoes refer to representations and affects linked with self-preservation and adaptation. In some of their previous studies, D. Gariglio and D. Lysek had assumed that some evervdal, life factors, both prehistoric and present-dav, could express some evidence of unconscious tracks of r,r,ellbeing experiences. These tracks coulcl be reactivated whenever psvchic fluidity exists. This could tl-ren promote an elaboration and a rearrangement of the information stored in the psyche. In addition, after a recent journer. to prehistoric Perigord, it seems reasonable to suppose, even in pre-lettered societies, some dynamics linked to wellbeing experiences. Such hypothesis might add a connection between us and our distant ancestors.

This research paper deals with the rock art traditions and tribal arts of the little known
Lanjia Saora forest tribe of southern Orissa (eastern India). The tribal art of the Saora
has striking similarities with the Central Indian prehistoric rock art in terms of their style,
themes, colour, techniques, ritual and ceremonial character in addition to overall nature
of the painting. An attempt is made for a comprehensive study of the primeval tribal art
in order to understand the Central Indian rock art traditions. Systematic comparison is
attempted with some selected rock art motifs of Central India, with particular reference to the Bhimbetka group of rock art. In the preliminary study, different evolutionary phases
of the tribal art are observed. This valuable tradition is vanishing rapidly with the impact
of modernisation. Suggestions are also made to safeguard and document this priceless
heritage for further study.

Link to Full-Text PDF: https://www.jonathantannerthomas.com/essays/2016/04/02/the-cousins-of-sarah-baartman-anthropology-race-and-the-curvaceous-venuses-of-the-ice-age.

Interpretations of the Venus Figurines of Paleolithic Europe have closely paralleled  shifts in anthropological theory over the course of the past century. This essay attempts to explain how the culture has appropriated and interpreted these ancient objects, and why the history of the Venus Figurines is in some ways a crash course in epistemology.

Various types of ornaments (beads, pendants, plaques and etc) from stone, bone and mammoth tusk are one of the most informative, varied and ancient  manifestation of human symbolic behavior known in the Paleolithic Far Northeast Asia. The oldest collection of Paleolithic beads of mammoth tusks and bones of small animals, pendants of the teeth (reindeer and horses), bone, ivory, amber and anthraxolite found in the study of Yana site complex in the North-East or Yakutia (28 500 - 27 000 BP). Representative series of ornaments made of soft stone known for Ushki sites (Kamchatka) and Berelekh  (Northern Yakutia) (11 400 - 11 000 BP): more than 1,000 flat polished beads and 50 pendants and plaques of pyrophyllite and agalmatolith (Ushki I and V, 7th cultural layer), 7 pendants with biconical drilled (Berelekh). A series of stone polished pendants, beads and plaques (32 pieces) of talc, steatite and etc found in 6th cultural layer of Ushki sites (10 800 - 10 000 BP). Single finds of stone ornaments are known from sites Haya IV, Kheta and Uptar. Seriality, facts of detection ornament compositions as a part of ritual (three burials on the Ushki-I site, 7th and 6th layers), housing and industrial complexes (Yana site, Ushki-I and V) a priori means existence of steady traditions of use, difficult social, cultural and informative functions without which this Paleolithic ornaments could not exist.

Children growing up during the Upper Paleolithic in France and Spain lived within rich pictorial cultures. This paper explores how these children might have employed metaphorical thinking in the production and decoding of this imagery.  Metaphors are said to act a bridge between different realities, different levels of meaning and different realms of experience.  Thus, humans use metaphorical thinking to recognize patterns and create relationships between disparate elements and to imbue these patterns and relationships with meaning and we begin to do so from a very early age.  As young children begin to verbalize and engage in fantasy or pretend play, they also begin to spontaneously produce metaphors. Through fantasy play, children employ metaphorical thinking to rearrange disparate thoughts, ideas, objects, and forms of expression into novel combinations. As they develop both cognitively and socially and their knowledge of their world expands, children’s capacity to generate and understand metaphors similarly expands.  As adults we continue to use metaphorical thinking to comprehend and communicate our realities and to transform the world around us.  It is perhaps not surprising that metaphorical thinking is implicated in many examples of Upper Paleolithic art.  Even if it is only the adults who engaged fully in the communities of practice in which these images were reproduced and innovated upon, it is surely the experiences they garnered in childhood and their expanding competency with metaphorical thinking that allowed them to do so.

Portable objects with figurative decoration found at sites in the Iberian Peninsula (Hornos de la Peña, Salitre, El Castillo, Covalejos, Morín, Lumentxa, Antoliñako Koba, Les Mallaetes and El Parpalló) are presented and discussed. The stratigraphic position of each object is assessed, characterizing and, in some cases, discussing the nature of the decoration. The oldest figurative mobile art in the Iberian Peninsula can be attributed, based on the study of the portable ensembles, to about ~31.5 ky cal BP. Its morpho‐stylistic characterization reveals a graphic construction focusing on simple depictions in which the outlines of the animals are given priority.

The territory of the Desna River middle region was
very inviting for the development by ancient men. First
of all, such attractiveness of the region was caused by
its provision with faunal and various natural resources,
including tusks. In 2010, a new Upper Palaeolithic
site Obolonnya was discovered. It is located directly
in the centre of Obolonnya village in Korop Region
of Chernihiv Oblast. Excavations revealed a specific
stone assemblage with Aurignacian features. Taking
into consideration the specificity of the stone assemblage
and the results of geomorphological and palaeoclimatic
research, the date Ox-28035 20730 ± 120 BP
seems to be more probable. Tusk assemblage appears
to be specific as well. It consists of an engraved tusk
and two fragments of Isturitz type tips. The peculiarity
of the assemblage is caused, on the one hand, by the
presence of Isturitz type points which are not typical
for the Middle Dnipro region, and by using the techniques
unknown in the region in the engraved ivory
processing, and on the other hand, by the presence of
elements in ornaments engraved on the tusk similar to
the known on this territory before, namely, on the tusk
from Kyrylivka and in Mezyn site. Further extension of
ivory products collection from the excavations at Obolonnya
will allow the authors to study the bone industry
not previously known in the Dnipro River middle
region and will help in determination of the site’s place
in the cultural and historic processes of the Upper Palaeolithic
in the region and in better understanding
the genesis of epi-Gravettian sites in the Desna River
region.
K e y w o r d s: Eastern Europe, Desna River midd­le
region, Upper Palaeolithic, epi-Aurignacian, Gravettian,
epi-Gravettian, engraved tusk, Isturitz type tips.

We suggest that the Upper Palaeolithic Venus-Bison-lion collage at Chauvet Cave in France should not be interpreted in any one way.  Rather, an Empsonian approach permits viewing of the image in simultaneous multiple ways, even by the same viewer, and such ambiguities may have been consciously crafted by the artist(s). We hypothesise that the “Venus” could be seen not only as the vulva of a human female as seen from the front, but also as the rear view, including the vulva, of a female bison with its tail raised. Such a dual image may have had symbolic significance for initiates who viewed the stalactite from below, especially in the light of the presence of the Bison-Man in the collage.