PAREIDOLIA:

The mountainous face on Mars

in the most favorable light.

Public domain.

One phenomenon that we have to keep in mind when discussing meaning or intention in rock art is pareidolia. "Pareidolia is a psychological phenomenon in which the mind responds to a stimulus, usually an image or a sound, by perceiving a familiar pattern where none exists. Common examples are perceived images of animals, faces, or objects in cloud formations, the Man in the Moon, the Moon rabbit, hidden messages in recorded music played in reverse or at high- or lower-than-normal speeds, and hearing indistinct voices in random noise such as that produced by air conditioners or fans." (Wikipedia)

The so-called face on Mars

under the more normal lighting

conditions. Public domain.

The moon rabbit

(dark areas). Public domain.

One example of pareidolia that recently received considerable attention among fringies was the so-called face on Mars, a rock formation that under certain lighting conditions resembles a human face, but under other lighting conditions can be seen to be just a mountain (of course that did not stop the fringies from adopting it as proof of alien civilization).

"Los toros," The bulls of Altamira,

Spain. Public domain.

I can think of a couple of excellent examples of pareidolia in classic rock art. The first (literally the first discovered) is the bulls of Altamira. Even back in the 1960s in the very small unit on Cave Painting and Paleolithic art in Gardner's Art Through The Ages we were told that the bulls were on the cave ceiling because natural rounded projections from the rock reminded the painter(s) of their shape, and they were painted to fit those contours and shapes.

Spotted horses, Pech-Merle, France.

Note: the horse's head fits shape of

rock wall on the right. Public domain.

The second example of pareidolia in cave painting that comes to mind is the Spotted Horse in Pech-Merle, where the horses head and placement were suggested by the shape of a rock projection on a corner of the cave wall. In both of these instances a form recognized in the shape of the rock suggested the content of the painting - pareidolia.

Robert Bednarik gave a number of examples of pareidolia in rock art in an excellent paper in 2016 (see below). Do yourself a favor and read it. What examples can you think of?

NOTE: Some images in this posting were retrieved from the internet with a search for public domain photographs. If any of these images are not intended to be public domain, I apologize, and will happily provide the picture credits if the owner will contact me with them. For further information on these reports you should read the original reports at the sites listed below.

REFERENCES:

Bednarik, Robert G.

2016 Rock Art and Pareidolia, Rock Art Research, Vol. 33, No. 2, pp. 167-181.

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareidolia)