ACTIVITIES PORTRAYED IN ROCK ART – SWIMMING:

Wadi Sura, Egypt. Internet photograph, public domain.

I ran across a photograph of the Cave of Swimmers in Egypt and thought it would be fun to do a column on the subject of swimming illustrated in rock art but the subject quickly grew on me.“The Cave of Swimmers is a cave with ancient rock art in the mountainous Gilf Kebir plateau of the Libyan Desert Section of the Sahara. It is located in the New Valley Governorate of southwest Egypt, near the border with Libya. The cave and rock art was discovered in October 1933 by the Hungarian explorer Laszlo Almasy. It contains Neolithic pictographs (rock painting images) and is named due to the depictions of people with their limbs bent as if they were swimming. The drawings include those of giraffe and hippopotamus. They are estimated to have been created as early as 10,000 years ago with the beginning of the African Humid Period, when the Sahara was significantly greener and wetter than it is today.” (Wikipedia)

Now, as to how this subject grew on me, I quickly remembered portrayals in Paleolithic art of reindeer swimming so that had to be added. But first “The earliest humans swam. Neanderthals living in Italy about 100,000 years ago swam confidently. Their ear bones show they suffered from swimmer’s ear from diving 3 – 4 meters to retrieve clamshells they then shaped into tools.” (Messer 2022) And, although there are now cave paintings that are attributed to Neandertals none that I am aware of show anything related to swimming.

Swimming reindeer, Olenyok River, Siberia. Internet photograph, public domain.

Next, there are a few portrayals of reindeer that may show them as swimming. Reindeer are excellent swimmers and the Paleolithic hunters who relied on them would certainly have known this. Additionally, when they were in the water they would have been more vulnerable to the hunters.

Reindeer, mammoth ivory, 13,000 BCE. Internet photograph, public domain.

From Abri Montastruc, in southwest France, comes this 13,000-year-old carving on mammoth ivory of two reindeer that have been interpreted as swimming. I am not too sure about this one, the positions of the legs may depend more on the dimensions of the material than an attempt to portray swimming, but for the record this is what it is called.

Carved reindeer antler, Grotte de Lortet in the Haute Pyrenees, France. Internet photograph, public domain.

Rollout of carved reindeer antler, Grotte de Lortet in the Haute Pyrenees, France. Internet photograph, public domain.

Then, from the Grotte de Lortet in the Haute Pyrenees, France, comes this Magdalenian (17,000 to 12,000 BCE) Period carved reindeer antler. The remaining images engraved on it comprise a group of reindeer with salmon around and between their legs. This one is often described as reindeer swimming with the salmon under the water among their legs.

Swimming reindeer, Lascaux Cave, France. Internet photograph, public domain.

And my last example of swimming reindeer comes from 17,500 years ago in Lascaux Cave, France. Drawn on the cave wall is a row of five reindeer shown mostly as just neck and head with a line of the upper back on the last one. None of them show lower body and legs. Additionally, three of them have their heads tilted up exactly as if they were swimming across a river. One problem with the identification of these five reindeer as swimmers is the possibility that the missing bodies are due to erosion of the cave wall instead of purposeful omission, but, since I cannot prove that I will go along with swimming reindeer for now.

Cave of the Swimmers, Egypt. Internet photograph, public domain.

Then we come to the Cave of the Swimmers. “Rock paintings depicting swimmers appear about 9000 BCE on cliff walls at Tassili n’Ajjer, in southern Algeria, far out in the Sahara desert. – Painted images on the rock walls at Tassili n’ Ajjer show people hunting, sitting and dancing. A few figures are painted parallel to the ground with their arms outstretched. These painted figures may be swimming. - - About a thousand years after that, and a little further east, somebody painted more such figures on another wall, in the Cave of the Swimmers at Wadi Sura in western Egypt. By 8000 BCE the people living near this cave were settling down in villages. They farmed wheat and barley, or herded cattle and sheep. In their paintings, little red figures float more or less horizontally on the creamy background of the rock, holding out their arms in front of them. It seems pretty clear that the figures are doing the breaststroke, or a dog-paddle. Their legs are folded as if they were doing a frog kick, and they raise their heads to keep them out of the water. Although it is possible that these figures represent spirits floating in the air, or people sleeping on the ground, swimming is the most plausible explanation.” (Carr 2022:19)

Cave of the Swimmers, Egypt. Photograph, the Bradshaw Foundation.

The Cave of the Swimmers “is so named due to the human figures painted on its walls with their limbs contorted as if swimming. It has since become world-renowned, particularly as a key location in the feature film The English Patient (1996), based on Michael Ondaatje’s novel of the same name. The book and film feature fictionalized versions of the cave and its real-life discoverer, Laszlo Almasy, as the title character. These paintings have been dated at between 9,000 and 6,000 years ago, although some researchers have suggested both earlier and later dates.” (British Museum)

Cave of the Swimmers, Egypt. Swimmer in lower left of the panel. Internet photograph, public domain.

Cave of the Swimmers, Egypt. Swimmers in upper right of the panel. Internet photograph, public domain.

“In 1932 Almasy and (Patrick A.) Clayton, together with a similarly-named young Englishman, Sir Robert Clayton East Clayton, organized a major expedition to survey the unknown western side of the Gilf Kebir, and for the first time the surveying equipment included an aeroplane – a Gypsy Moth belonging to Robert Clayton. The gypsy Moth revealed three hidden valleys with vegetation in the northern Gilf Kebir. All previous attempts to reach them over land had failed, but in 1933 Almasy and Clayton, on separate expeditions, succeeded in entering them – Clayton the two to the east, Wadi Hamra and Wadi Abd el Melik, and Almasy to the west, Wadi Talh. On the same 1933 expedition Almasy went on to reach Regenfeld and the rock paintings of Ain Doua at Uweinat. Later that year, on a separate expedition, he discovered the painted caves at Wadi Sora – he had found the swimmers.” (Bradshaw Foundation)

Klassies River mouth, South Africa. Illustration no. 7 from Carr, p. 27.

Dating to considerably later is this decorated pebble from the mouth of the Klassies River in South Africa. Showing a human figure swimming above a group of four dolphins, this was dated at 400 - 300 BCE by dating a pile of seashells it was found with.  (Carr 2022:27) 

Drawing of the panel, Rain Snake shelter, Lesotho.

Drawing of the panel, Rain Snake shelter, Lesotho. Close up showing the swimming figure under the Rain Snake.

A San painted panel in a rock shelter on the Senqu River, Sehonghong, Lesotho shows, among many anthropomorphs interacting with a 'rain snake', a figure immediately under the middle of the snake who seems to be swimming in a deluge of rain from the snake. This had been interpreted as a 'rain snake' by Qing, the only San person ever asked by Europeans to interpret a San painted scene while actually at the site. Qing told his questioners that the figures were all "under water". (Challis et al. 2013: 5)

Cheyenne children swimming, 1904, Wyoming. Illustration no. 97 from Carr, p. 322.

And finally, a drawing from 1904 in Wyoming showing a group of Cheyenne children swimming, including one doing a somersault dive off of the river bank. (Carr 2022:321)

I had originally expected that this would be the end of this thread but, while doing background research online, I ran across material that cried out to be a separate column – purported pictographs painted of mermaids in South Africa. This will be covered soon in another episode.

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:

Bradshaw Foundation, Exploring the Rock Art of Gilf Kebir, The Cave of Swimmers, Bradshaw Foundation, https://www.bradshawfoundation.com/africa/gilf_kebir_cave_of_swimmers/index.php. Accessed online 13 January 2023.

British Museum, Cave of Swimmers, Egypt, https://africanrockart.britishmuseum.org/country/egypt/cave-of-swimmers. Accessed online 14 January 2023.

Carr, Eva, 2022, Shifting Currents, A World History of Swimming, Reaktion Books, London.

Challis, Sam, Jeremy C. Hollmann and Mark McGranaghan, 2013, Rain snakes from the Senqu Rover: New light on Qing's commentary on San rock art from Sehonghong, Lesotho, Azania, Archaeological Research in Africa, 24 July 2013, DOI: 10.1080/0067270X.2013.797135. Accessed online on 18 March 2023.

Messer, Jane, 2022, The earliest humans swam 100,000 years ago, but swimming remains a privileged pastime, 26 December 2022, online at https://theconversation.com. Accessed online on 13 January 2023.

Wikipedia, Cave of Swimmers, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cave_of_Swimmers. Accessed on 15 January 2023.

11,000 YEAR-OLD SCENE MAY BE THE OLDEST KNOWN NARRATIVE:

Relief panel, Sayburç, Turkey. Photograph, the Sayburç Project.

Excavations at Sayburç, in south-eastern Turkey in 2021, have exposed ancient ruins including a relief carving that is being called the World's oldest narrative. "Narrative - the representation in art of an event or story" (Merriam Webster online dictionary, accessed 16 January 2023). So, this says to me that a single image could not be classified as a narrative, although it could be a single scene out of a narrative. A narrative implies the passage of some time - this happened, then that.

Panoramic view of the relief panel, Sayburç, Turkey. Photograph, the Sayburç Project.

In 2021, at Sayburç, "a relief was discovered in a communal building that displays a scene depicting humans and animals. This scene has the narrative integrity of both a theme and a story, in contrast to other contemporaneous images, and represents the most detailed depiction of a Neolithic 'story' found to date in the Near East, bringing us closer to the Neolithic people and their world." (Özdoğan 2022) This is analagous of an eleven thousand year old picture book.

Close-up details of central figure and facing leopard heads, Sayburç, Turkey. Photograph, the Sayburç Project.

"The site of Sayburç comprises a Neolithic mound, located 60 km east of the Euphrates River, on the southern periphery of the eastern Taurus mountains. It was mostly covered by the construction of the modern village of Sayburç in 1949, after which the site takes its name. Excavation began in 2021, which revealed two separate Pre-Pottery Neolithic occupations. The first, which comprises communal buildings, is located in the northern part of the village, on the south-eastern edge of a small Roman settlement. The second, consisting of residential buildings, is located 70m further south. The communal building containing the relief was discovered in the northern occupation area. Here, two modern houses, one of stone, the other of concrete, had been constructed over the remains. To date, only half of the building has been excavated. The modern houses will be demolished in future field seasons to enable the Neolithic structure to be exposed in its entirety." (Özdoğan 2022) It is remarkable how many recent discoveries of the very first stages of civilization seem to come out of this area.

View of the excavation from above. Sayburç, Turkey. Photograph, the Sayburç Project.

"The communal building measures 11m in diameter, and was carved into the livestone bedrock, with stone-built walls that rest on a bench, which rises from the floor. The bench measures approximately 0.6-0.8m high and 0.6m wide and displays a number of ~0.4m-wide cavities extending along the wall, suggesting that it had originally been partitioned by pillars. The images engraved on the inner face of the bench, in combination with the size and structural features of the building, suggest that this must have been a place for special gatherings." (Özdoğan 2022) If this is the case, that it was meant for special gatherings, then that implies the images were meant for the population, public display, not private. It quite possibly represents scenes from a myth or legend that everyone in the community would know, and they would recognize these.

Map of the area with Sayburç toward lower left, Gobekli Tepe near center. Map from cambridge.org.

“Five figures are represented side-by-side on the inner face of the bench in the form of a 0.7-0.9 x 3.7m panel. Aside from a male figure fashioned in high relief, the other figures are carved in flat relief. The direction and stance of the figures imply that two related scenes are present. While the other figures are facing on another, only the male figure - in high relief - faces into the room, staring into the interior. This principal human figure holds it phallus in its right hand. -  the rounded protrusions on the upper end of the legs appear to represent the knees, as if bent forward while sitting, and provide perspective. Although the head is damaged, a round face, large ears, bulging eyes and thick lips are evident. In particular, a triangular-shaped necklace or neckband is notable. This male figure is faced on each side by two leopards which are depicted in profile. Their mouths are open, the teeth visible, and their lang tails are curled up towards the body. The leopard to the west is depicted with a phallus, whereas the other is not." (Özdoğan 2022)

The five figures visible in the relief carving comprise two leopards, one bull, and two humanoid male figures. These quite possibly actually represent a single humanoid involved in two different activities or events, like two scenes in the story or two acts in a play. And, I say humanoid because his status is unknown. He may represent a mere mortal, a cultural hero or a sacred being, a demi-god or god. This may be an early manifestation of a being like Gilgamesh.

Left side of second panel, Sayburç, Turkey. Photograph, the Sayburç Project.

Right side of second panel, Sayburç, Turkey. Photograph, the Sayburç Project.

"To the west is a similar scene, in which a second human figure and a bull are depicted side on. The human appears to be male, with a phallus-shaped extension on the abdomen, and is shown in a slightly squatted position, with its back turned to the first three figures. Its raised, open left hand has six fingers, while the right holds a snake, or a rattle, with its head facing the ground. Although the body of the bull is portrayed from the side, its head is depicted as if from above with both horns visible. This distorted perspective is comparable to that seen at other prehistoric sites and must have been deliberately chosen to emphasize the horns, which are exaggerated like the leopards' teeth in the previous scene." (Özdoğan 2022)

"The Sayburç reliefs correspond to the style and themes of the Neolithic. Phalluses are the only elements identifying the sex of the figures, and emphasis is placed on predatory and aggressive aspects of the animal world, as represented by the depiction of dangerous features, such as teeth and horns, which has been observed at other sites." (Özdoğan 2022)

This emphasis on the threatening nature of the animals suggest the "Master of animals" theme often suggested by Neolithic art. The authors suggest a relationship to Gobekli Tepe, and the bull's horns may also indicate some relationship to Çatalhöyük. And, as I stated above the figure's interaction with a bull may indicate a very early manifestation of an epic like the story of Gilgamesh.  

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 this reports you should read the original report at the site listed below.

REFERENCES:

Merriam Webster Online Dictionary, accessed 7 January 2023.

Özdoğan, Eylem, 2022, The Sayburç reliefs: a narrative scene from the Neolithic, Antiquity, Vol. 96, Issue 390, December 2022, pp. 1599-1605, published online by Cambridge University Press, 8 December 2022. Accessed 7 January 2023.

RESPONSE TO A COMMENT BY JOHN RUSKAMP:

 I recently received a comment by John Ruskamp in response to my column of 26 November 2022 titled ANCIENT CHINESE INSCRIPTIONS IN ARIZONA AND NEW MEXICO – REALLY? I wrote this column in response to a 2017 paper titled “Two Ancient Rock Inscriptions Indicate and Archaic Chinese Presence in the American Southwest,” which had been printed in Pre-Columbiana: A Journal of Long-Distance Contacts, Volume 6, Numbers 2-4, published by the Early Sites Research Society, Independence, Missouri.

John Ruskamp's ancient Chinese figures. Online illustration from unexplainedmysteriesoftheworld.com.

Any comments made to my columns through RockArtBlog come to me anonymously (without a return address) so if I think it is important enough to respond to I have to do it in this fashion, as an editorial, and John I believe you deserve a response.

Now my readers know that I am skeptical about epigraphic interpretations of any rock images although I certainly admit the probability of Pre-columbian contact between the Americas and the rest of the world. But please note, I use the word skeptical. I have never denied the possibility, I just maintain that each claim must be evaluated on its own merits. So I will state outright, I am highly skeptical that ancient chinese mariners crossed the Sonoran Desert to leave a handful of pictograms in New Mexico and Arizona. Please note that I have also expressed disbelief that ancient Celts sailed to southeastern Colorado to leave runic inscriptions, even though they had the Arkansas River to sail up.

I am also quite skeptical on most statistical analysis of rock art sites. We have seen way too many examples of statistical analysis proving exactly what the researcher is trying to prove, even if he has to try more than one statistical analysis to get to that point.

John Ruskamp's ancient Chinese figures. Online illustration from epochtimes.de.

In his report Ruskamp goes to great length to point out similarities between some of the ancient Chinese pictograms and early Native American First People's imagery. This is to suggest that the American First People's imagery was influenced by Chinese visitors. One example is the Hopi nakwatch symbol and another is the squared spiral. My response, as it has always been in the past, is that there are only so many different basic shapes that the human brain can invent (perhaps innumerable variations, but limited basic shapes). Every culture in history has probably used the squared spiral symbol, but that does not mean they got it from China.

The paper listed below is not the first example of Ruskamp's finding ancient Chinese inscriptions, and I am not the only reviewer to disagree with Runkamp's interpretations, but I would urge you to go online and check his work out for yourself. I would have found his paper much more credible if it had not been published through the Early Sites Research Society of Independance, Missouri. They have a history of publishing articles that I disagree with (and they, of course, disagree wholeheartedly with me).

So, John, I do not expect to change your mind, and I am pretty sure that you will not change mine. But, keep up your search, the broader the range of ideas we sift and winnow through the more likely we will eventually find the truth.

- And John, as to your complaint that I used your pictures, as I told you I found them all online in a search for public domain pictures - both times.

REFERENCE:

Ruskamp, John A., Jr., with a comment by Stephen C. Jett, 2015-2017, Two Ancient Rock Inscriptions Indicate and Archaic Chinese Presence in the American Southwest, from Pre-Columbiana: A Journal of Long-Distance Contacts, Volume 6, Numbers 2-4, Early Sites Research Society, Independence, Missouri.

IBERIAN COPPER AGE SLATE OWL PLAQUES

 

Copper Age owl plaques. Illustration from Negro et al., 2022. A through f - slate, g - sandstone, h - bone.

From the Chalcolithic/Copper Age of Iberia come a series of absolutely charming figurines of owls, crafted primarily on sheets of slate, but also on other materials such as bone or other stones. Described as palm-sized, these figurines are thus only a few inches high and have been completed with varying degrees of detail and precision.

Copper Age owl plaque. Illustration from Negro et al., 2022. 

Wild little owl (Athene noctua), Valencina de la Concepción, Spain, in 2021,  Photograph Juan J. Negro.

"In the Copper Age, slate engraved plaques were produced massively in the southwestern corner of the Iberian Peninsula. Researcjers jave speculated about the function of these palm-sized stone objects for more than a century, although most have favored the idea that they represent goddesses, and served ritual purposes. The plaques are engraved with different designs of varying complexity. In some of them. the ones sporting two large frontal eyes, we clearly see owls medeled after two species present in the area: the little owl (Athene noctua), and the long-eared owl (Asoi otus)." (Negro et al. 2022)

Copper Age owl plaque. Illustration from Negro et al., 2022. 

Long-eared owl (Asio otus) with erected ear tufts, Valencina de la Concepción, Spain, in 2021,  Photograph Juan J. Negro.

"The engraved slate plaques of southwestern Iberia were crafted in a relatively narrow time window about 5500 to 4750 BP, and rank among the most emblematic and unique objects of the Chalcolithic/Copper Age cultural period. These palm-sized plaques were engraved with geometric patterns and often had a 'head' with two round circles generally described as eyes, and a 'body' below. Most of them had one or two perforations at the top of the head purpostedly used to pass a string. In addition to the flat slate plaques, similar objects carved in sandstone or in mammal bones such as horse phalanges, have been found, also exhibiting a pair of eyes on one of the extremes. About 4000 plaques have been located so far, many on communal graves such as tholos, but also in pits. Today they are dispersed in a multitude of archaeological museums and ethnographic collections, mainly in Spain and Portugal." (Negro et al. 2022) The fact that they were found in the megalithic graves would seem to reinforce the idea that they had some sort of spiritual significance - I believe this is what the authors mean when they say "ritual significance."

Sandstone owl plaque. Illustration from Negro et al., 2022.

"Since the discovery of the first engraved slate plaques, they were ascribed a profound symbolic and ritual purpose. Despite its simplicity, their atristry was also praised and readily compared to other crafts produced in other parts of the Old World, from the Iberian Peninsula to Mesopotamia. Gimbutas visually described the plaques as 'owl goddesses on a trapezoidal plaque of schist', also carved on bones of in pottery. After Gimbutas, only the goddess interpretation remained, and the owl model was forgotten." (Netro et al. 2022) To describe them as profoundly symbolic is a reach. A symbol is something that by association or convention represents something else. Anything pictorial is symbolic, any sign or representation is symbolic. This should come under the category of "it goes without saying."

"This approach assumes that the owl like objects may be the archaeological trace of playful and learning activities carried out by youngsters, who were possibly the largest demographic group and therefore a fundamental part of Chalcolithic society. Ignoring this fact may have led to identifying certain finds as symbolic or ritual when, quite simply, they are the trace of playful behaviors or learning activities. So far, the earlier set of toys may be the one found at the Siberian Upper Paleolithic site of Mal'ta, which included human, bird and other animal figurines. Also in Siberia a human figurine and several animals, have been found at baby graves, dated 4500 years BP in the Bronze Age. Whether or not the Chalcolithic slate plaques can be considered toys will remain speculative, but it is a fact that in ethnographic examples worldwide, many artisan practices, including pottery are learned in childhood." (Negro et al. 2022) While it is true that these artisan practices are learned beginning in childhood, children do not attain the highest level of achievement. This is reached as one is reaching adulthood and has the greatly increased level of experience that comes with not only considerable repitition, but learning self-evaluation and self-criticism. Some of these owl images are masterfully created, it is hard to imagine a child accomplishing that. Additionally, it must be kept in mind that the majority of toys for children are made by the adults in their lives. 

Modern children's owl drawings from Google search used by authors for their comparison.

"To gain support to our hypothesis that the slate plaques and some related objects were children dolls or toys of little ritual value that may have been crafted for young people and not necessarily by experienced artisans of the community, we establish a comparison with owls as seen by contemporary children, taking therefore a n actualistic approach. We assume that the differences in the craftsmanship of the plaques may well result from differences in the technical skill of the engravers associated by age and experience, as we see today in owl drawings depicted by children of different ages. With this in mind, we extracted owl images using Google. We specifically searched for images drawn by children 4 to 13 years-old. We selected 100 drawings in which the age of the children was specified, and generated a score for each image based on the presence/absence of the same six owl traits (i.e., two eyes, feathery ventral area, rostral marks, facial disk, bill and wings) that we described above to evaluate the owliness of the slate plaques. Every recognizable trait adds one point, allowing us to obtain a complexity score for each drawing. We related the score with the age of the children through a Spearman correlation." (Negro et al. 2022)

It seems to me that comparing the output of modern children with works that the authors assume to have been done by children from 5500 to 4750 BP is somewhat of a stretch given differences in culture and technology. Modern children have been absorbing cartoonish representations of owls from the media all of their lives. This reasoning strikes me as comparing apples and ducks.

"Our actualistic approach, in which we resorted to a comparison with owl drawings by contemporary children of different ages clearly reveals two facts: (a) owls are always drawn with the head situated frontally, with the owl's eyes staring at the observer (as if there were no othr ways to depictd an owl), and (b) there is a prograssion related to age in the owliness of the depictions, with more and more owl characters added by older children." (Negro et al. 2022)

This analysis may be overlooking one very important fact in the analysis of works of art. In assuming that the completeness and exactness of detail correlates to the age of the creator the authors are failing to account for the importance of the amount of previous experience involved in the accuracy of any artistic portrayal. Novody starts out as a master craftsman, everybody gets there through repetition and experience. The varying levels of competency would also be visible if one were observing the first and tenth example created by a craftsman of any age.

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 this report you should read the original report listed below.

PRIMARY REFERENCE:

Negro, J. J., Blanco, G., Rodriguez-Rodriguez, E., et al., 2022, Owl-like plaques of the Copper Age and the involvement of children, Sci. Rep. 12, 19277, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-23530-0. Accessed 2 December 2022.

SECONDARY REFERENCE:

Gimbutas, M., 1974, The Goddesses and Gods of Old Europe, University of California Press.