9,000 YEAR OLD PETROGLYPHS COPY DESIGNS OF MEGA-SCALE DESERT ANIMAL TRAPS:

Desert kite at Mafraq, Jordan. Photograph by Yann Arthus-Bertrand.

Gigantic stone constructions from millennia ago can be found in the deserts of the Middle East. These stone assemblies are referred to as “kites” and are immense hunting traps constructed by piling natural stone into large enclosures with converging lanes of stone wall leading into them. These were used by driving prey animals toward the opening of the converging walls which then guide them into the trap where the hunters can harvest them. I have previously written about this kind of hunting trap on RockArtBlog in 2012 and 2015 (see references at the end of this article).

Now, we have been informed of the discovery of petroglyphs which very convincingly have been interpreted as diagrams of two of these “kites.” The name “kite” is believed to have been bestowed upon the large traps by Royal Air Force pilots back in the 1920s who first saw them from the air and reported them.

Desert kite. Photograph from Google Earth.

"For the specific case of 'desert kites', which are prehistoric stone structures used as mega-sized traps to hunt wild animals, the existence of such representations is of the utmost importance for understanding how they wer conceived and perceived in the landscape, at a time when mapping was unknown. We report here the exceptional discovery of the up-to-now oldest realistic plans, engraved on stones, of some of these humanmade archaeological mega-traps, from south-eastern Jordan and northern Saudi Arabia, the oldest of which are dated to 8,000 years ago." (Crassard et al. 2023)

“Desert kites, or simply kites, are gigantic archaeological structures made of stone alignments and walls. Kites are composed of driving lines – from hundreds of meters to 5 km long – converging towards and enclosure, which is surrounded by up to 4-m-deep pits (called ‘pit-traps’, from 1 to more than 20 in number per enclosure) where animals were trapped by hunters. They are the earliest large-scale monuments known to date, dating back to as early as 9,000 years ago, during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B period in Jordan. These massive structures visible from airplanes were first recognized in the 1920s and were quickly interpreted as hunting traps, which was confirmed by recent archaeological excavations.” (de Lazaro 2023)

“In new research, Dr. Remy Crassard, an archaeologist at the Université Lyon and CNRS, and colleagues examined two engravings — dated to between 7,000 and 8,000 years old — that depict nearby desert kites in south-eastern Jordan and northern Saudi Arabia.

“In Jordan, the Jibal al-Khasabiyeh area has eight kites,” the researchers said.” (de Lazaro 2023)

“Two large, engraved stones found in the Middle East display the oldest known building plans drawn to scale, researchers say. One carved depiction covers part of a rectangular stone found at a Jordanian campsite dating to about 9,000 years ago. Two other engravings were made roughly 8,000 years ago on a boulder discovered at the base of a cliff in Saudi Arabia. Carvings on these stones depict nearby desert kites, massive structures once used to capture animal herds, scientists report May 17 in PLOS ONE. Desert kites consist of stone walls up to five kilometers long that narrow into large enclosures surrounded by pits where hunters trapped animals, such as gazelles and deer. Kite depictions at the two sites closely resemble the shape, layout and proportions of desert kites found close by, archaeologist Remy Crassard and colleagues say.” (Bower 2023) These petroglyphs do seem to resemble nearby kites which has led to their being touted as ‘blueprints” or ‘construction plans’.

Desert kite in Jibal al-Khashabiyeh region, Jordan. Image Crassard et al., PONE, 2023. 

Petroglyph of the desert kite in Jibal al-Khashabiyeh region, Jordan. Image Crassard et al., PONE, 2023.

Diagram of the petroglyph of the desert kite in Jibal al-Khashabiyeh region, Jordan. Image Crassard et al., PONE, 2023. 

“One engraving depicting a kite is carved onto a rock roughly 80 centimeters long and 32 centimeters wide. Archaeologists found it in 2015 in an ancient campsite beside a kite in the Jordanian desert’s Jibal al-Khashabiyeh region.” (Metcalf 2023)

Desert kite in Jebal Az-Zilliyat region of northern Saudi Arabia. Image Crassard et al., PONE, 20023.

Diagram of desert kite in Jebel Az-Zilliyat region of northern Saudi Arabia. Image Crassard et al., PONE, 2023.

Petroglyph of desert kite in Jebel Az-Zilliyat region of northern Saudi Arabia. Image Crassard et al., PONE, 2023.

"A second engraving, found in 2015 during a survey of the Jebel az-Zilliyat escarpment in Saudi Arabia, is inscribed on a sandstone boulder more than three meters wide and two meters high. The boulder sits midway between two pairs of star-shaped desert kites that correspond to the engraving. The entrances to each pair of kites are close togethr, suggesting hunters could try to trap a herd regardless of which way the animals fled." (Metcalf 2023)  Some doubters point to the low height of the stone walls as casting doubt on the idea that they would direct an animal's travel. Of course, over 9,000 years most stone walls are somewhat eroded and fallen so they would probably have been higher originally. Additionally, in my 2015 article on the drive lines on Rollins Pass, Colorado, I cited Dr. James Benedict who told me that he once observed a small herd of elk coming upslope and reaching a drive line only one stone high, but that diverted the herd and instead of just stepping over the line they turned and followed the line on uphill.

All of the press coverage on these discoveries seems to assume that they are “blueprints” or “plans” for recreating the hunting traps. While that is a fun idea, I don’t buy it. The scale and/or shapes of the hunting trap will be determined by the local geology and the mental design of its creators, not some picture on a rock. They would have no use for a ‘blueprint’ or ‘plan.’ I am much more sympathetic to the idea that the petroglyphs are celebrations or memorials to the completion of what was obviously a major effort, the construction of the hunting trap. Sort of a “look what we did,” like the bronze plaque in the lobby of a major building. Their resemblance to particular kites nearby seems to me to back up that interpretation. And, given the scale of these kites, the completion of one would have been a reason to celebrate.

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:

Benedict, James, 1985, personal communication.

Bower, Bruce, 2023, The oldest scaled-down drawings of actual structures go back 9,000 years, 17 May 2023, https://www.sciencenews.org. Accessed online 18 May 2023.

Crassard, Remy et al., 2023, The oldest plans to scale of human made mega-structures, 17 May 2023. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0277927. Accessed online 18 May 2023.

De Lazaro, Enrico, 2023, Neolithic Engravings are Oldest Architectural Plans of Human Made Mega-Structures, 18 May 2923, https://www.sci.news/archaeology/desert-kite-plans-11926.html. Accessed online 18 May 2023.

Faris, Peter, 2012, A Bighorn Sheep Trap Petroglyph Near Moab, 9 June 2012, https://rockartblog.blogspot.com.

Faris, Peter, 2015, Stone Blinds and Drivelines – Rollins Pass, CO, 14 February 2015, https://rockartblog.blogspot.com.

Metcalf, Tom, 2023, Stone Engravings of Mysterious Ancient Megastructures May Be The World’s Oldest Blueprints, 17 May 2023, https://www.scientificamerican.com. Accessed online 18 May 2023.

57,000 YEAR OLD NEANDERTHAL CAVE MARKINGS IN LA ROCHE-COTARD:

Entrance to La Roche-Cotard Cave, France. Photograph from ancientorigins.net.

The mask of La Roche-Cotard. Image courtesy Wikipedia.

On 19 November 2022 I posted a column titled A Neanderthal Mystery – The Mask of La Roche-Cotard. This discussed a mysterious artifact from that cave, attributed to Neanderthal occupation comprising a flake of flint shaped like a face with a piece of bone shoved through a natural hole looking somewhat like eyes (Faris 2022). In this column I am presenting a study (Marquet et al. 2023) that discusses finger flutings and other marks made in La Roche-Cotard by Neanderthals dated to approximately 57,000 BCE.

The Pillar Chamber, La Roche-Cotard, France. From Marquet et al., 2023, Photogrammetry by Y Egals, journal.pone.

“Today, the cave of La Roche-Cotard comprises four main chambers extending ESE-WNW for 33 m: the Mousterian Gallery, the Lemmings Chamber, the Pillar Chamber and the Hyena Chamber. In the back of the Hyena Chamber, collapse of the ceiling prevents the determination of the exact extent of the ancient cavity.” (Marquet et al. 2023) And now we have to wonder what might be behind the collapsed ceiling.

“The site of La Roche-Cotard is in Indre-et-Loire, in the commune of Langeais, France. Discovered in January 1912, the cave is on the south-facing slope on the right bank of the Loire. The entrance is at the back of a small rocky cirque, only a few meters above the top of the river’s modern embankment. The cave comprises a narrow gallery, a tunnel some 10 m (33 feet) long and three wider chambers, extending around 40 m (131 feet) in all.” (De Lazaro 2023)

Circular panel, La Roche-Cotard. Image from journal.pone.

“Following human occupation, the cave was completely sealed by cold-period sediments, which prevented access until its discovery in the 19^th century and first excavation in the early 20^th century. - In 1846, La Roche-Cotard cave entrance was exposed during quarrying and in 1912, the site owner François d’Achon excavated almost all the inner sedimentary deposits. Only Mousterian lithic artefacts were discovered within the cave; no later-period material was found. Subsequent excavation, in the 1970s and from 2008 onwards, identified three additional loci close to the cave.” (Marquet et al. 2023) In Europe, the Mousterian industry is associated with Neanderthal occupation.

Dotted panel, La Roche-Cotard. Image from journal.pone.

“The team first dated samples of cave sediment using a technique called optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating, which determines the time since sedimentary grains were last exposed to daylight. They concluded that the cave had been sealed off by sediment brought in by the flooding of the Loire around 57,000 years ago, well before Homo sapiens made their way into the region. Stratigraphic dating yielded an earlier date of around 75,000 years ago, which would make this "the oldest decorated cave in France, if not Europe," the authors wrote. Since the only stone tools found in the cave over the last century are those associated with Neanderthals, that provides two lines of evidence in support of the hypothesis that Neanderthals created the finger flutings.” (Ouellette 2023) In other words, if the only evidence of occupation of this cave is Neanderthals, then the wall markings must be Neanderthal as well.

Triangular panel, La Roche-Cotard. Image from journal.pone.

“Marquet et al. also modeled the entire cave with photogrammetry to more precisely locate the engravings and to carefully distinguish between the different kinds of traces. They focused on the suspected finger flutings for further analysis, then drew reproductions of the panels and carefully noted their detailed observations. The team concluded that the marks were deliberate, organized, and intentional shapes—arch-shaped tracings, for example, or two contiguous tracings forming sinuous lines.” (Ouellette 2023) Organized and intentional shapes created before anatomically Human entrance into Europe would only be attributed to Hominin presence, in other words, Neanderthal.

Cave bear (Ursos spelaeus). Image by Patrick Burgler.

Eurasian badger (Meles meles). Internet image, public domain.

“The numerous marks on the soft surface layers of the walls of have been categorized according to origin: those made by humans must be distinguished from those made by animals, as well as those arising from local geochemical alteration (surface dissolution, disintegration, dehydration), and minor chemical deposits (concretions). Animal claw marks, attributable to Ursus sp., Meles sp. and other species, can be identified by their characteristic spacing and incision angle. But alongside these numerous, randomly distributed animal scratch marks, there are also a number of elongated or dotted, spatially organized marks. These organized marks are found only on the 13 m long north-east wall of the pillar chamber (shown with a blue line in. They have distinct geometric shapes and are often grouped into panels separated by groups of smaller marks. Analysis based on the width, incision angle and depth of 116 marks revealed two statistically distinct groups: 32 with features consistent with claw marks, and 84 most likely of anthropogenic origin. Those identified as claw marks are thinner, deeper and have a V-shaped cross-section, whereas the presumed ancient spatially organized marks are mostly wider, shallower, and U-shaped, consistent with the morphology of a fingertip or similarly shaped tool. However, the rectangular panel is clearly separated, first from the two panels made with fingers and secondly separated from the claw marks.” (Marquet et al. 2023) Not only do we have the marks left by Neanderthals, we have marks left by bears and badgers – bear and badger rock art?

Linear panel, La Roche-Cotard. Image from journal.pone.

“The attribution to Neanderthal of the graphic productions at La Roche-Cotard pays tribute to this lost humanity, whose role in the biological and cultural evolution of humans is undergoing profound revision. In terms of culture, we now have a better understanding of the plurality of Neanderthal activities, attesting to elaborate and organized social behaviours that show no obvious differences from those of their contemporaries, Anatomically Modern Humans, south of the Mediterranean.” (Marquet et al 2023)

Undulated panel, La Roche-Cotard. Image from journal.pone.

Note the last line of that quote “organized social behaviours that show no obvious differences from those of their contemporaries, Anatomically Modern Humans, south of the Mediterranean.” I am personally uncomfortable with the part about “no obvious differences” because I believe there are many obvious differences. From their tools, to their social interactions and personal adornment, we find traces of differences, but they are cultural differences. Notice I said cultural – because I do not think that any of them indicate differences in potential from those contemporaries. I believe that the Neanderthals had localized cultures in just the same way modern Human societies do. In other locations we have found Neanderthals using paint in caves, or incising petroglyphs into the rock with stone tools. In La Roche-Cotard their creative expression was to leave finger fluting.

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:

De Lazaro, Enrico, 2023, 57,000-Year-Old Neanderthal Engravings Discovered in France, 22 June 2023, https://sci.news. Accessed online 22 June 2023.

Faris, Peter, 2022, A Neandertal Mystery – The Mask of La Roche-Cotard, 19 November 2022, RockArtBlog, https://www.blogger.com.

Marquet, Jean-Claude et al., 2023, The earliest unambiguous Neanderthal engravings on cave walls: La Roche-Cotard, Loire Valley, France, 21 June 2023, https:journals.plos.org/plosone/. Accessed online 22 June 2023.

A SMALL STONE CARVED WITH A VIKING SHIP MAY BE THE OLDEST PICTURE IN ICELAND

Carved sandstone showing Viking ship in full sail, from Stöð, Iceland. Credit, The Landnámsskáli group in Stöð.

Iceland had no native indigenous population before European discovery and settlement by the Norse in the second half of the 9^th century, approximately 874 CE. Now archaeologists have found a small round piece of sandstone carved with a picture of a Viking ship. “The stone was found at the archaeological site of Stöð in East Iceland in a longhouse that is believed to predate the permanent settlement of the island.” (Ciric 2023) This means, of course, that there should be no prehistoric rock art.

Viking longhouse excavation, Stöð, Iceland. Photograph Bjarni Einarsson.

“The first exploratory digs at Stöð were made in 2015 and archaeologists have returned every summer since to continue excavating the site, where they first focused their efforts on a settlement-era longhouse. ‘The longhouse is among the largest found in Iceland, 31.4m [103 ft] long. In Scandinavia, only chieftains’ farms had longhouses larger than 28m [92 ft]. It is also the richest longhouse ever excavated in Iceland. We have found 92 beads and 29 silver objects, including Roman and Middle Eastern coins,’ Bjarni F. Einarsson told Iceland Review for a 2020 article on the archaeological site.” (Ciric 2023) This provides a striking illustration as to how cosmopolitan the Vikings really were. Even in this out-of-the-way place there were artifacts from varying cultures throughout much of the known world.

 One of the longhouses excavated at the site, Stöð, Iceland. Photograph Bjarni Einarsson.

“What makes the site still more significant is that archaeologists discovered an even older longhouse underneath the settlement-era longhouse, estimated to date back to around 800 AD, some 75 years before permanent settlement of Iceland. The most striking feature of the older structure is the conspicuous absence of the bones of domesticated animals. ‘My theory is that the older longhouse was a seasonal hunting camp, operated by a Norwegian chief who outfitted voyages to Iceland to gather valuables and bring them back across the sea to Norway,’ Bjarni told Iceland Review. One of these valuables may have been walrus ivory: in 2019 DNA analyses and radiocarbon dating confirmed that Iceland was previously inhabited by a North Atlantic subspecies of walrus, now extinct.” (Ciric 2023)

Much of the ivory used in Medieval Europe was walrus ivory supplied through trade with the Vikings. “New finds of walrus bone and ivory in early Viking Age contexts in Iceland suggest exploitation of nearby walrus for meat, hide and ivory that appears to have driven local Icelandic walrus populations to extinction.

Current evidence suggests that walrus hunting and ivory extraction was a significant activity for early settlers in Iceland, and was probably not limited only to the best-known areas of the south-west coast.

The new excavations and zooarchaeological work appear to support the notion of an initial settlement of at least parts of Iceland driven and ‘financed’ by walrus hunting and connections to Viking Age exchange networks.

As a preliminary conclusion it seems that we can now refine the ‘trading hypothesis’ by verifying or disproving that walrus ivory in north-west European exchange networks may be Icelandic c. 850–1000 CE, but increasingly Greenlandic from 1000 CE onwards.” (Frei et al. 2015)

So Ciric (2023) is proposing that this earlier pre-colonization  longhouse/hunting camp may have existed to hunt walrus ivory before the Iceland walrus was driven to extinction by overhunting.

But the subject of this column is the small engraved piece of sandstone found in the walls of the older longhouse.

“The small but remarkable sandstone featuring a Viking ship with its sails unfurled was found in the walls of the older longhouse, Bjarni told reporters. Such carvings of ships, made in bone, wood, and stone, are fairly common artefacts in the Nordic countries, he stated, but this is the first ever found in Iceland and is likely the oldest picture of any kind ever found on the island.

Trade beads, Stöð, Iceland. Photograph Bjarni Einarsson.

This spring, archaeologists used survey equipment to scan a larger area around Stöð and found indications of still more structures and boat burial sites. While there is much that is unknown about the early settlement of Iceland, the amount of beads, coins, and silver found at Stöð certainly suggests significant wealth and trade.” (Ciric 2023)

Hnefaltafl game board and pieces, Online image, public domain.

Wherever they roamed, whether for trade, colonization, or raiding, Vikings carried with them an important element of their culture, the board game known as hnefaltafl.

Carved stone hnefaltafl game board, Online image, public domain.

"Over the past 150 years, excavators have unearthed large quantities of gaming material from Viking boat burials. Dating from the 7th to the 11th centuries, most of it consists of checker-like pieces constructed from glass, whale bone, or amber. These pieces range from ordinary discs to ornate figurines and are usually uniform in shape and size, save for one prominent king piece, known as the hnefi. The archaeologist Mark Hall recently chronicled the contents of 36 burials containing such pieces in a 2016 article for the European Journal of Archaeology. This material, he says, indicates the game was much more than a frivilous way to kill time between raids. 'Its presence in these burials suggests it was an aspect of everyday life that was desirable to see continued,' he says, as well as 'a significant element that helped define the status of the deceased." (Crown 2018) In other words hnefaltafl seems to have had a ritual or ceremonial element as well as just recreational. Between its recreational popularity, and its ritual/ceremonial importance it seems to have been ubiquitous in the Viking world.

"That archaeologists and game historians can confidently make such claims is a testimony to more than 100 years of painstaking research. Indeed, until the early 20th century, few scholars differentiated hnefatafl from other contemporary board games. Early published editions of the Sagas relied upon wildly disparate translations of medieval Iclandic texts,, with also confused the matter. Because the oldest extant copies of these documents often refer to the gam as 'Tafl' - a Germanic word denoting 'board' or table'  - translators regularly mistook references to it for generic allusions to chess." (Crown 2018)

Carved sandstone showing Viking ship in full sail, from Stöð, Iceland. Credit, The Landnámsskáli group in Stöð.

Early assumptions that hnefatafl somehow developed from contact with cultures that played chess have been proven wrong, indeed, some claim that the Viking game preceded chess. In any case, their origins are hard to pin down and they were played side-by-side in some cultures.

"Tafl games (pronounced [tavl], also known as hnefatafl games) are a family of ancient Northern European strategy board games played on a checkered or latticed gameboard with two armies of uneven numbers. Most probably they are based upon the Roman game Ludus latrunculorum." (Wikipedia)

So, we have a very early Viking residence in Icelend, apparently there some time before the actual period of settlement by Europeans, and in excavating it a small piece of sandstone was found hiddenn in the wall as it it were important enough to keep concealed. It is my suggestion that perhaps the small piece is a prized game piecer, and logically the game would have been hnefaltafl, the Viking board game. Now, being made from sandstone it would not have been valued so much for its material, but Vikings were very superstitious by today's standards. Maybe this piece was prized for the number of games it won, much like a boy playing marbles today prizes his winning shooter almost superstitiously.

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:

Ciric, Jelena, 2023, Stone Carved With Viking Ship May Be Oldest Picture Ever Found in Iceland, 15 June 2023, https://www.icelandreview.com. Accessed online 17 June 2023.

Crown, Daniel, 2018, The Board Game at the Heart of Viking Culture, 26 June 2018, https://atlasobscura.com. Accessed online 24 June 2023.

Frei, Karin M. et al., 2015, Was it for walrus? Viking Age settlement and medieval walrus ivory trade in Iceland and Greenland, Taylor & Francis, ISSN 0043-8243. Accessed online 24 June 2023.

Wikipedia, Tafl Games, https://en.wikipedia.org. Accessed online 25 June 2023.

FORESHORTENING ON MAGDALENIAN BONE CARVINGS:

Grotte de la Vache, Ariege, France. Internet image, public domain.

In my column for 28 April 2023, titled “Foreshortening In Rock Art,” I discussed examples of San rock art in Africa that exhibited beautifully controlled examples of the perspective technique of foreshortening.

In that aforementioned column I wrote “Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary (2023) defines foreshortening as ‘to shorten by proportionately contracting in the direction of depth so that an illusion of projection or extension in space is obtained.’ What this means, in effect, is that the lines representing dimensions extending toward or away from the viewer are shortened to conform with the dictates of perspective which says that the more perpendicular the line or edge is to your position the shorter it will appear as it recedes from your position toward the ‘vanishing point’.” (Faris 2023)

I summed up that column with “all of these examples are believed to have been produced by San artists at unknown dates, and illustrate an amazing attention to detail as well as a sophistication in presentation. These so-called primitives were effectively using an art technique supposedly discovered by the famous artists of Renaissance history. Examples may be found from other rock art traditions, but, it is a technique that is quite advanced in visual portrayal, and thus relatively rare.” (Faris 2023) I should have known better than to make such a pronouncement on the rarity of it because I have since found examples on Magdalenian bone carvings from European caves of 17,000 – 12,000 years ago. These particular examples may not be as finely done as some of the San examples from last April’s column, but they are untold thousands of years older illustrating again the high level of achievement and knowledge of Magdalenian artists.

Grotte de la Vache, Ariege, France. Illustation www.megalithic.co.uk.

“Grotte de la Vache (Cave of the Cow) is the smallest of the prehistoric caves at Ariege, which are open to the public. The remains of (in?) this cave date between 15,000 and 12,000 years old. The most important chamber of the cave is called Monique, where a complete camp of the hunters was excavated. After 20 years of work it was possible to reconstruct the whole camp. This includes weaponry, tools, typical game and of course the artworks.” (Showcaves)

 

Bone fragment with cave lions, Grotte de la Vache, Ariege, France. Illustation Don Hitchcock, donsmaps.com, 2014.

Bone fragment with reindeer, Grotte de la Vache, Ariege, France. Illustation Don Hitchcock, donsmaps.com, 2014.

Bone fragment with humans, Grotte de la Vache, Ariege, France. Illustation Don Hitchcock, donsmaps.com, 2014.

“The main discoveries at La Vache were sculpted bones and ivory. There were also uncountable Magdalenian tools, arrowheads and other debris. So this was the place where the artists of Bedeilhac actually lived. So the cave is today actually a sort of cave archaeology museum. The most spectacular discovery is a fragment of bone with engraved cave lions, and a second bone with two wolves facing one another. Then there is a bone with two reindeer, one sniffing the other. Another bone shows ibex in profile and face on. Even human silhouettes and some symbols were found.” (Showcaves) Grotte Bedeilhac is a nearby painted cave which also contained some finely carved bone figures. The author of this reference is suggesting that the people who painted the walls of Grotte Bedeilhac actually resided at Grotte de la Vache. From the excavation reports we know that someone did reside there, but we cannot know that it was the same group as the cave artists of Grotte Bedeilhac.

"Initiation" bone close-up. Internet image, public domain.

"Initiation bone" with carved images unrolled. Photograph Delporte, 1993.

  

"Initiation bone" scene, bird bone, Upper Magdelenian, Cave of La Vache, Ariege, France. Internet image, public domain. 

I have examples of four different bone carvings from Grotte de la Vache with examples of animals portrayed as if facing directly away from the viewer, in other words foreshortened. The most famous has been dubbed the “initiation bone” as its discoverers interpreted its scene as a record of some sort of ceremony. On what has been reported as a bird bone, from the left we can see a group of six humans. In the center is a prominent male horse with breath indicated. Under the horse’s tail we see a bear facing directly out at the viewer (foreshortening) and under the horse’s neck is a fish. Directly to the right of the fish is a view of the head, neck and back of an ibex facing away from the viewer (more foreshortening), and on the right some swoosh marks.

Ibex, Cave of La Vache, Ariege, France. Illustration Don Hitchcock, www.donsmaps.com, 2014.

In another example a piece of bone has the head and neck of an ibex facing to the left with the head, neck and back of another ibex facing away from the viewer (more foreshortening), and at least two more highly stylized ibex also facing away to the left.

Carved bone, La Vache, Ariege, France. Internet image, public domain.

Another piece of carved bone is decorated with a group of wolves, with one wolf on the far right of the design looking tantalizingly straight out at the viewer.

       

Carved bone, La Vache, Ariege, France. Internet image, public domain.

Closeup of carved bone showing foreshortened ibex and reindeer, La Vache, Ariege, France. Internet image, public domain.

My final example is shaped like a tent peg and then engraved with designs including a reindeer on the far left, and what appear to be again two foreshortened animals just to the right of center, apparently an ibex and another reindeer. Additional engravings are farther to the right.

Finding examples of such forced perspective techniques from that early age has been a pleasant surprise. We all know of the marvelous artistic productions of the Magdalenian period but I really did not expect this. The human creative ability is absolutely marvelous. What will we find next?

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:

Captain, The, 2005, Grotte de La Vache, 10 February 2005, https://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=9579. Accessed online 5 June 2023.

Faris, Peter, 2023, Foreshortening in Rock Art, 28 April 2023, https://rockartblog.blogspot.com/search/label/foreshortening.

Hitchcock, Don, Grotte de la Vache in the Pyrenees was home for the artists of Niaux Cave, https://www.donsmaps.com/grottevache.html, Accessed online 5 June 2023.

Showcaves, La Grotte de la Vache, The Cave of the Cow, https://showcaves.com/english/fr/showcaves/Vache.html. Accessed 5 June 2023.

 

MIGHT THIS ACTUALLY BE HOMO NALEDI ROCK ART?

Possible Homo naledi rock art panel. Rising Star Cave, Cradle of Humankind, South Africa. Image by ABC News.

Pretty much anyone who is interested in archaeology has heard of the 2015 discovery of the new hominin species Homo naledi by Lee Berger. I am not going to take in the time and space here to go through the whole story of their discovery. For the few of you who do not know about Homo naledi there is a wealth of information online, or in my references below.

“Some 25 miles outside of Johannesburg, South Africa, there is a famous paleoanthropological site known as the Cradle of Humankind. So many hominin bones were found in the region that it was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1999. Among the many limestone caves in the region is the Rising Star cave, where cavers discovered fossils representing a new hominin speciies, Homo naledi, in 2015. Only H. naledi remains were found in the cave, suggesting the possibility that the bodies had been placed there deliberately, although this hypothesis proved to be a bit controversial.” (Oullette 2023) The whole point of this is that H. naledi had a brain one-third the size of a human brain. It was roughly the size of a chimpanzee brain which suggests that  behavior such as deliberately placing the body of a deceased member in a chamber of the cave was unexpected to say the least.

Close-up of Panel A, possible Homo naledi rock art panel. Rising Star Cave, Cradle of Humankind, South Africa. Image by ABC News.

“Now the same expedition team has announced the discovery of H. naledi bodies deposited in fetal positions, indication intentional burials. This predates the earliest known burials by Homo sapiens by at least 100,000 years, suggesting that brain size might not be the definitive factor behind such complex behavior. The team also found crosshatched symbols engraved on the walls of the cave that could date as far back as 241,000 – 335,000 years, although testing is still ongoing.” (Oullette 2035) Now this is even more perplexing, this creature was scooping out a rough depression in the soil in the cave and placing the body in a fetal position. This is not just depositing the body in a cave, this suggests some sort of ceremonial or ritual behavior. And now, add to that the fact that purposely produced markings were made on the cave walls by this being at that early date and we have a remarkable discovery.

“We are facing a remarkable discovery here’ for a species with brains one-third the size of humans, said anthropologist Lee Berger, who led the research funded by the National Geographic Society, where he now works. Berger and colleagues describe their findings in studies posted online Monday. The research has not been peer-reviewed yet and some outside scientists think more evidence is needed to challenge what we know about how humans evolved their complex thinking.” (Burakoff 2035) Apparently that capacity existed in our evolutionary line far earlier than we realized.

“The interments predate the earliest known Homo sapiens burials by at least 100,000 years, making the Rising Star burials some of the most ancient in the hominin record and indicating that burials might not have been limited to H. sapiens or other hominins with larger brain sizes.” (National Geographic Blog 2023) The fact that some of the bodies were placed in a fetal position in a scooped out depression suggests ritual or ceremonial treatment.

“The oldest known H. sapiens grave dates to about 78,300 years ago in Africa. Contested Neandertal graves in Iraqi Kurdistan are roughly 70,000 to 60,000 years old. In South Africa’s Blombos Cave, a crosshatched design on a rock dates to around 73,000 years ago and geometric patterns incised on pigment pieces date to as early as about 100,000 years ago.” (Bower 2023)

Another possible Homo naledi rock art panel. Rising Star Cave, Cradle of Humankind, South Africa. Image by Nat. Geo.

Now, as to the rock art, the cross-hatching patterns are not in and of themselves very interesting, but, the fact that they may have been created by hominins 300,000 years ago certainly is. And, in the one view there are what appear to be some pretty interesting geometrics on the left side.

“There’s still a lot to uncover,’ said Rick Potts, director of the Smithsonian’s Human Origins Program who was not involved in the research. H. naledi is a pretty new addition to the family tree of hominins, which includes our direct ancestors and other extinct relatives who walked on two legs. Berger and his team announced the species in 2015, after a tip from local spelunkers led them to the Rising Star cave system near Johannesburg where they discovered fossils from at least 15 individuals who lived around 300,000 years ago. These creatures had some traits in common with modern humans, like legs made for walking upright and hands that could work with objects, said University of Wisconsin-Madison anthropologist John Hawks, a member of the research team. But other features looked more ancient, including their small brains.” (Burakoff 2035)

We know that chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and bonobos (Pan paniscus) are aware of death, and even seem to grieve for lost friends and family members, but as far as we know they would not be capable of the sort of ritual behavior that H. naledi has expressed in their treatment of their dead, as well as their marking the cave wall. As far as I know there have never been any reports of chimps or bonobos creating rock art. Can it be possible that there is a difference in the cognitive processes between the Hominid line and the Pan line that existed that far back in our prehistory. Do these markings in some way refer to their dead friends and relatives whom they ritually interred nearby? Is this, perhaps, the difference that would have once been referred to as our soul?

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:

Bower, Bruce, 2023, Homo naledi were burying their dead at least 100,000 years before humans, https://www.sciencenews.org. Accessed online 5 June 2023.

Burakoff, Maddie, 2023, Small-brained ancient human cousins may have buried their dead, according to a surprising study, 5 June 2023, https://news.yahoo.com. Accessed online 5 June 2023.

National Geographic Blog, 2023, New Evidence Suggests Intentional Burials and Use of Symbols by Other Hominins Hundreds of Thousands of Years Before Homo Sapiens, 5 June 2023, https://blog.nationalgeographic.org. Accessed online 5 June 2023.

Ouellette, Jennifer, 2023, Homo naledi were burying their dead at least 100,000 years before humans, 5 June 2023, https://arstechnica.com. Accessed online 5 June 2023.