TRAINING AI TO DETERMINE THE GENDER OF THE MAKERS OF FINGER FLUTING ON CAVE WALLS:

Finger fluting from Gargas Cave, France. Photograph 2002 by Jean Clottes.

A couple of weeks ago I wrote again about determining the gender of the maker of a handprint by ratios of finger lengths. Well, staying with the hand, this column is about a project that attempted to train a maching learning (ML) program to determing the gender of the makers of finger fluting. We are all probably aware of finger fluting in caves, it is found all over the world, but it has always been somewhat peripheral to the subject of cave art itself. It is, however, purposeful markings made by people on the cave walls so it needs to be covered in any consideration of cave art. Various examples have been attributed to Neandertals, as well as Homo sapiens men, women and children. Now, a team in Australia is using artificial intelligence to try to clarify the makers of these marks.

Finger fluting believed to be by children, Rouffignac Cave, France. Internet image, public domain.

“Flutings have the potential to reveal information about age, sex, height, handedness and idiosyncratic markmaking choices among unique individuals who form part of larger communities of practice. However, previous methods for making any determination about the individual artist from finger flutings have been shown to be unreliable4. Accordingly, we propose a novel digital archaeology approach to begin understanding this enigmatic form of rock art by leveraging machine learning (ML) as a tool for uncovering patterns from two datasets, one tactile and one virtual, collected from a modern population. We aimed to determine whether ML can reveal subtle differences in the sex of the artist based on their finger-fluted images.” (Jalandoni et al. 2025:1) In other words they will attempt to have machine learning programs learn to distinguish information like gender and age by analyzing finger fluting created by volunteers. If successful, this could then be applied to finger fluting in cave walls to learn more about the persons who originally created the marks.

Neanderthal finger fluting, Noire Valley, France. Photograph by Jean Claude Marquet.

“Experiments were conducted - both with adult participants in a tactile setup and using VR headsets in a custom-built program – to explore whether image-recognition methods could learn enough from finger fluting images made by modern people to identify the sex of the person who created them.” (Lock and Egan 2025:1) The team had participants actually make finger flutings in clay as well as virtually while being videotaped. “Two controlled experiments with 96 adult participants were conducted with each person creating nine flutings twice: once on a moonmilk clay substitute developed to mimic the look and feel of cave surfaces and once in virtual reality (VR) using Meta Quest 3. Images were taken of all the flutings, which were then curated and two common image-recognition models were trained on them. (Lock and Egan 2025:1-2)

Additional finger fluting from Rouffignac Cave, France. Internet image, public domain.

Disappointingly, the tests did not produce reliable results. “The VR images did not yield reliable sex classification; even when accuracy looked acceptable in places, overall discrimination and balance were weak. But the tactile images performed much better. ‘Under one training condition, models reached about 84% accuracy, and one model achieved a relatively strong discrimination score.’ Dr. Tuxworth said. However, the models did learn patterns specific to the dataset; for example, subtle artifacts of the setup, rather than robust features of fluting that would hold elsewhere, which meant there was more work to be done.” (Lock and Egan 2025:1-2) Doctor Gervase Tuxworth is one of the experimental team that conducted this study. His statement suggests that the test results were highly variable.

“Overall, the deep learning models achieved high accuracy during training, with AUC values exceeding 0.85 for certain tactile image conditions. These results suggest that the models effectively learned patterns within the tactile dataset and demonstrated strong discrimination between male and female-generated finger fluting images. However, the relatively lower AUC values for virtual images, coupled with their unstable test accuracy, indicate that they do not provide sufficiently distinct features for reliable sex classification. This discrepancy highlights the greater robustness of tactile images over virtual images in capturing relevant classification features. Despite the promising performance on tactile images, deep learning models exhibited a pronounced disparity between training and test performance. While training accuracy consistently increased, reaching near-perfect levels in the later epochs, test accuracy remained unstable and showed no substantial improvement over time. This pattern indicates overfitting, where the models effectively learn dataset-specific features but fail to generalize to unseen test data.” (Jalandoni et al. 2025:10) I find the previous paragraph somewhat confusing. It states “accuracy consistently increased, reaching near-perfect levels” and “accuracy remained unstable and showed no substantial improvement” in two contiguous sentences. In any case, the team did not get reliable results.

Finger fluting in Koonalda Cave, Australia, Photograph 1979, by Robert Bednarik. 

There are a number of possible sources of inaccuracy in the test results. “The instability in test accuracy further suggests that the models struggle to extract robust and generalizable patterns from the finger fluting images, ultimately limiting their reliability for sex classification. A possible contributing factor to this challenge could be individual variation in hand size and fluting characteristics. For example, some females may have larger hands and exhibit stronger fluting patterns resembling those of males, while some males may have smaller hands and display lighter, less pronounced fluting strength. This variability could confuse the model, making it difficult to accurately differentiate between sexes and ultimately hindering its performance on the test set. These results underscore the critical need to increase the dataset size to alleviate overfitting and improve the model’s generalizability. Moreover, the inherent variability in finger fluting images may impose fundamental limitations on the feasibility of using deep learning for sex classification, suggesting that alternative approaches or additional contextual data may be necessary to enhance classification accuracy. The limited success of the tactile data in sex prediction underscores the importance of material-based approaches in understanding finger flutings. While the VR data failed to provide useful results, it opens up new and exciting possibilities for exploring the dynamic aspects of fluting and artistic intent in the future. While a modest achievement, this study highlights the potential of ML to enhance traditional archaeological methods”. (Jalandoni et al. 2025:10) Not every try is guaranteed success.

So, this test did not manage to display reliable accuracy, too many variables in the creation of finger fluting seemingly overwhelmed the software. Also, the experiment apparently did not include children, and it is thought that much finger fluting, at least in European cave contexts, was created by children. If successful, this project would have been a really wonderful development but, alas, it was not to be. Better luck next time.

NOTE: Some images in this column 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:

Andrea Jaladoni, Robert Haubt, Calum Farrar, Gervase Tuxworth , Zhongyi Zhang , Keryn Walshe and April Nowell, 2025, Using digital archaeology and machine learning to determine sex in finger flutings, Scientific Reports, 15:34842. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-18098-4. Accessed online 12 October 2025.

Lock, Lisa, and Robert Egan, 2025, VR experiments train AI to identify ancient finger-fluting artists, 16 October 2025, The GIST, by Griffith University, https://phys.org/news/2025-10-vr-ai-ancient-finger-fluting.html.

 

ASSEMBLED FRAGMENTS OF THE WORLD’S OLDEST DATED RUNESTONE:

Assembled Svingerud rune stone with drawings. Image from Solheim et al., 2025.

Fragments of sandstone recovered from several graves in Svingerud, Norway have been reassembled into a single stone with runic inscriptions that have yielded the earliest known date for such an inscription. Various references read so far from the stone are Svingerud and Hole (a small village nearby).

It is believed that the idea of runic writing, of recording their language by making marks on a surface, was inspired by writing from somewhere around the Mediterranean. The shapes of the runes were, however, independently invented, not copied from Mediterranean examples.

“The development of runic writing (the early Germanic alphabetic script) and the practice of inscribing runes on stone are difficult to trace, particularly as rune-stone inscriptions are rarely found in original and/or datable contexts. The discovery of several inscribed sandstone fragments at the grave field at Svingerud, Norway, with associated radiocarbon dates of 50 BC–AD 275, now provide the earliest known context for a runestone. An unusual mixture of runes and other markings are revealed as the fragments are reconstructed into a single standing stone, suggesting multiple episodes of inscription and providing insight into early runic writing practices in Iron Age Scandinavia.” (Solheim et al. 2025:422) What is so fascinating is that it was broken up and the fragments distributed like this with at least one found in a grave.

Runic inscription. Photograph by Alexis Panto KHM.

I think that the context of the discovery suggests that runic writing and the stone upon which it had been inscribed, must have been considered especially significant to the people of that time and place.

“In a flat grave beneath one of the grave mounds,a sandstone fragment with runes from the older futhark was uncovered. Five radiocarbon dates and artifacts included in the burial suggest that the grave dates to the Roman Iron Age, between 50 BC and AD 275. Additional sandstone fragments with runes were discovered in other contexts during the excavations. Detailed examination confirms that the fragments are all from the same original slab while the inscriptions may represent different acts of carving. In this first comprehensive archaeological and runological study of the Svingerud find, we piece together the finds made during different seasons of excavation and drawn from different dating contexts, and assess the multiple inscriptions found on the different fragments. Associated radiocarbon dates indicate that this is the earliest dated rune-stone found so far; runological analysis of the multiple thinly incised markings therefore provides important insights into early runic writing and inscriptional practices on stone.” (Solheim et al. 2025:423) With different carving episodes the purpose of this stone is a real conundrum. Not only that, but then the stone was broken up and distributed around – why?

Map of Norway showing the general location of the find. Online image, public domain.

A great number of the symbols have been identified, but the researchers do not yet have translations of the meanings of the inscriptions. “The runic fragments from the Svingerud grave field can be dated between 50 BC and AD 275 based on radiocarbon dates from grave A4367, which contained the inscribed fragment Hole 2. This is a rare example of finding several fragments of a rune-stone, with some of the fragments in well-preserved, datable archaeological contexts. The dating frame is relatively wide, but still makes the Hole fragments the earliest known archaeologically dated rune-stone. The early dates and the inscriptional features are new evidence on the use of runes on stone, prompting discussion on the meanings and functions of the fragments and early Scandinavian rune-stones. Particular rune-forms on the dated fragments—such as the multi-pocket ‘b’ and the multitude of zigzag-like marks—underpin the epigraphic importance of the find. The recorded forms may show some early variants of runes, used on stone.” (Solheim et al. 2025:437) The episodes of engraving were apparently far enough apart in time that the forms of some of the runes had changed, leading to the difficulties in translation.

So we have the earliest known rune stone, with inscriptions dating from more than one episode of engraving, which was then broken up and the pieces distributed around the area of a burial site. This brings up so many questions, and provides very few answers, but it is certainly intriguing.

NOTE: Some images in this column 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:

Ancientist.com, 2025, Norway’s Oldest Dated Runestone? Svingerud Fragments Reveal a 2,000-Year-Old Writing Tradition, DOI:https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2024.225. Accessed online 22 September 2025.

Biornstad, Lasse, 2025, Researchers found more pieces of the world’s oldest runestone – may change the history of runes, 6 February 2025, sciencenorway.no. Accessed online 22 September 2025.

Solheim, Steinar et al., 2025, Inscribed sandstone fragments of Hole, Norway: radiocarbon dates provide insight into rune-stone traditions, Antiquity , Volume 99 , Issue 404 , April 2025 , pp. 422 – 439. Accessed online 6 September 2025.

FINGER LENGTH AND GENDER IN PAINTED HANDPRINTS:

Apparent female handprint, Pech Merle Cave, France. Image from Pinterest.

On August 5, 2009, I posted a column on Hand prints in Rock Art in which I discussed the fact that a viewer can sometimes determine the gender of a rock art creator by measuring the relative length of the first and third fingers in a hand print. Statistically more males have a longer third finger while more females have a longer first finger.

Handprint, Pech Merle Cave, France. Image from Wikipedia.

Rebecca Coffey wrote in Scientific American (2012) that “In men the index finger is usually shorter than the ring finger, but in most women it’s the other way around, although in some women the fingers are of equal length. In mice the digit ratio corresponds to the female-male hormonal balance in the womb during the week digits form; androgen apparently produces a longer ring finger. Researchers study these ratios to see if they can serve as markers for certain human attributes. So far in 2012, studies have found that girls with a masculine ratio do not get lost as easily; that a feminine ratio in heterosexual girls is associated with bulimia; and that boys with more masculine ratios have more typically masculine facial features.” (Coffee 2012:19)

Handprints, Maltravieso Cave, Spain. Internet image, public domain.

According to A’ndrea Elyse Messer (2013) of Penn State University “the assumption has been that hand prints, whether stencils – paint blown around the hand – or actual paint-dipped prints, were produced by men because other images on cave walls were often hunting scenes. The smaller handprints were assumed to be adolescent boys. Dean Snow, emeritus professor of anthropology, came across the work of John Manning, a British biologist who about 10 years ago tried to use the relationships of various hand measurements to determine not only sex, but such things as sexual preference or susceptibility to heart disease. Snow wondered if he could apply this method to the handprints left in cave sites in France and Spain. ‘Manning probably went way beyond what the data could infer, but the basic observation that men and women have differing finger ratios was interesting,’ said Snow. ‘I thought here was a neat little one off science problem that can be solved by applications of archaeological science.’” (Messer 2013) As it turns out there are numerous ancient handprints in rock art.

Handprints, El Castillo, Spain, image from donsmaps.com, photograph by  Pedro Saura.

An in-depth study of handprints in El Castillo Cave in Cantabria, Spain has provided conclusions about the genders of the makers of the handprints. “Several attempts have been made to develop a system to determine the gender of prehistoric artists with the handprints found in many caves with rock art of this chronology. One of the most prominent attempts, as mentioned above, was by Dean R. Snow. In 2006, Snow studied the hands in Les Combarelles, Font-de-Gaume and the Abri du Poisson with the result that four out of six hands belonged to women. In 2010, Snow along with other authors such as Wang used a computer image method to determine the gender of hand stencils.” (Ravazo-Rodriguez  et al., 2017:378) I find it difficult to imagine a reliable scientific result. With individual variation being such an unknown factor it would seem that the best we can do is use it to make educated guesses, which is pretty much good enough for art historians.

Enhanced handprints, Maltravieso Cave, Spain. Internet image, public domain.

However, a team in Spain determined to study this proposition and then applied the results to Paleolithic handprints found in the cave of El Castillo. “In the experiment, 77 samples (hand stencils) of western adults from the Iberian Peninsula, 46 women and 31 men, were taken. For each modern individual (22 women and 18 men), both the stencils and the real size of their hands were measured. This data was then compared with the Paleolithic stencils to determine whether there was a range of variation between the negative image and the actual hand. The measurements taken into account were the general hand length, index finger length and ring finger length. Discriminatory statistical analysis was used for the experimental work and the measurements collected in the field. In the data obtained in the experimental study, significant differences were observed in the length of male and female fingers, but not in the ring fingers themselves. Discrimina(ting) analyses show that it is the absolute finger lengths and not the ring fingers that are able to discriminate between men and women.” (Ravazo-Rodriguez  et al., 2017:1) I believe that what Ravazo-Rodriguez et al. are saying here is that a simple comparison of ring finger length is not enough, the ratio of first to third fingers must be compared. This only makes sense as we now know that hand prints in caves were made by men, women, adolescents and children so hand sizes, and this finger lengths, vary wildly.

Handprints, Cave of the Hands, Big Sur, California. Image by Esselen Institute.

The results obtained by the Spanish team were actually pretty good. “By applying this function to 21 stenciled hands in El Castillo Cave, it was found that 11 belong to women and 10 to men, indicating equal gender representation. Three of the 21 hands may be wrongly sexed according to the discriminant function. However, there is a significant difference between the real finger measurements and the measurements of their stencils in the experimental study, as the negative images overestimate the real values.” (Ravazo-Rodriguez  et al., 2017:1) With an estimation of three errors out of 21 evaluations this would have indicated a roughly 85% accuracy rate and, as I said above this is not bad in a field like art history, perhaps not good enough for a scientist, but encouraging for me.

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 you should read the original reports at the sites listed below.

REFERENCES:

Coffey, Rebecca, 2012, Digit Divide, Scientific American, July 2012, p. 19.

Faris, Peter, 2009, Hand prints in Rock Art, 5 August 2009, RockArtBlog, https://rockartblog.blogspot.com.

Messer, A’ndrea Elyse, 2013, Women leave their handprints on the cave wall, 15 October 2013, Penn State University press release. https://www.psu.edu/news/research/story/women-leave-their-handprints-cave-wall. Accessed online 14 April 2025.

Ravazo-Rodriguez, Ana Maria et al., 2017, New data on the sexual dimorphism of the hand stencils in El Castillo Cave (Cantabria, Spain), Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 14 (2017), 374-381.

SECONDARY REFERENCE:

Snow, D.R., 2013. Sexual dimorphism in European Upper Paleolithic cave art. Am. Antiq. 78 (4), 746–761.

Wang, James Z. et al., 2013, Determining the Sexual Identities of Prehistoric Cave Artists using Digitized Handprints, A Machine Learning Approach, Penn State University. Downloaded from Research Gate on 7 September 2025.

 

Galisteo dike, New Mexico. Photograph September 1988, Peter Faris.

Happy Thanksgiving from

 RockArtBlog!

 

VISHAPS - ARMENIAN DRAGON STONES:

Vishaps, Armenian 'Dragon Stones', Armenia. Internet image, public domain.

Armenia possesses a great deal of interesting rock art, predominately petroglyphs. This column, however, is about a large number of stelae known as Vishaps, or dragon stones. “Vishaps, or dragon stones, are prehistoric stelae discovered in the high-altitude mountainous regions of modern-day Armenia and adjacent regions. The first statistical analysis of their elevation distribution and size reveals that their construction was intentionally labor-intensive rather than arbitrary. The findings support the hypothesis that vishaps were closely associated with an ancient water cult, as they are situated near water sources, including high-altitude springs, and discovered prehistoric irrigation systems. Furthermore, the unexpected bimodal distribution of their altitudes suggests specific placement patterns, potentially linked to seasonal human activities or ritual practices. These findings contribute to a deeper understanding of the symbolic and functional significance of vishap stelae within the framework of prehistoric social and religious systems.” (Gurzadyan and Bobokhyan 2025:1) The finding of a water relationship may make sense, but the distribution assumptions are based upon statistical analyses and readers of RockArtblog should recall that I am somewhat a skeptic on these. Not that I think that all statistical analyses are faulty, but I think that they often go too far. Also, in the illustrations we can see that some of the vishaps are set into concrete, suggesting that they have been tampered with, possibly moved, which would affect any statistical analysis of their distribution. And as far as ‘ritual practices’ goes I would need to hear the author’s definition of a ‘ritual practice’ before I can wholeheartedly adopt this assumption.

Vishap 'Dragon Stone', Armenia. Internet image, public domain.

 Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union we have been learning a lot more about rock art in the Caucusus. I do not know if rock art research was common back then or not but it might just be attributable of more of an attitude of openness now that these areas have become independent countries. “Armenia, officially the Republic of Armenia, is a landlocked country in the Armenian highlands of West Asia. It is part of the Caucasus region and is bordered by Turkey to the west, Georgia to the north, Azerbaijan to the east, and Iran and the Azergaijani enclave of Nakhchivan to the south. Yerevan is the capital, largest city and financial center.” (Wikipedia)

Landlocked, of course, means that Armenia is totally inland, it has no ocean coast, but there is a large lake, Lake Sevan, which covers approximately 1/6 of the country. This is important because some of the Vishaps (dragon stones) are carved to look like fish which may have been influenced by lake fisheries.

Lake Sevan, Armenia. Internet image, public domain.

A fallen Vishap, 'Dragon Stone' carved like a fish. Internet image, public domain.

“Based on their form and iconography, the vishaps are classified into three primary typological categories, ranging from 110 to 550 cm in height, and crafted from locally available stone materials, primarily andesite and basalt. The first class, termed piscis, consists of stones carved and polished into a fish shape. The second category, vellus, includes stones shaped to resemble a stretched or draped bovine hide. The third class, the hybrid, merges the iconographies of the piscis and vellus types.” (Gurzadyan and Bobokhyan 2025:1)

Vishap with stylized horned animal. Internet image, public domain.

As I stated above, this analysis seems to have been based on statistical analysis to a great extent. “The study of vishap stelae in Armenia, based on their dimensions and altitudinal distribution, provides compelling evidence for their deliberate placement and labor-intensive construction. We adopt the concept of the labor as an informative descriptor of the stelae, namely, the vishap size indicates the amount of the labor for its creation, while their location altitude refers to the limited time (limited labor) for their creation. Then, the findings indicate a general correlation between vishap size and altitude, thus challenging assumptions that larger monuments would be concentrated at lower altitudes. Instead, their presence at high elevations suggests significant cultural motivations, likely tied to the ancient water cult, as vishaps are predominantly located near springs as well as are represented by fish forms. Recall, that human history reveals that usually the cults are indeed associated to significant efforts (labor) of their societies.” (Gurzadyan and Bobokhyan 2025:10-11) Not only a considerable amount of labor, but cooperation within a group of people.

Dragon stone supposedly associated with an infant burial. Internet image, public domain.

There has been speculation that at least some of the vishaps are associated with burials of infants but it does not seem to have been addressed as to whether the stelae were erected over burials, or the burials added later because of the spiritual nature of the vishap site.

Carved Vishap with animal possibly interpreted as fire-breathing dragon. Internet image, public domain.

Now, the questions as to why they are called ‘dragon stones.’ A number of them are carved with highly stylized of horned animals, perhaps ibexes, which may have perhaps been interpreted as dragons. Especially a few of them in which the horned animal has something coming from its mouth, probably its tongue, but which may well have been interpreted as fire from a fire-breathing dragon.

NOTE: Some images in this column 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:

Gurzadyan, V., Bobokhyan, A., 2025, Vishap stelae as cult dedicated prehistoric monuments of Armenian Highlands: data analysis and interpretation, npj Herit. Sci. 13, 435. https://doi.org/10.1038/s40494-025001998-z. Accessed online 18 October 2025.

Wikipedia, Armenia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenia. Accessed online 22 October 2025.

ALTXERRI, A DECORATED CAVE IN NORTHERN SPAIN:

Red painted panel, Altxerri Cave, Spain. Internet image, public domain.

A cave in northern Spain, in the Basque territories, provides some new examples of cave art.

Identified as an antelope, Altxerri Cave, Spain. Internet image, public domain.

“Altxerri Cave is located in the east of the northern Spanish coast, in the town of Aia (Basque Country, Spain). The present entrance (the original entrances collapsed) was uncovered by quarrying in 1956, and the first graphic representations were found in 1962. The cave system consists of three levels, connected by shafts and chimneys, where the modern entrance leads to the intermediate level. The important Magdalenian art ensemble in this level has been published in two monographs and warranted the inclusion of the site in UNESCO’s World Heritage List in 2008. However, neither of the monographs included the upper passage (Altxerri B), although the existence of paintings had been cited. These have since been studied briefly, confirming the existence of a large red bison and mentioning the remains of other red figures, which, according to the authors, were impossible to interpret. The authors also cited a bison vertebra inserted in a fissure and published the results of two 14C-AMS dates for two chamois bones (Rupicapra rupicapra) deposited beneath the wall with the paintings.” (González-Sainz, Cesar et al., 2013: 457) Altixerri B is the third, and upper, passage that is difficult to access and so had been pretty much overlooked in previous studies.

Mouflon, Altxerri Cave, Spain. Internet image, public domain.

“The cave, which had been sealed off for millennia, was discovered in 1956 when a temporary quarry was opened during road-building. This broke through to the intermediate level of the cave system. In 1962, speleologists discovered paintings in this passage (Altxerri A).” (Ruiz-Redondo, Aitor, et al., 2015:66)

Reindeer with fox inserted, Altxerri Cave, Spain.

Close-up of reindeer with fox inserted, Altxerri Cave, Spain.

My absolute favorite example of rock art here is the beautiful palimpsest of a fox superimposed upon a large reindeer, or vice versa. It is tempting to posit a relationship between them and look for a deeper meaning, but I do not think we have anywhere near enough information for such an analysis.

Fish, Altxerri Cave, Spain. Internet image, public domain.

Genetic testing has indicated that the modern inhabitants of the Basque regions are genetically related to the Paleolithic residents of the same area.

“In May 2012, the National Geographic Society Genographic Project released a study that showed through detailed DNA analysis of samples from French and Spanish Basque regions that Basques share unique genetic patterns that distinguish them from the surrounding non-Basque populations. The results of the study clearly support the hypothesis of a partial genetic continuity of contemporary Basques with the preceding Paleolithic/Mesolithic settlers of their homeland.” (Wikipedia)

Horse, Altxerri Cave, Spain. Internet image, public domain.

I find it personally quite exciting to learn that the modern descendents of the creators of this Cave art may still inhabit the area. What a feeling of attachment to the land and a sense of belonging might that confer.

NOTE: Images in this column 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:

González-Sainz, Cesar et al., 2013, Not only Chauvet: Dating Aurignacian rock art in Altxerri B Cave (northern Spain), Journal of Human Evolution 65, pp. 4 57-464. Accessed online 21 September 2025.

Ruiz-Redondo, Aitor, et al., 2015, Back to the past: Symbolism and archaeology in Altxerri B (Gipuzkoa, Northern Spain), Quaternary International, March 2017, DOI: 10.1016/j.quaint.2015.07.013, Available online October 2015, pp. 66-76. Accessed online 21 September 2025.

Wikipedia, Origin of the Basques, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origin_of_the_Basques. Accessed online 8 November 2025.

 

ARABIAN PETROGLYPHS AS SIGNPOSTS TO WATER:

 

Large camel petroglyph. Internet image, public domain.

I have previously written a column about large camel petroglyphs in Arabia. On 10 March 2018 I wrote a column titled “Ancient Saudi Guest Artists-In-Residence” about these. Now, a new study (Guagnin et al. 2025)  published by Nature Communications online suggests that many  of these, as well as images of a number of other creatures, date back over 10,000 years, and may be indicators for the presence of water.

 

Heavily eroded large camel carved in the round. Internet image, public domain.

“Dated archaeological sites are absent in northern Arabia between the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and 10,000 years ago (ka), signifying potential population abandonment prior to the onset of the Holocene humid period. Here we present evidence that playas became established in the Nefud desert of northern Arabia between ~16 and ~13 ka, the earliest reported presence of surface water following the hyper-aridity of the LGM. These fresh water sources facilitated human expansions into arid landscapes as shown by new excavations of stratified archaeological sites dating to between 12.8 and 11.4 ka. During the Pleistocene-Holocene transition, human populations exploited a network of seasonal water bodies - marking locations and access routes with monumental rock engravings of camels, ibex, wild equids, gazelles, and a urochs. These communities made distinctive stone tool types showing ongoing connections to the late Epipaleolithic and Pre-Pottery Neolithic populations of the Levant.” (Guagnin et al. 2025:1) The recording of these animals (other than camels) considerably enlarges our data pool for this area.

Palimpsest of animals (camel, donkey, oryx) outlined. Image from M. Guagnin et al., Nature Communications, 2025. 

I have also written a number of columns about rock art in Saudi Arabia which can be found by clicking on Saudi Arabia in the cloud index at the very bottom of the blog. “Rock art has been found in Saudi Arabia before, but those petroglyphs date from the Neolithic period around 8,000 years ago. The engravings found at Jebel Misma, Jebel Arnaan and Jebel Mleiha – all rock outcrops in a remote part of the Nefud, near its southern edge – are much older. The engravings can be seen for miles and were probably intended to mark territory or indicate nearby sources of water, says Petraglia, the director of the Aurstalian Research Center for Human Evolution at Griffith University in Brisbane.” (Metcalf 2025) So, the new rock art written about is almost 50% older than most previous sites.

Tracings of the four camel engravings with greatest similarity (after Figure 4). The two camels on the right have been mirrored for better comparison (© G. Charloux and M. Guagnin, Figure 5, page 1306. 

In order to learn more about the people and culture involved the team literally dug in to the subject. They conducted excavations under the art. “Looking for buried clues that might shed light on the new engravings, Guagnin and her colleagues dug trenches in sand beneath the art. The excavations uncovered over a dozen animal bones and thousands of artifacts, including hearths, stone beads and tools, and shells from various animals. One palm-sized stone with clear battering marks matches pecking tools discovered at petroglyphs sites in Europe and South America, indicating it was likely used to peck some of the nearby engravings. Radiocarbon dating of an ostrich egg, oyster shell, and charcoal from one of the hearths, in conjunction with measurements of how long it had been since the sediments around the buried artifacts were last exposed to sunlight, revealed the art and artifacts were between 12,800 and 11,40years old.” (Brown 2025) Finding significance in a hammerstone that supposedly matches sites in Europe and South America is silly. So, it doesn’t match hammerstones from North America, or Asia, or Africa? Of course it does, a hammerstone is a hammerstone. This statement is the result of the obsessive need to cite every statement in such a paper, the researchers found papers about hammerstones from Europe and South America.

Three large camels and one very small antelope (in lower left). Image from arkeonews.net.

Their surveys and research hve contributed a great deal of new knowledge of rock art of Saudi Arabia. “Surveys identified previously unknown rock art landscapes with life-sized depictions of wild mammals and human figures. Across the three areas 62 rock art panels were recorded, containing 176 engravings. Of these, 130 were life-sized and naturalistic engravings depicting camels (90), ibex (17), equids (15), gazelles (7), and aurochs (1), with individual representations frequently measuring up to 2.5–3.0m in length and 1.8–2.2m in height. In addition, we identified 2 camel footprints, 15 smaller scale naturalistic depictions of camels, 19 human figures, 4 human faces or masks, and 6 unidentified, partial engravings. Most of the recorded engravings show camels in a detailed and naturalistic style that echoes the reliefs of the Camel Site to the north of the Nefud desert. This includes the frequent depiction of a bulging neckline, indicating they represent male camels in rut.” (Guagnin et al. 2025:3) Such remarkable attention to detail indicates the importance of the imagery to its creators.

Large camel. Image from cambridge.org.

The researchers also tackled the difficult task of working out the stratigraphy of palimpsest panels that had experienced multiple occasions of petroglyphs creation. “The depictions span multiple engraving phases, with images often overlapping on rock surfaces. Sometimes this was done to update an existing representation or to depict a different animal species. We distinguish four phases here. Two early rock art phases: small, stylised depictions of women (phase 1, traced in green), followed by large human figures in frontal view (phase 2, traced in yellow). These human figures were always noted to be older than, i.e. underneath, the recorded life-sized animal representations, and they make up a much smaller proportion of motifs. The third phase shows detailed, extremely naturalistic representations of animals, where each depiction has individual characteristics (traced in white). A later, fourth phase (traced in blue) shows more stylised depictions of animals with cartoonish features, including rounded eyes and horn ridges, and more standardised, near-identical depictions of animals.” (Guagnin et al. 2025:3)

 

Large camel carving. Internet image, public domain.

If these animal images point to sites where water is available the sheer variety somewhat mystifies me. If I had produced an image of a camel as a marker to fresh water wouldn’t I use the same image to mark the next fresh water source as well? And, if there is already a picture marking the site why did I need to add another picture to mark it again. While some of these may incidentally mark water sources my guess is that they are found near where water was available because the people were found near where water was available, the propinquity may be a coincidence. Yes, they mark sites near water, but no, they are not purposeful signs pointing to a water source.

NOTE: Some images in this column 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:

Brown, Taylor Mitchell, 2025, Prehistoric camel art pointed to precious water sources in the Arabian Desert, 30 September 2025, Science (online), American Association for the Advancement of Science. doi:10.1126/science.zzwcsrv. Accessed online 1 October 2025.

Charloux, Gillaume, Maria Guagnin, Michael Petraglia, and Abdullah al Sharekh, 2022, Project Gallery Arock art tradition of life-sized, naturalistic engravings of camels in Northern Arabia: new insights on the mobility of Neolithic populations in the Nafud Desert, Antiquity 2022 Vol. 96 (389): 1301–1309 https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2022.95 , Accessed online 12 October 2025.

Faris, Peter, 2018,Ancient Saudi Guest Artists-In-Residence, RockArtBlog, 10 March 2018. www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/7760124847746733855/8288369396956779505.

Metcalf, Tom, 2025, 12,000-year-old rock art hints at the Arabian Desert’s lush past, Science News (online), https://www.sciencenews.org/article/ancient-rock-art-arabian-desert-wet. Accessed online 5 October 2025.