ARE SHADOWS PORTRAYED IN ROCK ART? THEY ARE CERTAINLY IMPLIED IN CAVE ART:

The philosophical search for shadows and the question of their existence in rock art:

Aurochs, horse and deer, Lascaux Cave, France. Internet image, public domain.

The idea for this began with an article from the online site JSTOR Daily dated 1 December 2021, by Roy Sorensen titled "Do We Actually See Shadows?"

Sorensen approached this as a philosophical question beginning with Fridugisus of Tours in the 8th century who wrote "a short treatise which deals with the nature of nothing and darkness. The epistle was written probably during the author's residence at Tours. It is addressed "to all the faithful and to those who dwell in the Sacred Palace of the most serene prince Charles (Charlemagne). It dealt with the question, are nothing and darkness real things? (Some suggest that this was inspired by the Biblical use of the words in the first chapter of the Book of Genesis). If the Bible uses the words 'nothing' and 'darkness', it seemed that there must be things corresponding to those words. Fridugisus accepts this answer and defends it both by arguments from authority and by arguments from reason." (Wikipedia)  Is nothing or nothingness a real thing, and is darkness a real thing in and of itself"

Sorensen, in effect, was asking that if a shadow is composed of the absence of light, how can we see the presence of the absence of something? In other words, we see because of the light illuminating the things around us. How can we see something it is not illuminating? He goes to considerable historical detail referencing, among others, Plato's "Allegory of the Cave." He brings in the Metaphysical with the question if you spin a ball does the shadow of the ball spin?" Some say "yes." but can you see the shadow spinning?

Sorensen gets deeper with this but what drew my attention was his reference to Medieval artists who did not paint shadows. He stated "Shadows were fringe phenomena in the Dark Ages. They are rarely depicted in the era's paintings. Perhaps the artists portrayed only what they believed to be visible." (Sorensen 2021)  This can be checked and I did so, searching online for public domain medieval paintings.

The Trinity (detail) in Saint Augustine’s City of God”, about 1440–50, Master of the Oxford Hours. Tempera colors, gold and silver paint, and ink on parchment, 14 ¼ x 10 ¾ in. (36.2 x 27.3 cm). The J. Paul Getty Museum.

A few, very faint traces of shadows beneath the figures. Shading on the figures, yes, but they cast no shadows in their environment.

“Saint Martin Dividing His Cloak” in the Prayer Book of Charles the Bold, 1469, Lieven van Lathem, made in Ghent and Antwerp. The J. Paul Getty Museum.

Likewise, shading within the elements of the painting, but no cast shadows.

Medieval women hunting. Internet image, public domain.

And again, no shadows cast by the women and their dogs in the environment.

Now since I warp everything toward the question of how it applies to rock art I began looking for examples of rock art that somehow portrayed shadows. I looked at examples from literally all over the world (my photos, books, online) but could find no instances of what can be identified as a shadow. Then I remembered that I had done a column on counter-shading on the images of horses in European Cave Art back in January 2022, so I went back to my own notes.

Torch illuminating a cave. Image from Medina-Alcaide et al., 16 June 2021.

In looking at my file for that article I found the paper by a team of Spanish researchers on cave lighting. This simple, but clever, experiment used a variety of sources of fire to illuminate a cave, one of which was a hand-held torch. Others were things like small fires on the floor of the cave and animal fat lamps. To my way of thinking the hand-held torch would give the most dramatic effect.

I started looking at the Paleolithic paintings of animals in European Caves, such at Lascaux, Chauvette, Les Trois-Freres, and Tito Bustillo and found shadows under the animals, but not shadows painted by the cave artists. Now the nature of torch light is that it acts much like a point source and, depending on how high you hold it, the irregularities of the stone wall in a cave will have shadows of their own underneath any change of contour in the surface.

Horses and Aurochs, Lascaux Cave, France. Early Magdanenian period (17,000 BCE). Internet image, public domain.

The first image I noticed this effect on is this one from Lascaux. The small horse on the left and the Aurochs have their hooves approximately on the upper edge of the shadow on the cave wall. And once I saw this, examples started jumping out at me all over the place. It must be remembered, these are not shadows created by the artist or image maker, they are shadows on the cave wall created by the angle the light of the torch is falling from, but the image maker has used them cleverly to create the desired effect. Other effects that visually approximate shadows under animals painted on cave walls can be color change in the stone wall, and/or other sources of discoloration. And not all are done this way, indeed most panels also have animals that are not standing on shadows, but it turned out a surprising number are.

Aurochs, Horses, and Deer, Lascaux Cave, France. Internet image, public domain.

There were a great number of examples from Lascaux Cave in France. In this one we see horses, aurochs, and a deer with their feet on the top edge of the shadow on the cave wall.

Aurochs, Lascaux Cave, France. Internet image, public domain.

Horse, Lascaux Cave, France. Internet image, public domain.

In some examples the shadow seems to be the result of a color change in the stone surface. Also, we need to keep in mind that these modern photographs were made in lighting that is as even as possible to show up the images, not to accentuate shadows underneath them.

 

Horse and two superimposed mammoths, Chauvet Cave, France. Illustration from Jean-Marie Chauvet, et al., 1996, “Dawn of Art: The Chauvet Cave.

Although this is not a strong example we can see the break in the cave wall underneath thehorse and mammoths and it would be shadow under the right lighting conditions.

Mammoth, Chauvet Cave, France. Illustration from Jean-Marie Chauvet, et al., 1996, “Dawn of Art: The Chauvet Cave, p. 58.

Owl, Les Trois Freres Cave, France. 15k BP. Illustration from Paul Bahn and Jean Vertut, “Journey Through the Ice Age,” fig. 10.24, p. 155.

Horse, Tito Bustillo Cave, Spain. Ca. 25k BP. Bahn, Paul, and Jean Vertut, 1997, “Journey Through The Ice Age,” University of California Press, Berkley, California.

From these various illustrations, and from various ages and locations, we see that this design factor was used across a large geographic area and for a very long time. The fact that it is associated with a large number of different animals also is a strong suggestion that it is not just associated stylistically with aurochs, or horses, etc., but that it may indeed have been the simulation of the creature's shadow that was the goal.

So, is this a real phenomenon? Well yes, it is real in that we have seen it exists. But was the placement of animals so that they are standing on a shadow, or an area of color change in the stone intentional, or a coincidence? That is to be decided in the future, probably with a whole lot of arguing involved. But, I will end with this, the cave artists were certainly intelligent and sophisticated enough to have done this intentionally.

NOTE 1: 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.

NOTE 2: This paper was presented at the 2023 IFRAO (International Federation of Rock Art Organizations) Rock Art Symposium, Valcamonica, Italy, by the author on 27 May 2023.

REFERENCES:

Medina-Alcaide et al., 16 June 2021, “The conquest of the dark spaces: An experimental approach to lighting systems in Paleolithic caves”, https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0250497 (Public Library of Science)

Sorenson, Roy, 1 December 2021, “Do We Actually See Shadows?”, https://daily.jstor.org/ (short for Journal Storage).

Illustration credits:

Illustrations 1 – 9 are Public Domain images from online.

Illustrations 10 – 11: Jean-Marie Chauvet, et al., 1996, “Dawn of Art: The Chauvet Cave (The Oldest Known Paintings in the World)”, H. N. Abrams, New York.  

Illustrations 12 - 13: Bahn, Paul, and Jean Vertut, 1997, “Journey Through The Ice Age,” University of California Press, Berkley, California.

11,000-YEAR-OLD DEER SKULL MASKS FROM STAR CARR SUGGEST THAT BREUIL MAY HAVE BEEN RIGHT:

 

 "The Shaman" of Les Trois Freres, France. Photograph J. Vertut, collection Bégouën.

Henri Edouard Prosper Breuil was a French pioneer in rock art studies who did the first recording of many of the French cave art discoveries. One particular image that proved controversial was from the cave of Les Trois Freres. In a chamber that he dubbed The Sanctuary Breuil sketched a figure he called The Sorcerer.

Composite of photograph and Breuil's sketch, Internet photograph, public domain.

“The Sorcerer engraving was first studied and copied by Henri Breuil while making his sketches of the cave art, back in the 1920s. He drew a human-type figure with a headdress that resembled antlers, and it was this sketch – published in the 20s – that influenced many subsequent theories about the Sorcerer. Breuil himself believed that the picture represented a shaman or magician, and that its presence in the Sanctuary indicated that the chamber was used for shamanistic or ritualistic ceremonies.” (Visual-Arts-Cork)

Breuil's sketch of "The Shaman" from Les Trois Freres, France. Internet photograph, public domain.

Breuil’s sketch shows an anthropomorphic figure wearing a set of antlers and, while the antlers figure prominently in his sketch, researchers have since questioned the accuracy of Breuil’s work because no photograph of the image shows the antlers in question. It is reported that this image is both painted (or drawn) in pigment, but also that there is some fine scratching involved in it so the possibility remains that the antlers are there in finely scratched detail that Breuil’s up close and in person examination revealed, but that they have not been picked up in subsequent photographs.

Finds at the British site of Star Carr have provided a possible explanation for the antler headdress on this figure.

        Star Carr deer mask, Internet                      photograph, public domain.

“The site was occupied during the early Mesolithic archaeological period, which coincided with the preboreal and boreal climatic periods. Though the ice age had ended and temperatures were close to modern averages, sea levels had not yet risen sufficiently to separate Britain from continental Europe. Highlights among the finds include Britain’s oldest structure, 21 red deer stag skull-caps that may have been headdresses and nearly 200 projectile, or harpoon, points made of red deer antler. These organic materials were preserved due to having been buried in waterlogged peat. Normally all that remains on Mesolithic sites are stone tools.” (Wikipedia)

The lower portions of the skulls had been removed, the inside surface smoothed, and holes drilled for the thongs that are assumed to have held the masks on the wearer’s head. Some of the larger examples have eye holes suggesting that they covered a portion of the wearer’s face as well. This is notable because it may cast light on one of the Abbe Breuil’s more controversial conclusions from the French cave of Le Trois Freres.

Star Carr deer mask, Photograph ancient-origins.net.

Now that we have actual antlered headdresses it seems to heighten the possibility that Breuil was indeed correct and seemingly supports his version of the figure wearing an antlered headdress. The versions with eye holes might also explain the strange round eyes on the figure as well.

None of this proves anything, of course, but it may add possible evidence toward the eventual conclusion of this mystery.

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:

Visual-Arts-Cork, Trois Freres Cave, http://www.visual-arts-cork.com

Wikipedia, Star Carr, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Carr

MUSIC AT ROCK ART SITES?

On February 24, 2010, I posted a column titled “Rock Art and Sound Effects”. In that posting I discussed the possibility that sound effects may have enhanced the experience of viewers of painted panels in European caves. Also, that many rock art panels are located in places that display unusual echo effects. Another possible manifestation of sound at rock art sites would be music. This could be music played in the presence of rock art, and could also be music as a theme of the imagery in the rock art.

Trois freres sanctuary, sketched by

Abbe Breuel,Musee de l'Homme.

One example of music as a theme of rock art is found in the sanctuary at Le Trois Freres, sketched by the Abbe Breuel. Often considered a shaman figure, this therianthropic character seems to be dancing on human legs but possesses a bison head, horns and forelimbs. Additionally, this enigmatic figure is obviously carrying a bow and appears to be pursuing a group of bison. This has led to previous classifications of this scene as a portrayal of hunting magic.

Les Trois Freres, Abbe Breuil, 1912, p.21

In Musical Instruments, Craftsmanship and Tradition from Prehistory to the Present, Lucy Rault, suggested that this figure was, in fact, playing music on a musical bow. She described the technique of playing the instrument as “the player places the string between his lips and strikes it with a thin stick. Modifying the volume by altering the position of his lips, and of the tongue within the mouth cavity the musician creates different harmonics to produce a tune” (2000: 151). Rault included a photo of a Dan musician from the Ivory Coast and pointed out the position of the bow relative to the mouth as representative of the figure playing the bow as an instrument.

Musical bow, Dan, Ivory Coast, p.151.

In another connection between music and cave painting bone flutes have been excavated from deposits within caves that also possess cave paintings. It is no great stretch to imagine those flutes being played in a context of ceremonials in front of painted panels within the cave, although we cannot by any means prove that both the flute playing and the painted panels were involved in the same performance.

Paleolithic bone flutes,Isturitz, p.33.

Since we find the concept of music played in the context of rock art panels so interesting, we can probably assume that the prehistoric inhabitants of those regions would like the idea as well, and, since they had all the ingredients available – who knows?


Rault, Lucy
2000 Musical Instruments, Craftsmanship and Tradition from Prehistory to the Present, Harry N. Abrams, Inc., New York.