A NEWER CANDIDATE FOR THE OLDEST ROCK ART – 66,000+ YEAR-OLD HAND PRINT:

 

Maltravieso Cave entrance. Photograph from httpwww.turismoextremadura.com.

Every so often I get to write another column for RockArtBlog about a newly announced date breaking the record for the oldest rock art. You will find links to a number of them in the cloud index at the bottom of this blog. My column of 13 February 2021 concerned a pictographic image on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi that has been dated to at least 45,599 years ago. “Rock art researchers in Indonesia have announced the discovery of another candidate for the oldest representative rock art image, a picture of a Sulawesi Warty Pig found in a cave on the island of Sulawesi. The warty pig from Leang Tedongnge cave dates to at least 45,599 years ago, making it the earliest known representational work of art in the world (Sci-News 2021). Leang Tedongnge cave: the cave is located at the foot of a limestone karst hill. – (The) rock art panel is located on a ledge toward the rear of the cave and features at least three large figurative paintings of pigs.” (Faris 2021) Note that the researchers have limited their claim to “representative rock art” images, but not specifically defined what they intend that to mean. While we can all agree that a painting of a Warty Pig would be representative, one wonders what they would think of ancient hand prints. They cannot be called geometric or abstract so are they representative, or another special category?

Maltravieso Cave handprint (center of picture). Image from atlasobscura.com.

“Stencils and prints of the human hand are some of the earliest forms of deliberately created visual artwork preserved in the archaeological record. Maltravieso Cave houses more than 60 red hand stencils, but their precise ages have remained a mystery.” (Jackson 2024) This has now been corrected as a new paper describes the retrieval of Uranium-Thorium dates from carbonate crusts that have formed over a number of the handprints.

Photograph of Maltravieso Cave handprints above, and D-Stretch version below. Image from Standish et al., 2024, figure 6, page 6.

“U-Th dating of associated carbonate crusts has been applied to date parietal art in Maltravieso cave, Extremadura, Spain. Known for its large collection of red hand stencils (≥60), one example previously dated to >66.7 ka was taken to suggest Neandertal authorship. Here we present a more detailed U-series study of hand stencils within the cave, and place the results in the context of the chronology of these motifs worldwide. Twenty-two carbonate samples overlying pigment of hand stencils were dated from the cave’s Sala de las Pinturas and the Galería de la Serpiente. Minimum ages for the art range from the Holocene to the Middle Palaeolithic. Alongside published dating results from other sites, this demonstrates that Neandertals as well as modern humans could create these motifs.” (Standish et al. 2024:1)  These dates taken by Uranium-Thorium dating represent minimum ages because they are taken from material on top of the original hand print. This means that the actual hand prints must be even older. This minimum dating is pre-homo sapiens in this area so the hand prints must be Neanderthal.

 

Photograph of Maltravieso Cave handprints above, and D-Stretch version below. Image from Standish et al., 2024, figure 5, page 5.

Christopher Standish et al. (2024) re-stated this in their conclusions. “U-Th dating of carbonate crusts overlying painted rock art in Maltravieso cave indicates that the tradition of making hand stencils in Europe began prior to the Aurignacian; a conclusion that is consistent with wider chronological information for examples elsewhere. In Maltravieso, two samples from one stencil, including one sequence of four sub-samples that demonstrates closed-system behaviour of the carbonate and therefore reliability of the dates, gave minimum ages well within the range of the Middle Palaeolithic and long before the Initial Upper Palaeolithic; the oldest of these being 66.7 ka. Together with published dating evidence from sites elsewhere in the world, this suggests that Neandertals as well as modern humans created these enigmatic motifs.” (Standish et al. 2024:9) And as I said above “These dates taken by Uranium-Thorium dating represent minimum ages because they are taken from material on top of the original hand print. This means that the actual hand prints must be even older. This minimum dating is pre-homo sapiens in this area so the hand prints must be Neanderthal.”

In other words, the handprint was made considerably earlier than the arrival of modern humans in the area – thus, Neanderthal.

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:

Faris, Peter, 2021, A New Candidate for the Oldest Pictograph – The Sulawesi Pig, 13 February 2021. https://rockartblog.blogspot.com.

Jackson, Justin, 2024, Neanderthals were making hand stencil rock art more than 66,000 years ago, U-series dating suggests, 4 December 2024, Phys.org (online). Accessed online 4 December 2024.

Standish, Christopher D. et al., 2024, The age of hand stencils in Maltravieso cave (Extremadura, Spain) established by U-Th dating, and its implications for the early development of art, 19 November 2024, Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 61, www.elsevier.com/locate/jasrep. Accessed online 3 December 2024.

HANDEDNESS IN ROCK ART:

Stamped hand prints,

Cave of 100 Hands,

Fremont Indian State Park,

Sevier County, UT. Photo

Peter Faris, 28 May 1992.

When I was going through US Army Basic Training in 1965 at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, the new trainees were classified as being either "right-handed" or "wrong-handed". This was because our rifle of issue was the M-14, and the ejection port for the fired empty cartridge was placed in a location that a left or wrong-handed shooter would sometimes get hit in the nose with an ejected, very hot, empty cartridge. Indeed, "A study at Durham University - found that left-handed men were almost twice as likely to die in war as their right-handed contemporaries. The study theorized that this was because weapons and other equipment (were) designed for the right-handed." (Wikipedia) I mention this as an introduction to the question of handedness in rock art. Does the dominant hand leave any clues in the image being created, does it make any difference in the art itself?

Lower-left to upper-right slant,

Picketwire Canyonlands,

Las Animas county, CO. Tracing

by James Keyser and Mark Mitchell,

Photograph Peter Faris.

The basic motions used in the creation of rock art are; Flexion (bringing two body parts closer together, such as the forearm and upper arm), and Extension (increasing the space between two body parts as in straightening the elbow), as well as rotation of the arm and hand. These would cover the production of most examples of rock art. The natural easiest motion of the arm would arc between upper left to lower right and back for the left arm, and from upper right to lower left and back for the right arm. Thus, there might be clues in the orientation of images or the axis in a rock art panel caused by this fact. By axis of the rock art panel I refer to the center line of a unified composition. If individual images are added to the rock face at different times (a newspaper rock for instance) then this would not apply, but if the artist created an overall composition of many elements then the axis (center line) might slope to follow this arc of convenient arm motion. If not the center axis of the panel perhaps a slant to many of the elements of the panel might indicate that same thing. For instance: in 5LA8464, the Box Canyon site in Picketwire Canyonlands, Las Animas county, Colorado, recorded in September 1999 by a crew led by Dr. James D. Keyser and Dr. Mark Mitchell, a large elk and three of the four largest horses in the composition angle upward from lower left to upper right. This would be the natural arc of motion for a right-handed artist.

Upper-left to lower-right slant.

Keyser and Minick, 2018,

Horse Raiders in the Missouri Breaks:

Eagle Creek Canyon Petroglyphs,

Fig. 17, p. 26.

An example that might suggest a left-handed artist is a panel from Montana (illustrated in Horse Raiders of the Missouri Breaks by Keyser and Minick) which includes three equestrian figures, all of which display an upper left to lower right slant. This question of orientation of figures, or panels, providing clues to handedness is probably too weak to base assumptions on by itself, but when found with other clues can, perhaps, be considered a reinforcing argument.

Horse legs, Gargas Cave,

France, www.donsmaps.com.

According to Bahn and Vertut there are also clues to handedness that can be found in the preferred lighting of rock art panels. "In most cases, fine engravings are almost invisible when lit from the front, but 'leap out' when lit from the side. This fact is of some importance, for it provides an indication of whether the artist was right- or left-handed. Right-handed artists tend to have their light source on the left, to prevent the shadow of their hand falling on the burin (or brush), and accordingly the majority of Palaeolithic parietal engravings are best lit from the left (in portable engravings, too, the proportion of right- and left-handers is similar to that of today). Occasionally, however, one comes across the work of a southpaw - for example, the Pyrenean cave of Gargas has many engravings including a fine, detailed pair of front legs of a horse; these had been known and admired for decades; but one day, when visiting scholars lit the figure from the right instead of the left, they were suddenly confronted with the rest of the horse, which nobody had seen before! It is possible, of course, that Palaeolithic artists used the lighting of engravings to their advantage, making them appear or disappear to great effect - alas, we shall never know." (Bahn and Vertut 1997:108)

Sprayed handprints, internet

photo, public domain.

Also, if one hand is used in handling pigments or tools used to create rock art, we can assume it to have been the dominant hand. If this is the case then we may be able to make assumptions on handedness from the handprints that are so common in rock art. If the print is a direct stamping,  i.e. pigment applied to the hand and then stamped on the rock surface, then it was probably made with the dominant hand. If it is a patterned stamped handprint, then the paint was probably applied with the dominant hand to the other hand which was then stamped on the rock. An outlined handprint, I will assume, is made by using the dominant hand to draw around the other hand held to the rock surface. An orally-sprayed handprint could well have been made with either hand.

Gower Cave rock art, Swansea,

South Wales, Britain.

Dr. George Nash.

www.heritagedaily.com

Another example of evidence of "handedness" in rock art is illustrated by the discovery of a reindeer wall engraving in a cave in South Wales in Britain by Dr. George Nash from the University of Bristol. "Dr. Nash discovered the faint scratchings of a speared reindeer while visiting the Gower Peninsula caves near Swansea in September 2010. - This drawing appears to have (been) engraved by an artist using his or her right hand as the panel on which it is carved is located in a very tight niche." (Heritage Daily 2011) So the handedness of this artist can be deduced by the location of the image itself. In this case it must have been on the left wall of a narrow niche so that only the right hand could conveniently access it.

So, does any of this matter? Who cares whether the people producing rock art were right or left-handed? Well, aside from anthropologists who love this sort of thing, it provides us with tangible evidence that the people who produced the rock art were pretty much just like us. And, that being the case, perhaps we can more appreciate their thoughts and beliefs.

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:

Bahn, Paul G., and Jean Vertut,

1997 Journey Through The Ice Age, University of California Press, Los Angeles.

Heritage Daily,

2011 Archaeologist's Chance Discovery May Be Britain's Earliest Example of Rock Art, https://www.heritagedaily.com/2011/08/archaeologist%e2%80%99s-chance-discovery-may-be-britains-earliest-example-of-rock-art/7067

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handedness

Keyser, James D., and David L. Minick

2018 Horse Raiders in the Missouri Breaks: Eagle Creek Canyon Petroglyphs, Montana, Publication #25, Oregon Archaeological Society, Portland.

HIGH ALTITUDE ROCK ART - TIBET YET AGAIN:

Chusang hand-and-footprint

site, Tibet, photo Wall Street

Journal, Public Domain.

On August 13, 2016, I wrote in this column "Highest Altitude Rock Art Revisited - Yet Again" about a rock art site in Tibet at approx. 15,600 feet in altitude above sea level. I have not yet been able to top that, but we now have heard of a Tibetan site with foot-and-hand-prints at 14,000 feet in altitude, a good second.

"human handprint preserved in

the soft limestone at the 14,000-

foot-high site of Chusang in central

Tibet was left there more than

7,000 years ago." (Coates 2017:42) 

Photo: Wall Street Journal,
Public Domain.

Published in the September/October 2017 issue of Archaeology magazine (volume 70, number 5) pages 38-43, by Karen Coates, The Heights We Go To, discussed a site in Tibet with both foot and hand prints at that altitude. It seems remarkable that people were there as long ago as 7,000 years, not that they could not have gone there back then, but I wonder why they would?

Coates was reporting on research by Mark Aldenderfer of the University of California, Merced. "Aldederfer  and several of his colleagues created a stir in early 2017 when they announced that they had evidence of preagricultural hunter-gatherers living in a permanent settlement system on the central Tibetan Plateau at least 7,400 years ago - thousands of years earlier than researchers had previously thought. That research centers on a site called Chusang, about 215 miles from Lhasa, at an elevation of 14,000 feet. There, 19 human hand-and footprints are embedded in a unique formation of travertine limestone created in the remains of ancient hot springs. No artifacts were found nearby, just the markings of up to six individuals who were at that site millennia ago." (Coates 2017:41)

The Tibetan examples of extreme altitude rock art testify to something very basic in humanity that can drive or inspire people to the most impressive results. You can read the whole article in the September/October issue of Archaeology magazine listed in REFERENCES below.

NOTE: Images in this posting were retrieved from the internet after 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 originals at the sites listed below.

REFERENCES:

Coates, Karen,

2015 The Heights We Go To, Archaeology Magazine, Vol. 70, No. 5, September/October 2017, pages 38-43.

Faris, Peter

2016 Highest Altitude Rock Art Revisited - Yet Again, http://rockartblog.blogspot.com/search/label/Tibet, August 13, 2016.

http://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/humans-occupied-tibetan-plateau-thousands-years-earlier-than-previously-thought-021160

https://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2017/01/06/yeti-prints-suggest-humans-settled-in-tibet-more-than-7000-years-ago/

HANDPRINTS MAY RECORD TALLIES OR COUNTS - CONTINUED:

Hand stencil, Maltravieso Cave,

Caceres, Spain, little finger

deliberately painted out,

Paleolithic. Public Domain.

Handprints are a common image in rock art from time immemorial. One interesting phenomenon in handprints in European Palaeolithic cave art is the image of a handprint with one or more fingers only partially represented, or missing altogether. Whereas this used to be interpreted as missing fingers due to Ice Age frostbite, or cultural practice such as chopping off a finger as a mourning ritual, recent authors have suggested that this represents counting systems or tallies.

Handprints, Gargas Cave, France,

Paleolithic. Public domain.

Handprint with missing digits,

Gargas Cave, France, Paleolithic.

Public domain.

It is relatively easy to see how handprints with one to five fingers fully extended or folded/missing could be intended as a count of one to five (https://rockartblog.blogspot.com, May 6, 2017). But what about handprints with one or more fingers only partially represented? We have five fingers on each hand so for counting with a base ten (a decimal system) our hands are ideal, but what about other systems of enumeration such as counting to a base twelve? Many human cultures have used base twelve numeration (duodecimal) systems throughout history. Their influences have given us dozen count quantities, 12 and 24 hour clocks, 12 inches in a foot, 12 signs in the zodiac and 12 months in a year. (Wikipedia)

Duodecimal hand counting

diagram, from Everett, 2017.

Hand-counting in a duodecimal system is facilitated by the fact that the four fingers have three finger bones each (phalanges) and these can be counted with the thumb of each hand. With this system you can designate a quantity of twelve on each hand, or up to twenty-four total with both hands. This leads to the proposition that the paleolithic handprints with missing portions of fingers represent numbers in a duodecimal (base twelve) counting system.

In his fascinating book Numbers and the Making of Us: Counting and the Course of Human Cultures, Caleb Everett (2017) explains this, and more in detail, how counting led to civilization and vice versa. So, is this the explanation for the handprints with missing fingers? I do not know but it is possible, what do you think?

NOTE: The illustrations labelled public domain were retrieved from the internet with a search that included the phrase public domain. If any of these are not intended to be public domain I apologize. Please inform me and I will give proper credit or take them down.

REFERENCES:

Everett, Caleb,

2017 Numbers and the Making of Us: Counting and the Course of Human Cultures, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass.

Wikipedia

INCOMPLETE HAND PRINTS MAY RECORD TALLIES OR COUNTS:

Count or tally of four? Hand

Print with missing little finger.

Maltravieso Cave, Spain.

Public Domain.

For quite some time there has been discussion on the question of handprints in Palaeolithic cave art with missing digits. Originally proposed as evidence of Ice Age artists losing digits to frostbite or accidents, or alternatively digits that were cut off as sacrifices in a ceremonial context, they have been more recently been proposed as evidence of tallies, or numerical records.

Count or tally of four? Hand

Print with missing little finger.

Maltravieso Cave, Spain.

Public Domain.

"Perhaps the most mysterious aspect of Palaeolithic hand stencils is that on many examples one or more fingers are missing. Early theories saw this as reflecting fingers that really were missing from their subject’s hands, either through frostbite, accidents during flintkapping, or through ritual mutilation. The former have been rejected: these societies were certainly tailoring sophisticated clothing in order to survive the harsh Ice Age climate and mittens would not be beyond their technological ken, and no flintkapper, however unskilled, would sever an entire finger. Deliberate mutilation, perhaps as part of the rituals that accompanied a rite of passage or as punishment, remains a possibility. In many cases, however, two, three or four fingers are missing from stencils, and the deliberate removal of this number – which would render the hand useless – would be suicidal to small-scale hunter societies in such hostile environments. It seems far more probable that such stencils with attenuated fingers resulted from the deliberate bending back of fingers, which have been created experimentally. In some cases too, little fingers seem to have been deliberately painted over, adding strength to this observation. In such cases unskilled work results in the blurring of finger outlines, although most Palaeolithic examples are sharp, suggesting perhaps a degree of artistic familiarity and resulting skill." (Pike, date unknown)

Hand with extended digits

representing a count of five.

publicdomainpictures.net.

Four in a decimal
counting system.

It is relatively easy to see how hand prints with one to five fingers fully extended or folded/missing could be intended as a count of one to five. Examples of this are found in the Paleolithic cave art of Europe (as seen in the examples illustrated). But, what about hand prints that illustrate partial fingers, say three and a half fingers plus the thumb. If we say that the fingers portray a count or tally, does the half finger portray a fraction? While I cannot know for certain, I must confess that I do not feel wholly comfortable stating that the Paleolithic artist/mathematician is portraying a fraction. If I am to take this proposition seriously I need another explanation for the partial finger. Luckily there is another possibility that answers this question without the need to propose fractions - a duodecimal counting system (base 12). I will write about this possibility next week.

NOTE: Illustrations used in this posting were obtained from an internet search for public domain pictures. If any of these pictures are not public domain and were used mistakenly please inform me and I will give proper photo credit of remove the photo.

REFERENCES:

Everett, Caleb,

2017 Numbers and the Making of Us: Counting and the Course of Human Cultures, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass.

Pike, A.W. G., et al,

Date unknown, Stencils in Upper Palaeolithic Cave Art, Dept. of Archaeology, Durham University, Durham, UK, https://www.dur.ac.uk/archaeology/research/projects/all/?mode=project&id=640