COUGAR SHADOW IN THE SUPERSTITION MOUNTAINS:

Now here is something new - art created by the rocks.

Photograph by Jeff Downey, Apache Junction, Arizona.

There is no question of the importance of shadows in rock art. Some faint petroglyphs can only be seen when extreme side lighting produces shadows. Archeoastronomy sites often use shadows markers as pointers to mark their phenomena. We included these examples in our studies of rock art. This shadow figure is produced by the shape of the rocks casting it. Thus, rock art?

Twice a year the setting sun at Apache Junction, Arizona, casts a huge shadow of a cougar in the Superstition Mountains. In this case the shadow does not enhance the rock art, the shadow is the art. This phenomenon is visible twice a year in Apache Junction, Arizona. “If you want to see this phenomenon in person, head to the vicinity of 13^th Ave & Goldfield Road in Apache Junction for a relatively unobstructed view. Timing is critical. The cougar only appears during the third week (14-21) of March and September. The last 30 minutes before official sunset is prime time for viewing.” (March 2017)

There are a couple of main differences between this phenomenon and our more traditional study of rock art. The first and most obvious is scale, this thing is huge. The second main difference is that, as far as we know, there was no involvement of people in its creation. It appears to be an accident of nature. Does that disqualify it from inclusion in our field of interest? If you think so then consider this to be merely an interesting aside, but I find it so fascinating that I could not overlook it. Perhaps not art, but certainly possessing rock involvement in its creation.

NOTE: I found many short articles online about this phenomenon, all seem to be copies of each other, and I could not tell which one would have been first. I selected the following as my Reference because it seemed somewhat more complete than the others.

REFERENCES:

March, Paul, 2017, Superstition Mountains Cougar Shadow Appears Only a Few Days a Year, https://azwonders.com. Accessed online 27 September 2023.

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.

ARE SHADOWS PORTRAYED IN ROCK ART – THEY ARE IMPLIED IN CAVE ART:

Auroch, Lascaux cave, Spain. Online photograph, public domain.

Another auroch, Lascaux cave, Spain. Online photograph, public domain.

I have been trying for a while now to find a pictograph or petroglyph of a human, animal, or other object, that also includes a representation of the shadow of that human, animal, or object. Why are there no representations of shadows in rock art? Shadows are certainly important in rock art. Shadows produce the pointers in archeoastronomy calendar sites. Shadows allow us to see faint rock art under certain conditions of lighting, and shadows from low-angle side lighting allow us to clearly see shallow petroglyphs. I cannot, however, find a convincing example of a shadow included in a rock art portrayal, in other words the image of a shadow in a pictograph or petroglyph.

Horses, Lascaux cave, Spain. Online photograph, public domain.

There are, however, many instances where the artists of Paleolithic European painted caves incorporated shadows in their work. I find it fascinating that so many of the animals portrayed on the walls of painted caves in Europe are shown standing with their feet right at a breaking point in the slope of the wall, so that with a light source held up they are standing on a shadow.

Owl, from Le Trois Freres, France. fig. 10.24, p. 155, Bahn, Journey Through The Ice Age.

In an interesting essay on the philosophy of shadows Roy Sorensen wrote about eights century monk Fridugisus of Tours who read the bible to prove the existence of shadows when he could see the shadows on the page. Sorensen commented: “I do not trust my eyes! Instead of reading between the lines of divine testimony, I read between the lines of scientific testimony. I ask: Do astronomers presuppose the existence of shadows when they calculate the altitude of lunar mountains? Do physicists imply that shadows move when the measure waves in a ‘shadow tank’? (The tank is filled with transparent water!)” (Sorensen 2021) (Our Paleolithic artists would have seen this effect where bright sunshine shone onto the bottom of a stream or pond through ripples in shallow water – a natural shadow tank. I would bet that they noticed it as well, but did they try to analyze it?)

Horse, Tito Bustillo cave, Asturias, Spain. Fig. 5.3, p.64, Bahn, Journey Through The Ice Age.

Sorensen’s basic question is then, do shadows really exist? Shadows are the absence of light, does the absence of something here indicate the existence of something else? In this we are dependent on our own basic senses.  “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. In De Anima, Aristotle writes that each sense has its own proper object: ‘Sight has color, hearing sound, taste flavor.’ Color requires light. No light, no sight. That is why we cannot see in the dark! The negative metaphysician takes exception. In a blackout, you do not hear the darkness or taste the darkness. You see the darkness. It even looks a certain way: dark all over, not red all over. You must inform a blind companion of the darkness. For a blind person cannot see the darkness. It no more looks dark to them than it looks dark behind your head. To see the darkness behind your head, you must turn around.” (Sorensen 2021)

Mammoth, Chauvet cave, France. p. 58, , Dawn of Art, the Chauvet Cave.

Then Sorensen goes on to discuss the reality (or not) of shadows. “To see is to see light. Shadows cannot absorb light. Any light present in a shadow is pollution. For a shadow is an absence of light. Absences of light cannot block light. Metaphysicians who think reality is always positive deny the visibility of shadows. We see only light, they say. A shadow is a hole in the light, not a part of what is seen, they say.” (Sorensen 2021) Were the painters in the great decorated caves of Europe Positive Metaphysicians who believed that shadows did not exist?

A horse and two mammoths, Chauvet cave, France. p. 46, Dawn of Art, the Chauvet Cave.

On a relatively uneven cave wall any projection would also cast a shadow from an elevated light source. Perhaps the cave artists did not bother painting shadows because they were counting on the real thing being seen, produced by a light source like a flaming torch held high.

I do not think of the creators of this art as Metaphysicians at all, whether positive or negative. They were practical Opticians who used the effects of light that they could observe to produce the effects they sought in their portrayals. They did not need to paint shadows under their aurochs, horses, mammoths, etc. They could use the real shadows produced by a higher light source and a change in the angle of the wall of the cave to give the image a real shadow – if shadows are real.

If you can find an example of a shadow painted or pecked into a rock art image please send it to me. This could go on a while longer.

NOTE 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 report at the sites listed below.

REFERENCE:

Sorensen, Roy, 2021, Do We Actually See Shadows?, 1 December 2021, https://daily.jstor.org/