THE SKY SERPENT IN THE ART OF BAJA CALIFORNIA:

In the American southwest as well as down through Mesoamerica there are found ancient traditions around the spiritual significance of snakes, including the famous Plumed Serpent of Mexico and the American southwest. The area of this cultural tradition includes the peninsula of Baja California.

Cueve de la Serpiente,  Photograph from the Instituto Sudcaliforniano de Cultura.

 Drawing of the panel from Cueva de las Serpiente. Image from the Bradshaw Foundation.

In his seminal volume on Rock Art of the American Indians, Campbell Grant (1981) included a majestic example of the plumed serpent in the Baja. “In the San Francisco Mountains of central Baja California, there is a spectacular plumed serpent sixteen feet long surrounded by black and red men and six deer. We can only guess that the snake deity in this case was somehow related to hunting magic.” (Grant 1981:57) The fact is that we do not have to assume that there was any relationship to hunting magic. The long serpent might well have represented the Milky Way while the deer and men could have been meant to represent constellations. This particular panel is located in what is known as Serpent Cave.

Serpent cave. Photograph from the Bradshaw Foundation.

According to the website of the Bradshaw Foundation “the Serpent Cave - Cueva de la Serpiente falls within the Archaic Great Murals Rock Art tradition, found in the central sierras of the Baja California Peninsula: San Borja, San Juan, San Francisco and Guadalupe. The two deer-headed serpents of Cueva de la Serpiente on the Baja California peninsula are spectacular and practically unique. Today, the right-hand one is complete, with deer-like ears and antlers and a long banded body. The left-hand one has lasted less well and only the head is preserved; the rest of the serpent was painted on a section of rock that fell away. The mural is almost 8 metres wide, with more than 50 diminuitive human and animal figures.” (Bradshaw Foundation)

Serpent cave. Photographs from the Bradshaw Foundation.

“The panel is about 8m long and includes 106 motifs. The composition is led by two fantastic deer-headed snakes. The most complete one reaches up to 4m in length and has an undulating body, small antlers and a fish-like tail. It is surrounded by 45 small human figures of between 16 and 41 cm long. The other one, measures 1.8 m and shows contrasting characteristics: a static attitude, and large six-pointed antlers. In both snakes the mouth is half opened, the body is red with black segments, and a white outline that has been almost completely lost.” (Roberto Martinez et al. 2008)

“In the early 1960s, American author Earle Stanley Gardner was exploring Sierra de San Francisco when he heard about a large painted rock shelter along Arroyo de San Pablo, known among the locals as Cueva Pintada. He visited the site and later made his ‘discovery’ public in an article for Life Magazine (Gardner 1962). That first visit was followed by several visits in company of Californian archaeologist Clement Meighan, who then launched the first systematic study of Great Mural Rock Art. Meighan (1966) had some wood fragments from the floor of Cueva Pintada and dated through radiocarbon. The obtained date of 1435±80 AD suggested to Meighan that the rock art belonged with the Comondu archaeological complex, the last phase preceding the historical Cochimi groups. In several occasions Viñas (1989) and colleagues (Viñas et al. 1986-1989) questioned the assumed age and cultural affiliation of Great Mural Rock Art, suggesting that the origin of this tradition might go back several thousands of years BC. The themes indicated that the rock art was created by scantily hierarchised hunter-gatherer groups whose myths, rituals and beliefs were portrayed in the art. A possible relation with the North American Southwest was also put forward.” (Roberto Martinez et al. 2008) In other words they associated it with the ancient cultural significance of the serpent throughout the American southwest and Mesoamerica.

The Great Snake coiled in the sun, Near the Kumeyaay community of San Jose de la Zorra, Baja, California.  Photograph from Jerome Levi.

The sleeping head of the Great Serpent near the Kumeyaay community of San Jose de la Zorra, Baja, California. Photograph from Jerome Levi.

The Cochimi cultural groups mentioned above inhabited the central portion of the Baja Peninsula. Somewhat to their north, overlapping the border with the San Diego, California area resided the Kumeyaay peoples. According to Jerome Levi the Kumeyaay shared the beliefs that centered the serpent in their spiritual and ceremonial life. They, in fact, had actual, physical proof in the form of a rock formation that was shaped like a gigantic coiled snake “near the Kumeyaay community of San Jose de la Zorra, Baja California” (Jerome Levi 2017) between Tecate and Ensenada, Mexico, and known to the Kumeyaay people as “Maayha-Awiity” which he says translates as “snake of the high water.” (Levi 2017)

Levi (2017) directly associated the painting in Cueva de la Serpiente with Maayha-Awiity, associating both with the widespread cultural beliefs in the spiritual significance of serpents in the Southwest and Mesoamerica. And over this wide area that shares so many spiritual beliefs “the horned serpent is frequently related to celestial elements. In Spiro it bears bird wings, in Mayan pottery decorations it is associated with heavenly deities, in Baja California and the Southwest it often appears above other beings, in Michoacán it is portrayed with a bird’s beak and feathered body, and in Wizard Lake, Ontario, it holds an ascending posture. In these examples, the horned serpent is associated to the heavenly realm. - Sky, water and earth appear to be symbolically linked by the image of the horned serpent. Just as the Chorti and Zapotec think that horned serpents inhabit the sky and the land, in the American Southwest it is said that in its human form, this animal is identifiable under the character and attire of the Hopi god of Heaven.” (Martinez 2008:36)

The Milky Way that I am suggesting represents the Sky Serpent. Image from Reddit.

In my opening paragraphs, I suggested that the sky serpent could well represent the Milky Way. While I do not have any direct citations indicating that, it seems logical, and Martinez et al. (2008) do cite a number of heavenly associations for serpents among cultures of the American southwest and Mesoamerica. The long serpent pictured in Cueva de las Serpiente could easily be seen as the long light streak of the Milky Way across the night sky.

NOTE: One image in this posting was retrieved from the internet with a search for public domain photographs. If this image is 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:

Bradshaw Foundation, The Rock Art of Baja California, The Serpent Cave – Cueva de la Serpiente, https://www.bradshawfoundation.com/baja/serpent_cave/index.php. Accessed online 2 September 2024.

Grant, Campbell, 1981, Rock Art of the American Indian, Outbooks, Golden, Colorado, p. 57.

Levi, Jerome M., 2017, Flight of the Sky Serpent, Observations on Yuman-Cochimi Worldview in Relation to Mesoamerican and the Southwestern United States, 26 October 2017,  XXXI Mesa Redonda de la Sociedad Mexicana de Antropologia, Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico.  Online PowerPoint presentation accessed 27 October 2023.

Martinez, Roberto, Larissa Mendoza and Ramon Viñas, 2008, Cueva de la Serpiente: Inerpretive analysis of an Archaic Great Mural Rock Art panel Mulege, Baja California Sur, Mexico, pp. 31-46, from Rock Art in the Americas: Mythology, Cosmogony, and Rituals, Proceedings of the 2nd REEA Conference, Edited by Francoise Fauconnier and Serge Lemaitre, Published by Archaeopress Publishers of British Archaeologiacal Reports, Gordon House, Oxford, England. Accessed online 2 September 2024.

AMAZON DROUGHT REVEALS NEW BRAZILIAN ROCK ART:

Praia das Lajes, Brazil. Image from wikimedia.org.

Online image, public domain.

Rock art that had been submerged in Brazil’s Rio Negro river has now been exposed because of a serious drought in that region that has lowered the water level.

Faces carved in high relief. Online images, public domain.

“Drought in Brazil’s Amazon has drastically reduced river levels in recent weeks, affecting a region that depends on a maze of waterways for transportation and supplies. The Brazilian government has sent emergency aid to the area, where normally bustling riverbanks are dry, littered with stranded boats. According to experts, the dry season has worsened this year due to El Niño, an irregular climate pattern over the Pacific Ocean that disrupts normal weather, adding to the effect of climate change.” (Phys Org 2023)

Low relief faces. Image credit AFP.

Low relief face carving. Online image, public domain.

“An extreme drought in parts of the Amazon has dramatically dropped river water levels, exposing dozens of ancient carvings depicting humans. According to archaeologists, the rock carvings are about 2,000 years old, and the engravings feature anthropomorphic representations of civilizations that inhabited the region. The first documentation of the ancient engravings was made in 2010 during another drought not as severe as the current one. At the time (the) river’s dark waters dropped to 13.63 meters, and now, 13 years later, the Rio Negro continues to break drought records and reveal surprises.” (Bartek 2023) With the petroglyphs exposed by a 13.63 meter drop in water levels we must assume that they were created at a time that the water levels were also down at least this far. If science could produce a climate record for the region that would allow more accurate estimates of the time periods that must have been involved.

Incised square face. Image credit AFP.

“The engravings comprise an archaeological site of ‘great relevance,’ said Jaime Oliveira of the Brazilian Institute of Historical Heritage (Iphan). They are at a site known as Praia das Lajes and were first seen in 2010, during another period of drought not as severe as the current one. The rock carvings appear against a backdrop of dense jungle, with the low brownish waters of the Negro River flowing nearby. Most of the engravings are of human faces, some of them rectangular and others oval, with smiles of grim expressions.” (Phys Org 2023) The question would seem to be are the different forms of faces the result of being produced by different carvers, different time periods, or different cultures?

“For Beatriz Carneiro, historian and member of Iphan, Praia das Lajes has an ‘inestimable’ value in understanding the first people who inhabited the region, a field still little explored. Unhappily it is now reappearing with the worsening of the drought, Carneiro said. Having our rivers back (flooded) and keeping the engravings submerged will help preserve them, even more than our work.’” (Voice of America 2023)

It would seem contrary to logic that flooding the images would protect them but that would depend on the type of rock that they are carved into. It cannot be the relatively soft sandstones and limestone that so much of the North American rock art is produced on. It must be a much harder stone, perhaps volcanic.

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.

SOURCES:

Bartek, Jan, 2023, Drought Reveals 2,000-Year-Old Rock Carvings In Brazil’s Amazon, 23 October 2023, https://www.ancientpages.com. Accessed online 23 October 2023.

Editors, Phys.org, 2023, Drought in Brazil’s Amazon reveals ancient engravings, 22 October 2023, https://phys.org/news/. Accessed online 22 October 2023.

Voice of America, 2023, Drought in Brazil’s Amazon Reveals Ancient Engravings, 22 October 2023, https://www.voanews.com. Accessed online 23 October 2023.

PALEOLITHIC THAUMATROPES, KIDS TOPS? RONDELLES REVISTED:

Paleolithic rondelles, online image, public domain. 

On 20 April 2019, I wrote a column in RockArtBlog titled “Prehistoric Animation – Paleolithic Thaumatropes?” It discussed one possible purpose for the myriad of Magdalenian bone discs that have been recovered in Europe. At that time I had not seen a paper from a team headed by Andy Needham (January 2019) of the University of York in the U.K. that had decided that these artifacts were most likely spindle whorls.

Paleolithic rondelle, image from hominides.com.

Scapula with rondelles cut out, from Mas d'Azil. Photograph from donsmaps.com, Don Hitchcock, 2014.

“Enigmatic circular discs, referred to as ‘rondelles’ are primarily associated with the Magdalenian, a late Upper Paleolithic period dating to between 20,500  - 13,000 Cal. BP and focused around northwest Europe. Spatially, the Magdalenian is especially associated with Spain and France, regions that were used as refugia during the Last Glacial Maximun (LGM) and from where the culture emerged. However, sites are also reported as far west as Portugal and north as the UK, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium and as far east as Poland. Rondelles are especially temporally concentrated between 14,000 – 13,000 BP, while spatially they are found across much of the Magdalenian range, but in particular southern France and northern Spain around the Pyrenees, as well as to the north and east in Germany and Poland, with clear gaps in the northwest, especially the UK.” (Needham et al. 2019) So, this is likely to have been a Magdalenian cultural phenomenon.

Rondelle from Mas d'Azil, online image, public domain.

Stone rondelle. Photograph from donsmaps.com, Don Hitchcock, 2014.

“Various theories have been put forward as to their use, including clothing decoration and large buttons. These are unlikely primary uses, since all have just one, central hole. If they were meant to be sewn to clothing they would have two or more holes to facilitate attachment, or would have the hole close to one edge if they were meant to be worn as a pendant. As my colleague Ann Dayton first pointed out, (pers. Comm.) December 2014) their most likely use is as the weight (normally called a whorl) for a drop spindle in the spinning of fibers into yarn. This is borne out by the fact that the overwhelming majority have a central hole, all of similar dimensions, 2 to 4 mm, and by the fact that many are not decorated in any meaningful or artistic way, and are also made of other materials (sandstone, slate) than bone. The most likely use for these objects is as spindle whorls.” (Hitchcock 2015) This is obviously a reasonable proposal for the single-hole discs that have a large enough hole to insert a spindle shaft through.

Spinning fiber into cordage, photograph from pinterest.

“The results from the function experiments testing use of rondelles as spindle whorls certainly suggest these objects were capable of spinning a length of sheep wool into yarn, although not dog fur. Given that the whorls rotate centrally around an axis, it is important to their function that they sustain a rotation for a period of time which requires symmetry in the rondelle shape. This ability, to stay in rotation around the axis, is a function of the mass and the distance of the rondelle from the axis, also known as the mass moment of inertia. This, to prevent oscillation, the whorl needs to possess symmetry, both centrally and in its diameter, which makes these variables crucial in the production method. Maintaining symmetry can be difficult to attain where the material is naturally uneven across the surface such as bone.” (Needham et al. 2019) While I am not a weaver or spinner, it does seem that a yarn or thread spindle would need to rotate fairly smoothly, and a out-of-true whorl (not evenly weighted on all sides) would wobble.

“This suggests that knowledge of spindle whorl function, the identification of the crucial technical requirements and the skill to produce the whorl is more important than any one particular production method. Further investigations could utilize different materials such as stone, in order to increase the mass of the rondelle.” (Needham et al. 2019) Up to this point Needham et al. (2019) seems to be arguing that these discs are spindle whorls the next quotation appears to moderate that argument somewhat.

Slate rondelles. Photograph from donsmaps.com, Don Hitchcock, 2014.

“Whilst a broad array of functions has been previously proposed for rondelles, our experiments were limited to exploring just two. Previous research has made a strong case for rondelles functioning as thaumatropes; results from our research support this theory, with carved figures taking on an animated appearance when rondelles were strung and spun. However, rondelles can serve as functional spindle whorls, and thus their utility in spinning fibers cannot be ruled out as possible function.” (Needham et al. 2019) Very clever, let’s just combine the possibilities into one single proposal.

“Demeshenko (2006) argued that the presence of weaving tools at particular locations in Upper Palaeolithic sites on the Russian Plain indicated specific activity areas related to weaving. Imprints on clay, carvings on figurines and these tools constitute the first physical evidence of weaving. The early evidence for the utilization of plants for basketry is known from Israel (23000BP). Although plants were used most probably for making cord and probably nets, there is, however, so far no tangible record indicating textile production (Nadel et al. 1994). It is important to remember that the cold environment of the tundra in which textile production first appeared, rather than the warm climate of the Mediterranean or the Caucuses, does not necessarily mean that it was linked with clothing, since animal skins and fur unarguably provided the best protection against the cold.” (Janik and Bates 2012) There is no need for a spindle whorl in the creation of mats and basketry, and the most common means of producing cordage involves rolling the fibers on the thigh, not spindling.

Although it is difficult to see how a one-holed disc would have functioned as a thaumatripe (how would you attach the cord to rotate it?), many examples with complementary designs on the two sides certainly would have worked well in this role. Two-holed or multi-holed discs certainly would not hav functioned in the capacity of a spindle whorl, and many one-holed examples have a central hole so small that it is hard to see any kind of substantial shaft fitting through it to use as a whorl. One-holed discs with a small central hole may have had a small stick projecting through it and functioned as a spinning top. Not all are symmetrically balanced either. Finally, I have seen no report of Magdalenian fabrics associated with rondelles, although a nuber of the Magdalenian "Venus" figures have indications of textures that some interpret as fabric.

Children's spinning tops, image from aliexpress.com.

We know that most indigenous cultures produced cordage, usually from plant fibers, but the overwhelming number of examples I have seen have the maker rolling the plant materials on their thigh with one hand while holding one end firm with the other hand to twist them. All in all, I do not think we have any one overall solution to the question of these Paleolithic discs. Perhaps they were intended for a number of different uses. For now I am going to go with the idea that they were intended as spinning tops for the kids to play with. At least that is not controversial.

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: For the sake of space I have omitted citations in the quotations above. For that information I refer you to the original publications referenced below.

NOTE 3: A very comprehensive presentation of rondelles may be found at Don’s Maps “Discs From The Stone Age” (https://donsmaps.com/discs.html).

PRIMARY REFERENCES:

Faris, Peter, 2019, Prehistoric Animation – Paleolithic Thaumatropes?, 20 April 2019, https://rockartblog.blogspot.com.

Janik, Lila, and Jennifer Bates, 2012, The Origins of Weaving Project, copyright 2012, first published 2015, https://www.arch.cam.ac.uk. Accessed online 15 March 2024.

Hitchcock, Don, and Ann Dayton, 2015, Discs from the Stone Age,  https://donsmaps.com/discs.html. Accessed online 8 January 2024.

Needham, Andy et al., 2019, Spinning in Circles: The Production and Function of Upper Palaeolithic Rondelles, Exarc Journal, Vol. 2019, Issue 3. Accessed online 12 January 2024.

SECONDARY REFERENCES: (cited in Janik and Bates)

Demeshenko, S. A., 2006, Osobennosti ukrashehij Kostenkovsko-Avdeevskoj kultury, Rossijskaya Arheologiya 1:5-16

Nadel, A. D., Werker, E., Schick, T., Kislev, M. E. and Stewart, K., 1994, 19,000 years-old twisted fibers from Ohalo II, Current Anthropology 35, 4:451-458.

BOAT PETROGLYPHS IN THE DESERT OF SUDAN:

Map of the study area. Cooper and Vanhulle, 2023, Fig. 1.

Recent rock art surveys in the eastern desert of Sudan in the Sahara desert have found quite a lot of rock art indicating that back during the Mesolithic and Neolithic periods the region was wetter and supported populations of pastoralist. Interestingly, along with the expected range of zoomorphs and cattle one would expect to find in pastoralist rock art, there are also representations of a new type of boat.

Boat petroglyph. Cooper and Vanhulle, 2023, fig. 4.

“The Eastern Desert of Sudan, commonly referred to as the ‘Atbai’, is a vast desert expanse known for its goldmines and as the homeland of nomadic groups. Within this desert, the topography, ecology, and local archaeological material differs appreciably. On the main range of the Red Sea Hills, nearing the coast, many large cemeteries and nomadic habitation sites occur, owing in part to the regularity of orographic rainfall and water sources in the base of wadis. Contrasting this ecology are the interior deserts closer to the Nile River and west of the Red Sea Hills, sometimes called the Awliib or Atmur in Beha, which exhibit much flatter topography punctuated with inselbergs, sand-dunes, and numerous rocky plateaus and a much sparser record of habitation in historical periods.” (Cooper and Vanhulle 2023)  This lack of signs of habitation during the historic period is not doubt the result of the drying up of the Sahara during the early Neolithic Period.

Petroglyph locations and variations. Cooper and Vanhulle, 2023, fig. 11.

“In the nineteenth century, this region became well-known as the area of the ‘Korosko Road’, and established caravan path providing a shortcut through the Nile bend linking the settlements of Korosko and Abu Hamed. As part of the broad aims of the Atbai Survey Project, two seasons (2018-2019) of rock art surveys were conducted in the region of the flat deserts between Gevel Rafit and Wadi Halfa, especially around the massif of Gebel Nahoganet and Nasb Enat. Owing to the extreme aridity of this region, habitation sites post third millenium BCE are extremely ephemeral in nature and can be generally attributed to the expeditions of gold miners and foreign expeditions. Multi-period nomadic occupations are attested at the few specific sites where surface water is available. The exception to this pattern is the great proliferation of sites of Mesolithic and Neolithic date which are comparatively common in the Atbai’s flat Atmur wastes. Many inselbergs and rock shelters reveal scatterings of pottery from these periods, and it is likely that much of the rock art repertoire, the majority being faunal in nature, belongs to this phase of habitation. As with other ‘Saharan’ rock art zones, the types of fauna indicate an altogether wetter environment than the hyper-arid present, with conditions suitable for a variety of African savannah fauna like the giraffe and even elephant. The ubiquity of cattle in the rock art record suggests that the region was occupied by cattle pastoralists until an as yet unknown date, possibly as late as the third or second millennium BCE. After this point, decreasing rainfall rendered cattle pastoralism impossible. The specific desert region east of Wadi Halfa is in fact so arid and devoid of watering opportunities that it is rarely used by pastoralists today. Only seldom are camel and goat herders to be found in this Atmur desert, usually around the wells at Murrat.” (Cooper and Vanhulle 2023) As the authors said above, the climate of the Sahara having been so wet and fertile for life came as a huge surprise when we learned about it. Apparently much of what is now the Sahara desert once had vegetation, water and fauna, as well as human habitation.

The authors discussed a number of the examples of fauna as the subject at some of these sites, but at this time I will focus on the uniquely-shaped watercraft they found in surprising quantity.

The tunnel petroglyph panel (dotted outline). Cooper and Vanhulle, 2023, fig. 2A.

The tunnel petroglyph panel. Cooper and Vanhulle, 2023, fig. 3.

“On a series of small inselbergs (rock-island outcrops) south of Gebel Nahoganet, approximately 150 km from the nearest section of Nile, the survey identified four new rock art sites, mainly exhibiting faunal depictions. However, one of these sites, AS19.26, exhibited a notable feature in depicting a large group of at least six boats, reproduced along a horizontal axis of over two meters on the western wall of a small natural rock-tunnel that leads to the center of the inselberg. A single boat depiction was also produced on the other side of the tunnel on the eastern wall, almost as far back in the tunnel as is feasibly traversable by an ancient artist. In all, there are nine discernible features on the main ‘western’ wall. Six of these features can be identified as boats and the remainder are somewhat enigmatic in composition. These boats were arranged in an exceptionally unique manner on the rock surface in that they were depicted along the walls of the tunnel. The tunnel is a little over a meter in height and opens out into a natural rock shelter protected by a series of large boulders on the south side of the inselberg, making the sit in all probability suitable for habitation and refuge, shielded from the prevailing north wind. The curved nature of the rock as well as the cramped conditions made epigraphic recording exceedingly difficult, requiring instead digital epigraphic methods. Access to the tunnel requires climbing, a process that presumably was also true for the ancient rock art maker(s), although it is impossible to ascertain the height of the ancient shelter floor from our reconnoiter.” (Cooper and Vanhulle 2023)  One would not normally expect pictures of a fleet of boats to be found 150 kilometers (approx. 93 miles) from the nearest major body of water. Doesn’t this confirm that during the Mesolithic and Neolithic periods there may have been lakes in the area that were suitable for boating?

Boat petroglyphs. Cooper and Vanhulle, 2023, fig. 6.

Boat petroglyphs. Cooper and Vanhulle, 2023, fig. 8.

The authors attempt to ascertain who might have created these images. “It is not easy to ascribe these specific boat depictions to any individual cultural grouping, although a ‘Nile connection’ seems likely based on the importance of the boat.” (Cooper and Vanhulle 2023) Given this assumption, they find it unlikely that the images were created by an early Egyptian society. “Perhaps a more plausible explanation then is to connect or attribute these images to local Nubian groups centered in the Nubian Nile Valley and/or the Atbai desert.” (Cooper and Vanhulle 2023) In effect they are saying that, while boat portrayals are common in rock art along the Egyptian stretch of the Nile River, these boat are unique in shape and have no analog in that area, thus, they conclude that this shape of watercraft is likely an early Nubian development rather than Egyptian. Indeed, given the relatively thick and stubby appearance of these boats they may have been reed boats made from papyrus by Nubians.

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.

REFERENCE:

Cooper, Julien, and Dorian Vanhulle, 2023, Rock Art Surveys in the Sudanese Eastern Desert: Results of the 2018-2019 Atbai Survey Project, The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, Volume 109 (1-2), 189-208. DOI:10.1177/03075133231211917.  Accessed online 12 June 2024.

THE DANGER TO COSQUER CAVE ART:

Location of Cosquer Cave. Image from  thearchaeologist.org.

Diagram of Cosquer Cave. Image from thearchaeologist.org.

Rising sea levels – that, in a nutshell, is one of the greatest dangers to the magnificent art in Cosquer Cave, the undersea Paleolithic site in the Mediterranean off the coast of southern France. Sea levels have risen threatening art painted on the cave walls. The cave entrance is 37 meters (120 feet) below the Mediterranean and three cave divers died exploring the cave before the art was discovered. Indeed, the rising sea level has already claimed some of the paintings in the long passageway leading upward to the main chamber. So human induced climate change is now affecting our field of study – cave art.

Three horses, Cosquer Cave, France. Internet image, public domain. Note, the water level is right below the lower horses.  

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

A project to record all of the art in detail has been led by a French archaeologist named Luc Vanrell, “the cave and its treasures, some dating back more than 30,000 years, are in grave danger. Climate change and water and plastic pollution are threatening to wash away the art prehistoric men and women created over 15 millenia. Since a sudden 12-centimeter (near-five-inch)rise in the sea level there in 2011 Vanrell and his colleagues have been in a race against time to record everything they can. Every year the high water mark rises a few more millimeters, eating away a little more of the ancient paintings and carvings.” (Rochiccioli 2022)

 

               

Bison, Cosquer Cave, France.  Image from bradshawfoundation.com.

“To reach the only place in the world where cave paintings of prehistoric marine life have been found, archaeologists have to dive to the bottom of the Mediterranean off southern France. Then they have to negotiate a 137 meter (yard) natural tunnel into the rock, passing through the mouth of the cave until they emerge into a huge cavern, much of it now submerged.” (Rochiccioli 2022)

                

The Great Auks, Cosquer Cave, France. Image from bradshawfoundation.com.

Ibex, Cosquer Cave, France. Image from bradshawfoundation.com.

“In the cave, marine animals make up a significant proportion of the figures. Auks, seals, fish and various markings that may represent jellyfish were painted or engraved on the walls. An auk can also be seen on the ‘ceiling’. This is probably a great auk, which was still widespread in the North Atlantic in the nineteenth century.” (Archaeologist 2022)

Megaceros, Cosquer Cave, France. Image from bradshawfoundation.com.

While there is no practical way to save the original art in the foreseeable future, the French are reproducing the art cave up on dry ground. “The idea of making a replica of the site was first mooted soon after the cave was discovered. But it wasn’t until 2016 that the regional government decided that it would be in a renovated modern building in Marseille next to Mucem, the museum of European and Mediterranean civilizations at the mouth of the city’s Old Port. Using the 3D data gathered by the archaeological teams, the 23-million-euro ($24-million) replica is slightly smaller than the original cave but includes copies of all the paintings and 90 percent of the carvings, said Laurent Delbos from Klebert Rossillon, the company which copied the Chauvet cave in 2015.” (Bartek 2022)

               

Inside the replica Cosquer Cave, France. Internet image, public domain.     

What an absolutely wonderful project, a three dimensional exact reproduction of the bulk of the cave and its art. Not content with just recording everything for posterity the French are reproducing the experience of visiting Cosquer Cave, and making it available to the people who would never have had a chance to dive to the real one.

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:

Archaeologist (The), 2022, The Paleolithic Mysteries of the Underwater ‘Cosquer Cave’ in France, 3 August 2022, https://www.thearchaeologist.org. Accessed online 9 July 2024.

Bartek, Jan, 2022, Race To Save Magnificent Underwater Stone Age Paintings Hidden In The Cosquer Cave, 6 June 2022, https://www.ancientpages.com. Accessed online 17 June 2024.

Rochiccioli, Pierre, 2022, Race to save undersea Stone Age cave art masterpieces, 30 May 2022, https://phys.org/news/. Accessed online 17 June 2024.

DNA ANALYSIS FROM CAVE PAINTINGS:

                

DNA from sediment reveals history of Denisova Cave. Image from phys.org.

For some time now it has been possible for scientists to extract DNA from the sediments in caves, including human and hominin DNA. This leads me to speculate that perhaps we may also be able to detect DNA from manually applied cave paintings such as positive handprints and get an analysis of the artists themselves. Considering that the human body sheds cells constantly it would seem logical that any paint on a cave wall that was applied by hand might contain detectable DNA in human skin cells shed during the application of that paint. And with the advances in DNA analysis this might be a way to personal data such as skin color, eye color, gender, and other data that would allow us to generate a detailed picture of the artist.

Denisova Cave sediment. Image from sci.news.

“Organisms are constantly shedding cells throughout their lives. Humans, for example, shed some half a billion skin cells every day. Much of this genetic material is quickly degraded, but some small fraction is safeguarded for millennia through sedimentary mineral-binding and is out there waiting for us to recover and study it. Now, we can conduct some remarkable research by recovering an immense diversity of environmental DNA from very small amounts of sediment, and in the total absence of any surviving biological tissues.” (Donovan 2020)

       

Negative handprint on cave wall. Online image, public domain.

For the negatively applied handprint, the kind where the hand is placed on the wall of the cave as a stencil and paint is blown around it to leave the image of the hand in outline, we usually assume that the paint was blown from the artist’ mouth. This paint sample should then have traces of human saliva as well as cells shed from the lining of the mouth that could be detected and analyzed.

Much like modern paints, ancient paints were combinations of pigments providing the color, binders hardening and preserving the paint, and the vehicle or liquid that carries the other ingredients for application. For ancient artists the pigments were invariably natural materials such as ochers, colored clays, charcoal, and less commonly plant dyes and materials. The binder could be natural fats, resins, plant saps, milk or eggs. Another possibility was urine used as a mordant (a chemical that fixes a dye or paint by combining with it to form an insoluble compound). In the case of milk used as a binder it also provides the vehicle (as would urine) but most commonly the vehicle would probably have been water (one benefit of mixing your paint with urine would have been that it would not have to have been carried separately, the artist would have a readily available supply).

“So how did the DNA get there? The researchers can’t say exactly, but it wouldn't be too difficult. Humans shed DNA constantly. Any traces of urine, feces, spit, sweat, blood or hair would all contain minute bits of DNA. These compounds actually bind with minerals in bone, and likely did the same with minerals in the soil, preserving it, reports Charles Q. Choi at LiveScience.” (Daley 2017) Once the science of DNA analysis was developed scientists used it to find what life forms had existed prehistorically in a place by testing undisturbed soil samples. The results were surprisingly rich turning up DNA from virtually every animal and insect that had passed that way, and stratigraphy allowed researchers to estimate timelines for those occupations.

“As Lizzie Wade at Science reports, when the team first sequenced the DNA from the sediments, they were overwhelmed. There are trillions of fragments of DNA in a teaspoon of dirt, mostly material from other mammals, including woolly mammoth, woolly rhinoceroses, cave bears and cave hyenas. To cut through the clutter and examine only hominid DNA, they created a molecular “hook” made from the mitochondrial DNA of modern humans. The hook was able to capture DNA fragments that most resembled itself, pulling out fragments from Neanderthals at four sites, including in sediment layers where bones or tools from the species were not present. They also found more DNA from Denisovans, an enigmatic human ancestor found only in single cave in Russia.” (Daley 2017) So, if DNA can be retrieved from cave soil there would seem to be no reason that it could not also be retrieved from paint. This, however, would depend on human contact with the paint.

Positive handprints. Image from Shutterstock.

In his 1993 paper on cave paint analysis Jean Clottes wrote “In the large cave of Niaux, direct observation and macrophotographs have shown that on the panels of signs dubbed ‘the signpost panels’, located were three passages branch off, the paint for some of the dots and red lines had been applied with fingers. On a few, even the fingerprints can be made out.” (Clottes 1993) So, we do have examples of manually applied paint and, since we know that human skin is constantly shedding cells from the outer surface we may be able to detect DNA in these examples. This would also apply to positive handprints where the paint was applied to the hand which was then pressed to the stone.

The other example I mentioned above is the negative handprint where the hand is placed on the wall of the cave as a stencil and paint is blown around it to leave the image of the hand in outline, we usually assume that the paint was blown from the artist’ mouth. This paint sample should then have traces of human saliva as well as cells shed from the lining of the mouth that could be detected and analyzed.

            

Positive and negative handprints, Cueva de los Manos,Argentina. Image from pinterest.

So, to what extent could we hope to use these techniques to learn about the artist’s genetics? “This ancient DNA appears to be relatively widespread. The scientists tested sediments from nine known archaeological sites in Belgium, Croatia, France, Russia and Spain. The sediments dated from between 14,000 and 550,000 years ago, with the oldest intact DNA found in sediments dating from 240,000 years ago.” (Henriques 2017) These examples cited do not distinguish between mitochondrial and nuclear DNA.

B. Vernot et al. (2021) have developed techniques to retrieve and analyze nuclear DNA to retrieve even more data. “Mitochondrial DNA has been retrieved from cave sediments, but provides limited value for studying population relationships. We therefore developed methods for the enrichment and analysis of nuclear DNA from sediments, and applied them to cave deposits in western Europe and southern Siberia dated to between approximately 200,000 and 50,000 years ago. We detect a population replacement in northern Spain approximately 100,000 years ago, accompanied by a turnover of mitochondrial DNA. We also identify to radiation events in Neanderthal history during the early part of the Late Pleistocene. Our work lays the ground for studying the population history of ancient hominins from trace amounts of nuclear DNA in sediments.” (Vernot et al. 2021)

Genetic analysis of DNA can provide a world of information about the person that the DNA came from. Such things as gender, hair, eye and skin color, and even susceptibility to some diseases could be determined. With DNA it would be possible to learn if a painter had contributed more than one image to a panel, or images in more than one location. It may also be possible to determine the group identity and population dynamics of the painters once a sufficient number of samples have been identified and analyzed. 

I am in no way a geneticist so I pass this suggestion to someone who is, perhaps a graduate student looking for a thesis project. Will it not be exciting to actually get to know a cave painter on an individual basis? I, for one, can hardly wait.

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:

Clottes, Jean, 1993, Paint Analyses from Several Magdalenian Caves in the Ariega Region of France, Journal of Archaeological Science, 1993, 20, pp. 223 - 235. Accessed online 4 August 2024.

Daley, Jason, 2017, Scientists Extract DNA From Ancient Humans Out of Cave Dirt, 28 April 2017, Smithsonian Magazine Online, https://www.smithsonianmag.com. Accessed online 6 August 2024.

Donovan, Michelle, 2020, Thousands of species recorded in a speck of soil, 10 September 2020, News release, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.

Henriques, Martha, 2017, DNA from ancient humans discovered in 240,000-year-old soil, 27 April 2017, International Business Times, 4 August 2017. Accessed online 5 August 2024.

Vernot, B. et al., 2021, Unearthing Neanderthal population history using nuclear and mitochondrial DNA from cave sediments, Science, 15 April 2021, www.sciencemag.org. Accessed online 4 August 2024.