Pleistocene Art Pictures

Cognito · Post by **Cognito** » Fri Oct 10, 2008 10:05 am

The following article was posted by Digit, but I am taking an atypical view that the art is worthy of posting in addition to the content. Here is the article:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.j ... art105.xml

And here begins pics of absolutely astounding artwork:

Ishtar · Post by **Ishtar** » Fri Oct 10, 2008 11:04 am

Cogs

Full marks for getting the category right ... but Dig had already started a thread on this same article a few days ago.

http://archaeologica.boardbot.com/viewt ... 89&start=0

I agree that the artwork is stunning, though.

Cognito · Post by **Cognito** » Fri Oct 10, 2008 5:12 pm

More artwork for the refined members among us. Since the renderings are quite old, I'm not worrying about copyright laws:

A. Miravista, Spain:

B. Miravista, Spain:

C. Lascaux, France:

D. Lascaux, France:

E. Lascaux, France:

Digit · Post by **Digit** » Sat Oct 11, 2008 12:26 pm

If they could be removed from the walls and offered for sale I wonder what they would be priced at.
Truly beautiful, and when you consider the conditions under which they were created Michelangelo had little to complain about with the Sistine Chapel!

Roy.

Post by **Minimalist** » Sat Oct 11, 2008 12:36 pm

Does anyone else think that a couple of those animals look pregnant?

Particularly C and D.

Digit · Post by **Digit** » Sat Oct 11, 2008 12:38 pm

Now that you've drawn my attention to it, yes, I thinks you're correct Min.

Roy.

Ishtar · Post by **Ishtar** » Sun Oct 12, 2008 7:55 am

I've just come across this today. It's Mircea Eliade on cave initiations:

The likeness between Australia and Siberia markedly confirms the authenticity and antiquity of shamanic initiation rites. The importance of the cave in the initiation of the Australian medicine man adds weight to the presumption of antiquity. The role of the cave in palaeolithic religions appears to have been decidedly important.

Then too, the cave and the labyrinth continue to have a function of the first importance in the initiation rites of other archaic cultures (as, for example, in Malekula in the South Pacific). Both, indeed, are concrete symbols of passage into another world, of a descent to an underworld. According to the earliest accounts of the Aracanian shamans of Chile, they too received their initiation in caves which were often decorated with animal heads.

Among the Smith Sound Eskimo, the aspirant must go at night to a cliff containing caves and walk straight ahead in the darkness. If he is predestined to become a shaman, he will enter a cave. As soon as he has entered the cave, it closes behind him and does not open again until some time later .... Caves play an important part in the initiation of North American shamans; it is in caves that aspirants have their dreams and meet their helping spirits.

There is also a book that he quotes that would be extremely relevant here: The Gate of Horn: A Study of the Religious Conceptions of the Stone Age, and their Influence Upon European Thought by Gertrude Levy.

I found it here:

http://www.tomfolio.com/bookdetailssu.asp?b=2017&m=220

And this a synopsis of it:

The fully articulate art of the Palaeolithic peoples of South Western Europe is a safe guide to the meaning of their religious ideas-- ideas that escape logical formulation. From the paintings and symbols of their caves it is possible to reconstruct the religious system in practice among them at the end of the Ice Age." Contents include The Caverns; The Religious Ideas Common to Modern Hunting Peoples; The Mother Goddess and the Dead; The Cattle-byre and the Milk-yielding Tree; Ziggurat and Pyramid; The Religion of Crete; Mythical Foundations of the Mainland Cities; The Greek Mystery Cults.

.

Rokcet Scientist · Post by **Rokcet Scientist** » Sun Oct 12, 2008 8:30 am

it is in caves that aspirants have their dreams and meet their helping spirits.

Duh!
Dreaming (i.e. sleeping) outside of caves they would 'meet' the predators of the night and never be able to tell their eerie dream stories/revelations (hallucinations).

Ishtar · Post by **Ishtar** » Sun Oct 12, 2008 8:59 am

Contrary to what we were taught at school, RS, we know now that Stone Age man (the so-called 'Caveman') didn't live in caves. In the main, the caves were regarded as sacred areas and not general run of the mill habitats to protect humans against wild animals.

That stereotype is busted ... along with him saying 'Ug' a lot and carrying a big club to whack his woman over the head and then drag her off to the nearest cave ... sadly.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caveman

Caveman is traditionally portrayed as being clothed in animal skins, armed with bone or wood clubs, unintelligent, and aggressive. Furthermore, cavemen are often shown as living in caves; but this stemmed from the ritual paintings found in caves, where they are likely to be better-preserved than in more exposed locations. It is more probable that the caves were religious gathering places or temporary shelter, and not the actual dwellings of the supposed 'cavemen'.

Post by **Minimalist** » Sun Oct 12, 2008 9:27 am

then drag her off to the nearest cave ... sadly.

Ah, the good old days eh, Ish?

Digit · Post by **Digit** » Sun Oct 12, 2008 9:31 am

Before my time unfortunately!

Roy.

Ishtar · Post by **Ishtar** » Sun Oct 12, 2008 9:41 am

Minimalist wrote:
then drag her off to the nearest cave ... sadly.
Ah, the good old days eh, Ish?

Yep!

.

Ishtar · Post by **Ishtar** » Sun Oct 12, 2008 9:42 am

Digit wrote:Before my time unfortunately!

Roy.

Here's another good one!

.

Post by **Minimalist** » Sun Oct 12, 2008 11:11 am

Hence, the derivation of the term "to go clubbing."

Digit · Post by **Digit** » Sun Oct 12, 2008 12:06 pm

Min, you're getting worse!

Roy.