Australian rock art discovery may rewrite history.

originally posted by: Marduk

originally posted by: unicornholiday
a reply to: zazzafrazz

I just looked at the picture and they looked like giants.

Because as a fundamentalist religious type, you always see what you want to believe.

originally posted by: Anaana

I think it far more exciting, that artistic expression emerged at roughly the same time, thousands of miles apart.

I suppose that line of reasoning boils down to what exactly one considers the threshold of artistic expression to be. It would appear based on currently available evidence that representational/figurative paintings appeared independently at several places from El Castillo Spain (40.8 KA) to Indonesia (Sulawesi Cave @ 37.9KA), the oldest parts of Chauvet cave in France date to ~35 KA and show an impressive array of paintings covering several different periods from then until after the end of the LGM. But this is just representational or figurative painting.

We have incredible sculptures such as the Lion man of the Hohlenstein Stadel at ~40 KA, the Venus of Hohle Fels @ 35-40KA. Even farther back, though actual paintings are elusive, Blombos Cave has an Ochre workshop that dates to between 70 and 100 KA which includes engraved ochre, engraved bone, ochre processing kits, marine shell beads, refined bone and stone tools. The vast array of material discovered in Blombos necessitated an in depth re-evaluation of how we view and understand not just the emergence, but the timing and place of the emergence of traits and behaviors that we consider to be "modern" behaviors, those that differentiate "us" from archaic human populations. The level of social organization required to establish and maintain an operation such as this, to procure resources... is unparalleled for this time frame in our history and demonstrates equally unparalleled adaptation to their ecological niche as well as subsistence and procurements strategies, adoption of multi-step technology and manufacture of composite tools, stylistic elaboration, increased economic and social organization and occurrence of symbolically mediated behavior. Within the proper context, Blombos Cave is one of the most important archaeological/anthropological sites on the entire planet.

Beyond that, there is also evidence of much more basic geometric artwork from Indonesia that dates to 400 KA BP. Not only does this push back the time frame of the emergence of "modern" behaviors, it does so with a twist as the people who made the geometric zig zags were H. Erectus.

news.nationalgeographic.com...

For anyone who may be interested in Chauvet Cave in France...



www.nytimes.com...

Lion Man- archive.archaeology.org...

Venus of Hohle Fels www.smithsonianmag.com...

Excellent post!

originally posted by: peter vlar

originally posted by: Anaana

I think it far more exciting, that artistic expression emerged at roughly the same time, thousands of miles apart.

I suppose that line of reasoning boils down to what exactly one considers the threshold of artistic expression to be.

I take a very practical view. Art is seldom for art's sake, it develops from technical expertise and application. Take stone adze, for example, we seldom find those that were utilised by their makers, not in pristeen condition anyway, but we find jadeite examples, as part of the burial record and in ceremonial/ritual functions, because they were never used. The jadeite was selected, on an aesthetic basis, not for it's performance, they were made to be beautiful, that is their power and because they were treasured only as objects, they were preserved, never taken out the display case (so to speak). Similarly with the domestic arts, textiles, basketwork, leather/hides etc. We have always made what is practically but when time allowed, we made something for Sunday-best too.

The emergence of major cave painting, possibly driven by the desire to record events and transfer information with some eye towards permanence, also led to the need to express more ephemeral information, attempting to capture moments in time, including individual and collective/group identity. I think it highly probable that we had been leaving our marks in other ways, in terms of visual expression, for much longer, but technically perhaps, that 40Kish mark was when that particular skill-base developed into a technical expertise, both in terms of the artist executing the work, but also in the audience's appreciation/understanding, and valuing, what was being communicated, it is the latter that allows the artist, or any specialist, to focus and devote time to their "art" because, if the group do not otherwise support the artist, the time that is lost to artistic expression is contrary to survival.