scholarly journals A New Look at the Berekhat Ram Figurine: Implications for the Origins of Symbolism

2000 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 123-167 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesco d'Errico ◽  
April Nowell
Keyword(s):  
Near East ◽  
Upper Palaeolithic ◽  
Upper Pleistocene ◽  
Volcanic Material ◽  
Late Emergence ◽  
Lower Palaeolithic ◽  
Palaeolithic Art ◽  
New Look

This article addresses the nature of the evidence for symbolling behaviour among hominids living in the Near East during the Middle and Upper Pleistocene. Traditionally, Palaeolithic art and symbolling have been synonymous with the Upper Palaeolithic of Europe. The Berekhat Ram figurine, a piece of volcanic material from a Lower Palaeolithic site in Israel, described as purposely modified to produce human features, challenges the view of a late emergence of symbolic behaviour. The anthropogenic nature of these modifications, however, is controversial. We address this problem through an examination of volcanic material from the Berekhat Ram site and from other sources, and by experimentally reproducing the modifications observed on the figurine. We also analyze this material and the figurine itself through optical and SEM microscopy. Our conclusion is that this object was purposely modified by hominids.With comments from Ofer Bar-Yosef, Angela E. Close, João Zilhão, Steven Mithen, Thomas Wynn, and Alexander Marshack followed by a reply from the authors.

The Lascaux Cave

1951 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 50-51
Author(s):  
Hallam L. Movius
Keyword(s):  
Western Europe ◽  
Forest Type ◽  
Phase 2 ◽  
Upper Palaeolithic ◽  
Art Galleries ◽  
Upper Pleistocene ◽  
The One ◽  
Lascaux Cave ◽  
Palaeolithic Art

The Lascaux Cave, one of the most important single sites of upper Palaeolithic art ever discovered, is located near Montignac (Dordogne), 16 miles up the Vézère River from the famous town of Les Eyzies. It was found in September 1940 by two French schoolboys out rabbit hunting. Called the “Versailles of Prehistoric Man,” Lascaux ranks among the world's oldest and most remarkable art galleries. It has been completely sealed off from the outside world since late upper Pleistocene times, and it is now generally believed that the majority of the paintings are upper Perigordian (Gravettian) in date—Phase 2 in the upper Palaeolithic art sequence of western Europe. That they were produced during a time of climatic amelioration, possibly the one known as the Achen retreat, is borne out by the fact that the animals depicted belong much more to a steppe and forest type of fauna, than they do to a colder tundra group. For example, there are no mammoths and no reindeer shown, but there are many horses, a considerable quantity of cattle, bison and several ibexes.

Thematic changes in Upper Palaeolithic art: a view from the Grotte Chauvet

Antiquity ◽  
1996 ◽  
Vol 70 (268) ◽  
pp. 276-288 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean Clottes
Keyword(s):  
Upper Palaeolithic ◽  
Palaeolithic Art

Trustworthy dates on charcoal from the classic European painted caves have given a sharper view of images and their making in the later Palaeolithic. The new Grotte Chauvet has its own original themes, revealing a striking and an unexpected Aurignacian art with — again — dates from charcoal in which one can have confidence.

Altered States of Consciousness and Palaeoart: an Alternative Neurovisual Explanation

2006 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Derek Hodgson
Keyword(s):  
Alternative Explanation ◽  
Altered States Of Consciousness ◽  
Viable Alternative ◽  
Altered States ◽  
Upper Palaeolithic ◽  
States Of Consciousness ◽  
Palaeolithic Art

There has been much controversy recently regarding Lewis-Williams's assertion that altered states of consciousness and shamanism can explain Palaeolithic art. Evidence now seems to be accumulating that this account is unable to provide a sustainable explanation for Upper Palaeolithic depictions. This proposition will be explored and substantiated by examining further weaknesses contained therein. Additionally, in response to claims by those defending altered states that no alternative explanation for palaeoart has been proposed as a viable alternative, it will be shown that such a description does exist but has not been given the attention it deserves because of a misplaced concern for shamanism.

Wrestling with Analogy: A Methodological Dilemma in Upper Palaeolithic Art Research.

1991 ◽  
Vol 57 (01) ◽  
pp. 149-162 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. D. Lewis-Williams
Keyword(s):  
Western Europe ◽  
Upper Palaeolithic ◽  
Prehistoric Art ◽  
Scientific Opinion ◽  
Art Research ◽  
Analogical Argument ◽  
Palaeolithic Art

In 1902 Emile Cartailhac published hisMea Culpa d'un Sceptique. His acceptance of the high antiquity of prehistoric art in western Europe followed Capitan and Breuil's convincing discoveries in Font de Gaume and Les Combarelles and reflected a widespread change of opinion. Despite previous scepticism, researchers were beginning to allow that the parietal as well as the mobile art did indeed date back to the Upper Palaeolithic. But this swing in scientific opinion opened up an even more baffling problem: why did Upper Palaeolithic people make these pictures? In the year following Cartailhac's turn-about Salomon Reinach tried to answer this question by developing an analogical argument based on ethnographic parallels. He could see no other way of approaching the problem: ‘Our only hope of finding outwhythe troglodytes painted and sculpted lies in asking the same question of present-day primitives with whom the ethnography reveals connections’ (Reinach 1903, 259; my translation, his emphasis).

Preliminary Report on Stone Age Reconnaissance in north-eastern Iran

1964 ◽  
Vol 30 ◽  
pp. 382-399 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. B. M. McBurney
Keyword(s):  
Preliminary Report ◽  
British Museum ◽  
Primary Objective ◽  
Climatic Data ◽  
Middle Palaeolithic ◽  
Upper Palaeolithic ◽  
Upper Pleistocene ◽  
Eastern Iran ◽  
North Eastern ◽  
The One

The following is a preliminary report on the results achieved during approximately six weeks' archaeological fieldwork in north-eastern Iran in July and August 1963. The primary objective was to explore the area for traces of the local Upper Pleistocene cultural sequence, and in particular to establish if possible the date and character of the local Upper Palaeolithic. In the event no traces of Upper Palaeolithic were obtained. However, a start was made towards defining the problem by the discovery of two well-stratified deposits, the one yielding a Middle Palaeolithic (Mousterian) industry with distinctive regional affinities, and the other an early Post-glacial Mesolithic industry. Reliable samples were obtained for defining the statistical properties of both, together with carbon samples, traces of vertebrate fauna, and some other climatic data.Representative collections were lodged with the Musée Iran Bastan at Teheran; and the expedition's share is to be offered in part to the Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology in Cambridge and in part to the British Museum. The expedition was financed mainly by a grant from the British Academy, supplemented by further grants from the Crowther-Beynon Fund and the British Museum.

The working of pigment during the Aurignacian period: evidence from Üçagizli cave (Turkey)

Antiquity ◽  
1995 ◽  
Vol 69 (262) ◽  
pp. 153-158 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angela Minzoni-Déroche ◽  
Michel Menu ◽  
Philippe Walter
Keyword(s):  
Near East ◽  
Upper Palaeolithic ◽  
Mineralogical Analysis ◽  
Western European

New finds from the Upper Palaeolithic of Anatolia, and the mineralogical analysis of their colours, extends evidence of a precocious interest in pigments from the western European heartland of Palaeolithic painting into the Near East.

scholarly journals Waste Management at the End of the Stone Age

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-57
Author(s):  
Filip Havlíček ◽  
Martin Kuča
Keyword(s):  
Waste Management ◽  
Environmental History ◽  
Natural Resource ◽  
Resource Use ◽  
Management Systems ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Stone Age ◽  
Upper Palaeolithic ◽  
Natural Resource Use ◽  
Lower Palaeolithic

AbstractThis article describes examples of waste management systems from archaeological sites in Europe and the Middle East. These examples are then contextualized in the broader perspectives of environmental history. We can confidently claim that the natural resource use of societies predating the Lower Palaeolithic was in equilibrium with the environment. In sharp contrast stand communities from the Upper Palaeolithic and onwards, when agriculture appeared and provided opportunities for what seemed like unlimited expansion.

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