On Palaeoart, by Robert G. Bednarik

[Jacques Cinq-Mars]

All,

If you have not already seen them, here are two URLs that will give you access to two papers (unfortunately undated) by Robert G. Bednarik.

The first one probably dates back to at least 2002; it is a short paper of the Côa River valley controversy and some of its sequels:

Sorting the ibex from the goats in Portugal
Robert G. Bednarik

CLICK HERE

The second one, which also appears to have been written in 2001 is an electronic version (revised ?)  of an article that was "first published in Vladimir Vasil'evich Bobrov (ed.), Pervobytnaya arkheologiya: chelovek i iskusstvo, pp. 23-31. Kemerovskii gosudarstvennyi universitet, Novosibirsk. It does present a good inventory of (mostly) pre-UP artistic/symbolic representations. Some of the illustrations are quite informative and so is the accompanying lengthy "References cited" list.

The earliest known palaeoart
ROBERT G. BEDNARIK

CLICK HERE

You may also want to find out about a long term project R.G. Bednarik has been involved in:

Early Indian Petroglyphs (EIP) Project

The primary purpose of the Early Indian Petroglyphs (EIP) Project is to investigate extraordinary claims from India that imply that the earliest known rock art tradition in the world may have been found in that country. If correct, certain archaic art traditions in India could be several times as old as the oldest previously dated rock art, that of the Upper Palaeolithic of France (dated to up to about 32,000 years BP in Chauvet Cave). The principal Indian sites in question are Auditorium Cave at Bhimbetka (near Bhopal, M.P.), Daraki-Chattan (a recently discovered cave near Bhanpura, M.P.), and Bajanibhat (a rockshelter near Kotaputli, Raj.).

The propositions of an extremely early cultural sophistication in southern Asian rock art are of the utmost importance to world archaeology, to hominid evolution and to profound questions of the origins of culture, cognition and art-producing human behaviour. Extraordinary claims deserve extraordinary care in their consideration and scientific testing, and it is the purpose of the EIP Project to conduct such testing. This project has assembled an international commission to review the claims made concerning Indian early petroglyphs. It uses methods such as carbon isotope analysis, optically stimulated luminescence dating, microerosion analysis and archaeological excavation. The Commission intends to report its first findings to the international research community during 2003.

The full introductory text and much more on this fascinating project  (including another lengthy research paper by Bednarik) can be found
HERE

Jacques Cinq-Mars

[trehinp]

Dear Jacques,

I just got to read your message here. Better late than never :-)

I was in fact looking for references in PALANTH to the second paper you mention "The earliest Evidence of Aplaeoart".

I had an exchange of e-mails with Pr Bednarik who gave me the reference of his paper which is combined with a series of comments by eminent specialists of palaeoart.

One year after your initial post, I just want to re-emphasise the interest that there is in reading the full article as well as the comments.

I got the article and the comments from the website of Robert Bednarik : http://mc2.vicnet.net.au/home/cognit/web/index.html


The article :
http://mc2.vicnet.net.au/home/cognit/shared_files/Bednarik_2003.pdf

Yours sincerely.

Paul

[Jacques Cinq-Mars]

Paul,

Thanks for the link to the original 'Palaeoart' paper. While looking at my original post, I noticed that I had invertedthe two URLs. This has been corrected.

Jacques