On the use (or misuse) of Palaeolithic artistic representations.

[Jacques Cinq-Mars]

All,

From l'Anthropologie's most recent issue, an interesting cautionary statement on the use of  Palaeolithic animal representations for chrono-climatic reconstructions.

You will, no doubt, note that the English translation of the French abstract leaves something to be desired.

Jacques Cinq-Mars

Alcolea González, J. J.  et R. de Balbín Behrmann. 2003. Témoins du froid. La faune dans l'art rupestre paléolithique de l'intérieur péninsulaire. L'Anthropologie 107(4): 471-500.

Résumé:

Notre intention est d'analyser ici la signification ambiante des représentations artistiques paléolithiques existant dans les zones intérieures de la Péninsule ibérique. La faune a été utilisée pour créer des critères chronologiques et climatiques en affirmant la condition de la Meseta castillane durant la dernière glaciation. Il est dangereux, à notre avis, d'utiliser les animaux isolés pour parler des situations de froid ou de chaleur parce qu'ils reflètent la sélection culturelle de leurs auteurs plutôt que la réalité ambiante. Les animaux eurythermes ou dits thermomètres ne sont seulement représentés à des moments tempérés. En outre, nous n'avons presque pas de représentations animales qui ne soient artistiques durant le Tardiglaciaire dans l'intérieur péninsulaire. Ce qui signifie, probablement, que les représentations artistiques sont surtout des signes qui varient pour des raisons culturelles et pas tellement climatiques dans une ambiance générale de type glaciaire.

Witness of coldness. The fauna in the Palaeolithic rock art of the peninsular interior

Abstract"

It is our intention to analyse the environmental significance of the Palaeolithic artistic representations existing in the inner areas of the Iberian Peninsula. The fauna is used to create chronological and climatical criteria to affirm the condition of the castillan plateau during the last glaciation. In our opinion, it is dangerous to use the isolated animals in order to talk about coldness or heat situation because they reflect the cultural selection of their authors more than the ambiental reality. Neither the animals called thermometer nor the euritherm ones are solely represented in the tempered moments. Moreover, we have almost a no animal representation than artistic during the last finiglacial period in the peninsular interior. It means probably that the artistic representations are mainly cultural signs, which change for cultural reasons and not properly climatic ones within a general reality of glacial environment.

Mots-clé: Art Paléolithique; Faune; Intérieur de la Péninsule IbériqueMots-clé: Palaeolithic art; Fauna; Interior of the Iberian Peninsula

Copyright © 2003 Éditions scientifiques et médicales Elsevier SAS. All rights reserved.

[Iain Davidson]

My research in eastern Spain (now rather a long time ago) provided some opportunities to make just this point, but with some (almost) empirical direct support.

The site of Parpallo (in eastern Spain, not far from the present coast) dated between 22 thousand and 10 thousand years ago (unclaibrated) had both animal bones and pictures of animals on plaquettes stratified in the same layers.  I made a comparison of my identifications of the animals and Villaverde's identifications of the animals in the art.  The changes could not be construed as resulting only from environmental change.  There must have been changes in the relations between the people, the animals and the art.  This is stunningly unsurprising.  all that is surprising is that some people who study art do not always notice how important it should be to recognise that they are studying symbolic systems.

The paper can be accessed through my Web page (as can the list of my publications on Spain).  If I knew how to post the pdf to the board, I would be happy to do so.

http://www-personal.une.edu.au/~idavidso/


Iain Davidson

All,

From l'Anthropologie's most recent issue, an interesting cautionary statement on the use of  Palaeolithic animal representations for chrono-climatic reconstructions.

You will, no doubt, note that the English translation of the French abstract leaves something to be desired.

Jacques Cinq-Mars

[Jacques Cinq-Mars]

My research in eastern Spain (now rather a long time ago) provided some opportunities to make just this point, but with some (almost) empirical direct support.

The site of Parpallo (in eastern Spain, not far from the present coast) dated between 22 thousand and 10 thousand years ago (unclaibrated) had both animal bones and pictures of animals on plaquettes stratified in the same layers.  I made a comparison of my identifications of the animals and Villaverde's identifications of the animals in the art.  The changes could not be construed as resulting only from environmental change.  There must have been changes in the relations between the people, the animals and the art.  This is stunningly unsurprising.  all that is surprising is that some people who study art do not always notice how important it should be to recognise that they are studying symbolic systems.

The paper can be accessed through my Web page (as can the list of my publications on Spain).  If I knew how to post the pdf to the board, I would be happy to do so.

http://www-personal.une.edu.au/~idavidso/


Iain Davidson

Iain,

Thanks for passing on this information derived from your Spanish experience, and I can only agree with your "stunningly unsurprising" statement. However, we should note that people studying prehistoric art (some of them, anyway) are not the only ones to perpetrate over-simplistic equations of the kind under review here. I would say that it is a rather frequent "maladie" that affects the full spectrum of the palaeoanthropological subdisciplines in which the perpetrators have a very curious sense of what true "interdisciplinarity" is all about. I don't know much about the Australian scene, but I could come up with quite a few revealing examples from other regions of the world. As a matter of fact, I can say that debates regarding on the Early Peopling of my hemisphere (remember that ?) are particularly affected by this curious kind of scientific behaviour.

Thanks also for your offer to post a PDF of your paper) . It is feasible and, I might add, the more the better. The rules and procedures are as follows:

- it has to be made clear that the document is free of "rights";

- it is to be sent (with or without pertinent comments) to info@palanth.com, following which it gets posted, with the appropriate announcement to the Forum members.

Jacques