Early African art and population

[Daryl Habel]

However, I was also interested in the migration route while AMH were still on the African continent. A subsidiary question would be to know if we have any idea / estimates about the populations sizes.
(SNIP)
If we were to find a very early art manifestation along the migration route of AMH, this would support my "Savant syndrome" hypothesis. I think that finding such art is a possibility, even though the probability that it existed would be very small, given the very low prevalence of "savant syndrome" in the population and further more the risk that such art manifestation would also be destroyed by time.

Sorry for that slight deviation from the immediate subject of this discussion, I am trying to link this OMO I and OMO II story to my own research.

Yours sincerely.
Paul

Hi Paul,

Since these questions do deviate from the immediate subject, I've split the topic, retitled it, and am posting to what (I hope) is the appropriate forum board.

On the matter of migration route and population size of AMH in Africa, I really can't help you much there because, if there is good data on this I'm not aware of it.  But I'll try to provide some hints why answering is so difficult.  As you must know, there are some folks who contest substantial migration.  Although we can see that modern anatomy is present in East Africa before 100,000 years ago, and also perhaps in South Africa, there is a certain excavation bias involved because paleoanthropologists have done so much work in these regions, and many, if not most, other regions of Africa have not been privy to such intense investigation.  Population size is another question which depends on unsure assumptions to even begin making estimates.  Genetic estimates derive from samples taken from present-day populations, and generally don't take into account possible interbreeding with populations that are not represented in the present-day gene pool, and archaeological estimates derive from various factors involving landscape ecology, climatic reconstruction, carrying capacity of the landscape, number and size of sites found, etc.

All this is tremendously oversimplified, and there undoubtedly are some brave souls that have published estimates, but I've not yet seen anything I would bet the farm on.  In any case, I can't answer this question.

Early art in Africa is almost as problematic.  If we disregard the abstract art of ocher and scratches, and beads, which appear in a few places as early as 70,000-100,000 years ago, the earliest known African parietal representational art is supposedly Apollo Cave, Namibia:CLICK HERE. 

Earliest mobile representational art might be the Acheulean figurine from Tan-Tan, Morocco:

Bednarik, R.G. (2003). A figurine from the African Acheulian. Current Anthropology 44(3): 405-413.

Bednarik says only that this was found in a "Middle Acheulian" context, but there is no absolute dating for this piece.  Bednarik says Middle Acheulian artifacts of "similar composition occurs between 500,000 and 300,000 years ago" (p. 405), but I would caution with the fact that ['Late'] Acheulian assemblages are known to have existed in North Africa until around 100,000 years ago.  In any case, the Tan-Tan figurine doesn't have a secure date.

And even if it did, and even if the Apollo Cave art turns out to be dated earlier than the c.25,000 BP deposits it was buried under (which some folks have suggested), or even if I've forgotten (which I doubt) or if am ignorant of a Paleolithic example here and there, I think it's been shown that there isn't really much Paleolithic representational art to show a 'beginning' or 'spread' or 'migration' of specific AMH art (or population size) anywhere in Africa. IMO, of course.

Not much help for you, but can you see the problems?

Dar       

[trehinp]

Thanks a lot Dar,

As usual, you gave me (us) a thorough answer. I really appreciate your takong the time to reply so completely.

I appreciate indeed the complexity of this exploratory endeavour of mine.  

The thinking behind it is that if, and this is a big "IF", some earlier representative art similar to that of the upper Palaeolithic one was to be found along that AMH migration path, that is much before Chauvet Cave art, it would add a strong element in favour of my hypothesis.

On the demographics I also realise the challenges...

A very rough estimate of the prevalence of "savant syndrome" is around 1 per 1 million. Assuming equal probability through time, in a population of 10,000, that would make one every 100 years.  "Savant syndrome" manifests itself in various modalities : plastic art (painting,drawing, sculpture), music, calculation. It is not always developped and expressed as it is often linked to intellectual disabilities and these people may have had great difficulties to survive. However "Savant syndrome" also appears in individual with no intellectual disabilities. So a few may have been able to express their talents. For the sake of concreteness, say 1 individual in about 10,000 years. Remains the probability of preservation of this art which becomes less and less likely the further down in time we go...  

I am not hence betting on such early art manifestations the validity of my "Savant syndrome" hypothesis for art origin...

By the way, concerning the TAN TAN figurine, people with savant syndrome (and in particular those with autism) are known to hae a great facility to detect "imbeded" figures. This has been demonstrated through several recent experimental procedures. So it may also have been easier for them to recognise a human or animal shape in a stone or on a stonewall, as they did actually in many caves.

There may be a chance to find something perhaps in the easten Europe and the middle east. This is somewhat more recent, reducing two of the negative probabilities by having a larger population and less destruction of work through time.

The very early statuettes of Vogelhart could be illustrations of this theory.

Yours sincerely.

Paul

[trehinp]

Hi Dar,

Sorry to come back to this much earlier post, but I've found another reference about the Apollo cave art in one of my recent readings Dating it about 28K BP (Francesco D'Errico, "Les multiples origines des cultures modernes", Sciences Humaines, Decembre 2005 / Janvier-Fevrier 2006)

Early art in Africa is almost as problematic.  If we disregard the abstract art of ocher and scratches, and beads, which appear in a few places as early as 70,000-100,000 years ago, the earliest known African parietal representational art is supposedly Apollo Cave, Namibia:CLICK HERE. 

I have tried to go to the web site you indicated above, but there were no pictures available on this apparently very old African cave art.

Do you know about some website where I might find such pictures? I have searched Google in an out but probably with the wrong keywords. So far I haven't been able to get any pictures, just several interesting papers.

Perhaps if someone else has some hints on where I might find pictures of the Apollo cave art I would be greateful.

Yours sincerely.

Paul

[Daryl Habel]

Hi Dar,

Sorry to come back to this much earlier post, but I've found another reference about the Apollo cave art in one of my recent readings Dating it about 28K BP (Francesco D'Errico, "Les multiples origines des cultures modernes", Sciences Humaines, Decembre 2005 / Janvier-Fevrier 2006)

Early art in Africa is almost as problematic.  If we disregard the abstract art of ocher and scratches, and beads, which appear in a few places as early as 70,000-100,000 years ago, the earliest known African parietal representational art is supposedly Apollo Cave, Namibia:CLICK HERE. 

I have tried to go to the web site you indicated above, but there were no pictures available on this apparently very old African cave art.

Do you know about some website where I might find such pictures? I have searched Google in an out but probably with the wrong keywords. So far I haven't been able to get any pictures, just several interesting papers.
[snip]
Paul

Paul,

I've attached a scanned photo with caption from Paul Bahn & Jean Vertut, "Journey Through the Ice Age" (1997, University of California Press, Berkeley & Los Angeles).  The text (from pages 30-31) reads: "Portable Palaeolithic art has been well authenticated in Namibia, where seven fragments of stone found by Eric Wendt in the Apollo 11 Cave have paint on them, including four or five recognizable animal figures (Fig.3.6) such as a black rhino and two possible zebras; they display a use of two colours, and were associated with charcoal which has provided a radiocarbon date of at least 19,000 and perhaps 26,000 years ago (20).  The site also yielded some notched bones of similar or greater age."

Reference (20) given by Bahn & Vertut is:

Wendt 1974, 1976.

Wendt, W.E. 1974. 'Art mobilier' aus der Apollo 11-Grotte in Sudwest-Afrika. Acta Praehistorica et Archaeologica 5, 1-2.

Wendt, W.E. 1976. 'Art mobilier' from the Apollo 11 cave, South West Africa: Africa's oldest dated works of art. South African Archaeological Bulletin 31, 5-11.

I may have been wrong (above) about the Apollo 11 cave art being "parietal" as Bahn & Vertut describe these as being mobiliary.  I have some notes I made up on Apollo Cave, but I can't readily find where I put them.  I'll look and get back later after I find them.

Dar

[Jacques Cinq-Mars]

Hi Dar,

Sorry to come back to this much earlier post, but I've found another reference about the Apollo cave art in one of my recent readings Dating it about 28K BP (Francesco D'Errico, "Les multiples origines des cultures modernes", Sciences Humaines, Decembre 2005 / Janvier-Fevrier 2006)

Early art in Africa is almost as problematic.  If we disregard the abstract art of ocher and scratches, and beads, which appear in a few places as early as 70,000-100,000 years ago, the earliest known African parietal representational art is supposedly Apollo Cave, Namibia:CLICK HERE. 

I have tried to go to the web site you indicated above, but there were no pictures available on this apparently very old African cave art.

Do you know about some website where I might find such pictures? I have searched Google in an out but probably with the wrong keywords. So far I haven't been able to get any pictures, just several interesting papers.
[snip]
Paul

Paul,

I've attached a scanned photo with caption from Paul Bahn & Jean Vertut, "Journey Through the Ice Age" (1997, University of California Press, Berkeley & Los Angeles).  The text (from pages 30-31) reads: "Portable Palaeolithic art has been well authenticated in Namibia, where seven fragments of stone found by Eric Wendt in the Apollo 11 Cave have paint on them, including four or five recognizable animal figures (Fig.3.6) such as a black rhino and two possible zebras; they display a use of two colours, and were associated with charcoal which has provided a radiocarbon date of at least 19,000 and perhaps 26,000 years ago (20).  The site also yielded some notched bones of similar or greater age."

Reference (20) given by Bahn & Vertut is:

Wendt 1974, 1976.

Wendt, W.E. 1974. 'Art mobilier' aus der Apollo 11-Grotte in Sudwest-Afrika. Acta Praehistorica et Archaeologica 5, 1-2.

Wendt, W.E. 1976. 'Art mobilier' from the Apollo 11 cave, South West Africa: Africa's oldest dated works of art. South African Archaeological Bulletin 31, 5-11.

I may have been wrong (above) about the Apollo 11 cave art being "parietal" as Bahn & Vertut describe these as being mobiliary.  I have some notes I made up on Apollo Cave, but I can't readily find where I put them.  I'll look and get back later after I find them.

Dar

Dar,

Where is the "scanned photo"?!

At any rate, doing a Google Scholar search for<Wendt, W.E. 1974. 'Art mobilier' aus der Apollo 11-Grotte> should provide you with a number of titles that in one way or another pertain to Apollo 11 Cave. The one by Bednarik entitled The earliest known palaeoart does show one (colour) example of the Apollo portable art.

Jacques

[trehinp]

Thanks a lot Dar,

That is very useful. It is the first picture I was able to see from Apollo cave.

You are right about it being mobiliary rather than parietal art. Indeed all the articles I was able to find about Apollo Cave art were only speaking about tablets.

The datation of these tablets if fundamental to my research on art origin as linked to "savant syndrome".

I will seek more info and get back to the forum if I succeed in finding more precise documents on this early African art.

Yours sincerely.

Paul

[Daryl Habel]

Dar,

Where is the "scanned photo"?!
Jacques

Attachments show up at the bottom of messages only when messages are accessed from the applicable forum "board" itself.  Attachments are not available from the easy-to-use "Recent Posts"  The scanned photo is in message 4 of the thread HERE

But you've probably already figured this out, so I'm posting the info for others who might be looking at "Recent Posts".

Dar

[Daryl Habel]

At any rate, doing a Google Scholar search for<Wendt, W.E. 1974. 'Art mobilier' aus der Apollo 11-Grotte> should provide you with a number of titles that in one way or another pertain to Apollo 11 Cave. The one by Bednarik entitled The earliest known palaeoart does show one (colour) example of the Apollo portable art.

Jacques

Thanks for the tip, although I note the Bednarik photo is the same tablet fragments as the Bahn & Vertut photo.

Dar

[Jacques Cinq-Mars]

Dar,

Where is the "scanned photo"?!
Jacques

Attachments show up at the bottom of messages only when messages are accessed from the applicable forum "board" itself.  Attachments are not available from the easy-to-use "Recent Posts"  The scanned photo is in message 4 of the thread HERE

But you've probably already figured this out, so I'm posting the info for others who might be looking at "Recent Posts".

Dar

Actually, I had not "figured [it] out. Didn't think of it. That'll teach me to take the "Recent Posts" shortcut. Also, I didn't have the Bahn & Vertut image to compare to the Bednarik one.

Jacques, the Moderator.

[Daryl Habel]

[  I have some notes I made up on Apollo Cave, but I can't readily find where I put them.  I'll look and get back later after I find them.
Dar

I finally located my Apollo 11 Cave notes, but they aren't much different from what already has been posted.   There is an additional reference (Vogelsang 1996) to the tablets being mobile art and therefore not exfoilated parts of a larger wall painting:

Vogelsang, R. (1996). The Middle Stone Age in south-western Namibia. In: Pwiti, G. & Soper, R. (eds.) Aspects of African Archaeology. Harare: University of Zimbabwe. pp. 207-211.

But I don't have access to this.  My notes also say three notched ribs of unknown function are present and ostrich eggshell water container mouths have also been found in the Apollo 11 MSA layers, but the majority of the ostrich eggshell samples are unmodified fragments.  I'm not sure from my notes whether the Vogelsang (1996) paper is the reference for this.  Only that it was noted at the same time as the above.

However Vogelsang (1996) is a reference for another note -  that only single finds imply the intentional decoration of ostrich eggshell during the Middle Stone Age - and I have a note from Mikey Brass which says from personal communication between him and (Judy?) Sealy that incised ostrich eggshell was found in the Howiesons Poort layers at the Diepkloof site.

I also have a quote made by Iain Davidson posted October 10, 2001, on the old Palanth-L list (message #10962), which says of Apollo 11 cave: "...But there has been a recent redating of this site which leaves the possibility that the plaquettes are much older, maybe 40 thousand.  This has not been commented on (so far as I know) but does fit with what we know of the MSA..."

Along with this quote, Davidson provided the reference:

Miller, G.H., Beaumont, P.B., Deacon, H.J., Brooks, A.s., Hare, P.E. & Jull, A.J.T. (1999). Earliest modern humans in southern Africa dated by isoleucine epimerizatioin in ostrich eggshell. Quaternary Science Reviews 18: 1537-1548.

Which also I don't have and haven't read, so I don't know what evidence this 'possiblity' is based on.  But the abstract is: HERE

So all I can provide here are hints and clues.

Dar