The Palaeolithic Rock Art: Life-like Depictions and Symbolic Meanings
The Palaeolithic rock art is characterized as life-like not only because it has characteristics of living animals, but also because it mimics real-life events. Animals are depicted in diligent poses in the paintings and sculptures, while other cave art depicts wild animals as mythical entities. However, a community of archaeologists in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries concluded that the Palaeolithic period cultures were primitive and thus may not have had the psychological motives to create drawings with symbolic meanings. Nevertheless, it is evident that the rock arts provide profound insights on the religious, economic activities and other social aspects of the Palaeolithic era. The animals such as horses, bisons, warthogs, and dominate the Palaeolithic Rock Art because they provided the populations with food. Long years of ethnographic observations further confirm that the artists intended to convey information to other community members. Elements of the famous Palaeolithic rock art such as "the Sorcerer" and "the Bird-headed man with a Bison" resemble the religious practices of the early French, Spanish and Siberian communities. Therefore, the artist did not only make their paintings look alive but also symbolized their daily life experiences.
Introduction
Attempts to discover the unique attributes of the Palaeolithic art have led to multiple controversial hypotheses. The rock art dates back to more than 36,000 years ago (Lawson, 2012, P. 4). Despite long years of debates over the rock art's meaning and features, scholars have not reached a consensus. Anthropologists have been proposing various theories to account for the significance of the European Palaeolithic rock art to the communities that lived at the time. According to McDonald and Veth (2012), it is argued that the art served as territory markers (4). The cave art indicated to the boundaries, therefore, minimized conflicts between the hunting and gathering communities. Other scholars also believe that the art signified the hunting magic that helped to secure control over the particular type of animals that were an important source of food supply. However, this essay explores the concepts emphasizing that the European rock art style makes animals appear life-like but do not have significant symbolic meanings.
The Palaeolithic Rock Art
The rock or parietal arts are the finger markings and bas-relief sculptures that the early century populations engraved or painted on the rock surfaces (Pike et al., 2012, p. 1410). The cave artists used primitive tools such as sticks, fingernails, and chewed sticks. At times they made an outline of pictures using charcoal sticks, grounded red and yellow ochre. The rock arts are found on virtually all continents. In Western Europe, the paintings were most popular in France and Spain. Edwards (2013) cites that France owns 95% of the Upper Palaeolithic art. Animals such as horses, bison, lions, antelopes, bears and wolves dominated the rock art. In most cases, the animals appear to be alert and energetic. Some are in motion while others are wounded. There are no vegetations around the animals, and their horns are frontally visible (Pons-Branchu, 2013, p. 213).
Life-like Depictions in Palaeolithic Rock Art
The Palaeolithic rock art are described to appear life-like not only because they possess characteristics of living animals but also due to their mimicry of real life events. The artworks resemble the characteristics of living organisms such as feeding and mating habits. For example, the picture below is replica of Palaeolithic rock art found at Chauvet Cave in Southern part of France.
(Edwards, 2013)
The painting depicts the horses as they graze while two bisons are playing with each other. The artists employed such forms of anthropomorphism to portray the crucial roles that the animals played in their lifestyles. In this case, anthropomorphic imagery is an artistic device whereby artists give human-like characteristics to animals. Similarly, a 30,000 BC figure at Chauvet Cave in France depicts a bear with human legs. Wilder (2011) cites that the artists stressed the bear paw such that it appears more threatening (P. 37). An observer may think that the animal is about to reach into real space and attack prey. Another cave artist from Altamira Spain employed the same technique. The painting comprises bison over a cave swelling, curved in such a way that it achieves a three-dimensional look. The strong relationships between the animals and human beings might have influenced such relationships. According to Edwards (2013), bisons and horses were the most abundant game at the time accounting for more than 60% of the animals. However, the Palaeolithic cave paintings also express the artists' obsession with the magnificent beasts of the time. Edwards (2013) further argues that the artists did not merely portray the animals such as mammoth, wild cows, rhino, and hyena but stylized them. As such, from the Palaeolithic artists' perspective, anything important shared many attributes with the animals.
The Sympathetic Magic Theory
The concept that Palaeolithic rock art makes animals appear life-like is also in line with the sympathetic magic theory (Silberman, and Bauer, 2012, p. 21). The hypothesis posits that the paintings and drawings gave artists control over the real animals. In Henri Edouard's view, the Palaeolithic communities had anxieties about the availability of the game (Lawson, 2012, p. 53). The rocks, therefore, provided the individuals with the platforms for expressing these emotions. The religious leaders or the Shamans turned the hallucinations into blueprints or plans for securing food to their communities. In other words, the ancient populations used the rock art to predict the outcomes of their future hunting adventures. At the same time, the paintings of the beasts showed hallucinations involving the dangerous animals. Henri Breuil, a leading French archaeologist, argues that the small wounds covering the animals implied that the individuals would stone or use handheld weapons to hit the beasts to death (Whitley and Hays-Gilpin, 2008, p. 248).
Symbolic Meanings in Palaeolithic Rock Art
Palaeolithic Rock Art was a form of expression of the religious belief that similarity or relationships between the people and their environments influenced their identity. That is, anything identical to an image or related to any part of the drawings, paintings, engravings, or sculpture affected the thing itself (Wilder, 201, p. 37). This means that a person possessing an image of the desired animal would eventually catch the animal. Since animals were the primary source of food, the Palaeolithic artists dreamt of catching bisons, horses, deer, and ibex. This resulted in the countless artworks of the various animal species at the Lascaux cave in France. The individuals also applied the magic to destroying the dangerous animals. Edwards (2013) cites that the communities performed rituals where disguised performers mimicked various animal species. The observers dedicated their times to capturing such religious activities as they believed that reproducing the events through the different forms of art would allow them to accomplish their desires in real life. Western Europe Palaeolithic art at Niaux in France and Altamira caves in Spain portray beasts with engraved wounds (Sanz, and Keenan, 2011, p. 147). Any imagery associated with the animals guaranteed access to life essentials such as food and security. However, recent discoveries have disapproved this theory.
The Controversy of Symbolic Meanings
In contrast, the argument that the Palaeolithic rock art has no significant symbolic meaning. The proponents of this hypothesis assert that the artists had no motivations but rather produced the paintings as a pass time activity. According to Wilder (2011), some late 19th and 20th-century views the upper Palaeolithic people as savages that lacked intelligence and social competence to convey valuable information through artwork (37). This is because the paintings are associated with the Homo sapiens. However, the hypothesis has important implications as far as understanding the origin of Palaeolithic rock art is corned. It prompted the modern scholars to research more about the cognitive abilities of the Palaeolithic rock artists. It has been found that the paintings symbolize several aspects of the early century religious beliefs and source of livelihood (Lerma, Navarro, Cabrelles, and Villaverde, 2010, p. 501). Therefore, the idea that the Palaeolithic rock art makes little attempt to portray symbolic meaning is not accurate.
Insights on Ancient Cultures
The artwork reveals critical information about the lifestyle of the native communities that inhabited various parts of Western Europe. Multiple pieces of evidence show that the paintings preserve the history of human evolution as well as the unique cultures characterizing each era of civilization. For example, the Yolngu from Australia made symbolic patterns in the sand to pass the message to the community members about their rituals (Edwards, 2013). The animals' paintings in France and other Western Europe regions reveal important historical facts about the similarities and differences between the early European communities and the people from other areas such as Africa and Asia. Systematic studies by anthropologists such as Leroi-Gourhan reveals that the Palaeolithic caves are similar to the modern religious structures and shrines in many ways (Ling, 2014, p. 167). For example, the initiation stations, altars, and the entrance are in the same order. The ethnographic observations made over the past two centuries also show that shamanism was a critical religious ritual in all the continents. For example, there are controversies over the rock art found in Trois Freres Cave in France shown below. (University of South Florida, 2012)
Supporters of the Shamanism theory assert that the religious leaders stabbed the bear with spears during a ritual ceremony. On the other hand, their critics believe that the holes represent the natural texture of the caves. They also accuse the scholars of twisting facts so as to support their theories. For example, Bahm (2010) argues that the scientists would have realized that they wrongly interpreted the pieces of art by being more objective (116).
The Role of Animals in Shamanism
Shamanism concept also stresses the significance of animals' paintings to the ancient populations. The communities practiced animism. According to this ideology, animals, plants, rocks, and weather systems possess special spiritual attributes. Bahn (2010) cites that the shamans of the Palaeolithic period exercised their supernatural powers to control the animal movements and intervene during disasters (116). Cave arts captured these beliefs. The paintings entail the species of animals that the ancient societies associated with the spiritual powers. For example, in Basque myths, red bulls, cows, snakes, and cows played various religious roles. The paintings portray half human and half animal spirits. The females were known as Mari while the male spirits are was referred to as Maide. The artworks support the myths about the ancient sorcerers. Some worshiped animals while others believed that they were the divine animal and forests owners. According to Wilder (2011), Palaeolithic communities believed that the Shaman could visit the spirit world and engage the souls of the beasts into conversations (38). The animal spirits then revealed knowledge to the religious leaders that in turn enabled them to solve the imbalances in nature. The Trois Freres rock art commonly known as "the Sorcerer" and Lascaux painting, Man and Bison feature anthropomorphic imagery. (Edwards, 2013)
The life-like attributes of "the Sorcerer" include an antlered deer head and hide leading a dance to deliver success during hunting escapades. The long deer beards are falling on its chest, and it is raising its fore-arms just like humans always do while engaging in prayer ceremonies. According to Edawrds (2013), although nobody knows the original meaning of the cave art, anthropologists agree that it was a cult object with the important religious purpose to the Palaeolithic communities. The anthropomorphic imagery confirms that the deer possess supernatural power. As Bahn (2010) explains, such mystic being was believed to harness group effort towards succeeding in future activities (116). This is concrete evidence that the animal characteristics formed the central part and parcel of the Palaeolithic rock art.
The Lascaux "bird-headed man with a bison" also makes the animals appear life-like. (Edwards, 2013)
The painting looks like an ordinary hunting scene as the man stabs the bison with a hand-held weapon on the stomach. However, the background shows that it the artist intended to convey a hidden meaning based on a real-life experience. The man standing nearby has a bird's head while another bird is perching on a pole. Wilder (2011) cites that an ancient Siberian community had beliefs that the Shamans could use a bird-topped pole to travel to the spirit world (38). Those training to become religious leaders also underwent religious ceremonies such as faking deaths and fasting. Such ethnographic data implies that the bird-headed man may be representing a trainee stage-managing death after staying several days without sleep and food. Therefore, the artwork has a symbolic meaning.
In conclusion, the animals in the existing Palaeolithic rock art undoubtedly appear like they are alive. The drawings either portray animals as attentive or in motion. On the other hand, the statement that the artists made little attempt to symbolize events around them is attributable to the misconceptions surrounding the intellectual capacities of the people who lived at the time. It is believed that the Homo sapiens were primitive and hence could not have the psychological motivations to produce the paintings. However, although there are no written documents or confessions by the artists themselves, it is evident that the arts provide profound insights on the religious, economic activities and other social aspects of the Palaeolithic era. First, the animals dominate the Palaeolithic Rock Art because large herds of herbivores provided the populations with food. Long years of ethnographic observations further confirm that the artists intended to convey information to other community members. Elements of the famous Palaeolithic rock art such as "the Sorcerer" and the "Bird-headed Man with a Bison" resemble the religious practices of the early French, Spanish and Siberian communities. Therefore, the artist did not only make their paintings look alive but also symbolized their daily life experiences.
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