Amir D. Aczel, page 15
Archaeologists have also found evidence for a much larger seasonal community living here, which augmented the local population during certain short periods of the year—most likely during the winter and the summer solstices. This may indicate that some kind of ceremony took place regularly at Stonehenge during particular times of the year, and it strengthens the hypothesis—itself supported by the alignment of the stones of this monument—that Stonehenge was a giant astronomical calendar.
Stonehenge may also have functioned as an ancient astronomical observatory. Stars are known to have been very important for people throughout history: both the ancient Egyptians and the Babylonians observed the heavens regularly and recorded their findings, to understand the seasons, as well as for other reasons. But all of this happened after the development of agriculture. And again, research on prehistoric art and signs found in decorated European caves has never led to the definitive identification of any astronomical information. Although many of the signs of the zodiac are animals—and there is certainly a bull featured prominently among them: the constellation of Taurus—the positions of the cave drawings, as well as the existence of many signs, do not seem to correspond to any stars or constellations.
So although Rappenglueck’s new theory received much media attention on BBC television programs and elsewhere when he proposed it a few years ago, the hypothesis lacks objective scientific evidence to support it. If one wants to count dots—and there are so many sets of dots in prehistoric caves from which to choose—one can “prove” almost anything. The problem, once again, is that in order to find something meaningful in the cave art and signs, one must always look at the totality of a cave—not merely pick a single piece of art or a single sign—and see which patterns repeat themselves from cave to cave.
There are certainly many caves to explore for patterns, and there are thousands of animal depictions and signs. It is important to adopt some form of statistical reasoning here; otherwise, anyone can claim almost anything. A systematic order must be evident in a majority of locations in order to have statistical and logical significance. Rappenglueck’s hypothesis is thus found lacking and explains nothing. The prehistoric artists of Lascaux and elsewhere were not farmers, and they do not seem to have cared about the seasons of the year or to have had any obvious interest in astronomy—at least, not as far as this may objectively be implied by the evidence from cave art.
So, can any other order be discerned in the animal drawings? And is there a uniform theme in the drawings and the signs?
What may be evident as we move from the Paleolithic to the Neolithic is that as human society developed agriculture and domesticated animals, it also gave up the art that characterized the more ancient period: cave drawings and paintings, rock engravings, and the making of mobile art objects. Instead, we see (late in the Neolithic) pottery developed for the purpose of storing and cooking food that was produced by the new agriculture. The pottery may be artistically decorated, but it was created with a specific physical need in mind. Equally, we see large building projects such as Stonehenge, other stone circles, and similar stone constructions, such as the mysterious stones at Hagar Qim, on the southern coast of the island of Malta, which is about the same age as Stonehenge. Neolithic people were interested in architecture—not only monuments, but the first houses were also built during this era—and later in pottery. Their focus was food production, and for that purpose they needed a calendar. This was the end of the old way of life, the Paleolithic with its cave art, and the beginning of a new one with different interests and concerns.
Rappenglueck was not the first person to look for evidence of an ancient calendar in the signs found in Paleolithic caves or the other objects left to us by the Cro-Magnons. In 1964, Alexander Marshack, an independent American scholar, argued that sequences of markings on animal bones found in various shallow Paleolithic caves and rock shelters in France had been arranged in sets of twenty-nine; hence, he inferred that this was a lunar calendar.
There was a problem, however, with Marshack’s work. In order to find the markings on the various bones he analyzed, he used a low-power microscope (with magnification power from 10 to 60)—an innovation in the study of prehistoric artifacts. Critics have suggested that such small marks may have occurred by chance, and that in some cases Marshack’s counting was wrong.4 Of course, the big question just begs to be asked: if Marshack had to use a microscope to see the markings on the bones, how did the Paleolithic people who supposedly used them ever read their own markings?
The Russian scientist Boris Frolov conducted a similar analysis (without the use of a microscope) of a plaque bearing complicated markings, which had been found in Malta, Russia, and dated to the Paleolithic. He concluded that this was a calendar of the entire year, showing lunar cycles as well.5
The French researcher Jean Pierre Duhard claimed in his doctoral dissertation, published in France in 1989, that the woman with the horn (Venus with the Horn) from Laussel had some connection with a baton made of animal bone that was found near the engraving, on which were markings associated with 10.5 lunar months. Similar engraved stones found at Laussel, according to Duhard, represented the number of days in a lunar month. The author then made the connection between the average length of a lunar cycle, 29.5 days, and the average number of days in a menstrual cycle, between 28 and 31 days, and claimed that the lunar cycle was used as a means of counting days from a woman’s last menstruation in order to detect a pregnancy. The Venus with the Horn, according to him, represents this idea.6
It is very difficult to know whether there is anything of value in these theories about counting the markings on bones or stones. Numbers can be arranged in so many possible ways, and there is also the risk that people in search of certain patterns discard or ignore bones or rocks that bear other numbers of markings, leaving them with only the specially selected ones that they think provide evidence for whatever theory they want to prove.
In a sense, this search is similar to the scientifically spurious case of “The Bible Code,” which caused a sensation some years ago. There is even a mathematical theorem (Furstenberg’s Theorem) that specifies conditions under which any pattern whatsoever can be found in a large-enough collection of possibilities. For example, if you look at the stars on a very clear night outside a region with city lights, you may find stars to fit any preconceived pattern, such as an umbrella, a house, or a boat.
At any rate, regarding the markings on rocks and bones and the signs in Lascaux and in other Paleolithic caves, there is certainly no convincing evidence whatsoever that any kind of calendar was involved here. Lascaux is not Stonehenge.
Along with Normandy, the other part of France that lies closest to Britain is called Brittany (Bretagne, in French), across the English channel from the British Isles. This region shares a common history with England: it, too, was once settled by Celts, and even today, the houses here, as well as the folk music and the customs, are reminiscent of those in Britain. Large areas of Brittany contain thousands of megalithic (from Greek, “large stone”) monuments that were erected by Neolithic peoples living in this region. These monuments resemble Stonehenge, although they are slightly older—the oldest dating from 6,500 years ago—and their arrangement is different. Most Neolithic stone monuments are not circular but are arranged in long, parallel straight lines. They are stunning testaments to the will and the ability of prehistoric people.
What is the meaning of these large constructions? Many scholars have tried to show that the Carnac alignments, on the southern coast of Brittany, bear some astronomical or calendrical meaning: the alignments coincide with the sun’s angle during the winter solstice, the summer solstice, or the spring or fall equinoxes. But all of these theories have failed. To date, no one knows what the stone alignments mean. On French soil, therefore, even seven millennia after the last of the cave art was produced, prehistoric people are not known to have constructed calendars.
18
The Mediterranean, Australia, and Patagonia
OUR UNDERSTANDING OF STONEHENGE HAS CHANGED with new discoveries that reshaped our thinking. But understanding of cave art also changes when we find new artworks. No one would have expected that cave art—which had become familiar to the public through the findings in hundreds of caves—would contain paintings of penguins. Yet this is exactly what turned up in a cave discovered late in the twentieth century.
In 1985, a French recreational diver named Henri Cosquer was exploring the rocky bottom of the Mediterranean near Marseille at a depth of 120 feet, when he suddenly saw what looked like the opening of an underwater cave. Cosquer kept his discovery to himself and over the years explored this cave on his own. There was a narrow entry shaft that extended for more than 360 feet, and every time he went diving in this area, he ventured deeper into the cavity. In 1991, he reached the end of this underwater entryway and emerged into the air of a wide underground hall. On one of its walls, he found the red imprint of a hand. Realizing that he had just discovered a prehistoric drawing, Cosquer reported his finding to the French administrator of antiquities, and a project was launched to explore this cave. But before any official work began there, three divers who had heard about the discovery and came to explore the new underwater cave on their own became trapped there and suffocated to death. This incident focused world attention on the Cosquer cave, as it became known.
The cave had been eight miles away from the sea during the Ice Age, and its entrance then was on a cliff almost three hundred feet above sea level. The reason for this is that during the Ice Age, much of Earth’s water was locked on land or sea in the form of glaciers or icebergs. Since there was much less liquid water around, the level of the world’s seas and oceans was lower. When the ice melted, the sea covered the entrance to the Cosquer cave, which was now near the edge of the Mediterranean.
This cave had been entered at least twice during the Paleolithic period: once around 27,000 years ago, when its visitors painted the hand that was seen by Cosquer, as well as many other hands later found there; and the second visit by cave artists took place at the very beginning of the Magdalenian age, 18,000 years ago. These latter cave artists painted and engraved images of horses, bison, and ibex but also made unique drawings of sea animals: seals and penguins.
During the Ice Age, the Mediterranean was a cold sea (of a smaller size than today), so animals that typically live in the polar regions inhabited this area at that time. Cosquer is the only known cave or location that has Paleolithic drawings of seals and penguins. The cave also contains sexual images, including an engraved penis. In 1991, French archaeologists visited the cave and photographed more than 140 drawings, paintings, and engravings of animals and signs. This strange discovery intensified the mystery of the Cro-Magnon cave art’s purpose.
The Mediterranean world was the home of other prehistoric caves as well. As mentioned at the beginning of this book, Paleolithic caves have been discovered in France, Spain, and Italy. The main area of known prehistoric caves is the Franco-Cantabrian region—that is, much of France (but mostly the Dordogne and the Pyrenees regions) and Cantabria, on the Atlantic coast of northwestern Spain. We have therefore ignored the Italian caves until now. They are few, but they belong to the Mediterranean world. These caves are all in southern Italy, on the coast. There are caves in the region of Reggio di Calabria, at the bottom of the Italian “boot,” in the regions of Lecce and Matera, and near the Sicilian city of Palermo. The Italian cave art is dated to 14,000 years ago, and some locations have art that is believed to be a few thousand years younger still—thus close to the Neolithic period.
The art in these caves is generally sparser than the abundant art of the Franco-Cantabrian caverns. The most well-known is the Grotta dell’Addaura, on the northeast side of Monte Pellegrino near Palermo, Sicily. This cave has many engravings of horses and bulls, as well as deer. It also has a large panel with strange humanlike figures in various positions, suggesting movement. These have been dubbed “the acrobats,” but some scholars believe these figures represent people performing some sort of religious or traditional rite.
Paintings and engravings on rocks appear at various locations around the world. And signs, different from those found in European caves, are found on rocks in distant places. But in the Cueva de las Manos in Patagonia, there are hundreds of imprints of hands that look strikingly similar to the ones found at Gargas and Pech Merle (as well as at Cosquer). The Cueva de las Manos is much younger than the French caves, in terms of human activity, since people arrived here only around 11,000 years ago. Did they bring with them the ideas and techniques of imprinting their hands in deep caves?
There is much Australian aboriginal rock art in Arnhem Land, in the Northern Territory, as well as in other parts of the Australian continent. Decorating rocks was a common pastime of the ancestors of Australia’s aboriginal population. Is there a relationship between this art and that of the European caves?
The Cro-Magnons and their ancestors and descendents are known to have dispersed around the world. Modern humans spread into Asia, arriving in Siberia around 35,000 to 25,000 years ago. They crossed the Bering Sea (which was then an icy land area called Beringia) into Alaska about 15,000 years ago and continued down through North America and into South America, arriving in Patagonia 11,000 years ago. Around 4,000 years ago, modern humans began to voyage from Australia and New Guinea into the Pacific Islands, first settling Fiji and Tonga, and arriving in the Marquesas, the Society Islands, and Easter Island only 1,500 years ago. Hawaii was settled 1,400 years ago, and finally New Zealand, 1,000 years before our time.
But the first immigrants to Australia arrived there approximately 50,000 years ago or earlier. Thus, Australian aborigines date back to a time before the Cro-Magnon cultures that decorated the caves of France, Spain, and Italy. What was the aborigines’ culture like? Is there anything we can learn from it? And is there a relationship between aboriginal art and that of the Cro-Magnons? Because the aborigines have lived continuously in Australia since the arrival of their ancestors on that continent, we do know something about their traditions.
In 2005, I traveled to Australia, hoping to find answers to these questions. My host was a historian of science, Professor Michael Matthews of the University of New South Wales. Michael’s wife, Julie House, had spent several years living with an aboriginal tribe in Arnhem Land in northern Australia, and she shared some of her experiences with me.
Australian aborigines have a fascinating, intricate social system that dates perhaps from the Stone Age—according to tradition, it is as old as tribal memory can go back. It is based on complex marriage rules, which have been studied by mathematicians and found to obey certain properties dictated by the abstract theory of groups.1 These strange rules create complicated social structures and have been a major focus of the research of the eminent French anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss.
The marriage rules dictate that a man from one group within a tribe must marry a woman from a specified different group and at the same time is forbidden from marrying a woman from a third group. The groups are defined by family relations—cousins on one side, versus cousins from another side of a family. According to Levi-Strauss’s analysis, the purpose of these rules is both to prevent incest and to form social alliances.2
According to Julie House, when one lives with a tribe for some time, one becomes painfully aware of these laws, because they affect everything in the daily lives of the aborigines. Members of a group are not even allowed to look at people belonging to a group that is taboo for them. Everyone within the society knows whom they are allowed to associate with and those who are taboo.
The social structures of the aborigines may well date from their arrival in Australia. The aborigines’ stories, traditions, and mythology of the creation of the world originate in what they call Dreamtime. This was the period, millennia ago, when a brother and two sisters—the ancestors of all aboriginal Australians—landed on the northern shores of the continent. They interbred because there was nobody else around. But since then, no one was allowed to marry a sister or a brother. Tribe members are allowed to marry certain cousins, but other cousins are strictly forbidden to them.
This ancient system is clearly designed around the idea of avoiding incest. If other early societies shared this concern, then perhaps Jacques Picard’s theory about the scene in the Pit at Lascaux is right, and the allegorical story told there is a warning against incest. But, of course, we must avoid making any comparisons or implications based on living societies. And we should only interpret ideas very cautiously and propose theories that can be scientifically supported.
The ancestors of the aborigines diverged from those of the Cro-Magnons many thousands of years before the first known cave art appeared in Europe. We know this from evidence that the ancestors of the aborigines crossed the land bridge that then existed between Asia and Australia (parts of it were underwater and required passage by boat or raft) about 50,000 years ago or earlier, whereas the oldest European decorated cave is 32,000 years old. But are there any similarities between cave art and aboriginal art?
After a two-hour flight from Sydney heading toward the very center of the Australian continent, my plane began its descent. Through the window, I could already see the tall, red, craggy massif rising above the desert floor. This was the famed Ayer’s Rock, now referred to mostly by its aboriginal name, Uluru.
