Years ago I entered the Altamira cave in Northern Spain, discovered in
1880, now closed to the public, and had my mind opened by these colour rich,
full perspective, prehistoric paintings, set in complete darkness. They are so
astonishing that, for decades after their discovery, people did not believe
that prehistoric man could have produced such images. The Chauvet cave,
discovered in 1994, has images and contents that are much older, at 40,000
years. It had been hidden by a rock fall some 20,000 years ago and deep in the
pitch black, lie these exquisite paintings of animals in black outlines. The faces
of the lions in particular are those of animals on the hunt. This world is
carnivorous and dangerous. Man was clearly both predator and prey.
Savants not savages
Interest in the cognitive development of our species was
stimulated by the existence of these cave paintings. From about 45,000 to
10,000 BC, when this first renaissance flourished, it was clear that our
species had developed the ability to create tools to create representations designed
to teach. The people who created this work, were suddenly seen as more savant
than savage, people of aptitude and learning.
Pre-linguistic minds
Nicholas Humphreys posits a theory that these images came from minds
fundamentally different from our own; simpler, pre-linguistic and symbolic. He takes
evidence from the drawings of autistic children, with little grasp of language,
to suggest that these painters were not thinking artists but the last of the
innocents. Their lack of language gave them the focus to draw these
naturalistic images, without conceptual interference. This explains the
naturalistic realism of the paintings, something that was to be lost until the
Renaissance. He compares these images with the much later, deliberate art of
the Assyrians, Minoans and Egyptians, which are very much the product of
conceptualising minds. This is a fascinating hypothesis and explains the
naturalism, overlapping and repetition but it is wholly inadequate.
Other theories
We also have to get over the modern idea that this is ‘art’ in the sense
of deliberately produced aesthetically pleasing images. Aesthetic
theories that rely on seeing these works as ‘art for art’s sake’ have waned.
The fact that this so-called ‘art’ is in deep, dark, inaccessible caves is
reason enough to dismiss the romantic notion of Upper-Palaeolithic humans as 19th
century Romantics.
For
similar reasons, many reject shamanic theories, such as Williams in The Mind in the Cave, that
posit magic, mythological, totemic, initiation and religious meaning to these
images. It is unfortunate that many of these caves are in France, as this had
produced a flood of Lev-Strauss inspired, structuralist analyses that take
oppositional theory to the level of fantasy.
Caves
and learning
A more realistic hypothesis (not
original but expanded) relies on a concept we know has existed as a necessary,
social activity in man for millions of years – learning. Cave imagery is dominated by animals that early humans
relied on for their food, clothing and survival AND dangerous killers one would
want to avoid. Could these images be intentionally instructional?
What better place than the cold
dark interior of a cave, that early chalkboard or simulator, where you
experience the simulated fear of being the predator and also the prey?
I’ve swum into deep, dark Mayan
caves in Belize and the heightening of the senses is immediate. As you move
further into the darkness and the natural, entrance light disappears, the fear
and awe is intense and claustrophobic. The Mayans saw these caves as entrances
to the underworld and sacrificial victims, their skeletons encrusted with
calcite can still be seen where they were slaughtered. In Altimira, the cave
twists and bends over 250 metres, with the images well away from the entrance.
A cave is a theatre and as the lights dim, you have the perfect psychological
condition for learning – heightened attention.
Life skills
(literally)
Why are so many of the images set so deep in the caves, usually in
places where there is no natural light? Many are in side passages, on the roof and
in places so difficult to access that they are still being discovered. In Altimira we were shown these
stunningly realistic images by torchlight, not all at once but one by one. This
is important as we know these images were created by burning torches, from the carbon
marks left on the walls and therefore seen by burning lamps and torchlight.
This sudden reveal brings these creatures vividly into view. Now you see them
now you don’t. This is exactly what you want to do if you’re teaching people to
spot fleeting glimpses of animals that you want to kill or may kill you. Like
aircraft silhouette training, you need to know what’s out there, friend and
foe, and what they look like at a glance. You also have to overcome the fight
or flight instinct and keep your head when fear strikes. So a quick flash of a
head, rump or legs will give you the discriminatory powers you need to hunt and
survive.
Risk free
instruction
It has been argued that the paintings must be shamanistic
as they’re set way back in the darkness of the caves. Yet this is precisely
what you want for revealed instruction.
In the Chauvet cave, in France,
dangerous predators such as hyenas, lions,
panthers, bears and rhinos are shown. These animals kill and are not
easy to see and examine close up, so these images may have been the first time
young humans saw their predators. This is a risk that has to be
understood by everyone in a wild environment, especially the young. One may
live with predators but rarely, even ever, see them. That is their skill, to
remain hidden. You must learn to combat that danger with the skill of avoiding
or killing predators. This is a ‘do or die’ world, not an art gallery. So, just
like modern flight simulators, our ancestors could be taught in a ‘safe’
environment. Taken into the
darkness of the cave they would have been full of fear and apprehension. The
experienced hunter could then have given them lessons in how to hunt, hold
their fear, spot prey and avoid predators. And we do have evidence that
youngsters were taken into the cave, as hand prints.
Variety of simulated
scenarios
The animals painted in
pre-historic caves are almost always prey or predators. Benign creatures are
rare. Around 15% of the Altimira animals
are wounded, and as wounded animals are both hunted and dangerous, this adds to
the evidence that these images were instructional. Images of humans are rare
and, unlike the animals, sketchy and schematic. Many of the animals are shown
on the move, with perspectival views of all four legs. In fact, there is an
astonishing range of poses. There’s even an entire herd of bison, in different
poses, on the roof at Altimira. The point of placing an entire herd on the roof
was surely to show it from a bird’s eye view, something you have to imagine if
you hunt a fleeing herd of bison. The sheer variety of prey and predator images
is surely indicative of instructional intent. Interestingly, the images found on
portable art differ from that of cave art in one important respect. Cave art
has a more focused set of species. This again supports the idea that cave art,
in particular, had a pedagogical purpose.
Physical
fidelity
Evidence of their instructional quality also comes from
the level of simulated realism or naturalism. The images of bison accurately
displayed their natural behaviour. This naturalism again supports the role of
these images as learning tools.
Simulations of a hunt are about
both physical and psychological fidelity. You need to have enough graphical
realism to make the experience seem real and memorable. You also need to have
enough psychological reality to make you do the right thing at the right time.
The wonder of these paintings is their graphical realism. They are literally
masterpieces. You are in no doubt about what species is what, anatomically but
also in poses, colours and behaviour. More than this, however, is the emphasis
on contour, outline using chiaroscuro.
Contour, contrast & colour
In Altimira, 3D bison
hang down from the ceiling on rock bosses. Deeper in the cave the rock has been
used as a sculptural form, with faces painted on natural forms that look like
the heads of the animals they knew. In Chauvet, the walls were scraped clean and outlines etched to achieve
a 3D effect, as well as using the contours of the rock to give an even more
dramatic 3D effect. They seemed to know or intuit the idea that perception
identifies contrast and contour first. We should also remember the teaching technology
used to make these paintings: charcoal, ochre, haematite and manganese oxide.
This is the deliberate choice of coloured material to match the real colours of
the represented animals, as colour is an important cue when hunting.
Flight and fight skills
The objection to this utilitarian theory is that I may, like the ‘art
for art’s sake’ and ‘religious’ schools, be placing a modern sensibility onto
past events. In this case, however, the utility of fight and flight skills
remains intact. It is clear that we had to fight for food, clothing, fat and
other useful animal products. It is also incontestable that we had to avoid
being attacked and eaten by predators. These are two sets of skills that are
intertwined. One cannot hunt prey without being fearful of predators. Both are
necessary conditions for survival.
Conclusion
Recent findings, based on large
numbers of carbon dates samples have shown that images were amended and
improved over thousands of years, showing that, whatever, their true purpose,
they were found to be useful by many generations. Rather than being
shamanistic, religious or aesthetic, I favour the likelier utilitarian theory
that they proved useful for learning. The selection of animals, prey and
predators, along with quality of the images and setting, show that these caves
were used as simulators for hunters and hunted.
What we have here is the first
use of sophisticated simulators for learning. They match the criteria we expect
in modern simulators. Cave paintings are therefore remarkable teaching and
learning aids. They are the earliest classrooms and show that social cohesion
may well have been fostered through the need for collective learning.
Bibliography
Lewis-Williams, J. D. (2002). The mind in the cave: Consciousness and the origins of art. New York, N.Y:
Thames & Hudson.
5 comments:
Very Interesting theory.
But why could it not have been a case of multiple use?
The artists who painted them, were very good! They might have been "paid" by the tribe. And just as sculptors, have to sculpt, and builders have to build, then artists NEED to "art"! So there was aesthetics, and the need to be creative, and involved. Sort of like Leonardo's ceiling... (The artists might not have been good hunters, or maybe they were older, "retired hunters"... But they still could contribute!
Then there was the religious need. They probably honoured the animals they hunted, who fed them and clothed them. They "wanted the gods to bless their hunt". They wanted the hunt to be good, and productive, and safe. Hence a "prayer service" before going into battle! We still do this today!
But at the same time, not everyone is born a hunter! And of course, the older hunters had much expertise they wanted and needed to pass on. For the survival of the tribe! And the older hunters might not be physically able to participate in a hunt, but they could train the young men!
So these geniuses came up with a way to do it. The drawings probably started out with as being innocent simple sketches! But of course, as they saw the benefits, they made the hunt simulation, much more advanced, and detailed, and useful.
The drawings could have had a multiple much needed use in the community. The hunt was probably both sacred and necessary. They did not want to offend the gods. SO they had to "train" and practice, "to do it right". A failed hunt meant starvation.
So they simply HAD to have a simulator to train the young. Training people in actual hunt would be dangerous to the young hunters. And if the animals stampeded and ran off? NO, they clearly needed all the practice possible before coming up to the real thing....
Certainly possible. Evidence from hunting people such as the San in Africa suggest that rock art images do play this sacred role, in appealing to the gods for good hunting. But the fact that the cave animals represented are not a general selection but specifically predators and prey is the killer fact (literally)for me.
Hi Donald
I really enjoyed reading your blog. I'm writing up a PhD thesis on visual aid use and had espoused a broadly similar theory to yours - unfortunately it was not appreciated by my supervisor who prefers the Lewis-Williams argument.
You've inspired me to resurrect that part of my argument. I don't suppose you could suggest a couple more like-minded sources I could follow up?
Nick
Wow Clark!
This post made a fascinating and thought provoking read.
Somewhere through the post it made me think of Plato's story of the Cave. That's another situation were caves are mentioned in the context of knowing and learning.
Good observation. Interestingly, I had mentioned this in my first draft but Plato's use was an analogy used to explain his epistemological theory rather than something real.
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