Archaeology Magazine - July/August 1981 - 25

also

Leroi-Gourhan
that

most

cave

animals and signs assumed a masculine or feminine identity. The way
depictions were arranged on a panel
and where they were placed in a cave
and in relation to each other, all derived from - and could be accounted
for - by this organizational structure.
By counting how frequently certain subjects recurred and by seeing
how subjects tend to cluster in various locales, Leroi-Gourhan also repudiated the long-held notion that
most cave art appeared in the deep,
dark inaccessible reaches of presumably sacred caves. Instead, certain
themes and types of art tend to be in
rock shelters or daylit locales, such
as many depictions of females.
Among the portable art, some
themes or depictions were significantly correlated with certain artifact forms or types: the horse is a
most usual figure in art mobilier , except on harpoons and half-rounded
rods, whereas the bison do not occur
on spears, are unusual on pierced
staffs, but predominate on plaques.
Additionally, the frequency of certain animal depictions often contrasted sharply with the availability
of those animals as well as how often
they are found among excavated
food debris. One conclusion, also
suggested by Patricia Vinnicombe's
People of the Eland, an elegant study
of the rock art of the !Kung of South
Africa, might be the same as LéviStrauss' observation that certain
natural species were selected - in
these cases as the subject of rock
art - not because they were "good to
eat" but because they were "good to
think."

repudiated

the

in
appeared
reaches
of ' . . caves
art

notion

long-held
the

deep

dark

...

cluding Altamira. But they are
rarely depicted on portable art objects. Differences in distribution
may occur even within the same site
as they do at Altamira, where deer
and not bison are often carved on
scapulae or other bone or antler objects. For many reasons, this contextual approach to Palaeolithic art
reinforces the belief that the social
audiences as well as the uses of wall
art may have been different from
those of portable art.
Since Leroi-Gourhan, others
have pursued the idea that there are
systems of meaning that underlie
Palaeolithic art. Alexander Marshack, a former science journalist,
has carried out meticulous microphotographic studies of Palaeolithic
art that have drawn attention to the
fact that many of the visual forms
are seasonally and ecologically related. One of Marshack's most striking interpretations has been that
certain artforms may have functioned as calendars, and that the
multiple markings on many incised

I-Jeroi-Gourhan's
attention to context and the associations which exist
bones and antlers were notational in
intent. Marshack has suggested how
among various artforms has brought
into focus new facets of Palaeolithic
ecological information may have
art. Although the exact relationship
been encoded - how, for example,
between wall art and portable art
y^¿certain distinctive features of a seahas not yet been established, it is at
son, like a plant in bud, or a part of a
least now possible to quantify what
salmon, were selected for depiction.
In general, scholars have remay be significant differences in
matter
and
context.
Bison,
cently come to appreciate how many
subject
for example, tend to dominate on
human groups employ ritual and art
cave walls in Cantabrian Spain, inin synchrony with relevant and im-

portant ecological and seasonal
changes. It should not be surprising
that the successful hunter-gatherers
of the last glacial period were ecologically sophisticated, nor that they
were creating and manipulating visual forms to structure and give
meaning to their existence. Ethnographic studies have shown how
structuring principles, including different types of symmetry, may underlie the designs of many primitive
artforms and characterize other aspects of daily life from social relations to village planning. Thus,
there may be a redundancy or resonance of these principles in many
domains of life that provides a structural congruence or coherence.
Redundancy and ambiguity are
often characteristic of visual forms
created in non- or preliterate societies. Ambiguity allows a great deal
of potential information to be stored
in very few symbols; often, it is the
particular context in which the symbols are used that may determine
their relevant meanings. In such
cases, objects and artforms constitute the social process and are not
merely reflective of it. In Palaeolithic art there are, for example, certain artforms that may be viewed as
ambiguous, particularly those that
are human or animal, depending
upon how one looks at them. Some
depictions have attributes of several
animals and humans - a "sorcerer"
with deer antlers, bison hooves, and
a human penis. Since it is plausible
to suppose that for Upper Palaeolithic peoples, continuities existed
between human and animal life, and
social world, such ambiguous depictions - which are so common in most
cultures - may not represent a human or an animal exclusively, but
indicate these continuities.
If one is willing to accept that continuities may have provided a potential source of meaning - a belief that
also underlies Leroi-Gourhan's
male-female system - a purely speculative but plausible reinterpretation of the Altamira ceiling can be
put forth. It is with this painted ceil1981
July/August

Archaeology Magazine - July/August 1981

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Archaeology Magazine - July/August 1981