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The Study of Finger Flutings
Abstract
Archaeologists have usually glossed over parietal finger flutings, especially non-figurative and non-symbolic lines. This article develops a nomenclature and defines four forms to provide a descriptive structure from which to build analyses. It then develops methods for such investigations, using experiments and studies of physiology to derive information about the fluters from the flutings. The methods are applied to each of the four forms of fluting, showing which approaches may be most useful for each form. Broader questions and applications are touched on, including approaches to meaning, figures, and other families of parietal markings such as hand stencils. This approach to flutings augments other approaches to prehistoric ‘art’ by seeking to know about the artists themselves, their gender, age, size, handedness, and the number of individuals involved in creating a panel.
... In this paper, we provide the only critical analysis of the data to be undertaken and, as reported here, fail to find evidence for claims that an age category, sex of individual fluters and movement in a cave can be derived from ancient finger flutings by using the dataset and resulting threshold provided by Sharpe & Van Gelder (2006a, 2006b, 2006c. ...
... The composition of their dataset, however, is insufficient to resolve this claim, and their surrounding considerations ignore this fundamental limitation. The limited Table 1 For modern participants, the N, mean 1 and standard deviation 2 of the narrowest widths (in mm) of F2-F4 close together for each 1-year age group separately be gender 3 (Sharpe & Van Gelder, 2006a, 2006b, 2006c 1 Mean values for widths are shown in each year of age when at least one of the sexes has one or more values 2 The standard deviations are for widths for a given age and sex where there is more than one individual 3 The subtotals are 68 females and 67 males. The original study identified gender, though it is sex that is being identified here in practical terms age-specific sub-sample sizes and use of the ordinal groupings do not permit consideration of a plausible range of 3FF widths if drawn from the populations involved. ...
... Note that whilst the minimum sex-specific 3FF widths are found among the 2-yearolds as anticipated, the maximum width (51 mm) is found in a 12-year-old female and a 14-year-old male. This is surprising and emphasises that whilst younger age groups sample sizes are too small to effectively estimate age and sex-specific variance, the extremely small sample of adolescents and adults results in young adolescents having the widest 3FF widths due to sampling error (Sharpe & Van Gelder, 2006a, 2006b, 2006c. The authors limited age-specific sub-sample sizes, and use of ordinal age groupings does not permit consideration of the rapid but variable growth rates among adolescents and preadolescent participants who make up the large majority of this dataset. ...
Finger flutings are channels drawn in soft sediments covering walls, floors and ceilings of some limestone caves in Europe and Australia and in some cases date as far back as 50,000 years ago. Initial research focused on why they were made, but more recently, as part of a growing interest in the individual in the past, researchers began asking questions about who made them. This shift in direction has led to claims that by measuring the width of flutings made with the three middle fingers of either hand, archaeologists can infer the ordinal age, sex and individuality of the 'fluter'. These claims rest on a single dataset created in 2006. In this paper, we undertake the first critical analysis of that dataset and its concomitant methodologies. We argue that sample size, uneven distribution of sex and age within the sample, non-stand-ardised medium, human variability, the lack of comparability between an experimental context and real cave environments and assumptions about demographic modelling effectively negate all previous claims. To sum, we find no substantial evidence for the claims that an age, sex and individual tracing can be revealed by measuring finger flutings as described by Sharpe and Van Gelder (Antiquity 80: 937-947, 2006a; Cambridge Archaeological Journal 16: 281-95, 2006b; Rock Art Research 23: 179-98, 2006c). As a case study, we discuss Koonalda Cave in southern Aus-tralia. Koonalda has the largest and most intact display of finger flutings in the world and is also part of a cultural landscape maintained and curated by Mirning people.
... In this paper, we provide the only critical analysis of the data to be undertaken and, as reported here, fail to find evidence for claims that an age category, sex of individual fluters and movement in a cave can be derived from ancient finger flutings by using the dataset and resulting threshold provided by Sharpe & Van Gelder (2006a, 2006b, 2006c. ...
... The composition of their dataset, however, is insufficient to resolve this claim, and their surrounding considerations ignore this fundamental limitation. The limited Table 1 For modern participants, the N, mean 1 and standard deviation 2 of the narrowest widths (in mm) of F2-F4 close together for each 1-year age group separately be gender 3 (Sharpe & Van Gelder, 2006a, 2006b, 2006c 1 Mean values for widths are shown in each year of age when at least one of the sexes has one or more values 2 The standard deviations are for widths for a given age and sex where there is more than one individual 3 The subtotals are 68 females and 67 males. The original study identified gender, though it is sex that is being identified here in practical terms age-specific sub-sample sizes and use of the ordinal groupings do not permit consideration of a plausible range of 3FF widths if drawn from the populations involved. ...
... Note that whilst the minimum sex-specific 3FF widths are found among the 2-yearolds as anticipated, the maximum width (51 mm) is found in a 12-year-old female and a 14-year-old male. This is surprising and emphasises that whilst younger age groups sample sizes are too small to effectively estimate age and sex-specific variance, the extremely small sample of adolescents and adults results in young adolescents having the widest 3FF widths due to sampling error (Sharpe & Van Gelder, 2006a, 2006b, 2006c. The authors limited age-specific sub-sample sizes, and use of ordinal age groupings does not permit consideration of the rapid but variable growth rates among adolescents and preadolescent participants who make up the large majority of this dataset. ...
Finger flutings are channels drawn in soft sediments covering walls, floors and ceilings of some limestone caves in Europe and Australia and in some cases date as far back as 50,000 years ago. Initial research focused on why they were made, but more recently, as part of a growing interest in the individual in the past, researchers began asking questions about who made them. This shift in direction has led to claims that by measuring the width of flutings made with the three middle fingers of either hand, archaeologists can infer the ordinal age, sex and individuality of the ‘fluter’. These claims rest on a single dataset created in 2006. In this paper, we undertake the first critical analysis of that dataset and its concomitant methodologies. We argue that sample size, uneven distribution of sex and age within the sample, non-standardised medium, human variability, the lack of comparability between an experimental context and real cave environments and assumptions about demographic modelling effectively negate all previous claims. To sum, we find no substantial evidence for the claims that an age, sex and individual tracing can be revealed by measuring finger flutings as described by Sharpe and Van Gelder (Antiquity 80: 937-947, 2006a; Cambridge Archaeological Journal 16: 281–95, 2006b; Rock Art Research 23: 179–98, 2006c). As a case study, we discuss Koonalda Cave in southern Australia. Koonalda has the largest and most intact display of finger flutings in the world and is also part of a cultural landscape maintained and curated by Mirning people.
... The methodology to measure finger flutings developed by Sharpe (2004) and Van Gelder (e.g., 2006a, 2006b, 2006c) and Van Gelder (2015, is based on measuring the impressions of the individual's fingers which remain encapsulated on the walls and ceilings of caves (Fig. 2). While at first glance they appear to simply be a type of engraved line, finger flutings enable us to recognise the identity of the artists by measuring the width of the impression made by the artists' fingers. ...
... The accounting for different individuals in various caves has been part of the ground-breaking research carried out by Sharp and Van Gelder (2004, 2006a, 2006b, 2006cSharpe et al., 2006;Van Gelder, 2015). What we suggest here is by going beyond acknowledging the sex or age of the person we can identify via analysing flutings, and to look at relationships between individuals to construct a picture of the activities conducted by members of the communities and the relationships between them. ...
This paper presents acts of fluting as tangible expressions of activities performed by Palaeolithic communities of practice, in which situated learning was part of the social transmission of knowledge and communities of practice include children, men and women. To identify individual members of the communities of practice who were involved in the creation of parietal art in the Franco-Cantabrian region we have analysed the age and the sex of the people who ‘decorated’ the caves. Secondly, by following the analysis of lines created by flutings by different members of the community of practice, we suggest that children under the age of seven, who had no the cognitive abilities to comprehend the meaning of images, were active and prolific fluters and performed acts of decorating cave walls by themselves or with the support of other community members. This approach allows us to consider parietal art as community art where visual contributions were created by community members of all age and sexes.
... The methodology to measure finger flutings developed by Sharpe (2004) and Van Gelder (e.g., 2006a, 2006b, 2006c) and Van Gelder (2015, is based on measuring the impressions of the individual's fingers which remain encapsulated on the walls and ceilings of caves (Fig. 2). While at first glance they appear to simply be a type of engraved line, finger flutings enable us to recognise the identity of the artists by measuring the width of the impression made by the artists' fingers. ...
... The accounting for different individuals in various caves has been part of the ground-breaking research carried out by Sharp and Van Gelder (2004, 2006a, 2006b, 2006cSharpe et al., 2006;Van Gelder, 2015). What we suggest here is by going beyond acknowledging the sex or age of the person we can identify via analysing flutings, and to look at relationships between individuals to construct a picture of the activities conducted by members of the communities and the relationships between them. ...
This paper presents acts of fluting as tangible expressions of activities performed by Palaeolithic communities of practice, in which situated learning was part of the social transmission of knowledge and communities of practice include children, men and women. To identify individual members of the communities of practice who were involved in the creation of parietal art in the Franco-Cantabrian region we have analysed the age and the sex of the people who ‘decorated’ the caves. Secondly, by following the analysis of lines created by flutings by different members of the community of practice, we suggest that children under the age of seven, who had no the cognitive abilities to comprehend the meaning of images, were active and prolific fluters and performed acts of decorating cave walls by themselves or with the support of other community members. This approach allows us to consider parietal art as community art where visual contributions were created by community members of all age and sexes.
... Moreover, Hodgson (2016) points out that simple patterns perceived as made by an agent also activate the mirror neurons of observers. Finger flutings employed to make animal outlines would have produced a similar response (Sharpe and Van Gelder 2006). ...
... As Malafouris (2007) states, "The cave wall was not simply a 'context' for the 'mind inside the head,' it was the outward membrane of the 'mind inside the cave.'" Evidence suggests visitations to Upper Paleolithic caves were infrequent and consisted of small groups of adults and children of both sexes, reflected in the fact that the handprints/stencils were made by a variety of individuals (Sharpe and Van Gelder 2006;Pettitt et al. 2015). Entering a cave is fraught with danger, so it is surprising to find children implicated, which suggests these occasions were special, perhaps involving a quest to seek out the strange evocativeness of the cave walls. ...
Parallels are often made between the culture of San hunter-gatherers of southern Africa and that of European Upper Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers. Despite different environmental conditions and lifestyles, the fact that both groups live by hunting provides a point of comparison that can afford insights into Ice Age art. Focusing on both groups’ hunting relationships with prey animals can illuminate the intermeshing of human and animal traits in Upper Palaeolithic art. We can now give a fairly precise account of the cognitive and affective neurological mechanisms that facilitate hunting that impact on depicting animals.
... Por último, se realizó un somero estudio de las manifestaciones parietales del fondo de la cavidad (Casado López, 1985). Éstas consisten en una serie de grabados digitales, de los denominados macarroni o finger flutings (Sharpe y Van Gelder, 2006). En esta publicación se describen los motivos, se indica la ausencia de representaciones figurativas -a excepción de un posible équido, que se presenta con muchas reservas-y propone una cronología paleolítica para los mismos, basándose en comparaciones con conjuntos franco-cantábricos y en la proximidad -relativa-de la estación paleolítica de la Fuente del Trucho (Casado López, 1985: 189). ...
... Los motivos se reducen a series rectilíneas simples, normalmente no mayores de 8-10 cm. Los macarroni o finger flutings de cronología paleolítica suelen presentar inflexiones y cambios de dirección en el trazo (Sharpe y Van Gelder, 2006). Por la acumulación de distintas series realizadas con varios dedos, da la impresión de que en algunos paneles pueden documentarse gestos más complejos, pero descomponiendo los trazos se puede comprobar que todos ellos son líneas simples y más o menos rectas (Fig. 3). ...
In 1976, a team led from the Museum of Huesca conducted a series of archaeological works in El Forcon Cave (San Juan de Toledo, A Fueba, Huesca). In addition to the recovery of several materials and prehistoric tools in a completely disturbed context, it was discovered the existence of parietal anthropic engravings. After the discovery of the Palaeolithic parietal site of Fuente del Trucho, also on the southern slope of the Central Pyrenees, and joined to the formal similarity of the El Forcon engravings with other Franco-Cantabrian ensembles, a Palaeolithic chronology was proposed for the ‘parietal art’ of this site. Since then, the scientific literature has included this ensemble in the inventory of cave art. Recently, we undertook a study of the graphical device –unrevised since its first publication–, to assess its potential and the arguments to establish a chronology. In this paper we discuss the evidence found and present the conclusions of the study. The most relevant is that the arguments do not support a Palaeolithic –or even a Prehistoric– chronology for the parietal motifs.
... Four Late Iron Age saltern sites from the Lindsey Marshland were examined: three from the Most pedestals bear curved impressions of trough edges as well as impressions of the manufacturer's fingers and thumbs left as they were squeezed into shape. The widths of fingertip impressions can also be measured to assign an age to the person whose fingertips the impressions record (Sharpe & Van Gelder 2006a;2006b;Laing in press). Figure 8 shows an example of an impression on a pedestal from Trunch Lane, Ingoldmells, whose width indicates it was made by an adult male thumb (Laing 2021), which correlates with the epidermal ridge measurements within the print. ...
Ancient fingerprints preserved in clay artefacts can provide demographic information about the people who handled and manufactured them, leaving their marks as an accidental record of a moment’s interaction with material culture. The information extracted from these ancient impressions can shed light on the composition of communities of practice engaged in pottery manufacture. A key component of the process is a comparator dataset of fingerprints reflecting as closely as possible the population being studied. This paper describes the creation of a bespoke reference collection of modern data, the establishment of an interpretive framework for prehistoric fingerprints, and its application to assemblages of Iron Age briquetage from coastal salterns in eastern England. The results demonstrate that briquetage manufacture was constrained by age and sex.
... En relación con las técnicas de representación, se observa que el Grupo 1 se caracteriza por registrar únicamente motivos grabados, mientras que en el Grupo 2 aparecen pinturas (en el sitio Cueva Pintada) y grabados pero cuyas características de realización nos permiten, por el momento, separarlos de aquellos del Grupo 1 (Tabla 2). Nos referimos a los grabados hallados en el sitio Cueva de las Máscaras, que registra un "episodio de depositación de ceniza volcánica compacta y estratificada, que forma también parte del reparo vertical" (Korstanje, 2005, p. 339) sobre el cual se realizaron los motivos rupestres, que hipotetizamos "podrían corresponderse con un arte cuyo instrumento de grabado hayan sido los dedos del o de la creadora" (Lepori, 2021, p. 315), quizás de manera similar a los denominados finger flutings en el arte paleolítico europeo (Sharpe & Van Gelder, 2006). ...
El presente trabajo aborda las representaciones rupestres del Valle de El Bolsón (Catamarca, Argentina) recurriendo a una perspectiva teórica vinculada con el emplazamiento de las mismas y las posibles redes de relaciones de las que formaron parte, no sólo en un espacio determinado sino también a lo largo del tiempo. En este sentido, indagaremos sobre algunos rasgos característicos del arte rupestre en esta microrregión atendiendo los aspectos formales, técnicos, estilísticos y contextuales para intentar aproximarnos al rol que pudo haber desempeñado el arte rupestre en su vinculación con los espacios internodales. Así, la re-examinación de los sitios ya conocidos en conjunción con los nuevos, nos permite proponer ahora el concepto de un “arte de los caminos”. Al mismo tiempo, la utilización del concepto de "lugares persistentes" posibilita enmarcar este arte de los caminos dentro de una perspectiva de larga duración que permite problematizar al arte rupestre como una práctica de producción y recepción de mensajes en los internodos.
... En el sitio Cueva de las Máscaras se registra un "episodio de depositación de ceniza volcánica compacta y estratificada, que forma también parte del reparo vertical" (Korstanje, 2005, p. 339), y es sobre una pared lateral, bastante oculta, que aparecen los motivos rupestres, todos grabados. Sin embargo, las características del soporte -ceniciento y friable-, en conjunción con el tamaño y la regularidad de los surcos, nos lleva a hipotetizar que podría corresponderse con un arte cuyo instrumento de grabado hayan sido los dedos del o de la creadora, quizás similares a los denominados finger flutings para el arte paleolítico europeo (Sharpe & Van Gelder, 2006), aun a sabiendas de que se necesitan estudios más intensivos sobre estos motivos. Sin embargo, la característica que más nos interesa abordar en este trabajo, y que también muestra una clara diferenciación entre G1 y G2, es la del emplazamiento de los sitios. ...
RESUMEN En el presente trabajo se realiza una revisión y actualización de la información publicada en relación al arte rupestre de la microrregión comprendida por los valles de El Bolsón y Los Morteritos (dpto. Belén, Catamarca). Además, se presentan una serie de sitios nuevos que complementan y complejizan las líneas de investigación propuestas. Se propone una clasificación de los distintos sitios registrados basándose en parámetros tales como: tipos de soportes, tipos de motivos, uso, técnicas de producción, vinculación con otros sitios y, principalmente, emplazamiento. En este sentido, y en el marco de una Arqueología del Paisaje, se discute el rol que pudieron haber tenido estos sitios de arte rupestre en los procesos de territorialización y conformación de los paisajes sociales en la larga duración. La información generada actúa como punto de partida para continuar planteando problemáticas vinculadas con la transmisión de información y el tipo de prácticas involucradas en (y posibilitadas por) un arte rupestre hecho para ser visto mientras se circula.
ABSTRACT In this paper, we propose a review and update of the published information regarding rock art in the micro-region comprising the valleys of El Bolsón and Los Morteritos (dpto. Belén, Catamarca). In addition, several new sites are presented, complementing and complexing the suggested research lines. A classification of the registered sites is proposed, based on parameters such as: types of supports, types of motifs, use, production techniques, link to other sites and, mainly, emplacement. In this sense, and within the frame of a Landscape Archaeology, we discuss the role that these rock art sites could have played in territorialization and conformation of social landscapes in the longue durée. The generated information is taken as a starting point for further posing questions related with the transmission of information and the kind of practices involved in (and enabled by) a rock art made for being observed while circulating. INTRODUCCIÓN Las investigaciones arqueológicas en el valle de El Bolsón presentan una continuidad de más de 30 años, lo cual no equivale a decir que todos los temas o las zonas hayan sido abordados y trabajados con la misma intensidad. En este sentido, el arte rupestre en particular, fue objeto de algunas de las investigaciones más tempranas
... 97,98]. In wider discussions of art, there is growing evidence to suggest child authorship of some finger flutings, based on the size of the finger markings [99][100][101][102]. Bednarik [99] has, for example, suggested that children were the likely authors of painted fingerprints evident on limestone blocks from the Magdalenian layers of Hohle Fels, based on their small size. ...
... Hand stencils and finger flutings are also permanent records of the moment of direct physical contact between artist and 'canvas', offering clues to the identity and physical presence of the authors, such as age and sex, right-or left-handedness, and missing or bent fingers (e.g. Sahly 1966;Rouillon 2006;Sharpe & van Gelder 2006;Pettitt et al. 2014). We have shown here that the Los Machos fingerprints provide a similar, albeit more limited, opportunity to reveal aspects of the identity of the people who made them. ...
Globally, rock art is one of the most widely distributed manifestations of past human activity. Previous research, however, has tended to focus on the art rather than artists. Understanding which members of society participated in creating such art is crucial to interpreting its social implications and that of the sites at which it is found. This article presents the first application of a method—palaeodermatoglyphics—for the estimation of the sex and age of two later prehistoric individuals who left their fingerprints at the Los Machos rockshelter in southern Iberia. The method has the potential to illuminate the
... 97,98]. In wider discussions of art, there is growing evidence to suggest child authorship of some finger flutings, based on the size of the finger markings [99][100][101][102]. Bednarik [99] has, for example, suggested that children were the likely authors of painted fingerprints evident on limestone blocks from the Magdalenian layers of Hohle Fels, based on their small size. ...
The Upper Palaeolithic is characterised by the appearance of iconographic expressions most often depicting animals, including anthropomorphic forms, and geometric signs. The Late Upper Palaeolithic Magdalenian saw a flourishing of such depictions, encompassing cave art, engraving of stone, bone and antler blanks and decoration of tools and weapons. Though Magdalenian settlement exists as far northwest as Britain, there is a limited range of art known from this region, possibly associated with only fleeting occupation of Britain during this period. Stone plaquettes, flat fragments of stone engraved on at least one surface, have been found in large quantities at numerous sites spanning the temporal and geographical spread of the Magdalenian, but they have been absent so far from the archaeological record of the British Isles. Between 2015 and 2018, ten fragments of stone plaquettes extensively engraved with abstract designs were uncovered at the Magdalenian site of Les Varines, Jersey, Channel Islands. In this paper, we report detailed analyses of these finds, which provide new evidence for technologies of abstract mark-making, and their significance within the lives of people on the edge of the Magdalenian world. These engraved stone fragments represent important, rare evidence of artistic expression in what is the far northern and western range of the Magdalenian and add new insight to the wider significance of dynamic practices of artistic expression during the Upper Palaeolithic.
... Though, compared with a pointing gesture, which emerges naturally in infants as a means to guide another person's attention to a shared focus of attention (Tomasello et al., 2007), the role of finger tracing appears to be less crucial for survival. Archaeological studies of finger flutings suggest that tracing gestures have been used as early as 5000-5500 years ago by Upper Paleolithic groups for expression and storytelling (Sharpe & van Gelder, 2006). Finger flutings, also called finger tracings, are lines drawn by sweeping fingers across a soft surface, usually wet clay. ...
In developed countries, technology use in classrooms is pervasive. These technological advancements provide a range of gestural affordances, e.g., tracing and swiping, that might be enriching or impoverishing the learning experience. Our understanding of how gestural interaction with instructional materials affect learning falls behind. Drawing on theories of embodied cognition and cognitive load, this paper employs a narrow, yet detailed, scope by specifically reviewing the effect of self-performed tracing gesture during studying on learning outcomes, both with paper-based and multimedia materials. A literature search using Scopus database was conducted to examine published articles. Most studies suggest that using one’s index finger to trace out elements of instructional materials has positive effects on learning. Shortcomings in methodological quality and potential boundary conditions are discussed. Future research shall aim to replicate some of these studies and further investigate factors that moderate or mediate the tracing effect on the learning process.
... Vacheresse The corpus of digital engravings shows that in most cases, this technique was used to produce non-figurative depictions, which are often poorly defined and difficult to interpret. One of the most frequent designs consists of very intricate sinuous and curved lines, usually produced with the movement of several fingers at the same time, which have been called macaroni or finger tracings/flutings (Breuil 1952;Bednarik 1986;Sharpe and Van Gelder 2006). These non-figurative engravings sometimes form isolated groups and in other cases are clearly associated with Upper Palaeolithic motifs attributed to different periods. ...
Technological advances are enabling the discovery of new caves with rock art and of new graphic units in already known and studied caves. In this framework, a discovery was made in an unexplored gallery in Ekain (Deba, Gipuzkoa), a small passage named La Fontana. Figurative representations (horses) and non-figurative marks (simple strokes) were traced on both walls using digital engraving on decalcified clay. This discovery prompted the re-study of depictions executed with the same technique in the final part of Azkenzaldei gallery, where a new ensemble of representations, mostly non-figurative, was also found. Since it is impossible to date these representations directly, we apply a stylistic analysis to establish their chronology. The comparison with other depictions in the same cave might point towards their execution during advanced phases of the Magdalenian.
... Especially the finger fluting (term coined by Robert Bednarik in 1986), a form of prehistoric rock art in caves from Australia and New Guinea to Europe, are generally made in a substance called moonmilk, through a thin clay film into moonmilk underneath or perhaps just into clay (Breuil, 1952;Van Gelder, 2006 and2006b). ...
Extended research has shown that the environmental stimuli triggered biomechanical and biochemical alterations in human species since the early Palaeolithic times (Laoupi, 2011; Laoupi, 2016). One unique example is the fact that our remote ancestors chose repeatedly the volcanic environments, where they survived, lived, reproduced and evolved. Other biogenetic alterations helped also Neanderthals to survive in harsh conditions. Even more caves with their ionized internal atmosphere, acoustics, biochemical composition and soothing impact were healing places for humans, places of initiation, education and mystic allegories (Laoupi, 2007).
... Not until after 40,000 years ago did artefacts appear that conform to the definition of complex arts as stipulated by Conard (2008) and Renfrew (2009) Moreover, small groups of all ages and sexes entered these caves, with infants as young as 2 years making marks on walls and ceilings (Sharpe and Van Gelder 2006). In addition, some of the stalagmites acted as musical gongs (Till 2014) and the sense of touch, through palpation, was utilized as indicated by the many hand stencils and prints (Pettitt 2014). ...
The role of the arts has become crucial to understanding the origins of ‘modern human behaviour’ but is highly controversial as it is not clear why the arts evolved and persisted. I argue that the arts evolved as a by-product of biological traits and expressions of gene culture co-evolution that facilitated group cohesion through costly signalling that led to increasing but, ultimately, unsustainable population densities. This paper therefore strives to defend the concept of costly signalling by demonstrating that the arts, by way of the extended phenotype, served as a device that initially enhanced group cohesion but which could also potentially lead to the demise of a community.
... This same Bvisibility^of both females and children has been presented as well in a series of publications by Sharpe and Van Gelder (e.g., Van Gelder 2004, 2006a, b, c;Van Gelder and Sharpe 2009) that analyze the finger flutings on soft clay primarily in the cave of Rouffignac (Dordogne, France). They too draw on the recent work by Manning and others (see below) as important to their methodology (see Sharpe and Van Gelder 2006a for the best description of their methodology). ...
n an attempt to introduce concerns with social identities into the discussion and understanding of the making of what we call Paleolithic art, this article considers issues of gender, skill, apprenticeship, and tradition. We note that, as in every period of history, Paleolithic art can be seen as embedded in the society that studies it. Over the last 20 years, the research attention given to women in Paleolithic societies has grown considerably, leading us to ask what could have been the roles of women in Paleolithic art. On what criteria could we base a determination of those roles or of other social identities that were likely part of the making and viewing of Paleolithic art?
Thanks to our microscopic analysis of engravings, it is possible to identify the skill level and expertise of the artists and thus to address the question of apprenticeship and how these techniques were transmitted. We observe many similarities that allow us to group together various works of art, sometimes from very distant sites, which indicate a movement of ideas, objects, and people. Are we talking about “imitation”? How can we define an “invention” within a social context strongly bound by traditions?
... We applied a method that utilizes the width of lines drawn by the middle three fingers of the hand as the source for identifying unique individuals (Sharpe and Van Gelder 2006a;2006b;2006c;2006d;2005;Van Gelder 2010-11). The middle three fingers are used because they are the most consistently employed by the fluters and one need not determine right/left hand to study their width, as they remain the same three fingers regardless. ...
Children and young adults are believed to have represented up to 40 per cent of Upper Palaeolithic populations, yet little is known of their engagement in deep caves besides evidence of their hand and footprints. In this study we examine finger flutings, lines drawn with fingers in soft surfaces, in 12 Franco-Cantabrian Upper Palaeolithic caves to look for forensic evidence of unique individuals. We find evidence of children as finger fluters in four caves (El Castillo, Las Chimeneas, Rouffignac and Gargas). We discuss the types, locations and frequency of their flutings, as well as the relationship between their flutings and those made by non-children in the same caves and chambers. The small number of participants calls into question past theories of children's engagement in ritual and initiation in these particular caves.
... For this, we suggest the term palpation, deriving from the surgical term for examination by touch. Not that palpation governed only the production of hand stencils; finger dots and lines connect the artist's hands with the cave wall, and finger flutings-that appear to have been created irrespective of discomfort (Sharpe & Van Gelder 2006)-could be interpreted as the visible record of the act of palpation. Furthermore, Lorblanchet (2009) has noted the gradation between bear claw marks and finger 'rubbings' and traces in the caves of the Quercy, which he interprets as a ritual interaction with the cave walls. ...
N 0 k m 400 Hand stencils are an intriguing feature of prehistoric imagery in caves and rockshelters in several parts of the world, and the recent demonstration that the oldest of those in Western Europe date back to 37 000 years or earlier further enhances their significance. Their positioning within the painted caves of France and Spain is far from random, but responds to the shapes and fissures in the cave walls. Made under conditions of low and flickering light, the authors suggest that touch—'palpation'—as much as vision, would have driven and directed the locations chosen for these stencils. Detailed study of the images in two Cantabrian caves also allows different individuals to be distinguished, most of whom appear to have been female. Finally, the project reveals deliberate associations between the stencils and features on the cave walls.
El conjunto de arte rupestre de Isla de Mona (nombre indígena Amona), en su mayor parte relacionado con la dilatada ocupación indígena, es uno de los más diversos y abundantes de las Antillas. Desde el año 2013, nuestro proyecto se focaliza en la historia indígena de la isla, reelaborando los trabajos anteriores realizados por el Dr. Ovidio Dávila Dávila durante los años 80 y 90 y el Dr. Irving Rouse en los años 30 del siglo xx. En este artículo consideramos algunos aspectos de las prácticas subterráneas que quedaron marginadas porque difieren de lo que normalmente consideramos como arte rupestre. En Mona la morfología de las cuevas y las características de las superficies subterráneas fomentan actividades ocultas que incluyen las interacciones con sustancias minerales y distintas formas de dejar imágenes y marcas, y de transitar el espacio. En particular analizamos la práctica común de trazar huellas digitales en los carbonatos suaves y pastosos de las paredes usando las manos, una técnica que observamos en las áreas oscuras de 30 de las aproximadamente 70 cuevas que hemos visitados de un total de 230 cuevas conocidas en la isla. Estos grabados hechos con los dedos, a la misma vez que dejaron huellas negativas y blanquitas, el arte rupestre, también removieron sustancias en actividades acordes a la minería, y a lo que nos referimos como el arte-minería. El arte es minería y la minería es arte. En vez de enfocarnos en las representaciones, nos centramos en la mayoría de las marcas que no son imágenes. Este trabajo es un aporte a los estudios de diferentes partes del mundo donde la relaciones entre el arte rupestre, las cuevas, el uso de minerales subterráneas, y los estados ampliados de conciencia forman ensamblajes dinámicos, conectando Mona con otros espacios subterráneos antillanos, además de con las áreas continentales del centro y norte de América.
Learning mathematical concepts and procedures typically requires extended cognitive effort, presenting a challenge for many children. People can make tracing actions with the index finger, as well as mimic another's movements, with little or no conscious effort. From the perspective of cognitive load theory, such biologically primary actions may facilitate learning biologically secondary concepts and skills requiring extensive cognitive effort, such as mathematics. The present study investigated effects on learning processes and outcomes of students mimicking a teacher's tracing actions from the perspective of an evolutionarily informed cognitive load theory. One hundred and thirteen Grade Two children learned about number lines, either observing a teacher tracing out elements of worked examples with her index finger, or mimicking the teacher's tracing actions with their own index finger. In accord with hypotheses, results indicated enhanced performance due to mimicking on cognitive load, motivation, and post‐test performance. Directions for future research are discussed. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
Fingertip impressions preserved in the surface of clay artefacts can provide demographic details about the people who manufactured and decorated pottery vessels, and by extension allow exploration of the composition of communities of practice engaged in pottery manufacture. This paper describes the development of a method of measurement and analysis of fingertip impressions which were sometimes used as decorative motifs on pot surfaces. The technique can be applied to pottery from across archaeological periods; however, the research presented here focusses on communities of practice among Early and Middle Bronze Age potters of eastern England, and assessing their demographic make‐up through analysis of fingertip impressions. The preserved fingertip impressions reveal potting communities comprised children and women, but adult men were seemingly excluded, and suggest a connection between craft activity, age and sex.
In prehistoric societies children comprised 40-65% of the population, yet by default, our ancestral landscapes are peopled by adults who hunt, gather, fish, knap tools and make art. But these adults were also parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles who had to make space physically, emotionally, intellectually and cognitively for the infants, children and adolescents around them. Growing Up in the Ice Age is a timely and evidence-based look at the lived lives of Paleolithic children and the communities of which they were a part. By rendering these 'invisible' children visible, readers will gain a new understanding of the Paleolithic period as a whole, and in doing so will learn how children have contributed to the biological and cultural entities we are today.
The chapter summarizes the new results of the Bàsura Revisited Interdisciplinary Research Project. The integrated interpretation of recent archaeological data and palaeosurface laser scans, along with geoarchaeological, sedimentological, geochemical and archaeobotanical analyses, geometric morphometrics and digital photogrammetry, enabled us to reconstruct some activities that an Upper Palaeolithic human group led inside a deep cave in northern Italy within a single exploration event about 14 ka calBP. A complex and diverse track records of humans and other animals shed light on individual- and group-level behaviour, social relationship and mode of exploration of the uneven terrain. Five individuals, composed of two adults, an adolescent and two children, entered the cave barefoot lightening the way with a bunch of wooden sticks (Pinus t. sylvestris/mugo bundles). While proceeding, humans were forced to move on all fours, and the traces they left represent the first report of crawling locomotion in the global human ichnological record. Anatomical details recognizable in the crawling traces show that no clothing was present between limbs and the trampled sediments. Our study demonstrates that very young children (the youngest about 3 years old) were active members of the human groups, even in apparently dangerous and social activities, shedding light on behavioural habits of Upper Palaeolithic populations.
The Romanian karst hosts numerous caves and shelters that over time provided remarkable archaeological and anthropological vestiges. Altogether they show that humans must have entered caves in Romania at least as early as 170,000 years ago. However, ancient human footprints are very rare in the fossil record of East-Central Europe, with only two known locations in the Apuseni Mountains of western Romania. Vârtop Cave site originally preserved three fossil footprints made about 67,800 years ago by a Homo neanderthalensis , whereas Ciur Izbuc Cave was probably home of early H. sapiens that left almost 400 footprints (interspersed with spoors of cave bears), which were indirectly dated to be younger than ~36,500 years.
Colour, line, movement and face are discussed here as a part of the neurophysiological capacities of seeing. They are all integral parts of seeing and visual interpretation a part of the world we live in. Visual narratives conveyed via depictions allow imagery not only to represent things but also play active roles in story-telling. Prehistoric art surviving in caves and on rock surfaces, carved figurines, and the installation of the viewer into these are explored in terms of a joint relationship between the image/s and the way our brains work.
During the Upper Paleolithic, Ice Age peoples in Europe and Australia used their fingers to trace figurative and non-figurative images in soft sediments that lined the walls and ceilings of the limestone caves they encountered. The resulting images, while fragile, are preserved in at least 70 caves with the oldest dating to approximately 36,000 years ago. During the first 100 years of the study of Paleolithic cave imagery, these finger flutings were largely ignored. Though they make up a larger percentage of cave art than any other form, they are enigmatic and not always visually appealing. In 1912, Henri Breuil famously referred to them as “traits parasites” (parasite lines) and deleted them from his re-drawings of cave images, believing they detracted from the figurative art. Flutings have been interpreted alternately as doodling, serpent or water images, the residue of surface preparation for making, and evidence of the moment when a shaman touches the “skin” of the otherworld. In this paper, we argue that there are three reasons why finger flutings have taken on greater significance in the study of Pleistocene visual cultures. First, theories concerning the meaning and relevance of finger flutings were developed without supporting evidence as no methodology existed by which to study flutings until the beginning of the twenty-first century. Second, there has been a broadening of the definition of “art” in a Paleolithic context to include categories of materials, including finger flutings, which would traditionally have been excluded from consideration. Third, there has been a concomitant shift from a focus on the final product—“the artwork” to an exploration of the embodied process of manufacturing the imagery—the “work” of art. Finger flutings carry with them physical evidence of this process. Finally, by presenting a detailed study of finger flutings at Gargas Cave (France), we consider what is gained by including finger flutings in the study of Paleolithic art and what this “archaeology of intimacy” can tell us about the lived lives of Ice Age peoples.
The ichnological record of human traces from Italy is rich and quite diversified. In recent years, the development and dissemination of various methodologies and technological applications has facilitated the re-analysis of this record, enabling different, sometimes deeper, interpretations favoured by the integration of external data, both geological and palaeontological. The oldest occurrence of the human ichnological record from Italy is represented by the Middle Pleistocene 'Devil's Trails' ichnosite in the "Foresta" area (Roccamonfina volcano, southern Italy), depicting human trackmakers trampling a pyroclastic flow deposit while descending a slope dating to about 349 ka. Most of the record is Holocene in age and is constituted by the Upper Palaeolithic Grotta della Bàsura site (Toirano, northern Italy, about 14 ky), the protohistoric sites of Afragola, Nola and Palma, the area of Pompei and the site of Aosta. The record is enriched by the ichnological evidence preserved in military structures of Trentino region (northern Italy) during the First World War. An updated report and discussion of these sites is provided here.
The study of finger flutings, lines drawn with fingers in the soft surfaces of cave walls and ceilings, allows for the identification of unique individuals within a cave’s context. In early years of research, we were able to identify men, women, and children in some of the 15 caves which have been studied. These led to discoveries as to which individuals were often found together in their movement through the caves. The intimacy of cave spaces with artists working side by side, sometimes in very small spaces, and in a variety of combinations of children and adults, males and females, allows us to begin to imagine the embodied experiences and relationships of these people. Through looking at the cave artists with a forensic approach and a relational lens, we begin to shine a light on themes of intimacy, cooperation, community, and play in the Upper Paleolithic. Finally, this paper considers how our discipline might be radically changed were it to focus research agendas on questions of looking for evidence of intimacy, relationships, and the invisible but powerful impact of the generosity of the human heart in something as simple as holding another’s light in a darkened cave.
As anthropologists we know that the heart is considered a source of strength in many cultures. Yet in Western society and the culture of science, the heart is generally feminized and, as a consequence, devalued. Guided by feminist and Indigenous theory, I have established an archaeological practice that foregrounds heartfelt thinking as part of community-based heritage work. Importantly, I strive to train the next generation of archaeology professionals to recognize the role of the heart in promoting an effective multivocal research perspective. There are many challenges to such an approach, not least of which is the perception that inclusive and reflexive practice is a sign of weakness. This chapter reviews personal challenges I have experienced in operationalizing an epistemology of the heart. I explore why it is imperative to overcome these problems to reinvent the discipline of archaeology.
Moral sanctions, religion, oral stories/histories, and other codes of ethics that evolved to ensure the sustainable management of natural resources are a cornerstone of human social organization. The management of archaeological and heritage resources today are generally top-down and government-sanctioned efforts that are woefully inadequate for considering culturally attributed meaning and value. We argue that a more heart-centered approach to archaeology considers culturally attributed value to heritage, which, in Northwestern North America, includes an array of ecocultural, land-based, and ephemeral heritage sites resulting from the careful management of people over millennia. Consulting archaeology practiced in Gitxsan and Wet’suwet’en territory, a contested landscape where oil and gas development displaces people from their lands, is fundamentally at odds with these communities’ treatment and ethos of their ecocultural inheritance. The consideration of ecocultural and land-based heritage is not merely good practice for archaeologists; it follows from a suite of resource management strategies that have been tried and tested by Indigenous peoples over millennia—it is a more effective, just, and productive practice.
Parallels are often made between the culture of San hunter-gatherers of southern Africa and that of European Upper Paleolithic hunter-gatherers. Despite different environmental conditions and lifestyles, the fact that both groups live by hunting provides a point of comparison that can afford insights into Ice Age art. Focusing on both groups' hunting relationships with prey animals can illuminate the intermeshing of human and animal traits in Upper Paleolithic art. We can now give a fairly precise account of the cognitive and affective neurological mechanisms that facilitate hunting and that also have an impact on depicting animals.
Contemporary challenges related to walls, borders and encirclement, such as migration, integration, and endemic historical conflicts, can only be understood properly from a long-term perspective. This book seeks to go beyond conventional definitions of the long durée by locating the social practice of walling and encirclement in the broadest context of human history, integrating insights from archaeology and anthropology. Such an approach, far from being simply academic, has crucial contemporary relevance, as its focus on origins helps to locate the essential dynamics of this practice, and provides a rare external position from which to view the phenomenon as a transformative exercise, with the area walled serving as an artificial womb or matrix. The modern world, with its ingrained ideas of borders, nation states and other entities, often makes it is very difficult to gain a critical distance and detachment to see beyond conventional perspectives. The unique approach of this book offers an antidote to this problem. Cases discussed in the book range from Palaeolithic caves, the ancient walls of Göbekli Tepe, Jericho, and Babylon, to the foundation of Rome, the Chinese Empire, medieval Europe and the Berlin Wall. The book also looks at contemporary developments such as the Palestinian wall, Eastern and Southern European examples, Trump’s proposed Mexican wall, the use of Greece as a bulwark containing migration flows, and the transformative experience of voluntary work in a Calcutta hospice. In doing so, the book offers a political anthropology of one of the most fundamental yet perennially problematic human practices: the constructing of walls. As such, it will appeal to scholars of sociology, anthropology, and political theory.
Child art has long been a subject of research. Books and papers on the issue inspired me to look at rock art through the prism of studies on the artistic works of the little ones. This paper discusses a pilot study that I have conducted and offers some theoretical considerations on reading art.
Koonalda Cave in South Australia has long been known for having the world’s largest collection of finger flutings – lines drawn with fingers in the soft surfaces of cave ceilings and walls. Until recently no research had been done to attempt to distinguish individuals or determine unique identities among the finger fluters. A preliminary study conducted in 2014 of three different panels within the ‘Art Passage’ section of the cave revealed multiple finger fluters. Among the fluters appear to be at least three individuals with hand widths corresponding to children under the age of five. This article discusses these findings as well as contextual information from anthropological records and contemporary accounts of regional Aboriginal culture to discuss the role of children in art-making and their relationship to deep caves. © W. S. Maney & Son Ltd and the Society for the Study of Childhood in the Past 2015.
The marsupial lion, Thylacoleo carnifex, was the largest-ever marsupial carnivore, and is one of the most iconic extinct Australian vertebrates. With a highly-specialised dentition, powerful forelimbs and a robust build, its overall morphology is not approached by any other mammal. However, despite >150 years of attention, fundamental aspects of its biology remain unresolved. Here we analyse an assemblage of claw marks preserved on surfaces in a cave and deduce that they were generated by marsupial lions. The distribution and skewed size range of claw marks within the cave elucidate two key aspects of marsupial lion biology: they were excellent climbers and reared young in caves. Scrutiny of >10,000 co-located Pleistocene bones reveals few if any marsupial lion tooth marks, which dovetails with the morphology-based interpretation of the species as a flesh specialist.
Discussions of Paleolithic Cave Art rarely, if ever, explore the possibilities of evidence of writing and yet finger flutings (lines made by fingers in soft moonmilch or clay on cave walls and ceilings) raise significant questions as to what is writing and what internal structures would need to be evident within fluted panels to constitute writing. In this paper, the author shares findings from the French caves of Rouffignac and Gargas, and nine caves in Cantabrian, Spain. This paper does not pose to claim that finger flutings are necessarily writing, but instead raises the question of what elements would need to be present for them to be considered writing, and asks what would be the implications if they did.
Allusions to a close nexus between forensics and rock art science have appeared occasionally in the literature. For this contribution, the author provides ample evidence for the analogous nature of these investigations and proposes a standardized methodology for the scientific study of the evidential corpus directly and indirectly associated with the iconography. A review of some of the scientific methods already in use in rock art science will bring another supporting argument in favour of expanding the discipline beyond the iconocentric limitations of a purely iconography-focused approach and into the forensic-like analysis of a volume of evidence which, until recently, was either ignored, effaced or erased whether unknowingly, accidentally, or systematically.
Allusions to a close nexus between forensics and rock art science have appeared occasionally in the literature. For this contribution, the author provides ample evidence for the analogous nature of these investigations and proposes a preliminary outline for a standardised methodology for the scientific study of the evidential corpus directly and indirectly associated with the iconography. A review of some of the scientific methods already in use in rock art science will bring another supporting argument in favour of expanding the discipline beyond the iconocentric limitations of an iconography-focused approach and into the forensic-like analysis of a volume of evidence which, until recently, was either ignored, effaced or erased, whether unknowingly, accidentally or systematically.
No nos podíamos imaginar a finales de junio de 2009 que aquellos rebaños
que veíamos aparecer por el paso de las Aras y se diseminaban como mancha
de aceite por los claros de las montañas, primero hacia las crestas de los
“dosmiles” para bajar paulatinamente a las planicies de mil quinientos metros,
podrían ser los herederos directos de una tradición ancestral que nos disponíamos, sin ser conscientes todavía de ello, a descubrir.
La historia de las zonas de montaña en nuestro Pirineo no empezó con el termalismo, a principios del siglo XX, ni se corresponde solo con las anotaciones de las primeras ascensiones a sus cimas o los relatos de los grandes rebaños recorriendo las cabañeras arriba y abajo: es más bien la historia de las personas que las poblaron. Pero estas zonas altas han sido muy poco exploradas en busca de vestigios arqueológicos, más allá de manifestaciones puntuales como castillos e iglesias medievales, y particularmente Sobrarbe. En los últimos diez años, no obstante, se han realizado en la comarca nuevas excavaciones y prospecciones arqueológicas cuyos resultados intenta compilar este libro, a partir de los trabajos presentados en 2013 en las jornadas Sobrarbe antes de Sobrarbe, en su contexto geográfico de alta montaña.
The authors deconstruct the basis for dating the Palaeolithic cave paintings of France and find it wanting. Only five per cent are directly dated and the remainder belong to a stylistic framework that has grown organically, and with much circularity, as new paintings were brought to light. Following a constructive
bouleversement
, the authors recommend a new chronometric foundation based on chains of evidence anchored by radiocarbon dates. The story so far is striking: it brings many of the themes and techniques thought typical of the later painters into the repertoire of their much earlier predecessors.
Scratch markings of the cave bear occur frequently in the caves of much of Europe. They are examined and discussed, together with the distribution and habits of this Pleistocene animal, and within the overall context of the natural markings generally found in caves. The question of the interaction between the species and its human contemporaries is discussed, and particular attention is given to the co-occurrence of cave bear scratches and human wall markings in caves, and to the misidentification of both by archaeologists. A few of the many sites examined are considered as case studies, and a survey of morphological aspects, spatial distribution and statistical features of the cave bear marks leads to the definition of seven possible classes of such wall markings.
The isotopic geochemistry relating to the re-precipitation of calcite in caves is considered, in terms of its theory, natural manifestations, and relationship with questions of radiometric dating of carbonate speleothems. Specific forms of’ such deposits are considered, together with the various modification processes they are subjected to. More specifically, particular forms of rock art found within, as well as on or under such deposits are examined, such as finger flutings commonly found in caves of Europe and Australia. Some of the variables relating to their occurrence are elucidated, their preservation and possible dating is reviewed in the light of these factors, and new radiometric data from South Australian caves are introduced and discussed.
The differentiation of the urinogenital system and the appendicular skeleton in vertebrates is under the control of Hox genes.
The common control of digit and gonad differentiation raises the possibility that patterns of digit formation may relate to
spermatogenesis and hormonal concentrations. This work was concerned with the ratio between the length of the 2nd and 4th
digit (2D:4D) in humans. We showed that (i) 2D:4D in right and left hands has a sexually dimorphic pattern; in males mean
2D:4D = 0.98, i.e. the 4th digit tended to be longer than the 2nd and in females mean 2D:4D = 1.00, i.e. the 2nd and 4th digits
tended to be of equal length. The dimorphism is present from at least age 2 years and 2D:4D is probably established in utero;
(ii) high 2D:4D ratio in right hands was associated with germ cell failure in men (P = 0.04); (iii) sperm number was negatively
related to 2D:4D in the right hand (P = 0.004); (iv) in men testosterone concentrations were negatively related to right hand
2D:4D and in women and men LH (right hand), oestrogen (right and left hands) and prolactin (right hand) concentrations were
positively correlated with 2D:4D ratio and (v) 2D:4D ratio in right hands remained positively related to luteinizing hormone
and oestrogen after controlling for sex, age, height and weight.
In humans, as in nonhuman primates, the digits of the hands are similar in length during early fetal development. Subsequently, differentiation leads to a patter of unequal finger lengths, described by George as the finger-length pattern. Recent work by Manning and colleagues suggested that digit length patterns are due to early influences of sex hormones. Most importantly for psychology, such patterns might also relate to cognitive activities that are influenced by early organizing actions of sex hormones. The exciting possibility of having an easily measurable indicator of early action of sex hormones that relates to behavior led us to examine the universality of digit length patterns. With samples from Brazil, Canada, India, Turkey, and Korea, we showed that patterns of distal extent of finger tips are similar across different human populations. Consistent sex differences were found across the samples, showing that the index finger in males extends less far distally relative to the middle finger than is the case for females and that the difference in distal extent between index and ring fingers, relative to the middle finger, is smaller in females than in males.
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Four forms of finger flutings as seen in Rouffignac Cave
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