Independent scholar researching cultural astronomy, biological knowledge, and mythology among indigenous peoples and in Upper Paleolithic cave art. Address: www.beforeorion.com
Ancient mapmakers often depicted animals and supernatural beings to designate regions where they ... more Ancient mapmakers often depicted animals and supernatural beings to designate regions where they were believed to exist. This tradition is carried forth in the present where we use animals and caricatures of them to mascot political and geographic regions as well as athletic teams and educational institutions. The tradition may have originated in prehistory where Ice Age artists depicted animals they presumably had seen. This poster explores such animals that were unique within and outside of the Iberian Peninsula, along with supernatural characters, sequentially depicted more than 34,000 years ago on a wall in an Iberian cave. These images may help us to better understand the early evolution of mapmaking, why animals and supernatural beings came to be depicted in maps, and how we learned to find ourselves in time and space.
Drawings, engravings, sculptures and similarly constructed art forms rely on our unique ability t... more Drawings, engravings, sculptures and similarly constructed art forms rely on our unique ability to internally process visual information and identify recognizable patterns. This same ability processes imaginary patterns, such as animals and faces of people in geological formations and clouds, as well as grouping stars into constellations of characters. This phenomenon of identifying imaginary patterns is referred to as “pareidolia.” The ability to find pareidolia in the natural world is apparently innate to humans and logically should have preceded our earliest intentional art. We have records of pareidolia in ancient times and worldwide among animistic hunter-gatherers who have held their observations in sacred traditions. In this study, previously published Gravettian, Solutrean and Magdalenian Upper Paleolithic images from caves in northern Iberian Peninsula were compared with prominent geological formations observed outside of caves in the region.
Los dibujos, los grabados, las esculturas y otras formas artísticas semejantes se basan en nuestr... more Los dibujos, los grabados, las esculturas y otras formas artísticas semejantes se basan en nuestra capacidad única de procesar internamente la información visual e identificar patrones fácilmente reconocibles. Esta misma capacidad procesa patrones imaginarios, como animales y rostros de personas en formaciones geológicas y nubes, así como la agrupación de estrellas en constelaciones formadas por figuras. Este fenómeno de identificación de patrones imaginarios se denomina "pareidolia". La capacidad de encontrar pareidolia en el mundo natural es por lo visto innata al ser humano y, por lógica, debería haber precedido a nuestro primer arte intencional. Tenemos constancia de pareidolia en la antigüedad y en todo el mundo entre los cazadores-recolectores animistas que han mantenido sus observaciones dentro de las tradiciones sagradas.
The International Union of Prehistoric and Protohistoric Sciences UISPP 2021 Meknes, Morocco
Pr... more The International Union of Prehistoric and Protohistoric Sciences UISPP 2021 Meknes, Morocco
Presenter: Bernie Taylor
Animistic and shamanistic peoples worldwide have traditions of regarding high mountains as being spiritual and the observances of them in songs and myths are widely recorded in the anthropological record. We find these traditions carried directly and metaphorically into ancient religions and literature. High mountains may have also been considered sacred in prehistory given their global spiritual observances to the present time. Early recordings of these sacred high mountain observances may be found in the Upper Paleolithic Cave of El Castillo in Cantabria, Spain and in Gorham’s Cave, Gibraltar. Panels in these caves store human fabricated images that closely resemble geological features on two high mountains in the greater Iberian region.
Los pueblos animistas y chamanes de todo el mundo tienen por tradición considerar a las montañas ... more Los pueblos animistas y chamanes de todo el mundo tienen por tradición considerar a las montañas altas como algo espiritual, y las observaciones de las mismas en canciones y mitos están ampliamente registradas en el registro antropológico. Encontramos estas tradiciones trasladadas directa y metafóricamente a las religiones y la literatura antiguas. Es posible que las montañas altas también hayan sido consideradas sagradas en la prehistoria, dada su observancia espiritual global hasta la actualidad. Los primeros registros de estas observancias sagradas en las altas montañas pueden encontrarse en la cueva del Paleolítico Superior de El Castillo, en Cantabria, España, y en la cueva de Gorham, en Gibraltar. Los paneles de estas cuevas almacenan imágenes elaboradas por el hombre que se asemejan mucho a las características geológicas de dos montañas altas de la gran región ibérica.
Pablo Picasso’s quotes from his assumed visits to the Upper Paleolithic caves of Altamira in Cant... more Pablo Picasso’s quotes from his assumed visits to the Upper Paleolithic caves of Altamira in Cantabria, Spain and Lascaux in the Dordogne region of France have been widely published but little else had been established of this proposed connection. This researcher has examined over 500 previously published Franco-Cantabrian Upper Paleolithic cave images in archaeological sites that were found between 1868 and 1950 and finds three examples of borrowed characters from Altamira and two in Grotte de Pair-non-Pair in Gironde, France among Picasso’s paintings in his Les Demoiselles d'Avignon and Night Fishing at Antibes. Four of these characters were introduced as masks in Picasso’s works. The research also uncovers that Picasso also widely utilized animistic metaphors and an artistic style that are prevalent in Franco-Cantabrian Upper Paleolithic art.
There is a record of inherited constellations and recognized stars with similar animal, human and... more There is a record of inherited constellations and recognized stars with similar animal, human and mythical characteristics from ancient Mesopotamia among ancient Greek astronomers as well as star patterns independently introduced by the latter. This research explores earlier sources of ancient Mesopotamian and Greek constellations, recognized stars, and their associated characters as depicted on the Gallery of Discs in the Spanish Cave of El Castillo, dating to approximately 35,000 years ago, to better understand the origins of astronomy in the ancient world. The Upper Paleolithic constellations and stars recognized among the ancient Greeks and Mesopotamians and pictured in this presentation,
Les dessins, les gravures, les sculptures et les formes d'art similaires relèvent de notre capaci... more Les dessins, les gravures, les sculptures et les formes d'art similaires relèvent de notre capacité spécifique à traiter en interne les informations visuelles et à identifier des motifs reconnaissables. Cette même capacité permet de traiter des motifs imaginaires, tels que des animaux et des visages de personnes dans des formations géologiques et des nuages, ainsi que le regroupement d'étoiles pour former des constellations de personnages. Ce phénomène d'identification de motifs imaginaires est appelé "paréidolie". La capacité de trouver des paréidolies dans le monde naturel est manifestement innée chez l'homme et devrait en toute logique préexister à notre art intentionnel le plus ancien. Nous disposons de traces de paréidolie dans les temps anciens et dans le monde entier chez les chasseurs-cueilleurs animistes qui ont consigné leurs observations dans des traditions sacrées.
Anthropological surveys of hunter-gatherers and pastoral peoples from Siberia and North America d... more Anthropological surveys of hunter-gatherers and pastoral peoples from Siberia and North America during the early 1900’s recorded wide-spread use of lunar calendars for the observation and harvesting of terrestrial and aquatic animals. Volumes of evidence in biological fields followed throughout the 20th century that record animals across the biological spectrum as being cued by the sun and dark/light phases of the moon.
This study explored whether geometric patterns accompanying depicted animals in Upper Paleolithic Franco-Cantabrian cave art, lunar calendars of hunter-gatherers and pastoral peoples as recorded in the anthropological surveys, and the light/dark lunar cued biological behavior of significant animals presented can be correlated. The results expand on Alexander Marshack’s hypothesis of time-factored markings on Upper Paleolithic artifacts.
Some personal ornamental traditions that extend beyond basic human needs are found among indigeno... more Some personal ornamental traditions that extend beyond basic human needs are found among indigenous people worldwide. One such tradition is the adornment of bird feathers, either individually or in full avian dress, that are typically associated with ceremonial flight/spirituality. The common details of such evidence suggest that indigenous peoples either developed such a tradition at least early in the Upper Paleolithic before world-wide dispersals; there have been hyper-diffusions of this tradition in the past few thousand years; or that animistic peoples worldwide independently developed such a tradition through a basic connection to the natural world. One avenue to consider this question is through cave art from Upper Paleolithic Europe that is contemporaneous with findings of early cave art in Southeast Asia, and have occurred before the earliest known migrations from Siberia into North America. Any such common examples of human-avian ceremonial practices would potentially refute
What were the inspirations for Ice Age art? Could Ice Age art have been founded in altered states... more What were the inspirations for Ice Age art? Could Ice Age art have been founded in altered states that many believe we do not today have access to verify? Should we leave behind other sources credited for the origins and continuance of Ice Age art, such as hunting magic, game tallies, art for art’s sake, time-factoring, fertility and initiation rites, cosmology, mythology, dreams, and working from pareidolia on the cave walls?
In this Association for the Anthropology of Consciousness First Friday talk, author and naturalist Bernie Taylor will take us on a journey deep in time to consider these questions. He will also pose if the original inspirations for Ice Age art are still with us, continuing to be reimagined on changing technological and societal canvases.
Les peuples animistes et chamanistes du monde entier ont pour tradition de considérer les hautes ... more Les peuples animistes et chamanistes du monde entier ont pour tradition de considérer les hautes montagnes comme spirituelles et les chants et mythes qui les évoquent sont largement enregistrés dans les archives anthropologiques. Nous trouvons ces traditions portées directement et métaphoriquement dans les religions et la littérature anciennes. Il est possible que les hautes montagnes aient été considérées comme sacrées à la préhistoire, étant donné qu'elles ont été observées dans le monde entier jusqu'à aujourd'hui. Les premiers enregistrements de ces observances sacrées en haute montagne se trouvent dans la grotte du Paléolithique supérieur d'El Castillo en Cantabrie, en Espagne, et dans la grotte de Gorham, à Gibraltar. Les panneaux de ces grottes contiennent des images fabriquées par l'homme qui ressemblent de près aux caractéristiques géologiques de deux hautes montagnes de la grande région ibérique.
Los cartógrafos de la antigüedad solían representar animales y seres sobrenaturales para designar... more Los cartógrafos de la antigüedad solían representar animales y seres sobrenaturales para designar las regiones donde se creía que existían. Esta tradición se mantiene en el presente, donde utilizamos animales y dibujos de los mismos para designar regiones políticas y geográficas, así como equipos deportivos e instituciones educativas. La tradición puede haberse originado en la prehistoria, donde los artistas de la Edad de Hielo representaban animales que supuestamente habían visto.
Este póster oral explora dichos animales, únicos dentro y fuera de la Península Ibérica, junto con personajes sobrenaturales, representados secuencialmente hace más de 34.000 años en una pared de una cueva ibérica. Estas imágenes pueden ayudarnos a comprender mejor la evolución inicial de la elaboración de mapas, por qué los animales y los seres sobrenaturales llegaron a representarse en los mapas, y cómo aprendimos a encontrarnos en el tiempo y el espacio.
The history of western astronomy almost exclusively attributes the constellations in Claudius Pto... more The history of western astronomy almost exclusively attributes the constellations in Claudius Ptolemy’s Almagest and their connected myths to earlier Greek and Mesopotamian sources. The themes of post-Mesopotamian constellations in the Almagest and related myths also revolve around wild animals and supernatural creatures that are more typically associated with hunter-gatherer animistic/shamanic cultures while the Mesopotamian constellations are more agricultural-oriented. This research compares sequential Upper Paleolithic characters depicted more than 34,000 years ago in an Iberian cave with constellations in the Almagest and Greek mythical characters to source Pre-Mesopotamian origins of Greek constellations and partly explain why Ptolemy embraced mythological hunter-gatherer animistic/shamanistic themed constellations in a time of great scientific achievement.
How art came to be is a longstanding curiosity among archaeologists, psychologists and art histor... more How art came to be is a longstanding curiosity among archaeologists, psychologists and art historians. Pablo Picasso theorized in documented conversations with friends that art first surfaced from natural irregularities in rocks which were then innovated upon, such as is evidenced in Upper Paleolithic cave art. Picasso’s quotes about the Upper Paleolithic caves of Altamira in Cantabria, Spain and Lascaux in the Dordogne region of France indicate that he had visited them. Little else has been established of the Spaniard’s connection to cave art or his working theory on the origins of art.
In this study over 500 previously published Franco-Cantabrian Upper Paleolithic cave images from archaeological sites that were identified between 1868 and 1950 were examined. This study uncovers that Picasso drew heavily on Upper Paleolithic cave art styles and animistic metaphors in his work.
Anthropological and ethnographical surveys of hunter-gatherers and pastoral peoples from Siberia ... more Anthropological and ethnographical surveys of hunter-gatherers and pastoral peoples from Siberia and North America during the early 1900’s recorded wide-spread use of lunar calendars for the observation and harvesting of terrestrial and aquatic animals as well as general timekeeping. Volumes of evidence in the fields of chronobiology and wildlife biology followed throughout the 20th century that record animals across the biological spectrum in both aquatic and terrestrial environments as being cued by the sun and dark/light phases of the moon.
This study explored the possibility of and demonstrated that repeating geometric patterns accompanying depicted animals in the Upper Paleolithic Franco-Cantabrian archaeological record, lunar calendars of hunter-gatherers and pastoral peoples as recorded in the anthropological and ethnographical surveys, and the light/dark lunar cued biological behavior of significant animals presented can be correlated.
An Upper Paleolithic panel of images dated to approximately 34,000 years ago in the Spanish Cave ... more An Upper Paleolithic panel of images dated to approximately 34,000 years ago in the Spanish Cave of El Castillo include a Great Auk (Pinguinus impennis), an Ostrich (Struthionidae) and two Golden Eagles (Aquila chrysaetos). The lenses through which Upper Paleolithic cave art has been interpreted are scattered, ranging from art for art’s sake, hunting magic, hallucinogenic visions to shamanism. Such lenses do not appear to explain why Upper Paleolithic cave artists depicted these large birds. This study examined the relationship between these large birds and other characters on the panel, as well as a singular depicted egg, through the lenses of animism and the Eurasian cosmic egg myth. The study provides a perspective on why the Upper Paleolithic artist depicted these large birds and which one of them laid the pictured egg in this proposed version of the cosmic egg myth. The study further offers a unique insight as to mankind’s prehistoric interest in large birds.
Belief in the angel or human-bird/avianoid as a messenger between humans and the divine is found ... more Belief in the angel or human-bird/avianoid as a messenger between humans and the divine is found in the Abrahamic, ancient Greek, Mesopotamian and Egyptian records as well as worldwide among shamanic and animistic peoples. The projection predates the ancient world as images of transformative avianoids date to 34,000 years ago in the Spanish cave of El Castillo, to 25,000 years ago in the French Grotte de Pair-non-Pair, and 17,000 years ago in the French Cave of Lascaux. The nuances of animistic, shamanic and ancient avianoids in recorded history to the present have been widely interpreted. Whereas, interpretative and comparative multi-character studies of avianoids in Upper Paleolithic cave images have been limited. This research presents Upper Paleolithic images of avianoids in European caves with characters on the same panels to better understand from where the idea of avianoid messengers could have emanated and what purposes they may have served.
The American Society of Naturalists, the Society for the Study of Evolution, and the Society of S... more The American Society of Naturalists, the Society for the Study of Evolution, and the Society of Systematic Biologists joint annual meeting "Virtual Evolution 2021".
Upper Paleolithic cave artists to tens of millennia ago engraved and painted animals onto the walls of deep caves. The features on some depicted animals not only detail the artists/naturalists’ knowledge of their life history, but also indicate that they had a definable understanding of time and place. This study explores such details of time and place for animals on a panel in the Spanish Cave of El Castillo dating to more than 34,000 years ago that were known from the archaeological evidence in the local environment and those that may have been indigenous to regions further afield. Through the lenses of time and place for these animals, the study explored what state of complex thought was present in the human mind during the Upper Paleolithic and if there has been any noticeable change in such mental abilities.
In Greek mythology, the centaur Chiron is the iconic mentor to great heroes such as Achilles, Her... more In Greek mythology, the centaur Chiron is the iconic mentor to great heroes such as Achilles, Hercules, Theseus, among others. Siberian shamans in a parallel tradition psychologically transform into a horse through a trance dance in order to enter another dimension. This joining of human and animal beings to gain strength is not of agricultural peoples, but rather from much earlier animistic traditions. This study explores images of half men/half horses in European Upper Paleolithic cave art through the lens of animism to better understand the origins of ancient mythical centaurs, the role of the centaur on the journey of the hero, and our early psychological relationships with other animal beings.
Ancient mapmakers often depicted animals and supernatural beings to designate regions where they ... more Ancient mapmakers often depicted animals and supernatural beings to designate regions where they were believed to exist. This tradition is carried forth in the present where we use animals and caricatures of them to mascot political and geographic regions as well as athletic teams and educational institutions. The tradition may have originated in prehistory where Ice Age artists depicted animals they presumably had seen. This poster explores such animals that were unique within and outside of the Iberian Peninsula, along with supernatural characters, sequentially depicted more than 34,000 years ago on a wall in an Iberian cave. These images may help us to better understand the early evolution of mapmaking, why animals and supernatural beings came to be depicted in maps, and how we learned to find ourselves in time and space.
Drawings, engravings, sculptures and similarly constructed art forms rely on our unique ability t... more Drawings, engravings, sculptures and similarly constructed art forms rely on our unique ability to internally process visual information and identify recognizable patterns. This same ability processes imaginary patterns, such as animals and faces of people in geological formations and clouds, as well as grouping stars into constellations of characters. This phenomenon of identifying imaginary patterns is referred to as “pareidolia.” The ability to find pareidolia in the natural world is apparently innate to humans and logically should have preceded our earliest intentional art. We have records of pareidolia in ancient times and worldwide among animistic hunter-gatherers who have held their observations in sacred traditions. In this study, previously published Gravettian, Solutrean and Magdalenian Upper Paleolithic images from caves in northern Iberian Peninsula were compared with prominent geological formations observed outside of caves in the region.
Los dibujos, los grabados, las esculturas y otras formas artísticas semejantes se basan en nuestr... more Los dibujos, los grabados, las esculturas y otras formas artísticas semejantes se basan en nuestra capacidad única de procesar internamente la información visual e identificar patrones fácilmente reconocibles. Esta misma capacidad procesa patrones imaginarios, como animales y rostros de personas en formaciones geológicas y nubes, así como la agrupación de estrellas en constelaciones formadas por figuras. Este fenómeno de identificación de patrones imaginarios se denomina "pareidolia". La capacidad de encontrar pareidolia en el mundo natural es por lo visto innata al ser humano y, por lógica, debería haber precedido a nuestro primer arte intencional. Tenemos constancia de pareidolia en la antigüedad y en todo el mundo entre los cazadores-recolectores animistas que han mantenido sus observaciones dentro de las tradiciones sagradas.
The International Union of Prehistoric and Protohistoric Sciences UISPP 2021 Meknes, Morocco
Pr... more The International Union of Prehistoric and Protohistoric Sciences UISPP 2021 Meknes, Morocco
Presenter: Bernie Taylor
Animistic and shamanistic peoples worldwide have traditions of regarding high mountains as being spiritual and the observances of them in songs and myths are widely recorded in the anthropological record. We find these traditions carried directly and metaphorically into ancient religions and literature. High mountains may have also been considered sacred in prehistory given their global spiritual observances to the present time. Early recordings of these sacred high mountain observances may be found in the Upper Paleolithic Cave of El Castillo in Cantabria, Spain and in Gorham’s Cave, Gibraltar. Panels in these caves store human fabricated images that closely resemble geological features on two high mountains in the greater Iberian region.
Los pueblos animistas y chamanes de todo el mundo tienen por tradición considerar a las montañas ... more Los pueblos animistas y chamanes de todo el mundo tienen por tradición considerar a las montañas altas como algo espiritual, y las observaciones de las mismas en canciones y mitos están ampliamente registradas en el registro antropológico. Encontramos estas tradiciones trasladadas directa y metafóricamente a las religiones y la literatura antiguas. Es posible que las montañas altas también hayan sido consideradas sagradas en la prehistoria, dada su observancia espiritual global hasta la actualidad. Los primeros registros de estas observancias sagradas en las altas montañas pueden encontrarse en la cueva del Paleolítico Superior de El Castillo, en Cantabria, España, y en la cueva de Gorham, en Gibraltar. Los paneles de estas cuevas almacenan imágenes elaboradas por el hombre que se asemejan mucho a las características geológicas de dos montañas altas de la gran región ibérica.
Pablo Picasso’s quotes from his assumed visits to the Upper Paleolithic caves of Altamira in Cant... more Pablo Picasso’s quotes from his assumed visits to the Upper Paleolithic caves of Altamira in Cantabria, Spain and Lascaux in the Dordogne region of France have been widely published but little else had been established of this proposed connection. This researcher has examined over 500 previously published Franco-Cantabrian Upper Paleolithic cave images in archaeological sites that were found between 1868 and 1950 and finds three examples of borrowed characters from Altamira and two in Grotte de Pair-non-Pair in Gironde, France among Picasso’s paintings in his Les Demoiselles d'Avignon and Night Fishing at Antibes. Four of these characters were introduced as masks in Picasso’s works. The research also uncovers that Picasso also widely utilized animistic metaphors and an artistic style that are prevalent in Franco-Cantabrian Upper Paleolithic art.
There is a record of inherited constellations and recognized stars with similar animal, human and... more There is a record of inherited constellations and recognized stars with similar animal, human and mythical characteristics from ancient Mesopotamia among ancient Greek astronomers as well as star patterns independently introduced by the latter. This research explores earlier sources of ancient Mesopotamian and Greek constellations, recognized stars, and their associated characters as depicted on the Gallery of Discs in the Spanish Cave of El Castillo, dating to approximately 35,000 years ago, to better understand the origins of astronomy in the ancient world. The Upper Paleolithic constellations and stars recognized among the ancient Greeks and Mesopotamians and pictured in this presentation,
Les dessins, les gravures, les sculptures et les formes d'art similaires relèvent de notre capaci... more Les dessins, les gravures, les sculptures et les formes d'art similaires relèvent de notre capacité spécifique à traiter en interne les informations visuelles et à identifier des motifs reconnaissables. Cette même capacité permet de traiter des motifs imaginaires, tels que des animaux et des visages de personnes dans des formations géologiques et des nuages, ainsi que le regroupement d'étoiles pour former des constellations de personnages. Ce phénomène d'identification de motifs imaginaires est appelé "paréidolie". La capacité de trouver des paréidolies dans le monde naturel est manifestement innée chez l'homme et devrait en toute logique préexister à notre art intentionnel le plus ancien. Nous disposons de traces de paréidolie dans les temps anciens et dans le monde entier chez les chasseurs-cueilleurs animistes qui ont consigné leurs observations dans des traditions sacrées.
Anthropological surveys of hunter-gatherers and pastoral peoples from Siberia and North America d... more Anthropological surveys of hunter-gatherers and pastoral peoples from Siberia and North America during the early 1900’s recorded wide-spread use of lunar calendars for the observation and harvesting of terrestrial and aquatic animals. Volumes of evidence in biological fields followed throughout the 20th century that record animals across the biological spectrum as being cued by the sun and dark/light phases of the moon.
This study explored whether geometric patterns accompanying depicted animals in Upper Paleolithic Franco-Cantabrian cave art, lunar calendars of hunter-gatherers and pastoral peoples as recorded in the anthropological surveys, and the light/dark lunar cued biological behavior of significant animals presented can be correlated. The results expand on Alexander Marshack’s hypothesis of time-factored markings on Upper Paleolithic artifacts.
Some personal ornamental traditions that extend beyond basic human needs are found among indigeno... more Some personal ornamental traditions that extend beyond basic human needs are found among indigenous people worldwide. One such tradition is the adornment of bird feathers, either individually or in full avian dress, that are typically associated with ceremonial flight/spirituality. The common details of such evidence suggest that indigenous peoples either developed such a tradition at least early in the Upper Paleolithic before world-wide dispersals; there have been hyper-diffusions of this tradition in the past few thousand years; or that animistic peoples worldwide independently developed such a tradition through a basic connection to the natural world. One avenue to consider this question is through cave art from Upper Paleolithic Europe that is contemporaneous with findings of early cave art in Southeast Asia, and have occurred before the earliest known migrations from Siberia into North America. Any such common examples of human-avian ceremonial practices would potentially refute
What were the inspirations for Ice Age art? Could Ice Age art have been founded in altered states... more What were the inspirations for Ice Age art? Could Ice Age art have been founded in altered states that many believe we do not today have access to verify? Should we leave behind other sources credited for the origins and continuance of Ice Age art, such as hunting magic, game tallies, art for art’s sake, time-factoring, fertility and initiation rites, cosmology, mythology, dreams, and working from pareidolia on the cave walls?
In this Association for the Anthropology of Consciousness First Friday talk, author and naturalist Bernie Taylor will take us on a journey deep in time to consider these questions. He will also pose if the original inspirations for Ice Age art are still with us, continuing to be reimagined on changing technological and societal canvases.
Les peuples animistes et chamanistes du monde entier ont pour tradition de considérer les hautes ... more Les peuples animistes et chamanistes du monde entier ont pour tradition de considérer les hautes montagnes comme spirituelles et les chants et mythes qui les évoquent sont largement enregistrés dans les archives anthropologiques. Nous trouvons ces traditions portées directement et métaphoriquement dans les religions et la littérature anciennes. Il est possible que les hautes montagnes aient été considérées comme sacrées à la préhistoire, étant donné qu'elles ont été observées dans le monde entier jusqu'à aujourd'hui. Les premiers enregistrements de ces observances sacrées en haute montagne se trouvent dans la grotte du Paléolithique supérieur d'El Castillo en Cantabrie, en Espagne, et dans la grotte de Gorham, à Gibraltar. Les panneaux de ces grottes contiennent des images fabriquées par l'homme qui ressemblent de près aux caractéristiques géologiques de deux hautes montagnes de la grande région ibérique.
Los cartógrafos de la antigüedad solían representar animales y seres sobrenaturales para designar... more Los cartógrafos de la antigüedad solían representar animales y seres sobrenaturales para designar las regiones donde se creía que existían. Esta tradición se mantiene en el presente, donde utilizamos animales y dibujos de los mismos para designar regiones políticas y geográficas, así como equipos deportivos e instituciones educativas. La tradición puede haberse originado en la prehistoria, donde los artistas de la Edad de Hielo representaban animales que supuestamente habían visto.
Este póster oral explora dichos animales, únicos dentro y fuera de la Península Ibérica, junto con personajes sobrenaturales, representados secuencialmente hace más de 34.000 años en una pared de una cueva ibérica. Estas imágenes pueden ayudarnos a comprender mejor la evolución inicial de la elaboración de mapas, por qué los animales y los seres sobrenaturales llegaron a representarse en los mapas, y cómo aprendimos a encontrarnos en el tiempo y el espacio.
The history of western astronomy almost exclusively attributes the constellations in Claudius Pto... more The history of western astronomy almost exclusively attributes the constellations in Claudius Ptolemy’s Almagest and their connected myths to earlier Greek and Mesopotamian sources. The themes of post-Mesopotamian constellations in the Almagest and related myths also revolve around wild animals and supernatural creatures that are more typically associated with hunter-gatherer animistic/shamanic cultures while the Mesopotamian constellations are more agricultural-oriented. This research compares sequential Upper Paleolithic characters depicted more than 34,000 years ago in an Iberian cave with constellations in the Almagest and Greek mythical characters to source Pre-Mesopotamian origins of Greek constellations and partly explain why Ptolemy embraced mythological hunter-gatherer animistic/shamanistic themed constellations in a time of great scientific achievement.
How art came to be is a longstanding curiosity among archaeologists, psychologists and art histor... more How art came to be is a longstanding curiosity among archaeologists, psychologists and art historians. Pablo Picasso theorized in documented conversations with friends that art first surfaced from natural irregularities in rocks which were then innovated upon, such as is evidenced in Upper Paleolithic cave art. Picasso’s quotes about the Upper Paleolithic caves of Altamira in Cantabria, Spain and Lascaux in the Dordogne region of France indicate that he had visited them. Little else has been established of the Spaniard’s connection to cave art or his working theory on the origins of art.
In this study over 500 previously published Franco-Cantabrian Upper Paleolithic cave images from archaeological sites that were identified between 1868 and 1950 were examined. This study uncovers that Picasso drew heavily on Upper Paleolithic cave art styles and animistic metaphors in his work.
Anthropological and ethnographical surveys of hunter-gatherers and pastoral peoples from Siberia ... more Anthropological and ethnographical surveys of hunter-gatherers and pastoral peoples from Siberia and North America during the early 1900’s recorded wide-spread use of lunar calendars for the observation and harvesting of terrestrial and aquatic animals as well as general timekeeping. Volumes of evidence in the fields of chronobiology and wildlife biology followed throughout the 20th century that record animals across the biological spectrum in both aquatic and terrestrial environments as being cued by the sun and dark/light phases of the moon.
This study explored the possibility of and demonstrated that repeating geometric patterns accompanying depicted animals in the Upper Paleolithic Franco-Cantabrian archaeological record, lunar calendars of hunter-gatherers and pastoral peoples as recorded in the anthropological and ethnographical surveys, and the light/dark lunar cued biological behavior of significant animals presented can be correlated.
An Upper Paleolithic panel of images dated to approximately 34,000 years ago in the Spanish Cave ... more An Upper Paleolithic panel of images dated to approximately 34,000 years ago in the Spanish Cave of El Castillo include a Great Auk (Pinguinus impennis), an Ostrich (Struthionidae) and two Golden Eagles (Aquila chrysaetos). The lenses through which Upper Paleolithic cave art has been interpreted are scattered, ranging from art for art’s sake, hunting magic, hallucinogenic visions to shamanism. Such lenses do not appear to explain why Upper Paleolithic cave artists depicted these large birds. This study examined the relationship between these large birds and other characters on the panel, as well as a singular depicted egg, through the lenses of animism and the Eurasian cosmic egg myth. The study provides a perspective on why the Upper Paleolithic artist depicted these large birds and which one of them laid the pictured egg in this proposed version of the cosmic egg myth. The study further offers a unique insight as to mankind’s prehistoric interest in large birds.
Belief in the angel or human-bird/avianoid as a messenger between humans and the divine is found ... more Belief in the angel or human-bird/avianoid as a messenger between humans and the divine is found in the Abrahamic, ancient Greek, Mesopotamian and Egyptian records as well as worldwide among shamanic and animistic peoples. The projection predates the ancient world as images of transformative avianoids date to 34,000 years ago in the Spanish cave of El Castillo, to 25,000 years ago in the French Grotte de Pair-non-Pair, and 17,000 years ago in the French Cave of Lascaux. The nuances of animistic, shamanic and ancient avianoids in recorded history to the present have been widely interpreted. Whereas, interpretative and comparative multi-character studies of avianoids in Upper Paleolithic cave images have been limited. This research presents Upper Paleolithic images of avianoids in European caves with characters on the same panels to better understand from where the idea of avianoid messengers could have emanated and what purposes they may have served.
The American Society of Naturalists, the Society for the Study of Evolution, and the Society of S... more The American Society of Naturalists, the Society for the Study of Evolution, and the Society of Systematic Biologists joint annual meeting "Virtual Evolution 2021".
Upper Paleolithic cave artists to tens of millennia ago engraved and painted animals onto the walls of deep caves. The features on some depicted animals not only detail the artists/naturalists’ knowledge of their life history, but also indicate that they had a definable understanding of time and place. This study explores such details of time and place for animals on a panel in the Spanish Cave of El Castillo dating to more than 34,000 years ago that were known from the archaeological evidence in the local environment and those that may have been indigenous to regions further afield. Through the lenses of time and place for these animals, the study explored what state of complex thought was present in the human mind during the Upper Paleolithic and if there has been any noticeable change in such mental abilities.
In Greek mythology, the centaur Chiron is the iconic mentor to great heroes such as Achilles, Her... more In Greek mythology, the centaur Chiron is the iconic mentor to great heroes such as Achilles, Hercules, Theseus, among others. Siberian shamans in a parallel tradition psychologically transform into a horse through a trance dance in order to enter another dimension. This joining of human and animal beings to gain strength is not of agricultural peoples, but rather from much earlier animistic traditions. This study explores images of half men/half horses in European Upper Paleolithic cave art through the lens of animism to better understand the origins of ancient mythical centaurs, the role of the centaur on the journey of the hero, and our early psychological relationships with other animal beings.
This study demonstrates the knowledge of ungulate and other significant animal lunar-timed biolog... more This study demonstrates the knowledge of ungulate and other significant animal lunar-timed biological behavior among European Upper Paleolithic artists. This biological behavior is recorded with repeated sequences of marks and geometric forms on the walls of European caves and portable objects made during the Upper Paleolithic that are often depicted in association with ungulates. Marshack and others investigated such marks and geometric forms with a leaning towards lunar-timed sequencing. This study investigated whether such marks and geometric forms on the walls of Upper Paleolithic caves have lunar biological-timed correlations with the ungulates and other animals accompanying them. These depicted animals were also cross referenced with hunter-gatherer lunar calendars from Eurasia and North America in the anthropological record to demonstrate practical and continued use.
If there were geese anywhere in the universe besides earth, we should probably expect to find the... more If there were geese anywhere in the universe besides earth, we should probably expect to find them in the constellation Vulpecula. Vulpecula the Fox was contrived by Johannes Hevelius, the famous Polish astronomer who was based in Gdansk in the seventeenth century. Hevelius originally named this constellation Vulpecula & Anser, or the Fox & Goose. It’s no longer possible, however, to take a gander at the Goose. The Goose is long gone, ingested by the Fox in whose jaws Hevelius mapped its neck. Vulpecula is located right next to Cygnus the Swan, and for this 2005 Boeing Science Writing Contest article, Bernie Taylor has allowed those extraterrestrial geese to migrate to an imagined planet in the Swan, Cygnus 3. Bernie Taylor is a quantitatively-minded naturalist living in Oregon’s Willamette Valley. His 2004 book, Biological Time, examines the rhythms that regulate the lives of animals and plants and documents as well as ancient and indigenous knowledge of these natural cycles.
Some of these biological rhythms are modulated by celestial phenomena, and so Mr. Taylor asks whether different astronomical circumstances would alter the behavior of geese on another world or even eliminate the possibility of their existence. His imaginary planet in some ways parallels the earth. It is the third planet from its sun, a solar-like star in Cygnus. Notwithstanding the similarity of Cygnus 3 to earth, looking for geese on that planet could be a wild-goose chase.
The ancients imagined the constellation Cygnus as a swan in flight, headed south. They linked its seasonal departure from the night sky to the autumn migration of water fowl. Our failure to find any geese on Cygnus 3 wouldn't necessarily mean they don’t exist. They could, after all, have just gone south on us. What’s good for the Goose is sauce for the Swan. —E.C. Krupp, Director of the Griffith Observatory
People have had the moon’s number for a very long time. We figure the moon’s phases were counted ... more People have had the moon’s number for a very long time. We figure the moon’s phases were counted by calendar priests in ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia at least 5000 years ago, and the unwritten record of prehistoric megaliths and symbolic carvings on monumental stones
has prompted some to speculate the builders of Stonehenge in southern England and Newgrange in Ireland also numbered the moon’s days. In fact, the late Alexander Marshack identifi ed “time-factored
notations” from the upper paleolithic in fragments of antler and bone. In The Roots of Civilization (1972), he argued these sequences of marks indicate lunar talllies. In 1982, American anthropologist W. Breen
Murray reported a large petroglyph panel at Presa de la Mula, in northeast Mexico, and interpreted its 24-cell grid of 207 “tally” marks as a count of seven cycles of the moon. The age of the carvings is
unknown, but through style they are associated with nomadic Archaic hunters and could be hundreds, if not thousands, of years old. Murray also analyzed tine counts of antler petroglyphs in the same desert
basins of northern Mexico and found they routinely exceed the number encountered on real antlers. Lunar numbers—7, 14, 15, 28—are common, but Murray speculated the month counts could reference
more than the moon and have something to do with biological cycles of the game.
In this issue, naturalist Bernie Taylor returns to the Griffiffith Observer and explores detailed connections between lunar counts among traditional peoples and animal behavior. He last appeared in the August, 2006, issue with his 2005 Boeing writing contest article “Are There Geese on Cygnus 3?” He has written two books and hundreds of articles. In Biological Time (2004), he examined the relationship between the rhythms of plants and animals and the cyclical performances of the sun and moon. His work has generated high interest at biological conferences. Fish and game biologists are using his hypotheses to study and manage natural resources. Mr. Taylor has also spotlighted and analyzed archaeological evidence that suggests our ancient and prehistoric ancestors also understood the world and managed their access to its resources in terms of time measured and marked by the sun and the moon.
Book Review of from "Cave Art to Hubble: A History of Astronomical Record Keeping (2020) by Jonat... more Book Review of from "Cave Art to Hubble: A History of Astronomical Record Keeping (2020) by Jonathan Powell as printed in the June 2020 issue of Physics Today (magazine of the American Institute of Physics).The book review covers proposed astronomical observations in Gobekli Tepe, French Lascaux Cave, Stonehenge, the Nebra Sky Disc, Dendra Zodiac, Roman Farnese Atlas and the author's theme of comets and the Younger Dryas impact hypothesis. The reviewer added the work of Alexander Marshack and Chantal Jegues-Wolkiewiez to the discussion.
Prehistoric art has been hypothesized as representing hunting magic and tallies; doodling/art for... more Prehistoric art has been hypothesized as representing hunting magic and tallies; doodling/art for art’s sake; time factoring; forms of fertility and initiation rites; projections from light deprivation; hallucinogenic substance visualizations; and mirrored by Siberian and South African shamanic traditions. These hypotheses may be branches of artistic or ceremonial practices, but none fully carry the evidence in supporting a common root to the others. Another direction of examination are the global animistic observances among indigenous peoples whose common elements denote prehistoric origins. Animistic observances commonly recorded in the ethnographic literature are recognizing sacred mountains and other geological formations as places to communicate with supernatural deities; the wind and clouds having their own agency; and practitioners being spiritually aided by nonhuman animal beings. Recognition of such elements in prehistoric art could indicate the artists practiced animism and that this belief perspective might be a thematic root in their depictions. This study examined if animistic elements of mountains and other geological formations, the wind or clouds, and human characters interacted spiritually with other animal beings, are represented in Northern Iberian Upper Paleolithic cave art. The methodology included onsite visual studies of the cave art panels, DStretch enhanced examination of previous professionally taken high-resolution images, and a geological survey in the region outside of the caves. The results show recognizable animistic elements repeatedly depicted in Northern Iberian Upper Paleolithic cave art. These elements have also been recorded among the indigenous Basque people. Examples of the same across a wider geographic range could substantiate animism as a deep root of prehistoric art.
Global anthropologic surveys of hunter-gatherers and mythology from the classical literature wide... more Global anthropologic surveys of hunter-gatherers and mythology from the classical literature widely record feathered beings representing spiritual leaders, deities and shamanic practitioners as well as feathers being worn by ordinary individuals on ceremonial rites of passage. These feathered beings are typically associated with a named individual or positions of religious authority who use the abilities of birds to enter alternative dimensions either above or below. Other anthropomorphic deities, humans and animals frequently interact with the feathered beings in sacred narratives memorializing such mythological events. Ceremonial practices and the sacred narratives of feathered beings appear worldwide in places rock art is not present, suggesting the concept of birds aiding humans emerged before rock art and were integral to the animistic experience in prehistory.
This study examined feathered beings, including birds, therianthropes and humans, depicted in Franco-Iberian Upper Paleolithic cave art. DStretch was utilized to surface otherwise hidden features. The characters in the images were compared over time using established archaeological dating of the panels to examine changes in their feathered representations and contextual themes. The study also looked for close motifs with documented Eurasian mythology.
The findings of this study indicate that Franco-Iberian Upper Paleolithic artists most often utilized feathered beings in larger contextual settings on the cave wall panels. The choice of which bird to represent varied by location. Real and supernatural characters, some which may still be recognized in Eurasian mythology, were surfaced. This study suggests that structural characteristics of feathered beings within their contextual themes may be studied with rock art to gain a unique perspective on animistic traditions in prehistory.
Ice Age cave art has been hypothesized as representing hunting magic and tallies; doodling/art fo... more Ice Age cave art has been hypothesized as representing hunting magic and tallies; doodling/art for art’s sake; time factoring; forms of fertility and initiation rites; projections from light deprivation; hallucinogenic substance visualizations; and mirrored by South African shamanic traditions. These hypotheses have not conclusively explained or linked the range of Ice Age cave art.
Another direction to examine are the traditions of animistic peoples whose global expanse denotes prehistoric and possibly Upper Paleolithic European heritages. Animistic peoples are commonly recorded in the ethnographic literature for their recognizing sacred mountains and other geological formations as places to communicate with supernatural deities; the wind and clouds having their own agency; and practitioners being spiritually aided by nonhuman animal beings. Recognition of such elements in Ice Age cave art could indicate the artists practiced animism and that this belief perspective was an undercurrent for their depictions.
This study examined if animistic elements of mountains and other geological formations, the wind or clouds, and human characters interacted spiritually with other animal beings, are represented in Northern Iberian Upper Palaeolithic cave art. The methodology included onsite visual studies of the cave art panels, DStretch enhanced examination of previous professionally taken high-resolution images, and a geological survey outside of the caves.
The results show recognizable animistic elements repeatedly depicted in Northern Iberian Upper Palaeolithic cave art. Examples across a wider geographic range could substantiate animism as an undercurrent for some other hypotheses in Ice Age cave art.
History of Science Society 2023 Annual Meeting , 2023
Scientific study relies on our ability to measure time so as to organize and analyze data. The co... more Scientific study relies on our ability to measure time so as to organize and analyze data. The conscious measurement of time is not innate to primates and appears to be a realization unique to humans. Other animals across the biological spectrum unconsciously utilize cues from movements of the sun and dark/light phases of the moon to find themselves in time and space.
The earliest offered evidence of conscious time measurement appears in the archaeological record as markings on European Upper Paleolithic artifacts and cave walls. This hypothesis was first proposed by Alexander Marshack during the 1960’s in his history of astronomical science research when he suggested the markings were mathematical sets indicating lunar counts. In a parallel field of study around the turn of the last century, anthropological surveys of hunter-gatherers and pastoral peoples from Siberia and North America recorded wide-spread use of solar and lunar calendars for the observation and harvesting of terrestrial and aquatic animals.
This study explored whether geometric patterns and sequences of marks accompanying depicted animals in Upper Paleolithic Franco-Cantabrian cave art contained the measurable syntax for solar and lunar calendars of hunter-gatherers and pastoral peoples as recorded in the anthropological surveys and if they can be correlated with the solar and light/dark lunar cued biological behavior of those depicted animals. The results indicate that Upper Paleolithic peoples recognized time-factored biological behavior among other animals and that this documented measurement of time was depicted in their art and, hence, begins the history of science.
Claims of Neanderthal rock art in Europe have emerged in the literature over the last ten years. ... more Claims of Neanderthal rock art in Europe have emerged in the literature over the last ten years. The justifications for such proposed Neanderthal rock art have been based on contextual dating by sedimentary layers, Neanderthal bones in cave systems, and the most recent timeline of anatomically modern humans (AMH) in the local area or on the European continent. These Neanderthal rock art claims remain unchanged as the AMH timeline in Europe has shifted earlier through the continued discovery of artifacts. This study compared rock art in the proposed Neanderthal site of La Roche-Cotard in France with artifacts from caves in other regions to ascertain if there are similarities between them and who the authors could be.
Animistic and shamanistic peoples worldwide have traditions of regarding geological formations as... more Animistic and shamanistic peoples worldwide have traditions of regarding geological formations as being spiritual and the observances of them in songs and myths are widely recorded in the anthropological record. We find these traditions carried directly and metaphorically into ancient religions and literature, often retaining seasonal and celestial information that reinforce the narrative. Such global observances may indicate prehistoric roots.
These geological observations are pareidolia and consistent with our ability to find other imaginary patterns, such as animals and faces of people in clouds and asterisms. This ability is also foundational to our internally processing and identifying recognizable patterns in drawings, engravings, sculptures and similarly constructed art forms. The ability to find pareidolia in the natural world is apparently innate to humans and logically should have preceded our earliest intentional art.
This interdisciplinary study was designed to determine if pareidolia predates cave art and whether consistent dating can be established between pareidolia outside of the caves and intentional images archaeologically dated on cave walls. Previously documented images of cave panels in Cantabria and Asturias, Spain were visually compared with photographs of prominent geological formations in the greater region. The visual orientations to the geological formations in their depicted seasons were compared with regionally known asterisms utilizing Starry Night Pro Plus 8, an astronomy software package utilized by professional astronomers and planetariums. The findings were also compared with the established archaeological dates of the cave images.
Fifteen panels of animals in nine caves were found to visually represent pareidolia observed at nine prominent geological formations outside of the caves. Findings from three panels in three caves are discussed in this presentation. They suggest that Upper Paleolithic cave artists in Northern Spain found geological features outside of caves that were meaningful to them through the pareidolia of both the geological formations and associated asterisms. The artists then projected those visualizations onto the walls of caves. The choices of cave panels by the Ice Age artists appear to have been determined by the initial identification of natural geological irregularities on the cave walls that had some visual similarities with the pareidolia observed outside of the caves. Those natural geological irregularities on the cave walls were then improved upon to be more closely represent the out of cave pareidolia. The millennium of the asterisms against the established archaeological dates using Starry Night Pro Plus 8 were found to be within the range of the archaeologically dated images through their seasonal and apparent positions relative to the horizon. This interdisciplinary approach offers clarifying additional tools and perspectives for the archaeometry of cave art.
Global anthropologic surveys of hunter-gatherers as well as classical literature from ancient peo... more Global anthropologic surveys of hunter-gatherers as well as classical literature from ancient peoples widely record the teachings of their cultural stories through structurally common narratives of journeys in their sacred landscapes. These narratives, typically of a hero on his or her journey, often include elements designating time of day and seasons with those sacred landscapes. This time-factoring is sometimes described by the sun, moon and stars, as well as illustrative changes in flora and fauna. Interacting characters frequently involve anthropomorphic deities, humans, animals, and mixtures of the three. The relatively uniform structures of journey narratives worldwide appear integral to the human experience and presumably emerged before rock art.
This study examined indigenous Basque and ancient Phoenician, Greek and Roman myths in the context of historically recorded mountain faces, rocky areas, bodies of water, and other features of the natural environment that are often still revered in the region. Digital images of Iberian cave images were then visually compared with those landscapes for possible matches.
The findings of this study suggest that Upper Paleolithic artists on the Iberian Peninsula found pareidolia in their natural environment and projected those visualizations into their rock art. Real and supernatural characters, geographical features and motifs, some that may still be recognized in Iberian mythology and Mediterranean region classical literature were surfaced. This study also suggests that structural characteristics of the journey narrative with their descriptive sacred landscapes may be studied with rock art in other regions to better understand geographical uniqueness and perspectives of the original artists.
The preponderance of Iberian Upper Paleolithic rock art is found on the walls of deep caves. Rock... more The preponderance of Iberian Upper Paleolithic rock art is found on the walls of deep caves. Rock art around the world has since been mainly made on fully exposed surfaces, under rock shelters and in shallow caves. Why Iberian Upper Paleolithic artists chose deep cave locations has been a longstanding question with varied explanations. The act of making rock art in deep caves would have been challenging if not hazardous, suggesting a clear purpose in the choice of locations. One possible intention for Upper Paleolithic artists in selecting deep cave walls is that their images could have parallel symbology between physically separated terrestrial and underworld cave planes. Images of terrestrial fauna and flora images are well established during the Upper Paleolithic in northern Iberian deep caves but, possible depictions of terrestrial geological formations inside them have had little examination. In this study, Upper Paleolithic parietal images from deep caves on the northern Iberian Peninsula were examined for matches with geological formations observed outside of those caves. Fifteen matches were found, including sacred mountains among the Basque. The findings indicate that some Iberian Upper Paleolithic rock art was intentionally designed to depict parallel symbolic terrestrial and underworld cave planes.
The interpretation of drawings and engravings rely on our unique ability to internally process vi... more The interpretation of drawings and engravings rely on our unique ability to internally process visual information and identify recognizable patterns. This same ability processes imaginary patterns, such as animals and faces of people in geological formations, clouds and stars. The phenomenon of identifying imaginary patterns, referred to as “pareidolia,” is apparently innate to humans and logically should have preceded our earliest parietal art.
In this study, Upper Paleolithic parietal images from caves on the Iberian Peninsula were examined for natural irregularities on the walls that may have been utilized in the construction of the depictions. These images were also compared with prominent geological formations observed outside of caves in the region. The findings demonstrate that Upper Paleolithic cave artists in northern Iberian Peninsula found pareidolia in geological formations inside and outside of caves and projected those visualizations as parietal art.
Hunter-gatherer and ancient peoples are globally recorded as teaching their cultural history thro... more Hunter-gatherer and ancient peoples are globally recorded as teaching their cultural history through a structurally common narrative. American mythologist Joseph Campbell provides global examples of such a central character, or hero, on a journey or adventure. The central character in this narrative encounters other beings, both real and supernatural, that either support or challenge the individual. Each culture carries with them their own regionally unique characters and geographical sites that reinforce the narrative. The supernatural characters are either a mix of a human and another animal or an animal that has the means to communicate with the central character. Both give the central character special non-human abilities to complete the journey.
The archeological evidence and mythological literature consistently report that hunter-gatherer and ancient peoples had traditions of projecting these supernatural characters from regionally unique animals, their landscapes and the night sky to designate time and space. The projection of characters from known geological formations and the night sky gave the impression of gigantic beings and reinforces a recognizable reality in the narrative. The global observance of such animistic characters in the landscapes and night sky indicates prehistoric roots.
This paper takes the student on a journey deep in Upper Paleolithic Europe that surfaces real and supernatural characters, geographical features and motifs, some that may be recognized from literature classes and movies. The structural characteristics of the journey can be reapplied to regional indigenous sacred narratives and ancient myths to teach geographical uniqueness and the cosmic view of the original educator.
Anthropological surveys of hunter-gatherers and pastoral peoples from Siberia and North America d... more Anthropological surveys of hunter-gatherers and pastoral peoples from Siberia and North America during the early 1900’s recorded wide-spread use of lunar calendars for the observation and harvesting of terrestrial and aquatic animals. Volumes of evidence in biological fields followed throughout the 20th century that record animals across the biological spectrum as being cued by the sun and dark/light phases of the moon (Endres, KP and Schad, W. 1977).
This study explored whether geometric patterns accompanying depicted animals in the Upper Paleolithic Franco-Cantabrian archaeological record, lunar calendars of hunter-gatherers and pastoral peoples as recorded in the anthropological surveys, and the light/dark lunar cued biological behavior of significant animals presented can be correlated. Such relationships would support the idea that the knowledge of lunar calendars as a means to monitor the biological activity of significant animals was important in hunting, gathering and general timekeeping success on the European, Asian and American continents (Taylor, B. 2022).
REFERENCES:
Endres, Klaus-Peter and Schad, Wolfgang. 1997. Moon Rhythms in Nature: How Lunar Cycles Affect Living Organisms. Floris Books.
Marshack, Alexander. 1972. The Roots of Civilization. McGraw-Hill Book Company.
Taylor, Bernie, 2021. Lunar Timekeeping in Upper Paleolithic Cave Art. Praehistoria. New Series 3 (13).
Upper Paleolithic Iberian cave art analyses have been focused on the identification of the depict... more Upper Paleolithic Iberian cave art analyses have been focused on the identification of the depicted animals, dating, artistic styles and techniques, as well as hypotheses concerning the artists’ states of mind. Little examination has been made of the depicted subjects’ natural environments or if any terrestrial landscapes were projected onto cave walls. This might logically have been considered as natural landscapes, especially mountains, are featured in sacred traditions and myths worldwide. The global observance of sacred mountains may indicate prehistoric roots. This study compared the details of previously published Upper Paleolithic images from caves in Northern Spain that are in the greater range of the Basque people with prominent natural landscapes observed outside of caves in the region. The findings demonstrate that Upper Paleolithic cave artists in Northern Spain found geological features outside of caves that were meaningful to them and then projected those terrestrial visualizations onto the walls of caves. The choice of cave panels by the Ice Age artists appears to have been determined by the initial identification of natural geological irregularities on the cave walls that had some visual similarities with the terrestrial landscapes. Those natural geological irregularities on the cave walls were then improved upon to be more closely representative of the terrestrial landscapes. In this presentation, five late Pleistocene art panels in four caves are shown to represent two mountain landscapes that are each pictorially associated with one animal species. The findings suggest that current Basque sacred traditions in Northern Spain for the depicted animals and reverence of living mountain landscapes may have been observed in the region before ancient times, as archived in the ethnographical, geoarchaeological and prehistoric archaeological records.
Anthropological surveys of hunter-gatherers and pastoral peoples from Siberia and North America d... more Anthropological surveys of hunter-gatherers and pastoral peoples from Siberia and North America during the early 1900’s recorded wide-spread use of lunar calendars for the observation and harvesting of terrestrial and aquatic animals. Volumes of evidence in biological fields followed throughout the 20th century that record animals across the biological spectrum as being cued by the sun and dark/light phases of the moon (Endres, KP and Schad, W. 1977).
This study explored whether geometric patterns accompanying depicted animals in Upper Paleolithic Franco-Cantabrian cave art, lunar calendars of hunter-gatherers and pastoral peoples as recorded in the anthropological surveys, and the light/dark lunar cued biological behavior of significant animals presented can be correlated (Taylor, B. 2022). The results expand on Alexander Marshack’s hypothesis of time-factored markings on Upper Paleolithic artifacts (Marshack, A. 1972).
REFERENCES:
Endres, Klaus-Peter and Schad, Wolfgang. 1997. Moon Rhythms in Nature: How Lunar Cycles Affect Living Organisms. Floris Books.
Marshack, Alexander. 1972. The Roots of Civilization. McGraw-Hill Book Company.
Taylor, Bernie, 2021. Lunar Timekeeping in Upper Paleolithic Cave Art. Praehistoria. New Series 3 (13).
Les dessins, les gravures, les sculptures et les formes d'art similaires relèvent de notre capaci... more Les dessins, les gravures, les sculptures et les formes d'art similaires relèvent de notre capacité spécifique à traiter en interne les informations visuelles et à identifier des motifs reconnaissables. Cette même capacité permet de traiter des motifs imaginaires, tels que des animaux et des visages de personnes dans des formations géologiques et des nuages, ainsi que le regroupement d'étoiles pour former des constellations de personnages. Ce phénomène d'identification de motifs imaginaires est appelé "paréidolie". La capacité de trouver des paréidolies dans le monde naturel est manifestement innée chez l'homme et devrait en toute logique préexister à notre art intentionnel le plus ancien. Nous disposons de traces de paréidolie dans les temps anciens et dans le monde entier chez les chasseurs-cueilleurs animistes qui ont consigné leurs observations dans des traditions sacrées.
Los dibujos, los grabados, las esculturas y otras formas artísticas semejantes se basan en nuestr... more Los dibujos, los grabados, las esculturas y otras formas artísticas semejantes se basan en nuestra capacidad única de procesar internamente la información visual e identificar patrones fácilmente reconocibles. Esta misma capacidad procesa patrones imaginarios, como animales y rostros de personas en formaciones geológicas y nubes, así como la agrupación de estrellas en constelaciones formadas por figuras. Este fenómeno de identificación de patrones imaginarios se denomina "pareidolia". La capacidad de encontrar pareidolia en el mundo natural es por lo visto innata al ser humano y, por lógica, debería haber precedido a nuestro primer arte intencional. Tenemos constancia de pareidolia en la antigüedad y en todo el mundo entre los cazadores-recolectores animistas que han mantenido sus observaciones dentro de las tradiciones sagradas.
Drawings, engravings, sculptures and similarly constructed art forms rely on our unique ability t... more Drawings, engravings, sculptures and similarly constructed art forms rely on our unique ability to internally process visual information and identify recognizable patterns. This same ability processes imaginary patterns, such as animals and faces of people in geological formations, clouds, and groups of stars. This phenomenon of identifying imaginary patterns is referred to as “pareidolia.” The ability to find pareidolia in the natural world is apparently innate to humans and logically should have preceded our earliest intentional art. We have records of pareidolia in ancient times and worldwide among animistic hunter-gatherers who have held their observations in sacred traditions. In this study, previously published Upper Paleolithic images from caves in Northern Spain were compared with prominent geological formations observed outside of caves in the region. The findings demonstrate that Upper Paleolithic cave artists in Northern Spain found pareidolia in geological formations outside of caves and projected those visualizations onto the walls of deep caves. In this presentation, five panels in four caves are shown to represent pareidolia observed at two geological formations outside of the caves. These pareidolia-based cave images are animated and retained in mythology that originates in cultures that have been present in the region since before ancient times.
Some personal ornamental traditions that extend beyond basic human needs are found among indigeno... more Some personal ornamental traditions that extend beyond basic human needs are found among indigenous people worldwide. One such tradition is the adornment of bird feathers, either individually or in full avian dress, that are typically associated with ceremonial flight/spirituality. The common details of such evidence suggest that indigenous peoples either developed such a tradition at least early in the Upper Paleolithic before world-wide dispersals; there have been hyper-diffusions of this tradition in the past few thousand years; or that animistic peoples worldwide independently developed such a tradition through a basic connection to the natural world. One avenue to consider this question is through cave art from Upper Paleolithic Europe that is contemporaneous with findings of early cave art in Southeast Asia, and have occurred before the earliest known migrations from Siberia into North America. Any such common examples of human-avian ceremonial practices would potentially refute pre-European contact hyper-diffusion human-avian spirituality proposals. This study examined these questions through cave art dating to approximately 34,000 years ago and compared that record with traditions from the North American anthropological literature. The findings indicate that avian dress appearing in early Upper Paleolithic cave art is consistent with traditions found in the North American anthropological literature and that any North American inheritance could have derived from early in the Upper Paleolithic to be later carried on Beringian migrations.
The history of western astronomy almost exclusively attributes the constellations in Claudius Pto... more The history of western astronomy almost exclusively attributes the constellations in Claudius Ptolemy’s Almagest and their connected myths to earlier Greek and Mesopotamian sources. The themes of post-Mesopotamian constellations in the Almagest and related myths also revolve around wild animals and supernatural creatures that are more typically associated with hunter-gatherer animistic/shamanic cultures while the Mesopotamian constellations are more agricultural-oriented. This is culturally counter-intuitive as the ancient Greeks developed mathematical principles, built mechanical devices and were more sedentary than their Mesopotamian predecessors. This research compares sequential Upper Paleolithic characters depicted more than 34,000 years ago in an Iberian cave with constellations in the Almagest and Greek mythical characters to source Pre-Mesopotamian origins of Greek constellations and partly explain why Ptolemy embraced mythological hunter-gatherer animistic/shamanistic themed constellations in a time of great scientific achievement.
Belief in the angel or human-bird/avianoid as a messenger between humans and the divine is found ... more Belief in the angel or human-bird/avianoid as a messenger between humans and the divine is found in the Abrahamic, ancient Greek, Mesopotamian and Egyptian records as well as worldwide among shamanic and animistic peoples. The projection predates the ancient world as images of transformative avianoids date to 34,000 years ago in the Spanish cave of El Castillo, to 25,000 years ago in the French Grotte de Pair-non-Pair, and 17,000 years ago in the French Cave of Lascaux. The nuances of animistic, shamanic and ancient avianoids in recorded history to the present have been widely interpreted. Whereas, interpretative and comparative multi-character studies of avianoids in Upper Paleolithic cave images have been limited. This research presents Upper Paleolithic images of avianoids in European caves with characters on the same panels to better understand from where the idea of avianoid messengers could have emanated and what purposes they may have served.
How art came to be is a longstanding curiosity among archaeologists, psychologists and art histor... more How art came to be is a longstanding curiosity among archaeologists, psychologists and art historians. Pablo Picasso theorized in documented conversations with friends that art first surfaced from natural irregularities in rocks which were then innovated upon, such as is evidenced in Upper Paleolithic cave art. Picasso’s quotes about the Upper Paleolithic caves of Altamira in Cantabria, Spain and Lascaux in the Dordogne region of France indicate that he had visited them. Little else has been established of the Spaniard’s connection to cave art or his working theory on the origins of art.
In this study over 500 previously published Franco-Cantabrian Upper Paleolithic cave images from archaeological sites that were identified between 1868 and 1950 were examined. The findings include examples of borrowed pareidolia-based characters developed from natural irregularities in the rocks from Altamira and in Grotte de Pair-non-Pair in Gironde, France among Picasso’s paintings and that the Spanish artist’s working theory on the origins of art is consistent with his observations of pareidolia in Upper Paleolithic cave art. This study uncovers that Picasso drew heavily on Upper Paleolithic cave art styles and animistic metaphors in his work.
This study demonstrates the knowledge of ungulate and other significant animal lunar-timed biolog... more This study demonstrates the knowledge of ungulate and other significant animal lunar-timed biological behavior among European Upper Paleolithic artists. This biological behavior is recorded with repeated sequences of marks and geometric forms on the walls of European caves and portable objects made during the Upper Paleolithic that are often depicted in association with ungulates. Marshack and others investigated such marks and geometric forms with a leaning towards lunar-timed sequencing. This study investigated whether such marks and geometric forms on the walls of Upper Paleolithic caves have lunar biological-timed correlations with the ungulates and other animals accompanying them. These depicted animals were also cross referenced with hunter-gatherer lunar calendars from Eurasia and North America in the anthropological record to demonstrate practical and continued use.
Bernie’s journal club discussion will include additional Franco Upper Paleolithic cave art and American Southwestern rock art with similar themes as well as more supporting biological evidence.
Taylor, Bernie. (2021). Lunar Timekeeping in Upper Paleolithic Cave Art. Praehistoria, New Series Vol. 3 (13).
This study demonstrates the knowledge of ungulate and other significant animal lunar-timed biological behavior among European Upper Paleolithic artists. This biological behavior is recorded with repeated sequences of marks and geometric forms on the walls of European caves and portable objects made during the Upper Paleolithic that are often depicted in association with ungulates. Marshack and others investigated such marks and geometric forms with a leaning towards lunar-timed sequencing. This study investigated whether such marks and geometric forms on the walls of Upper Paleolithic caves have lunar biological-timed correlations with the ungulates and other animals accompanying them. These depicted animals were also cross referenced with hunter-gatherer lunar calendars from Eurasia and North America in the anthropological record to demonstrate practical and continued use.
Bernie’s journal club discussion will include additional Franco Upper Paleolithic cave art and American Southwestern rock art with similar themes as well as more supporting biological evidence.
Taylor, Bernie. (2021). Lunar Timekeeping in Upper Paleolithic Cave Art. Praehistoria, New Series Vol. 3 (13).
The interpretation of drawings and engravings rely on our unique ability to internally process vi... more The interpretation of drawings and engravings rely on our unique ability to internally process visual information and identify recognizable patterns. This same ability processes imaginary patterns, such as animals and faces of people in geological formations, clouds and stars. The phenomenon of identifying imaginary patterns, referred to as “pareidolia,” is apparently innate to humans and logically should have preceded our earliest rock art. Images of the Rising Star Cave / Cave of Bones engravings in South Africa are also discussed.
Worldwide observances of the heavens by indigenous peoples suggest skywatching origins deep in ti... more Worldwide observances of the heavens by indigenous peoples suggest skywatching origins deep in time. One approach to explore early astronomy is through the biological clocks of animals, how they are influenced by light/dark cycles of the sun and moon, and methods this knowledge has been maintained in the calendars of indigenous peoples. This journey of lunar timekeeping takes us from painted animals on the walls of Ice Age caves to Siberian herders and standing Native American traditions that may be remnants of our first connectiveness with the night sky.
Naturalist and author Bernie Taylor presents an origin to modern astronomy in European Paleolithi... more Naturalist and author Bernie Taylor presents an origin to modern astronomy in European Paleolithic caves from 34,000 years ago that connects with global myths of hunter-gatherers and the ancients in the Mediterranean region. Taylor proposes that astronomy was developed to pass on timeless myths and cultural traditions among prehistoric hunter-gathers. He will explore deep sources to Ptolemy's Almagest and the hero's journey monomyth of Joseph Campbell as popularized in the Star Wars movie series, and test the precession of the equinoxes against the Paleolithic record.
Naturalist and author Bernie Taylor returns to explore how animals time themselves via solar-luna... more Naturalist and author Bernie Taylor returns to explore how animals time themselves via solar-lunar cues and the knowledge of this behavior by coastal/inland hunter-gatherers. Taylor will delve into these practices, their relationship to the unique biologically timed characteristics of humans and pose if the Drake Equation can determine the probability of other earth-like and intelligent life in the cosmos.
Drawings, engravings, sculptures and similarly constructed art forms rely on our unique ability t... more Drawings, engravings, sculptures and similarly constructed art forms rely on our unique ability to internally process visual information and identify recognizable patterns. This same ability processes imaginary patterns, such as animals and faces of people in geological formations and clouds, as well as grouping stars into constellations of characters. This phenomenon of identifying imaginary patterns is referred to as “pareidolia.” The ability to find pareidolia in the natural world is apparently innate to humans and logically should have preceded our earliest intentional art. We have records of pareidolia in ancient times and worldwide among animistic hunter-gatherers who have held their observations in sacred traditions.
In this study, previously published Gravettian, Solutrean and Magdalenian Upper Paleolithic images from caves in northern Iberian Peninsula were compared with prominent geological formations observed outside of caves in the region. The findings demonstrate that Upper Paleolithic cave artists in northern Iberian Peninsula found pareidolia in geological formations outside of caves and projected those visualizations onto the walls of caves. In this presentation, five panels in four caves (Las Monedas Cave, Las Chimeneas Cave, Cueva de Venta de la Perra and the El Pindal Cave) are shown to represent pareidolia observed at two mountains (Txindoki and Pica Peñamellera) in the region and in the night sky, as the currently recognizable She-Bear and tusked/horned animal characters in the constellations of Ursa Major and Taurus. These pareidolia-based cave images are animated and retained in mythology that may originate in cultures, such as the Basque, who have been present in the region since before ancient times. The findings also indicate that some characterized constellations commonly attributed to the ancient Greeks and Mesopotamians were inherited from Upper Paleolithic peoples.
The historical record of western astronomy almost exclusively attributes the constellations in Cl... more The historical record of western astronomy almost exclusively attributes the constellations in Claudius Ptolemy’s Almagest to earlier Greek and Mesopotamian sources. The theme of post-Mesopotamian constellations in the Almagest also revolves around wild animals and mythical creatures that are more typically associated with hunter-gatherer and animistic cultures while the Mesopotamian constellations are more agricultural-oriented. This is culturally counter-intuitive as the ancient Greeks developed mathematical principles, built mechanical devices and were more sedentary than their Mesopotamian predecessors. This research compares constellation images in Upper Paleolithic Iberian caves from more than 30,000 years ago with constellations in the Almagest to source Pre-Mesopotamian origins of Greek constellations and partly explain why Ptolemy added hunter-gatherer animistic themed constellations in a time of great scientific achievement.
Drawings, engravings, sculptures and similarly constructed art forms rely on our unique ability t... more Drawings, engravings, sculptures and similarly constructed art forms rely on our unique ability to internally process visual information and identify recognizable patterns. This same ability processes imaginary patterns, such as animals and faces of people in geological formations, clouds, as well as groups of stars. This phenomenon of identifying imaginary patterns is referred to as “pareidolia.” The ability to find pareidolia in the natural world is apparently innate to humans and logically should have preceded our earliest intentional art. We have records of pareidolia in ancient times and worldwide among animistic hunter-gatherers who have held their observations in sacred traditions. In this study, previously published Upper Paleolithic images from caves in Northern Spain were compared with stellar patterns and geological formations observed outside of caves in the region. The findings demonstrate that Upper Paleolithic cave artists in Northern Spain found pareidolia in stellar patterns and geological formations outside of caves then projected those visualizations onto the walls of deep caves. These pareidolia-based cave images are animated and retained in mythology that originates in cultures that have been present in the region since before ancient times.
What were the inspirations for Ice Age art? Could Ice Age art have been founded in altered states... more What were the inspirations for Ice Age art? Could Ice Age art have been founded in altered states that many believe we do not today have access to verify? Should we leave behind other sources credited for the origins and continuance of Ice Age art, such as hunting magic, game tallies, art for art’s sake, time-factoring, fertility and initiation rites, cosmology, mythology, dreams, and working from pareidolia on the cave walls?
In this Association for the Anthropology of Consciousness First Friday talk, author and naturalist Bernie Taylor will take us on a journey deep in time to consider these questions. He will also pose if the original inspirations for Ice Age art are still with us, continuing to be reimagined on changing technological and societal canvases.
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Presenter: Bernie Taylor
Animistic and shamanistic peoples worldwide have traditions of regarding high mountains as being spiritual and the observances of them in songs and myths are widely recorded in the anthropological record. We find these traditions carried directly and metaphorically into ancient religions and literature. High mountains may have also been considered sacred in prehistory given their global spiritual observances to the present time. Early recordings of these sacred high mountain observances may be found in the Upper Paleolithic Cave of El Castillo in Cantabria, Spain and in Gorham’s Cave, Gibraltar. Panels in these caves store human fabricated images that closely resemble geological features on two high mountains in the greater Iberian region.
More on Bernie Taylor's research can be found at www.beforeorion.com
This study explored whether geometric patterns accompanying depicted animals in Upper Paleolithic Franco-Cantabrian cave art, lunar calendars of hunter-gatherers and pastoral peoples as recorded in the anthropological surveys, and the light/dark lunar cued biological behavior of significant animals presented can be correlated. The results expand on Alexander Marshack’s hypothesis of time-factored markings on Upper Paleolithic artifacts.
In this Association for the Anthropology of Consciousness First Friday talk, author and naturalist Bernie Taylor will take us on a journey deep in time to consider these questions. He will also pose if the original inspirations for Ice Age art are still with us, continuing to be reimagined on changing technological and societal canvases.
Este póster oral explora dichos animales, únicos dentro y fuera de la Península Ibérica, junto con personajes sobrenaturales, representados secuencialmente hace más de 34.000 años en una pared de una cueva ibérica. Estas imágenes pueden ayudarnos a comprender mejor la evolución inicial de la elaboración de mapas, por qué los animales y los seres sobrenaturales llegaron a representarse en los mapas, y cómo aprendimos a encontrarnos en el tiempo y el espacio.
In this study over 500 previously published Franco-Cantabrian Upper Paleolithic cave images from archaeological sites that were identified between 1868 and 1950 were examined. This study uncovers that Picasso drew heavily on Upper Paleolithic cave art styles and animistic metaphors in his work.
This study explored the possibility of and demonstrated that repeating geometric patterns accompanying depicted animals in the Upper Paleolithic Franco-Cantabrian archaeological record, lunar calendars of hunter-gatherers and pastoral peoples as recorded in the anthropological and ethnographical surveys, and the light/dark lunar cued biological behavior of significant animals presented can be correlated.
Upper Paleolithic cave artists to tens of millennia ago engraved and painted animals onto the walls of deep caves. The features on some depicted animals not only detail the artists/naturalists’ knowledge of their life history, but also indicate that they had a definable understanding of time and place. This study explores such details of time and place for animals on a panel in the Spanish Cave of El Castillo dating to more than 34,000 years ago that were known from the archaeological evidence in the local environment and those that may have been indigenous to regions further afield. Through the lenses of time and place for these animals, the study explored what state of complex thought was present in the human mind during the Upper Paleolithic and if there has been any noticeable change in such mental abilities.
Presenter: Bernie Taylor
Animistic and shamanistic peoples worldwide have traditions of regarding high mountains as being spiritual and the observances of them in songs and myths are widely recorded in the anthropological record. We find these traditions carried directly and metaphorically into ancient religions and literature. High mountains may have also been considered sacred in prehistory given their global spiritual observances to the present time. Early recordings of these sacred high mountain observances may be found in the Upper Paleolithic Cave of El Castillo in Cantabria, Spain and in Gorham’s Cave, Gibraltar. Panels in these caves store human fabricated images that closely resemble geological features on two high mountains in the greater Iberian region.
More on Bernie Taylor's research can be found at www.beforeorion.com
This study explored whether geometric patterns accompanying depicted animals in Upper Paleolithic Franco-Cantabrian cave art, lunar calendars of hunter-gatherers and pastoral peoples as recorded in the anthropological surveys, and the light/dark lunar cued biological behavior of significant animals presented can be correlated. The results expand on Alexander Marshack’s hypothesis of time-factored markings on Upper Paleolithic artifacts.
In this Association for the Anthropology of Consciousness First Friday talk, author and naturalist Bernie Taylor will take us on a journey deep in time to consider these questions. He will also pose if the original inspirations for Ice Age art are still with us, continuing to be reimagined on changing technological and societal canvases.
Este póster oral explora dichos animales, únicos dentro y fuera de la Península Ibérica, junto con personajes sobrenaturales, representados secuencialmente hace más de 34.000 años en una pared de una cueva ibérica. Estas imágenes pueden ayudarnos a comprender mejor la evolución inicial de la elaboración de mapas, por qué los animales y los seres sobrenaturales llegaron a representarse en los mapas, y cómo aprendimos a encontrarnos en el tiempo y el espacio.
In this study over 500 previously published Franco-Cantabrian Upper Paleolithic cave images from archaeological sites that were identified between 1868 and 1950 were examined. This study uncovers that Picasso drew heavily on Upper Paleolithic cave art styles and animistic metaphors in his work.
This study explored the possibility of and demonstrated that repeating geometric patterns accompanying depicted animals in the Upper Paleolithic Franco-Cantabrian archaeological record, lunar calendars of hunter-gatherers and pastoral peoples as recorded in the anthropological and ethnographical surveys, and the light/dark lunar cued biological behavior of significant animals presented can be correlated.
Upper Paleolithic cave artists to tens of millennia ago engraved and painted animals onto the walls of deep caves. The features on some depicted animals not only detail the artists/naturalists’ knowledge of their life history, but also indicate that they had a definable understanding of time and place. This study explores such details of time and place for animals on a panel in the Spanish Cave of El Castillo dating to more than 34,000 years ago that were known from the archaeological evidence in the local environment and those that may have been indigenous to regions further afield. Through the lenses of time and place for these animals, the study explored what state of complex thought was present in the human mind during the Upper Paleolithic and if there has been any noticeable change in such mental abilities.
Some of these biological rhythms are modulated by celestial phenomena, and so Mr. Taylor asks whether different astronomical circumstances would alter the behavior of geese on another world or even eliminate the possibility of their existence. His imaginary planet in some ways parallels the earth. It is the third planet from its sun, a solar-like star in Cygnus. Notwithstanding the similarity of Cygnus 3 to earth, looking for geese on that planet could be a wild-goose chase.
The ancients imagined the constellation Cygnus as a swan in flight, headed south. They linked its seasonal departure from the night sky to the autumn migration of water fowl. Our failure to find any geese on Cygnus 3 wouldn't necessarily mean they don’t exist. They could, after all, have just gone south on us. What’s good for the Goose is sauce for the Swan. —E.C. Krupp, Director of the Griffith Observatory
has prompted some to speculate the builders of Stonehenge in southern England and Newgrange in Ireland also numbered the moon’s days. In fact, the late Alexander Marshack identifi ed “time-factored
notations” from the upper paleolithic in fragments of antler and bone. In The Roots of Civilization (1972), he argued these sequences of marks indicate lunar talllies. In 1982, American anthropologist W. Breen
Murray reported a large petroglyph panel at Presa de la Mula, in northeast Mexico, and interpreted its 24-cell grid of 207 “tally” marks as a count of seven cycles of the moon. The age of the carvings is
unknown, but through style they are associated with nomadic Archaic hunters and could be hundreds, if not thousands, of years old. Murray also analyzed tine counts of antler petroglyphs in the same desert
basins of northern Mexico and found they routinely exceed the number encountered on real antlers. Lunar numbers—7, 14, 15, 28—are common, but Murray speculated the month counts could reference
more than the moon and have something to do with biological cycles of the game.
In this issue, naturalist Bernie Taylor returns to the Griffiffith Observer and explores detailed connections between lunar counts among traditional peoples and animal behavior. He last appeared in the August, 2006, issue with his 2005 Boeing writing contest article “Are There Geese on Cygnus 3?” He has written two books and hundreds of articles. In Biological Time (2004), he examined the relationship between the rhythms of plants and animals and the cyclical performances of the sun and moon. His work has generated high interest at biological conferences. Fish and game biologists are using his hypotheses to study and manage natural resources. Mr. Taylor has also spotlighted and analyzed archaeological evidence that suggests our ancient and prehistoric ancestors also understood the world and managed their access to its resources in terms of time measured and marked by the sun and the moon.
Another direction of examination are the global animistic observances among indigenous peoples whose common elements denote prehistoric origins. Animistic observances commonly recorded in the ethnographic literature are recognizing sacred mountains and other geological formations as places to communicate with supernatural deities; the wind and clouds having their own agency; and practitioners being spiritually aided by nonhuman animal beings. Recognition of such elements in prehistoric art could indicate the artists practiced animism and that this belief perspective might be a thematic root in their depictions.
This study examined if animistic elements of mountains and other geological formations, the wind or clouds, and human characters interacted spiritually with other animal beings, are represented in Northern Iberian Upper Paleolithic cave art. The methodology included onsite visual studies of the cave art panels, DStretch enhanced examination of previous professionally taken high-resolution images, and a geological survey in the region outside of the caves.
The results show recognizable animistic elements repeatedly depicted in Northern Iberian Upper Paleolithic cave art. These elements have also been recorded among the indigenous Basque people. Examples of the same across a wider geographic range could substantiate animism as a deep root of prehistoric art.
This study examined feathered beings, including birds, therianthropes and humans, depicted in Franco-Iberian Upper Paleolithic cave art. DStretch was utilized to surface otherwise hidden features. The characters in the images were compared over time using established archaeological dating of the panels to examine changes in their feathered representations and contextual themes. The study also looked for close motifs with documented Eurasian mythology.
The findings of this study indicate that Franco-Iberian Upper Paleolithic artists most often utilized feathered beings in larger contextual settings on the cave wall panels. The choice of which bird to represent varied by location. Real and supernatural characters, some which may still be recognized in Eurasian mythology, were surfaced. This study suggests that structural characteristics of feathered beings within their contextual themes may be studied with rock art to gain a unique perspective on animistic traditions in prehistory.
Another direction to examine are the traditions of animistic peoples whose global expanse denotes prehistoric and possibly Upper Paleolithic European heritages. Animistic peoples are commonly recorded in the ethnographic literature for their recognizing sacred mountains and other geological formations as places to communicate with supernatural deities; the wind and clouds having their own agency; and practitioners being spiritually aided by nonhuman animal beings. Recognition of such elements in Ice Age cave art could indicate the artists practiced animism and that this belief perspective was an undercurrent for their depictions.
This study examined if animistic elements of mountains and other geological formations, the wind or clouds, and human characters interacted spiritually with other animal beings, are represented in Northern Iberian Upper Palaeolithic cave art. The methodology included onsite visual studies of the cave art panels, DStretch enhanced examination of previous professionally taken high-resolution images, and a geological survey outside of the caves.
The results show recognizable animistic elements repeatedly depicted in Northern Iberian Upper Palaeolithic cave art. Examples across a wider geographic range could substantiate animism as an undercurrent for some other hypotheses in Ice Age cave art.
The earliest offered evidence of conscious time measurement appears in the archaeological record as markings on European Upper Paleolithic artifacts and cave walls. This hypothesis was first proposed by Alexander Marshack during the 1960’s in his history of astronomical science research when he suggested the markings were mathematical sets indicating lunar counts. In a parallel field of study around the turn of the last century, anthropological surveys of hunter-gatherers and pastoral peoples from Siberia and North America recorded wide-spread use of solar and lunar calendars for the observation and harvesting of terrestrial and aquatic animals.
This study explored whether geometric patterns and sequences of marks accompanying depicted animals in Upper Paleolithic Franco-Cantabrian cave art contained the measurable syntax for solar and lunar calendars of hunter-gatherers and pastoral peoples as recorded in the anthropological surveys and if they can be correlated with the solar and light/dark lunar cued biological behavior of those depicted animals. The results indicate that Upper Paleolithic peoples recognized time-factored biological behavior among other animals and that this documented measurement of time was depicted in their art and, hence, begins the history of science.
These geological observations are pareidolia and consistent with our ability to find other imaginary patterns, such as animals and faces of people in clouds and asterisms. This ability is also foundational to our internally processing and identifying recognizable patterns in drawings, engravings, sculptures and similarly constructed art forms. The ability to find pareidolia in the natural world is apparently innate to humans and logically should have preceded our earliest intentional art.
This interdisciplinary study was designed to determine if pareidolia predates cave art and whether consistent dating can be established between pareidolia outside of the caves and intentional images archaeologically dated on cave walls. Previously documented images of cave panels in Cantabria and Asturias, Spain were visually compared with photographs of prominent geological formations in the greater region. The visual orientations to the geological formations in their depicted seasons were compared with regionally known asterisms utilizing Starry Night Pro Plus 8, an astronomy software package utilized by professional astronomers and planetariums. The findings were also compared with the established archaeological dates of the cave images.
Fifteen panels of animals in nine caves were found to visually represent pareidolia observed at nine prominent geological formations outside of the caves. Findings from three panels in three caves are discussed in this presentation. They suggest that Upper Paleolithic cave artists in Northern Spain found geological features outside of caves that were meaningful to them through the pareidolia of both the geological formations and associated asterisms. The artists then projected those visualizations onto the walls of caves. The choices of cave panels by the Ice Age artists appear to have been determined by the initial identification of natural geological irregularities on the cave walls that had some visual similarities with the pareidolia observed outside of the caves. Those natural geological irregularities on the cave walls were then improved upon to be more closely represent the out of cave pareidolia. The millennium of the asterisms against the established archaeological dates using Starry Night Pro Plus 8 were found to be within the range of the archaeologically dated images through their seasonal and apparent positions relative to the horizon. This interdisciplinary approach offers clarifying additional tools and perspectives for the archaeometry of cave art.
This study examined indigenous Basque and ancient Phoenician, Greek and Roman myths in the context of historically recorded mountain faces, rocky areas, bodies of water, and other features of the natural environment that are often still revered in the region. Digital images of Iberian cave images were then visually compared with those landscapes for possible matches.
The findings of this study suggest that Upper Paleolithic artists on the Iberian Peninsula found pareidolia in their natural environment and projected those visualizations into their rock art. Real and supernatural characters, geographical features and motifs, some that may still be recognized in Iberian mythology and Mediterranean region classical literature were surfaced. This study also suggests that structural characteristics of the journey narrative with their descriptive sacred landscapes may be studied with rock art in other regions to better understand geographical uniqueness and perspectives of the original artists.
In this study, Upper Paleolithic parietal images from deep caves on the northern Iberian Peninsula were examined for matches with geological formations observed outside of those caves. Fifteen matches were found, including sacred mountains among the Basque. The findings indicate that some Iberian Upper Paleolithic rock art was intentionally designed to depict parallel symbolic terrestrial and underworld cave planes.
In this study, Upper Paleolithic parietal images from caves on the Iberian Peninsula were examined for natural irregularities on the walls that may have been utilized in the construction of the depictions. These images were also compared with prominent geological formations observed outside of caves in the region. The findings demonstrate that Upper Paleolithic cave artists in northern Iberian Peninsula found pareidolia in geological formations inside and outside of caves and projected those visualizations as parietal art.
The archeological evidence and mythological literature consistently report that hunter-gatherer and ancient peoples had traditions of projecting these supernatural characters from regionally unique animals, their landscapes and the night sky to designate time and space. The projection of characters from known geological formations and the night sky gave the impression of gigantic beings and reinforces a recognizable reality in the narrative. The global observance of such animistic characters in the landscapes and night sky indicates prehistoric roots.
This paper takes the student on a journey deep in Upper Paleolithic Europe that surfaces real and supernatural characters, geographical features and motifs, some that may be recognized from literature classes and movies. The structural characteristics of the journey can be reapplied to regional indigenous sacred narratives and ancient myths to teach geographical uniqueness and the cosmic view of the original educator.
This study explored whether geometric patterns accompanying depicted animals in the Upper Paleolithic Franco-Cantabrian archaeological record, lunar calendars of hunter-gatherers and pastoral peoples as recorded in the anthropological surveys, and the light/dark lunar cued biological behavior of significant animals presented can be correlated. Such relationships would support the idea that the knowledge of lunar calendars as a means to monitor the biological activity of significant animals was important in hunting, gathering and general timekeeping success on the European, Asian and American continents (Taylor, B. 2022).
REFERENCES:
Endres, Klaus-Peter and Schad, Wolfgang. 1997. Moon Rhythms in Nature: How Lunar Cycles Affect Living Organisms. Floris Books.
Marshack, Alexander. 1972. The Roots of Civilization. McGraw-Hill Book Company.
Taylor, Bernie, 2021. Lunar Timekeeping in Upper Paleolithic Cave Art. Praehistoria. New Series 3 (13).
This study explored whether geometric patterns accompanying depicted animals in Upper Paleolithic Franco-Cantabrian cave art, lunar calendars of hunter-gatherers and pastoral peoples as recorded in the anthropological surveys, and the light/dark lunar cued biological behavior of significant animals presented can be correlated (Taylor, B. 2022). The results expand on Alexander Marshack’s hypothesis of time-factored markings on Upper Paleolithic artifacts (Marshack, A. 1972).
REFERENCES:
Endres, Klaus-Peter and Schad, Wolfgang. 1997. Moon Rhythms in Nature: How Lunar Cycles Affect Living Organisms. Floris Books.
Marshack, Alexander. 1972. The Roots of Civilization. McGraw-Hill Book Company.
Taylor, Bernie, 2021. Lunar Timekeeping in Upper Paleolithic Cave Art. Praehistoria. New Series 3 (13).
In this study over 500 previously published Franco-Cantabrian Upper Paleolithic cave images from archaeological sites that were identified between 1868 and 1950 were examined. The findings include examples of borrowed pareidolia-based characters developed from natural irregularities in the rocks from Altamira and in Grotte de Pair-non-Pair in Gironde, France among Picasso’s paintings and that the Spanish artist’s working theory on the origins of art is consistent with his observations of pareidolia in Upper Paleolithic cave art. This study uncovers that Picasso drew heavily on Upper Paleolithic cave art styles and animistic metaphors in his work.
Bernie’s journal club discussion will include additional Franco Upper Paleolithic cave art and American Southwestern rock art with similar themes as well as more supporting biological evidence.
Taylor, Bernie. (2021). Lunar Timekeeping in Upper Paleolithic Cave Art. Praehistoria, New Series Vol. 3 (13).
This study demonstrates the knowledge of ungulate and other significant animal lunar-timed biological behavior among European Upper Paleolithic artists. This biological behavior is recorded with repeated sequences of marks and geometric forms on the walls of European caves and portable objects made during the Upper Paleolithic that are often depicted in association with ungulates. Marshack and others investigated such marks and geometric forms with a leaning towards lunar-timed sequencing. This study investigated whether such marks and geometric forms on the walls of Upper Paleolithic caves have lunar biological-timed correlations with the ungulates and other animals accompanying them. These depicted animals were also cross referenced with hunter-gatherer lunar calendars from Eurasia and North America in the anthropological record to demonstrate practical and continued use.
Bernie’s journal club discussion will include additional Franco Upper Paleolithic cave art and American Southwestern rock art with similar themes as well as more supporting biological evidence.
Taylor, Bernie. (2021). Lunar Timekeeping in Upper Paleolithic Cave Art. Praehistoria, New Series Vol. 3 (13).
https://youtu.be/WTXD7e3OCtQ
In this study, previously published Gravettian, Solutrean and Magdalenian Upper Paleolithic images from caves in northern Iberian Peninsula were compared with prominent geological formations observed outside of caves in the region. The findings demonstrate that Upper Paleolithic cave artists in northern Iberian Peninsula found pareidolia in geological formations outside of caves and projected those visualizations onto the walls of caves. In this presentation, five panels in four caves (Las Monedas Cave, Las Chimeneas Cave, Cueva de Venta de la Perra and the El Pindal Cave) are shown to represent pareidolia observed at two mountains (Txindoki and Pica Peñamellera) in the region and in the night sky, as the currently recognizable She-Bear and tusked/horned animal characters in the constellations of Ursa Major and Taurus. These pareidolia-based cave images are animated and retained in mythology that may originate in cultures, such as the Basque, who have been present in the region since before ancient times. The findings also indicate that some characterized constellations commonly attributed to the ancient Greeks and Mesopotamians were inherited from Upper Paleolithic peoples.
In this Association for the Anthropology of Consciousness First Friday talk, author and naturalist Bernie Taylor will take us on a journey deep in time to consider these questions. He will also pose if the original inspirations for Ice Age art are still with us, continuing to be reimagined on changing technological and societal canvases.