From: costabel@balthaza.greco-prog.fr (Martin Costabel)
Newsgroups: sci.archaeology
Subject: Re: Cave Paintings, Magic or Instruction ?
Date: 13 Apr 92 18:23:51 GMT
Reply-To: costabel@balthaza.greco-prog.fr (Martin Costabel)

In article <1992Apr10.165348.29845@panix.com>, beww@panix.com (Brian
Wood) writes:
|> 
|>    Like most people, I suppose, I have seen reproductions of the
|> beautiful, (presumably) cro-magnon cave paintings in southern
|> France and elsewhere in Europe.

Just coming back from a very exciting weekend in Perigord with
visits to some of the most interesting of these caves, I cannot
resist to throw in my 2 cents worth:

|>  
|>    I notice that many of them seem to portray animals with
|> spears, darts or other weapons protruding from them.

Not here. There are many unexplained symbols in the paintings,
but very few that can be considered as weapons.

|>I was taught
|> in school, a long time ago, that these were examples of
|> "sympathetic magic". Apparently the idea was that by killing the
|> image of the beast on the eve of the hunt the likelihood of
|> killing the actual creature would be increased.
|> 

The guides at the sites as well as most serious guide books are
now very reluctant to give any interpretation at all. The impression
I got was the same: There exists no simple interpretation that
fits the facts. One can only imagine some very complicated religious
system that is (and may stay) completely unknown. In any case,
the speculations shown here on the net are far too primitive (:-).
 
|>    This always struck me as a pretty screwy idea. Time spent
|> sharpening weapons or practicing throws would seem much more
|> likely to improve hunting results than sitting around in a cave
|> drawing pictures. The concept that a sharp blade cuts better
|> would seem a much easier concept for a (primitive?) mind to grasp
|> then some tenuous connection to painted images.
|> 

These paintings, carvings and sculptures were certainly not made
by people with a primitive mind.
 
|>    I wonder if perhaps these images were intended for
|> instructional purposes. Surely it would be safer to show young,
|> up and coming hunters where to aim their throws by using these
|> early "graphic teaching aids" than to attempt a marksmanship
|> lecture in the face of a charging beast.
|>  
|>    The deep, remote locations for these works would still be hard
|> to explain, but perhaps they were made everywhere from
|> trees to sand, and only the remotest of them have survived the
|> ages.
|>

No. There are many easily accessible parts of the caves where
they could have made nice instructional paintings, but they didn't.
Instead they frequently used places where the "students" would
have had to creep for half an hour to reach the classroom and
then only one of them would have been able to see the blackboard.
  
|>    If this is old hat, I apologize. Just wondered what others
|> might think. 
|>  
|>  

I, too, would be interested in any credible interpretations of
these amazing products of human culture. But it is more difficult 
than the above guesses.

Martin Costabel

(Please excuse me if I missed some days of the discussion. 
Our news feeder here is very slow.) 
Newsgroups: sci.archaeology