Lascaux Cave, Part Four: Evidence of Hunting Strategies

Identified in Paleolithic Cave Art

Gary J. Maier, M.D.

Waunakee, Wisconsin

Edmond A. Musholt, Ph.D.

Portland, Maine

Lawrence J. Stava, Ph.D.

Cottage Grove, Wisconsin

ABSTRACT: This article is the fourth in a series that attributes meaning to cave artwork by our
Homo sapien ancestors completed during the Paleolithic period, 35,000 to 11,000 BC. The authors
contend that painted panels in the chamber of the Lascaux Cave called the Nave identify hunting
strategies that could have been used to educate young hunters when considering that the footprint
patterns in the cave were mainly of adolescents. This shows the artwork had utility, which is
contrary to the opinion of some authorities. Building on artistic conventions identified in their first
article where full-bodied figures represent mortal animals-humans and legless head-only figures
represent the animal-humans souls, the authors show an evolution in hunting content across
several caves. More, the authors suggest that the shamans-artists transferred the meaning attributed
to a figure in a painted panel on a cave wall, called parietal art, to similar figures carved on the
ends of hunting spears, called portable art, which for the first time makes a meaningful association
between the cave art at a particular site and portable art pieces during this long period. Five
glossary notes, placed at the end of the article are offered for places in the text where the
discussion should be understood within a larger context, and which serve to deepen the reader’s
understanding.

Keywords: Cave Art, Art Utility, Lascaux, Paleolithic Hunting Strategies, Evolution of
Consciousness.

There is universal agreement among authorities that our Paleolithic ancestors were
hunters and gatherers (Lewis-Williams, 2002, p. 137). Then, according to Curtis
(2006, p. 76), ‘‘It was hunters and only hunters who invented and refined painting in
the Caves.’’ For Clottes, (2016, p. 141) the purpose of the artwork was ‘‘explicitly
aimed at subduing ‘animals’ through the power of images with hunting magic for
the animals taken as food, fertility magic to make them reproduce in abundance and
destructive magic for dangerous animals.’’ While there is no evidence of gathering
in the artwork, it is our contention there is evidence of hunting. Nevertheless a
number of authorities claim the content of the artwork in the Paleolithic period had
no utilitarian value. According to Von Petzinger (2016, p. 12) ‘‘the cave art figures
are undeniably non utilitarian.There is nothing about their art that puts a roof over
their heads or kept them warm at night. And they couldn’t physically hunt an
We thank Don Hitchcock for permission to use his photographs and maps, which can be found in Don’s Maps
(https://www.donsmaps.com)

Copyright Ó 2021 Transpersonal Institute

The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 2021, Vol. 53, No. 1 81

 animal with art.’’ Then Lewis -Williams (2002, p. 51) quotes Raphael stating ‘‘The
Upper Paleolithic art tells us nothing about the people’s instruments of production,
their hunting techniques, or their habitations.’’ Should we find that some of the
artwork describes hunting scenes then we will posit that this one aspect of the
artwork shows that it had practical utilitarian value, a consideration which could
open a discussion to broaden the meaning and the purpose of the artwork (See Note
One).

In our first two articles we focused on the artwork in the Lascaux Cave and
suggested that one important purpose of the artwork was to identify the moment our
species became conscious they existed, having developed a sense of being a
separate self (Maier et al., 2019). Then, since cognition is an evolving process, one
cannot just declare a moment when any aspect of evolution is definitive. Just as
Micheangelo, however, depicted the creation of Adam as a single event in the panel
in the Sistine chapel we consider the shamans-artists did something similar in the
panel on the north wall of the Hall of Bulls (Maier et al., 2019, p. 258). While the
period called the Creative Explosion took place over more than a 20,000 year
period, for us the panel on the north wall of the Hall of Bulls symbolically
represents the moment our pre-human animal ancestors became truly Homo sapien
humans. Thus we contended that the artwork described the relationship between the
mortal physical aspect and the immortal soul aspect of the hunters.

During this lengthly evolution the shamans-artists demonstrated their increasing

adaptibility as they became aware of how cyclic patterns of seasonal change in the
natural world influenced their lives (Maier et al., 2020a). The experience of being
aware they were both physical-mortal and soul-immortal was associated with the
evolution of a series of shamanic rituals, which reinforced their transcendent
relationship with the spirits they considered resided in the spirit world and
identified their positive impact on the kinship groups that resided in the natural
world. In a separate article we interpret the meaning of seven shamans in four caves
and identify the rituals evident in the panels (Maier, et al., 2021). For us, the impact
of the relationship of our ancestors through their shamans, with the entities in the
spirit world, is the main message recorded in the artwork of this pictorial tradition.
Because the issue of mortal survival was also important, however, we contend that
hunting themes can be identified in the artwork.

The Chauvet Cave-The End Chamber

In the End Chamber of the Chauvet Cave authorities agree that a panel on the back
wall, sometimes called the Grand Panel, shows a pride of lions attacking a herd of
bison from behind (See Figure 1). The lions appear to be females because they do
not have a mane. In support of this observation female lions hunt in packs more
frequently than males lions. Whether male or female the panel is a classic example
of how lions on the hunt chase down their prey from behind. In fact it appears the
lions are driving their prey up a hill that ends in a narrow pass. It is a choke point
where the narrowing terrain acts to crowd the bison together and increases the
chances of a successful hunt. On the right side of the panel the shamans-artists
show the bison in flight up the small hill. On the left side of the panel - now on

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Figure 1
Lions Hunting Bison

other side of the hill, near the bottom - the shamans-artists show a single rhino
facing the fleeing bison. This rhino is ready to fight to defend himself. This early
panel shows the two basic responses of animals to danger, fight and flight.

The Lascaux Cave-The Shaft

The Famous Scene in Figure 2 shows a bison attacked from behind by a human
hunter. The shamans-artists do not show the hunter perhaps because he is not
important to the meaning of the panel, but we can infer his presence because the
spear was obviously made by a human (Maier et al., 2019, p. 261). For us this panel
is a good example of another bison attacked from behind but this time by humans.

Figure 2
The Famous Scene

Lascaux Cave: Part Four 83

 Figure 3
The Imprint Showing the Relationships Between the Ibex, the Horses and the Bison

In the Chauvet panel a pride of lions attacks a bison herd from behind. In the
Famous Scene a single bison has been brought down by an anonymous hunter with
a spear from behind. The point is that more than 8,000 years later in the Lascaux
cave, another group of shamans-artists show the same hunting strategy but this time
used by humans which suggests that this hunting strategy was an accepted practice.

The Lascaux Cave –The Nave

There are four panels on the east and west walls of the Chamber called the Nave.
The panel called the Imprint is on the east wall at the north end of the Chamber
(See Figure 3). At the top of the panel the shamans-artists have painted the heads of
seven ibex looking north going out of the Cave. Below them is a small herd of
horses and a single bison. The bison is the only figure looking south. It is full of
spears. Since it is the last animal at the back of the herd it appears it was the most
vulnerable animal and subject to attack from behind. The bison has turned around
to face its attackers. While the bison in the Famous Scene has turned his head to see
what has struck him from behind, in this panel the bison has turned his whole body
around since he has been hit by many projectiles also from behind. Figure 14 in
Note two shows the wounded bison turned 180 degrees to confirm that the
trajectory of the spears was from behind the bison, which then turned around to face
his attackers (See Note Two). This is yet another example where the shamans-
artists show an attack from behind. This one has progressed beyond the single spear
of the hunter in the Famous Scene as there were obviously a number of hunters
involved in the attack. Like in the Famous Scene these hunters are also ‘‘off stage,’’
apparently not important to the meaning of the panel.

Consider Figure 3. Most photographs of the Imprint show these figures but over
time the paintings have faded so no clear images encompassing all the figures are

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Figure 4
The Imprint Showing the Dying Bison

available. Our presentation of the Ibex in the Imprint follows a diagram by Abbe
Glory reprinted in Ruspoli’s book, ‘‘The Cave of Lascaux Cave: The Final
Photographs’’ (1987). The sixth ibex, the one with the hind head attached to the
ibex head is novel. The text below identifies our interpretation of this key figure.
Finally there is a horse figure with its head lowered to the ground which we identify
as grazing which is too faded to see but is below the horse figure with the seven
spears piercing it in a straight line.

Figure 4 shows that the horse in front of the bison under attack has seven long
spears piercing it in a straight line from below. The line of spears, which show up as
white lines in the figure, may not represent an actual attack. Instead this part of the
panel appears to be a diagram that identifies the best places to strike a horse to
insure a kill. The line of spears extends from the middle of the abdomen into the
chest cavity and each spot could result in a fatal wound. The bison in front of the
horse is an example of how hunting occurs in the real world where a rain of
weapons strike the victim in many places. It is similar to another horse figure in the
chamber in the Lascaux cave called the Apse which is described as having thirteen
arrows penetrating him. But this horse figure has a neat row of spears showing how
an attack would look in the best possible situation. It could be considered a teaching
tool.

Then the hunting strategy remains consistent. The bison has been attacked from
behind and then the horse in front of it is attacked next. Looking closely the horses
near the bison appear to have been surprised because one horse has his head down,
undisturbed, as though he is grazing inspite of the attack. This could represent a
successful ambush, the second most common way predatory animals hunt. The
hunters appear to have surprised the herd including the bison.

This panel introduces a potential second victim, the horse. Bow hunters today know
that when they attack a flock of geese in flight they are more successful if they
attack the last goose in the flight line and move forward as they attack one goose at
a time. Hitting the last goose in line does not alert the goose in front to take evasive
action. In reverse, attacking the lead goose would alert all the geese that they were
under attack so they could all take evasive action. Something similar occurs when

Lascaux Cave: Part Four 85

 Figure 5
The Imprint Showing the Seven Ibex

hunting a herd of bison or horses or ibex especially when they are grazing.
Attacking from behind and moving forward one at a time increases the success of
the hunt as fewer animals will be alarmed by the loss of an animal essentially out of
sight. This might help explain two other figures in the Nave as discussed below.

Figure 5 shows the heads of seven ibex in a line looking north away from the herd
of horses below. Super-imposed on the neck of the sixth ibex authorities agree that
the shamans-artists have added the head of a hind, a deer (See Note Three). It is
looking backwards, south. From the front of the line of ibex moving backward the
artists have placed a rectangular graphic panel often called a ‘‘grid’’ between the
fourth and fifth ibex. Some consider the object on top of the graphic grid to be the
head of an ibex.

Now consider that the hind attached to the neck of the sixth ibex is looking
backward in relation to the hunting strategy identified above. In the first three
examples above the shamans-artists have shown lions then human hunters attacking
their prey from behind. The last animal in any herd appears to be the most
vulnerable. It may be impossible to insure its safety. We suggest the shamans-
artists identified the second last figure in a herd as the sentinel to alert the herd once
they were under attack.This animal literally ‘‘had their backs.’’ Given the northern
movement of the ibex, the hind is the only figure that could have observed the
attack on the bison and horse below. In fact the line of the snout of the hind when
extended intersects with the horse and bison figures below, which appears to be
purposeful (See Figure 3).

We consider this a plausible interpretation of this unique animal-on-animal

configuration. It is supported by the bison and horse attacked below since the bison
is the last animal in the herd and the number of projectiles that pierce the bison
leads one to conclude it was killed by a group of hunters. The horse figure on the
other hand as the second last figure is shown under attack but in a more ‘‘clinical’’
way. We contend the shamans-artists appear to be saying if one attacks a horse in
the most vulnerable places in its body it will not only insure a kill but it will not be
able to alert the other animals around the initial victim. One of the horse figures
near the second horse continues to graze so he has not been disturbed by the attack,
which accents how surprising the herd can increase the success of the hunt. Should
one function of these figures appears to be to educate young hunter candidates,

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Figure 6
The Five Swimming Stags

perhaps with associated rituals, these panels could provide the syllabus for that
tutoring. Remember that the footprints in this cave were mainly those of
adolescents which the traffic pattern supports. Now consider how the swimming
stags, the only panel on the west wall of the Nave, can factor into our interpretation.

On the west wall, at the south end of the Nave the shamans-artists have engraved
the heads of five obviously mature stags given the rack of antlers of each stag (See
Figure 6). They are facing south. Since authorities believe that water filled the
bottom of the Nave and acted as a river, the animals are considered to be immersed
in the water up to their necks, swimming across the passage as seen in nature. Of
importance to this presentation the fourth stag - the second from the end - has a line
of seven red dots across its antlers. These appear to emanate from a legless head-
only horse, by convention the soul of a horse. The figure is hard to see, but since
this is the best panel available we confirm the soul figure is present (See Figure 7).
The antlers are a symbol of regeneration. We contend that the dots across the
antlers means that the process of regeneration has been impeded. We consider that
this stag has been identified by the hunters as the one that will be attacked when the
stags emerge from the water on the other bank. In this panel, as with the seven ibex
heads, the second last animal figure is the sentinel responsible for safe-guarding the
herd of stags. But he has been marked for death, which puts the small herd at risk.
We consider this to be a parallel construction to the ibex with the hind head. It

Figure 7
The Legless Head-Only Horse

Lascaux Cave: Part Four 87

 Figure 8
The Great Black Cow and The Line of Horses, East Wall

continues the educational goals of the panels, which are to instruct young hunters in
hunting strategies. Should our interpretation hold then these panels in the Nave
describe hunting techniques which means the artwork has utility and that one
function of the artwork was to ‘‘educate’’ young hunters on hunting strategies.

Now to be complete, the panel on the east wall of the Nave, across from the five
swimming stags, shows a larger herd of horses moving north shown in Figure 8.
The Great Black Cow is the dominant figure in this panel so researchers have given
her the most attention. But leaving her aside for now, focus on just the horses.
Figure 8 shows there is one almost continuous line of horses moving south to north.
Most consider these horse figures were engraved before the Cow and can be seen
inside the body of the Cow which was later engraved and then painted. There may
be a shorter line of horse figures represented by the smaller arrow which appear to
be joining the main herd, perhaps coming up from the river where they have been
drinking. The hunters would know that animals following a trail can be subject to a
surprise attack. This is what we consider happened to the bison, part of the small
herd further north.

One can see that the horses appear to be following a lead horse north on the trail by
the river. Then note that the lead horse moving north has a full body and is
therefore by convention, mortal (See Figure 9). It is nose-to-nose with a legless
head-only horse figure, the soul of a horse that is moving south, also shown in
Figure 9. This is the only example of a soul-mortal relationship in the Nave and

Figure 9
The Lead Horse Nose-to-Nose with the Soul of a Horse

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helps to identify the role function of the lead horse which appears to be inspired by
the muse aspect of his soul counter part.

Discussion

We contend that hunting is identified in a number of panels in a number of caves.

We consider the Nave as a set of panels that illustrate human strategies on hunting
animals in several contexts. First, attacking animals when they emerge from
swimming will catch them when they are tired and are exposed because they do not
have the terrain to hide them. Second, they show how to follow animals on a trail as
the herd of horses on the east bank are in a line one after the other and moving
immediately to the north. Third, further north they show the successful ambush of a
small herd from behind, attacking the bison and then moving up to the horse, the
next animal in the line. They identify the most vulnerable places to strike a horse
from the upper abdomen to the rib cage. They show evidence of the value of stealth,
that is a surprise attack. Finally they make it clear that hunting in groups is an
efficient way to insure a kill (Lewis-Williams, 2002, p. 78, p. 87).

In the panel in the Chauvet Cave the shamans-artists show lions on the hunt,
attacking bison from behind, which react with fight-flight. In the Famous Scene an
anonymous hunter attacks a bison from behind which shows humans on the hunt.
These two panels in different caves make the transition in the art from animals on
the hunt to humans on the hunt. Then consider the sixth ibex, the one with the hind
head attached looking backward, as the sentinel ibex. He is prepared to use alerting
skills akin to those of a deer, to identify the possibility of an immanent threat in
order to safeguard the ibex. The shamans-artists identify that they were aware that
the hunters and the hunted each had their own survival strategies. The ibex know
that the hunters would like to have one of their ‘‘heads on a platter,’’ the grid. They
and the hunters also know they will get thirsty at some point and want to go down
to the river to drink. The hunters know the ibex will be on their guard and that they
must take the role of the sentinel into account when they attack the ibex.

We consider this interpretation plausibly establishes some utility to the artwork.

The artwork does not build a hut, cook a stew or tan a hide. And it is true they could
not physically hunt an animal with the artwork. But the artwork does identify the
basic means of survival, hunting and hunting strategies. It has useful instructions on
how to hunt bison, horses, stags and eventually ibex. Given this interpretation the
artwork has utility. Therefore we contend that while the major theme of the
artwork, as considered in today’s conceptualizations, identifies existential,
cognitive and spiritual issues with associated rituals, the artwork in the Nave in
the Lascaux Cave identifies practical hunting strategies in some detail.

Finally these panels also identify the cognitive development of the hunters. First
the artwork supports the possibilty that attacking an animal from behind can be a
successful strategy. They show the hunted animals following one another
swimming, walking a river trail or moving along a mountain trail, all evidence
that linear time was an evolving experience. But this is not the more sophisticated
sense of linear time associated with farming where the emerging sense of the

Lascaux Cave: Part Four 89

 separate self could act now and expect a result in the future. Skinner considered
farming where activity today will produce results in the future, as the beginning of
understanding the meaning of extended time. Thus later in history farmers learned
the value of delayed gratification. Hunters were still bound to short-term results.
Hunting and killing an animal would provide tonight’s supper. Planting seeds,
which will produce a crop months later, will provide supper for the winter (Wilber,
1981, p. 95).

With regard to hunting, however, the hunters would know that the animals moving
in a line will be at a predictable place on the trail so they could anticipate their
arrival. Therefore they could move along the trail ahead of the hunted animals and
find the most suitable place to ambush them. Since they worked as a hunting group,
when they arrived at the ambush site they could position themselves and wait for
the signal to attack. The fact that the bison is full of spears supports the idea that it
was attacked by a number of hunters. This process shows they could plan, had
future thinking, could communicate and act in unison. These are aspects of formal
operational thinking, advanced thinking consistent with the higher consciousness of
the shamans.

From Parietal Art on the Cave Wall to Portable Art Carried on a Person

Now consider a new addition to the range of the impact of their artwork as it moves
from the inside of the caves out to the natural world. We include this introduction
into the relationship between parietal and portable art here because hunting as
depicted in some panels can be easily associated with the weapons used in the hunt
(Lewis-Williams, p. 48) (See Note Four). In our third article (Maier, 2020b, p. 259)
we identified how the shamans-artists gave a sign a specific meaning at one site in
the artwork and then severed the sign from the defining context and placed it in a
different context, which could expand its meaning from a sign to a symbol. We
consider there is a similar relationship between figures that were first established in
the parietal art on the cave walls where each figure was given meaning in a specific
context that was then separated as a single art figure and placed on a portable object
so it could be moved from place to place. In this way the portable art object could
have a similar and an expanded meaning given the novel contexts in which it was
placed. So just as the shamans-artists established the meaning of a sign in one
particular art panel and then transported the sign into a novel context in another
panel where it could take on alternate meanings, the shamans-artists established the
meaning of a sign in the Cave art and then transposed the image onto a stand-alone
portable object where it could be placed in a number of novel settings and accrue a
number of other meanings. In both contexts a sign with a limited meaning could
become a symbol and expand its possible meanings.

Our intent here is simple. With just a few examples we will seed the idea that some
figures in the artwork on the cave walls were transposed onto portable objects with
the intention identified above. The Famous Scene shows a bison struck by a spear
turning its head to see what has happened to him (See Figure 10). The turned head
is a sign of a change in attention and in this case is due to being attacked. The
turned head identifies the panel as a scene depicting a successful hunt. Figure 11

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Figure 10
Parietal Art, The Bison in the Famous Scene

shows a portable art piece with a bison turning its head. This figure is dated from
around 12,000 BC while the Famous Scene dates from 22,000 to 15,000 BC before
the spear head.

Figure 12 shows a deer-like figure with a turned head looking back. This animal
figure, however, was found attached to the end piece of a spear called an atlatl, a
weapon used in hunting. It is plausible that this ‘‘decoration’’ on the spear itself is a
reminder that the spear will be used to hunt game and that the hunt will be more
successful if the hunters attack their prey from behind. Of course the figure could
have many other meanings including making the spear a more sacred weapon or
making it more effective or honoring the hunt, which will provide food for the
kinship group or. . ... and one can project any number of alternate meanings since
the figure as a sign has a similar meaning to the original figure but since it has now
been turned into a symbol it can have many possible meanings each depending
upon the context in which it is used. The first identity of the portable object is the
similarity between it and the bison in the Famous Scene. When placed in a novel
context the similarity between the two images can expand as it becomes a symbol
of the attack on any animal from behind.

Consider for the sake of discussion that these two examples of portable art have
their origins in the Famous Scene. In sum the meaning of the Famous Scene and the
associated panel on the south wall is that a shaman has performed a pre-hunt ritual

Figure 11
Portable Art, A Bison Figure Turning its Head

Lascaux Cave: Part Four 91

 Figure 12
Portable Art, A Deer-like Figure Turning Its Head At the top of a Spear

to ensure the success of the hunt. The bison figure has been attacked from behind
which has resulted in the evisceration of its bowels which, being released from the
abdomen, have spilled out onto the ground indicating the site of the mortal life of
the bison has left it’s physical body (Maier et al., 2020a, p. 75). At the same time
through the transformative ritual of the shaman the soul of the bison has been
released from its head to return to the spirit world (Maier, et al., 2019, p. 251). The
bison figure appears to represent both outcomes so that its mortal body will feed the
kinship group and its soul body will return home to the spirit world aided by the
shamanic ritual.

Now separating out a single image from the four figures in the two panels in the
Shaft shows that the shamans-artists could assign meaning to both the whole
composition and to selected aspects of the composition. Since the portable pieces
came chronologically after the parietal cave art, later artists could have decided to
pick just one part of the Famous Scene to represent the meaning of the whole panel.
In this case the object in Figure 12 could represent a similar meaning. This separate,
detached object, which accents the strategy of hunting from behind, could become a
symbol of the total meaning of the panels in the Shaft. The spear is an example of a
hunting weapon, so embellishing the top of the spear was a good place to adorn the
weapon with special meaning. Then in this figure the weapon and the hunted figure
are attached to each other. While the weapon has separated from the panel in the
Shaft it keeps the two ideas associated together, the hunter’s weapon and the hunted
deer.

Now consider Figure 11 again where the dynamic hunted animal stands alone
separated from the weapon. Figure 11 is just a bison turning its head to look behind.
It is similar to the bison figure in the Shaft which is also turning its head looking
behind but in this figure the shamans-artists complete the reason for the turned
head. The bison has been attacked from behind and has turned its head to see what

92 The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 2021, Vol. 53, No. 1

Figure 13
Dancing Shaman with Overlapping Figures, Trois Freres Cave

has injured it. If later artists could detach the figure of an animal from the cave
painting and place it on the type of weapon that brought down the bison, then
another artist could make a further differentiation and separate the wounded bison
from the weapon itself. Figure 12 maintains the connection between the hunting
weapon and the figure hunted. Figure 11 shows just the hunted figure. Thus as the
early mind continued to mature, images that were initially fused together,
differentiated from one another. In this process the artists could continue to assign
separate meaning to separated parts of a new emerging gestalt. In this hunting
example two levels of abstraction have evolved from the original artistic
composition in the Shaft in the Lascaux cave.

The Influence of the Laws Governing the Early Mind

In our first article (Maier et al., 2019, p. 250) we identified how the first mental law,
the law of sympathetic magic developed by Tylor (1871) could apply to the
meaning of the Famous Scene. Frazer (1959) then divided this law into the law of
contagion much like Freud’s condensation, and the law of similarity, much like
Freud’s displacement. While the consciousness of the average hunter was still
influenced by the laws that defined the operation of the early mind, the shamans had
advanced consciousness and could use all aspects of their advanced consciousness
when communicating with each other through their artwork.

In our third article (Maier et al., 2020b, p 276) we described the application of the
law of contagion as it appears in the animal figures in the panel showing the
dancing bison-headed shaman in the Trois Freres cave (See Figure 13). It is clear to
us that the thirty some over-lapping animal figures are depicted moving back and
forth in a sea of unconscious, instinctual behavior. By over-lapping the figures the
meaning of one figure is associated with the meaning of the others connected to it.
Contagion, a later concept, provides a way for the logical mind to attribute meaning
to the productions of the early mind. As Wilber states (1983, p. 51) ‘‘the magical

Lascaux Cave: Part Four 93

 primary process is not so much wrong but partial, not so much inaccurate as
incomplete.’’ Moreover, as we show in our interpretation of that Trois Freres panel,
because the shamans had advanced consciousness and because elements of the
early mind were still evident remanents in the minds of the hunters, the shamans-
artists could intentionally engrave over-lapping figures to identify the instinctual,
that is the unconscious behavior of animals, to provide the panel with specific
meaning.

While we do not develop this aspect of the evidence of the early mind in these
hunting art panels, we will briefly identify how the law of similarity, where ‘‘like
produces like’’ can apply to portable art. As a simple example the law asserts that
members of a class are to be equated. This means that wholes and parts can be
interchanged. But if a painted image of one long spear can be associated with
bringing down a bison, then just a sculpted figure in the image of the spear and
bison can also be associated with bringing down a bison. So while the Famous
Scene embodies the whole meaning, just the bison with its head turned can embody
the same total meaning. We develop the application of the two laws that govern the
meaning of the productions of the early mind as assessed by the logical mind in
detail in our Part Three article describing the Trois Freres Bison-headed Dancing
Shaman (See Note Five).

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 Notes

Note One: Monastic Comparisons and Utility

Beside there being a broad parallel between the Creative Explosion with the
Renaissance we contend that the monastic period in the Middle Ages including the
life style of the religious communities and the production of their artworks offers
another way to consider the meaning of the outpouring of the Paleolithic artwork.
During the dark ages right up until the beginning of the Renaissance many
authorities agree that the heritage of Judeo-Christian culture was preservered by the
monks in the Irish and Rhineland monasteries among others. One aspect of that
preservation was the copying of the ancient sacred texts of these two historic
traditions. The calligraphy and graphics that embellished the scrolls and books were
an important addition to the meaning of those texts. The monks apparently focused
on their spiritual path, celebrated the meaning of the content of the texts they
transcribed as they amplified their spiritual experiences through their artwork. But
even though many of the monks were literate in Latin they left no significant
documentation, with exceptions like Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179), about the
meaning of the artwork which was in its obvious content. Exegesis on specific
aspects of parts of the ‘‘biblical texts’’ had just begun. After all the dark ages saw
the dying of these traditions and the monasteries acted to preserve them.

In spite of the literacy of the monks, however, the monasteries did not expound
upon many issues researchers might consider useful, utiltarian. Beside leaving
recipes for elixirs, liquors and breads and instructions on gardening, that is planting
and reaping, they left little evidence about other life skills. Here is the connection
we find helpful when considering the meaning of the Paleolithic artwork. The main
work of the scribes was to record historical documents preserving them for later
generations who might wish to understand what their ancestors believed. They did
this in the context of the power of their magician priests who could transform bread
and wine into the body and blood of their historic God. The main work of the
Paleolithic artists was to record the belief system of their Homo sapien ancestors
with accompaning rituals performed by their magician shamans. We can now start
to re-work the meaning of the artwork within a greater context.

Note Two: The Wounded Bison Turned to Claify the Attack From behind

The bison in the Famous Scene has obviously been struck from behind by a human
made spear. The bison in the Imprint has been flipped in the horizontal plane to
show that the spears have also entered the body from behind. It was after the bison
has been struck by the spears that he turned completely around (See Figure 14).

Note Three: A Different Animal to Mark a Significant Change

The shamans-artists sometimes inserted a different animal into the principle figure
to accent an important function or give an additional meaning to that figure. So as
in Figure 15, they placed a small full-bodied bull inside the body of the Pregnant

Lascaux Cave: Part Four 95

 Figure 14
Comparison: The Bison in the Famous Scene and the Bison in the Imprint

Horned Mare, the unicorn, to show that her fetus, the bull, was inside her but
different from her. Further, the bull has a full body to make it clear that the fetus
was first mortal. It is waiting to be integrated with the spirit body shown as a legless
head-only horse just entering the back of the Mare. In the Imprint the hind is
attached to the neck of the sixth ibex to show that the second last animal in a line of
animals had a special security role. The shamans-artists put a deer head on the ibex.
They did not put a bear or lion head because those animals use fight-flight strategies
different from ibex. Deer mainly flee when in danger. So do ibex. Thus adding a
deer head to the sixth ibex is a simple way to accent a fight-flight role which would
alert the herd to the possibility of attack from behind in a manner nearly identical to
the survival strategies of ibex. This is just what this ibex-hind combination does
(See Figure 16).

We consider the seven ibex which are all legless head-only figures do not
represent the souls of ibex, which the later convention asserts, but represent
mortal ibex. They are portrayed in this manner where the bottom half of there
bodies cannot be seen from below because of the flora and distance that separate
the observer from them since they are mountain goats and are up the mountain. In
a similar manner the five legless stag heads are also mortal but the bottom half of

Figure 15
The Pregnant Horned Mare, Formerly The Unicorn

96 The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 2021, Vol. 53, No. 1

Figure 16
The Sixth Ibex and the Hind

their bodies are submerged under the water as seen in nature. In this definition of
the emerging conventions, later more fully defined in the Famous Scene, the
shamans-artists use natural features like the mountain and the river to provide
meaning to the partial mortal figures. Anticipating the later conventions best
identified in the Shaft, however, the shamans-artists are clear when it comes to the
identity of the soul figures as legless head-only figures. The head-only ibex and
the legless head-only horse are the soul figures leading each group and in our
opinion are the first identification of the convention that the site of consciousness
is in the head and head-only figures are souls which will transcend the death of the
mortal figure.

Note Four: Another Parietal-Portable Connection

As stated on page two, for Clottes (2016, p. 141), the purpose of the artwork was
‘‘explicitly aimed at subduing ‘animals’ through the power of images with
hunting magic for the animals taken as food, fertility magic to make them
reproduce in abundance. . .’’. The article addresses hunting magic for the animals
taken as food. Now consider one meaning of the Venus of Laussel which is an
engraved figure of a pregnant woman carved on the wall of the Laussel cave, to be
a symbol of fertility. We see a parallel with her placement on the wall in that cave
with the numerous small stand-alone portable ‘‘Venus’’ statues found in the
proximate area. These portable Venus statues are another example where the
primary figure, the Venus of Laussel on the cave wall, precedes the portable
statues. These statues represent the same sign-symbol relationship and show how
the meaning of the parietal art can move out of the cave and into the natural
world.

Note Five: Shamanic Control of States of Consciousness

Shamans-artists experienced the whole range of consciousness as it had evolved up

to that time and beyond. That means that the experience of the early mind was still
available to them. It had not submerged into the unconscious where it resides in
humans today experienced as dreams. This primary experience then was known to

Lascaux Cave: Part Four 97

 them and at times must have been the way they experienced aspects of their world.
In this panel, they seem to attribute this early state of consciousness to the average
hunters who were still influenced by it.

Thus as artisans they had control over how they used over-lapping figures as a
convention to identify this primary early state. While it is hard for our modern
minds to discern the meaning of these ‘‘primary’’ figures, which appear childish, it
did not stop the artists from consciously using this over-lapping technique to
identify an early state of conscious relationships. Said another way over-lapping
figures was just a conventional technique to identify an early incomplete way of
experiencing the natural world. However, the artists took great effort to be sure that
each figure, even though it over-lapped and was over-lapped by other figures was a
good example of that animal. As Wilber (1983, p. 51) states it, contagious ‘‘figures
were not so much wrong as partial, not so much inaccurate as incomplete.’’ Then
since we contend they had experience of the whole range of states of consciousness
they neatly inject the head-butting bison, the turned heads of the bull and lion and
end with the shaman in a trance, an advanced state of consciousness that
demonstrates the full range of their conscious experience. Moreover, the main way
portable art objects maintained their power, their meaning for the average hunter,
was in the magical relationship each object had with its original source.

98 The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 2021, Vol. 53, No. 1

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