Plate I. Rose colou red ha ndaxe (Excolibu r) from Sima de los Huesos. Atapuerca Sierra.

Castille leon Province. Spain.

 Plate Ill. Scene from Lascaux shaft. Prostrate man with bird's head and erection, and disem-
bowelled bison, Earfy Magdalenian , About 16,000 yrs II('

Plate II, Statue of a man with lion's head

fr·om Hohlenstein-Stadel. Vogel herd, Baden-
Wurtemberg, Germany, Aurignacian culture.
32,000 ya.
 Plate V. Nossorius kroussionus marine shell beads from Blombos Cave. 75 kya levels:
(a) perforated hole opposite aperture: (b) use wear facets on aperture; (c) ochre traces on
bead: (d) beads with apertures showing wear traces. (Credit: Christopher Henshilwood)

Plate IV. Engraved ochre from Blombos Cave. 75 Kya levels. A.C - SAM-AA8937; B,D -
SAM-AA 8938. (Credit: Christopher Henshilwood)
Pl at e VI. A small therianthrope holding spears appears to be chasing a Dynamic Figure that holds
boomerangs and a spear. Kakadu National Park. Northern Territory. Australia. at least ten thousand
years old. (PhOto: p.s.c. Ta\-on)

Plat e VII . A dk
foot in a t i s~~e .a~garoo-headed being with legs crossed holds a spear with hand and
Terr itor y~ ca ~o ngrna~ way. It lies in a remote part of Kakadu Natio nal Park, Northern
y, ustra fla , and IS at leas t ten thousand years old. (Photo·. P.SeT
. . a<;on )
Plate VIII. A rare depiction of the "Eagle Ancestor" was discovered in a remote part of
Woll emi National Park, New South Wa les, Australia, in 1998. It was originally made in
charcoal over fifteen thousand years ago but has been remarked with white pipe clay.
Stencils of a boomerang and a hafted stone axe were placed over the wings to signify its
supernatural nature. (Photo: P.S.C. Tao;on)

:~~;:J~~'i:a~iSc~~i;;~i::rI~ ~epiCtion ~f a Rainbow Serpent, Australia's most elaborate

Te. A .. elng was discovered in Kakadu National Par k Northern
rntory. ustralla. In J 98S It is b w f '
old. (Photo' P SeT )' et een our thousand and six thousand years
. . . . a<;on
 ••

e often associated with flying foxes (fruit bats) in oral

Plate X . Rambow Serpents ar Id has thirtee n o n a strand that
history and rock -art This one a few thO~iSgan~~c~~:r:n~ unusual for Aboriginal people . Plate XI. Double-headed crea tures are rare worldwide but do crop up among Cultures
extends from its neck. making it highly widely dispersed in time and space . This doub le-headed thylacine from Kakadu Na t io nal
(Photo: P.S.c. Tac;on) Park. Northern Territory, Australia. is unique to the region. The thylacine became
extinct at least five thousand years ago. but the depi cti o n is in a much older style. (Photo:
P.S.c. T a~on)
Plate XII . T his thylacine, from a site in Arnhem l and, Northern Territory, Australia,
wears a woven bag in a way similar to humans. It is part of a large composition of Dynamic
Figures that is at least ten thousand years old. (Photo: P.S.c. Ta~on)

~ Iate XIII. Pai~ted bison on the ceiling at Altamira Cave, Spain. The first example of
ranco-Cantabnan cave art to be recognised (in 1879), ca. 15,000 BP. (Photo by Jean
Vertut. From Bahn, P. & J. Venut, f 997, Journey Through the Ice Age, p. 105)
Plate XIV. Painted horse, Le Portel
Cave, Fra nce, ca. 12,000 BP. A strikingly
'naturalistic' outl in e, typical of Franco-
Cantabrian cave art, but not seen else-
where until the Holocene period. (Photo
courtesy of Jean Clottes, from Clottes, J. &
J. COUl"!in, 1996. The C(lve Bene(lth the Sea:
p(l/eolithic Images at Cosquer p. 163)

Plate XV. Rhinoceroses. Grotte Chauvet, France, c. 30.000 BP, and so among the ear-
liest known cave art. (Photo by Jean Clottes)

•
Plate XVI. Feline painted on a stone slab. Apollo I I Cave. Namibia . ca 25.000 SP. This is
one of the few known examples of painted figurative decoration found outside Europe
prior to ca. 12.000 BP. (Photo courtesy of Paul Bahn and the State Museum . Windhoek.
Namibia. from Bahn. P. &J. Vertut. I 997.}ourney Through the Ice Age. p. 31)

Plate XVII. Hand stencils. Ga

A typical product of the cave
Palaeolithic France and Spain.
elsewhere until the Holocene p
courtesy of Jean Clottes. From
J. Courtin. 1996. The Cove Ben
Paleolithic Images Ot Casquer. p. l
 Plate XIX . Palimpsest of painting and engraving, l ascaux, France. ca. 17,000 BP. (Photo
cou rtesy of Nabert Aujoulat. from Clottes. J. &J . Courtin, 1996. The Cave Ben ea th the Sea:
Paleolithic Images CH Casquer, p. 181 )

___P_'_a t e XVII ~~~~nd stenci ls, Los Ta ldon, Argentina, ca. 11,000 BP. Although remarka:
b~'y:...._ _ _ __ • _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ~_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ~ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ~
 Plat e XXI . Monolith at G ~
Turkey. ca. 11,000 BP. Fro
onwards. figurative iconogn
in many parts of the world .
thanks to Klaus Schmidt f01
(Photo courtesy of Klaus Set

Plate X X . The world's first built sanctuary? Monolith at Gobekli Tepe, Turkey. ca. 11,000 BP,
and so in the early Holocene period. With many thanks to Klaus Schmidt for the image. (Photo
courtesy of Klaus Schmidt)
Plate XXII. Modified pigments and ochred stone artefacts from the Mousterian levels
of Qafzeh, Israel (1 - 3), the Middle Stone Age levels of Klasies River (4) and Blombos Cave (5).
South Africa. the Mousterian levels of Pech-de-I'Aze I. France (6, 7). and the Middle Stone Age
levels of Sodmein cave, Egypt (8) (after Hovers et al. 2003, photograph by Gabi Laron [1-3]. WUf'1.
2000 [4], Henshi lwood et al. 200 I [5]. Van Peer & Vermeersch 2000) Scale bars = Icm.

Plate XXIII. a: shaman's box from Alaska, b: Tlingit shaman's necklace. c: Haida shaman's curing
necklace. d. f: obiects used by Zulu diviner'S, e: pair of swans in flight made of ivory (Dorset
culture). g: male and female ivory shaman figures fro m the Bering Sea area, h: shaman's c.ostume
from Ea stern Siberia. (a-c.. e , g modrfi ed after Dubin. 1999: d, f modified after Derwent et al. 2000.
h: after Beffa & Delaby 1999. © Public.ations Sdentifi ques du Museum national d'Histoire
naturelle, Paris)
Pl ate XXIII . a: shaman's box from Alaska, b: Tlingit shaman's necklace, c: Haida shaman's curing
necklace, d, f: objects used by Zulu diviners, e: pair of swans in fl ight made of ivory (Dorset
culture), g: male and female ivory shaman figures from the Bering Sea area, h: shaman's costume
from Eastern Siberia. (a- c, e. g modified after Dubin, 1999; d, f modified after Derwent et al. 2000,
h: after Beffa & Delaby 1999. © Publications Scientiflques du Museum national d'Histoire
naturelle, Paris)

Plate XXIV. Some of the small beads and other deposits recently made at Arrow Rock.
in Montana (USA). (Photo: J. Clones)
Foreword
Si r John Templeton believed that in thei r qucst to comprehcnd
foundatio nal rea lities, scientists, philosophers, and theologians have
muc h to learn about and from o ne another. For a decade now, the
Humble Approach Ini tiative, a program of the John Templeton
Foundation, has held symposia with a changing international cast of
the most creative scholars from many disciplines who come together to
pursue big, difficu lt, and invariably riveting questions. Some that have
long engaged me, as student and teacher, stem from the fuct that
religious idt:as often seem to develop in interactio n with material culture.
Looking at Palaeolithic art and recognizing that it is un li kely that there is
on ly one meaning to thirty-five thousand years of image making, it is
intri guin g, nevc rth eless, to speculate whether these magnificent Ice Age
represe ntations of an imal forms, rare human figures, and mysterious
signs on cave walls may be expressions of religious feelings and notions-
and, indeed, may actua ll y shape subseq uent emotions and concepts by
serving as "tools" for future ritual practice. In light of a rich history of
interpretation of these masterpieces - for examplc, theories that they
signal a passage frorn the work world to the play world in a new era of
free time and abundance; suggest totem ism; reflect magical practices
undertaken to bring about such desired ends as a plentiful hunt, ferti lity,
and the destruction of enemies; or express concepts related to the
structure and organization of the li ving wo rld - what evidence, if any,
exists that innovations in material cu ltures may be related to
developments in rd igious ideas and behaviour? Ca n we infer an ything
from early prehistoric images abollt a possible link betwecn spiritual
development and human cultural creations? Is the deep cave filled with
engravings and paintings a precursor of the shrinc and temple? vVhat was
xviii Foreword by Mary Ann Meyers

the artist thi nki ng as he or she d rew: "Vhat accou nts for the appearance
of icons in some earl y prehistoric societies and not in others? Can studies
of ca rl y cognition providc c1ucs to thc roots of spiritua li ty in the
underground chambers of the wo rld ? Docs the content of mobiliary and
parietal art, their archaeological contexts, and ethno logical comparisons
suppo rt a shamanic o r other reli gio us in te rp retatio n of subtcrranean
picture maki ng? Cou ld the material expressio ns of the first biologicall y
modern humans affcct as well as rcflect emcrgin g systems of belief? O r
arc the productive, functiona l, and symbo lic categories of Palacolithic art
makers forever beyond o ur grasp? Even as ex perts laboured to contro l
the spread of fun gi and bacte ria in o ne world · renowned cave, France's
celebrated Lascaux in the southernmost part o f the Dordogne, the
Peri go rd Noir, thirteen scientists and t heologi:l!1s met nearby in the
village of Les Eyzies, the "capital of prehistory", to ex plore conjectured
relatio nships between innovatio ns in mate rial and spi ri tual cultures, in
the spring of2004 . One brought from a Midd le Stone Age site in South
Africa a few tiny perforated shells, dating back seventy· five thousand
years, which may have been worn as beads and, if so, indicated symbolic
th in king; all bro ught perspectives that caused their colleagucs to look
again at o ld questio ns in new light. Their conve rsatio n, which led to th is
book, fulfilled its sponsors' ho pes that stich symposia discussions will not
o nl y act as a correcti ve to parochialism b ut will also enco urage discove ry
and accelerate its pace.
Mary An n Meyers
Senior Fellow
John :~ c ll1p lcton Foundatio n
Introduction: Becoming human: changing perspectives
on the emergence of human values

Colin R mfi'cw

This book is significant as o ne of the first wide· rangillg surveys whi ch

embod ies, reflects and develops the consenslIs that has emerged at the
beginning of the twenty-first century abou t t he emergence of humankind.
Perceptio ns have shifted ve lY substantially. The so-called human revolu -
tion, referrin g to the emergence of our species H01ftO Sn-piCHS, and with it
the sh ili: to modern and comple x behaviours (MeJlars and Stri nge r 1989 ),
is no longer seen as somcthillg w hich happened in Eu rope, o r possibly in
\,Vestern Asia, somethi ng like forty thousand years ago. I nsrcad we realise,
with t he wealt h o f new anthropological data available in Africa, that O llr

species emerged t here so mething like 200 ,000 o r 150,000 ye:lrS ago.
1\1olecu lar ge neti c evide nce confirms and ampli fies the emerging picture
(Fo rster 2 004), indicating that oLi r species, H omo sapiclls, emerged in
Africa, and first dispe rsed from there to Arabia and so to the rest of the
world arou nd sixty thousand years ago. The important new discoveries
fro m the Middle Stone Age of MricJ) including the cruc.ial evidence fi-om
t he Blombos Cave d isc ussed here (H enshil wood , this volume ), reveal that
those new behaviours associated with th e h uman revolu tion were already
developing in Afi·ica (McB rearty and Broo ks 2 000), where they are we ll
docu mented some seventy thousand yea rs ago.
The Symposium from whic h tills volume arose took place, approp ri -
ately, in the Dordogne regio n of France , at Les Eyzies, in the ve ry are a
where so me of th e key first discoveries were made durin g t he nineteenth
ce nt ury relatin g to the earl y ach ieve ments of o ur species. It was by then
realised t ha t t he 'stone age' ea rlier proposed by t he Scand inavian an ti -
quaries cou ld be divided into the Neolithic (the new stone age, the time
of the early f.1rmcrs ) and t he Palaeolithic, the mu ch longer p recedi ng
pe riod whe n h umans pu rsued a hunter-gatherer way of life. The
2 Colin Renfrew

Neolithic peri od succeeded the climatic improvements which ca me with

the end of the Ice Age, the Pleistocene period, some ten thousand yea rs
ago. And it soon became clear that remains of our own species, H o1l'zo
sapiells, wcre found there no earlier than the Uppe r Palaeolithi c, whose
begin ning can now be set by radiocarbon dating, some forty tho usand
years ago. By 1860, human remains had bee n identified , near Les Eyzies,
in the rock shelter of Auri g nac. In 1879 came the momentous realisati o n
that the animals painted on the cei ling of the cave at Altamira in north
Spain shou ld be dated to th e U pper Palaeoli thi c period - th e recognition
of Pal aeoli thic cave art. Very soon comparable discoveri es were made in
the D o rdogne, man y ofthcl11 close to Les Eyzies, as indeed is the painted
cave at Lasca ux (al thou g h this was not discovered until 1940). fu dis-
cussed latcr, th e painted caves are fou nd ma inly in so uth France and
north Spai n, an d this Franco-C antabrian cave art is a notable fea ture of
the European Up per Palaeo lithic. So, too, are th e carvings, o n bone and
ivo ry, found in the caves, rock shelters and open sites fro m the same
pe ri od and area, although thei r distribution is a wider o ne.
I[ we are looking at th e early development of human cu lture, these
fi nds have a very special signi fi cance. For w hile humans had been tool
makers fo r hundreds of th o usands of years, as H enry de Lumley reminds
us in his Prologue, those very early hominids clearly did not have the
ability o r, we infe r, the mental capacities associated with o ur own species,
H01'ftD sapiens. It is ani), with o ur own species that wc fi nd the range of
new behaviou rs seen herc in the Franco-Cantabrian Upper Palaeolithic,
re Rected in new too l kits (with a bladc tec hn o logy replacin g the earlier
Rakes ), with greater vari ety in sto ne too ls, with the lise of bo ne, antler
and ivory, and crucia ll y with t he first pe rsonal ad o rnm ents (beads mainly )
and th e fi rst represe ntatio nal art (Mellars 1991 ).
A key aim of the S)'mpoSi lIl11, which was funded by the John Te mpleto n
Foundation, was to consider the ea rl y emergence of t he va ri ous qualities
which we may consider particularly human. The use ofa complex langu age
is o ne of these, but its appea rance is noto ri ously di ffic ul t to assess on the
basis of material culture al one. Other human qual ities are more accessible,
not least thro ugh the remarkab le ran ge of artdacts which appear in th e
Franco-Canta brian U pper Palaeoli thic. To reconstruct the acti vities which
took place in the painted caves, and to make inferences as to their meanin g
is, however, no easy task. But ifwc are inte rested in the origins of ritual , of
rel igion and of human spiri tuali ty, then th ey are of cru cial rel evance.
Introduction 3

[n his Prologue, de Lumley reviews briefly some of the earl ier

behaviours - toolmJ.nuf.:1cturc, the use offire, and deliberate burial of the
dead - which are seen already before the Upper Palaeol ithic and prior to
the appearance in Europe of Homo sapiells. These are indeed activities
wh ich are special to the genus H 01llo, seen alread y in such earlier hominids
as Homo erectlls, and which are not seen among other genera of the animal
kingdom. But the Upper PaJaeolithic period bJings something more, and
it is with that (so mething more', with these early intimations of what we
may call spirituaury, that our Symposi um was particu larly concern ed.
This is what gave the meeting - and , 1 believe, th is volume - its very
special character of controlled speculation. We were able to bring
together some of the leading specialists in the archaeology of the
Palaeolithic period , and to invite them to consider the problems of
postulating the new aspects of human experience and behaviour which
may be inferred from these abundant, suggestive and yet sometimes
en igmatic finds. We managed, I hope, to avoid some of t he technicalities
of the archaeological specialist, aided by the scrutiny and the cOlllmentary
of two distinguished theologians, Keith VVard and \Nentzel Van Huyssteen,
with whol11 we were able to consider and debate such notions as (religion '
and 'spi rituality' at a very ge neral level.
Another important feature was the worldwide scope of our subject
matter, and of the discussions of it. For whi le the wealth of FrJnco-
Cantabrian evidence was inescapably close to us, situated as we we re in its
heartland in Les Eyzies, we we re anxious to take a globaJ view. The sig-
nificant new evidence fi-om South Africa was brought to us by Christopher
H cnshil wood, o ne of its leading researc hers, as well as by Francesco
d'Errico , who has worked extensively on the beads and adornments not
only fi·om Blombos but also from the Eu ropean Up per Palaeoli thic. The
cruciall y important case of Australian rock art, and of the Austra lian
Palaeolithic, was introduced to ou r discussions by Paul Tac;on , one of its
leading exponents. And Henry de Lumley, Jean C lottes, Paul .Mellars and
.M argaret Conkey were able to bring their unrivalled knowledge of the
French Palaeolithic to bear on o ur discussions.
The creative explosion , to use the term introduced by John Pfeiffer
(1982 ), seen so clearly in the Franco-Cantabrian cave art of the Upper
Palaeolithic, certainly presents the modern observcr with a challenge. At
what point in the archJeologicJI record can wc document the emergence
of ritual , and of what we might regard as religious behaviour?
4 Colin Renfrew

At this point, however, we have [0 consider morc carefull y the

hominid po pulation already present in Europe , and in the Dordognc ,
when dlCSC first representati ves of Q UI' own species arri ved some fo rty
thousa nd years ago. Here we turn to 'Neanderth al Ma n', to lise an o lder
ter minology, to the Nea nderthals. T hat re markable species Homo
nCfl,uderthalellsis, which preceded ou r own species in Europe, with its
accompan ying MOllstcrian materi al culture, can no lon ger be seen to
represe nt a LUli ve rsal stage in human evo lution , the iml11ediate prede-
cessor of QlIr own species. Rath er, th e Nea nderthals wc re evolving in
Europe and Western Asia at just the same time that our species was
appearing in Africa. But the overl ap peri od , the contact peri od in Europe,
when the incoming sapiens humans lived alo ngside their Nea nderthal
predecessors fo r some thousands of years (how long is in d ispute ),
becollles one of absorbi ng in terest. For some of the behavioural traits
seen in Europe d uring the Aurignacian period , with the arrival of Homo
sapiens, secm to be antici pated by th e earlier Nea nde rtha1s. Deliberatc
human bu rial is a good example, which seems to be well doculllented
among Neand erthals even before o ur own species arri ved. And othcr
features developed in both groups at the same timc. Did the Neanderthals
learn them ITo m the sapient incomcrs? Or we re these features an indige-
nous development? These q uestio ns are of interest in their own right.
But they become even mo re so when considered within the context of
emerging spirituality, and of the developme nt of what wc have come to
regard as specifi cally human valucs.
As we shall sec, there are indeed forms of behaviour seen in the U pper
Pal aeoli thic period whi ch seem to mark new ki nds o f sclf-awarcness,
impl yin g the development of new val uc systems, which we have always
regarded as unique to ou r own species . If we hoped to fi nd evidence in
the archaeological record for the first appearan ce of the human soul, this
wo uld be the placc for it. Evidence of ritu al documents wha t we may
consider as the first concrete indication of religious belief. The remark-
able representatio ns of animals and of huma ns, which for conve nience we
call ' art') become so abunda nt that we are o bli ged to see them as
refl ections of a new awareness of what it is to be human, and what it is like
to be awa re as humans of our place in a wide r world. But if som e of these
first awakenings developed also among the Nea nderthals, how Illany of
them did so auto no mously and independentl y? Ifthey did , surel y we may
thi nk and speak also in terms o f Nea ndert hal spirituality) ju st as we may of
Introduction 5

sapient spiri tuality at this ca rl y time? At firs t that seems reasonable and
perhaps unsurp rising. But o n reflection it wou ld represent a radical new
departure: it wou ld challenge o ur assumption that the human specics to
which we today all belong is unjque, standing apart in our experience of
self-consciousness, in our perception of the nature and inevitability of
death (and perhaps of the hereafter), and in the unique qualities of the new
kinds of social relationships which can develop when we arc full y hu man.

Neanderthal reflections

One of the most interesting features of the meeting in Les Eyzies fi·om
which this book developed , was indeed the very thoughtfu l conside ration
given to the cognitive archaeology of the Neanderthals. It was recognised
moreovcr that there is a need to distinguish carefull y between two phases
of Teanderthal experience. The first is the long period , associated in
Europe with the t\tliddle Palaeolithic and with Moustcrian culrure, when
the Neande rthals were the o nl y hominids around. The same was broad ly
true fo r those areas of weste rn Asia in which Neanderthal remains are
found. The second ph ase comes afte r the first arri val in Europe (and in
Western Asia ) of o ur own species, H omo sapiells, aro und fo rty tho usand
years ago, fo llowing the out-of-Mrica dispe rsal some fifteen thousand o r
twe nty tho usand yea rs earlier. For a few thousand yea rs the two popu-
latio ns must have lived side by side. Therc is specu latio n, indeed con-
trove rsy, as to whether t hey interbred. Current DNA studies have
sometimes concluded that the DNA of the Neande rthals did not make a
significant contribution to that of the modern human gene poo l,
although that view has been contradicted. These are matters which DNA
stud ies can be expected to clarify over the next decade or so.
A strong focus of current in terest is the development of the so-called
Chatelperronia n culture, wh ich shows continuing Mousteri an fe;1turcs,
yet with innovations wh ich resemble those of the Aurignaci;1n culture.
This is generall y held to have been brought in with the new sapient
popu latio n. It is ;1 foc us of intense debate whethcr such innovations
should be reg;1rded as the resul t of accu ltu ration - that is to say the direct
result of contacts between the two popu latio ns - or whether they may
represent independent innov;1tio ns produced by the Neande rth;11 popu -
lation themselves which wo uld have take n pl ace even if Homo sapie1ls had
not been present.
6 Colin Renfrew

The evidence of origin ality and innovatio n in Neanderthal communities

is reviewed here by Jan e Renfi-ew. H er position is su pported to some
extent by David Lewis-Williams (this vo lume ) in his consid eratio n of
carly spirituality, and o f the degree to wh ich we may associate this with
th e Nc;:1l1dcrth als. The positi o n taken by Francesco d'Errico is rath er
different. In his perspective, most ofrhe sig nificant inllovations seell in
Europe are to be assoc iated with the incoming sapient popu lation .
In a few yea rs we may be in a positio n to understand more clearl y the
sig nificance of the highly interesti ng 'overlap ' period between th e
Neand erth als (before the ir extinctio n ) and the new sapicllspopulation . It
is diffi cult to specula te about w hat might have been the Neanderthal
contribution, about what they mi g ht ha ve contributed had no t the ir
trajectory of develop ment been modified and ultimatel y terminated by
th e new sapiens incomers. But here we touc h on a fu rther controversy: to
what extent was the extinction of th e Ncand erthals brought abollt by
th e competitive influ ence of the new sapicllS population? Or were they a
doomed species who mi g ht not, in any case, have su rvived the climati c
severiti es of the Late Glacial Maximum and th en of t he cl imatic wa rming
which tollowcd?

The human contribution

The nature of the 'creative cx plosion ' , and pJrticu larl y its location, was
considered in th e paper by Col in Ren"-ew_ During the Upper Palaeoli thic
period , cave painting scems to have been restri cted to France aJld Spain,
with a few o utliers in It al y. The most notable exccpti o n is that of
Aborigi nal pain ting, discussed wi th authority in th e paper by Pa ul Ta r;o n.
Th ere are of co urse othcr instan ccs, discllssed briefly in the paper by
Renfrew, but 1110st rock art is first seen afte r the Pleistocene, in the
H o locene period. T he possible reaso ns for this precocious flowering of
cave art in France and Spain are systematicaLly considercd in the paper by
Paul Mellars_
Palaeo lithic sc ulp ture, mainly in the fo rm of the sm aU ' Venus' figur-
ines, extends du rin g th c Gravettian period cast fro m France and Spain
th rou g h Germany to th e Czech Republic to the Ukraine and indeed as far
cast as Siberia . Again there are comparab le finds fro m Ita ly. But the
remarkabl e thing is that such small human represe ntatio ns are in general
not a feature of the Upper Palaeol ithic period in any other part of the
Introduction 7

world. In the Pacific, terracorra sc ulptures on this scale arc indeed secn in
th e lomon or Proto-Jom o n culture of Japan fi'om early dates, before
10,000 Be . And th ere may be other early finds in the Pacific. But this
interesti ng circumstance docs not undermine the validity of the ge neral
observation that such small sculptures of figurines are not more
widely seen unti l the development of the Holocene period , some of
thcm accompanying carl y f.1nn ing. Again, representation in the Upper
Palaeolithic is a very localised phenomenon.
'T he important point is developed in th e paper by Meg Conkey, that
these va rious representations which are often desi g nated as 'art' may have
a wider sig nificance. In so me cases it may have been the very acti o n and
process of making such representations which was sig nificant, rath er
than the end products themselves. This approach is strengthened by the
detailed stud y by Jean C lo rres of a strange practice, presumably of sym -
bolic significance, yet whi ch cannot be assim ilated under the rubri c of
'art' - o r at least not of representational art. T he paper by lai n NI o rl ey
de alin g with the place of music and the producti o n o f sound in ea rl y
ritual again supports the view that the focu s upon visual 'art" interpreted
in a modern se nse, gives too narrow a perspecti ve in the consideration of
the rich symbolic behaviou rs and rituals which we re developing d urin g
the Up per Palaeolithi c period.

Human values and spirituality as universals

In the co urse of the meeting there was much disc ussio n about the
inferen ces about belief w hich might reaso nabl y be fo rmulated on the
basis o f the representations or 'art ' found in the Franco-Cantabrian
Up per Palaeo lithic, but also in other Palaeoli thic contexts, notabl y in
Australia. The paper by Palll Tac;on recognises that represen tation o r 'art'
may have antecedents going back much earlier than the Upper Palaeolithic,
a point which bears o n the discussion of Nea nderthal self-awareness and
spirituali ty.
The crucial question as to the extent to which the figurati o ns and
represe ntations seen in the Upper Palaeolithi c arc the product of ritu als
which might be considered to be ' religious', :1I1d hence to document the
inception of reli g io n, is considered in different ways in the papers by
Nlerlin Donald and by Steve n Iv lithen , as indeed in that of David Lewis-
\'Villiams. Both Donald and Nlithen lay emphasis on the significance of
8 Colin Renfrew

involving the material world in t he ritual and cogniti ve process by the

activity of actuall y making things and doing t hin gs. One of the pervasive
themes of the symposi um and of this book is that spiri tuality and
mate riality cannot be separated. The roots of religion arc to be found in
ritual practice. And ritual practice, as doclimented by the mate rial record
goes back before the Franco-Cantabrian 'explosion', back indeed before
the Blombos engravings, to repetitive activities undertaken ve ry mll ch
earlier and documented in the mate rial record , which we may infer we re
meaningful to their practitioners, and which may be regarded as rituaL
The volum e conclud es with reflection s, by Wentzel Van Hu),ssteen
and by Keith Ward , on these themes. These are scholars well versed in the
varieties of ex perience to be fo und in the history of reli gious thought.
One interesting concl us io n which arises fro m this scrutin y of the
archaeological record of the palaeolithic period is that the development
of sym bo lic practices, and thus perhaps of spirituali ty, has been a some-
what gradu al o ne . T o be sure there arc moments of intense innovation ,
such as is seen in France and Spain with the 'creative explosion' of
Franco-Cantabrian cave painting. But these developments had their
analogues, a.ltho ugh in a q uieter way, in Australia, in Africa, and perhaps
more widely. J'vtore significantl y, they are no longer see n as representing a
sudden and ama zin g fi rst step, an initia1 burst in human expression and
spirituality. Already, mo re than thirty thousa nd yea rs earli er, the human
revo lution was al ready taking place in Africa. Anatomically modern
hllJl1al1S emerged there, and many of the behaviours wh ich havc been
associated with moderni ty (in the archaeological sense) can also be
recognised there.
A!; this volume clearly shows, the process of becoming human has
been a slow and gradua l one. Early indications of self-awa reness and what
may be te rmed spirituality are seen first in Africa , and may be d iscerned in
Australia as well as in Europe . That remarkable creative explosion , which
soon brought about the decoration of the Grotte C hauvet, and latcr of
Lascallx and of Altamira Call now be recognised as a local episode whjch
did not have its counterpart in Asia or in the Americas. It should not
be generalised as representing a stage in human cognitive and spiritual
develo pment. But at the same time the richness of the evidence found
there, in the Uppe r Palaeolithic of France and Spain , offers fe rtile ground
fo r spec ulatio n up on the relationship between the production of sym-
bolic material cultu re, the practice of ritual, and the rOOts of spirituality.
Introduction 9

Acknowledgements

vVe ~re ve ry gr~te ful to the Jo hn Templ eton Fo und~tion fo r i niti~tin g and
supp ortin g the Les Eyzies meeting. In t his enterprise, it was represented
by Mary Ann Meye rs, who undertook all ~s p ccts of the practical orga-
nisation of the meetin g, although at her invitation Colin Renfi-ew artic-
ulatcd its programmc. C harles Harper and Paul Wason , both of thc
Tcmpleton Foun dation, attended the sessions and participated full y in
the d iscllssions. l ain lV1.orley was not able to be present at the Symposium ,
bllt he has conu·ibuted a p~ p e r ~ nd has coedited the present volu me.
We would also like to ex press ou r g ratitude to the Templeton Pu b-
lishing Subsid y Program fo r the grant allowi ng the inclusion of the
colou r plates in th is volume, and to the contributo rs for their patience
over the cou rse of a length y editing process.

REFERENCES

Forste r P., 2004. lee ages and the mitocho ndrial DNA ch ron ology of human
dispt: rsals: a review, Philosophicnl Tmusactiom of the Ro)'nl Society of L01Jdon)
Series IJ 359 , 255- 64.
McBrearty S. & Brooks A. S., 2000. The revolution that wasn't: J. new inrer-
pretation of the o ri gin of modern human behaviour, Journal of Human
EJJo/tttio1l 39, 453- 563.
Mclbrs P. , 1.991. Cogn itive changes an d the emerge nce of modern humans in
Europe, Cambridge Arc/mea/agienl ]ouma/ I , 63- 76.
Mclbrs P. & Stringer C. (cds. ), 1989. 71le Humall RCl'o/lItioll . Ed inburgh ,
Ed inburgh Unive rsi ry Press.
Pfeiffer J., 1982. The Crea.tille £-.;p/osiou: An Inf}uir)' il1tO the Origim of Art fl,nd
Religion. New York, H:-trper and RD \\,.
 2

The emergence of symbolic thought: The principa l

st e ps of hominisation leading towa rds greater complexity

H e1l1,)' de Lmnle)'

Symbolic thought represents o ne of the essen tial dimensio ns of hum:m

co g nitio n, transcend ing th e materia l wo rl d and integ rat ing cogitatio n
within a uni verse richer th an that of the senses, and combining concepts,
that is to say abstract notio ns, into a syste m of comple x relations. The
ad ve nt of Ho mo sapic1H, whose brain shows develo ped fro ntal lo bes, areas
o f which were invo lved in functio ns essential fo r sym bolic thou g ht,
coincides with the appearance of evide nce fo r a hig h level of symbolic
acti vity. Humans later in vented the fi rst jewell ery, as well as decorati ve
and parietal art.
But well before the appearance of IVlodern Hu mans, th e fi rst elements
o fsy mbolic th o ug ht g radu al ly develo ped in hum an cog ni tio n, in parallel
with th c emcrge nce o f conscio usness.
Accompanyi ng the dcvelo pmen t of cranial capacity and of cereb ral
co m ple xity, th e maj o r steps in ho m inid technological an d cul tural evo-
lution , crossed sig nifi cant thresho lds, and we re marked by the progres-
sive emerge nce of symbo lic thought, in the processes o f the acq uisitio n
and treatment o f data . The tool serves no t on ly to do m inate the exterio r
worl d but also to un derstand it . The transmission of kn owledge and
skills ind icates th e appearance ofthc huma n com mun icati o n systcm : th c
deve lo pment o f language stru ctllred fro m social ex peri ence.

The fi r st tools a nd the e m e rgence of conceptual thought

T he earliest sto ne-too ls, fo und at Kada Gona in no rth -eastern Ethiopia,
date to 2 .5 M va (see Figures 2 .1- 2 .4 ). These tOols may be taken to
indicate the presence of conceptual tho ug ht and the ability fo r ea rly
humans to conceive of a model. But it is clear that the o nly preoccupatio n

10
The emergence of symbolic thought II

2. I. Chopper on a trachyte pebble. Gona

EG 10. Hadar. Ethiopia, 2.55 Mya.

of their makers during the production ofthese tools was to obtain a sha rp
instr ument with wh ich to disarticulate large herbivore carcasses or to cut
up meat.

The first handaxes and the emergence of a sense of harmony

The earl iest current evidence for handaxes comes from West Turkana,
Kenya, dated to 1.65 j\!lya. Sim ilar finds have been nude at Ko nso, again
in Eth iopia, dating to 1. 5 Mya (see Figu re 2.5 ). These tools show both
lateral and bif:'lcial sym metry, thus demonstrating earl y human acquisi -
tion of the notion of symmetry. Soon afte r rhis, the Acheu lean culture
produced perfectly symmetrical and very regular too ls (see Figure 2.6 ),
sometim es with the choice of rocks of a pleasing colou r fo r thei r
12 Henry de Lumley

2.2. Rhyolite flake. Gona EG I D, Hadar, Ethiopia , 2.S5 Mya.

2.3. Chopper on a quartz pebble. Fej ej FJ- I,

South Orno, Ethiopia. 1.96 Mya.
The emergence of symbolic thought 13

2.4. Quartz flake. Fejej FJ-I. South Orno.

Ethiopia. 1.96 Mya.

2.S. Basalt handaxe. Afar regio n. Ethiopia, 1.4 Mya.

14 Henry de Lumley

2.6, Quartz handaxe. Caune de l'Arago, Tautavel. Fran ce, 50Q,000 ya.

fabri cation (sec Fi g ures 2.7 and 2.8 ). Symme try and colo llr do not affect
the func tio nal effectiveness of a tool. This means that humans we re
looking for bea uty and that th ey developed an app recia tio n for a job well
done. Homi nisation thus passed a new thresho ld in the path towards
g reater comple xity: the emergence of the se nse of harmon y.

Ritual cannibalism and the earliest treatment of corpses

Excavations at the Caull e de PArago cave site in Taut;,wcl , Pyrcn ees-

Orientales, in France, have brought to light morc th an o ne hundred fossil
ho minid rem ains datin g to around 450 ,000 years ago. Among these
human remains arc clements of several skulls and jaws, some femur frag-
ments, fibulac, tibiae, h umcri , rad ii, and a hip bone. Yct, nOt a si ngle rib is
present, not o ne vertebra, o nly o ne metatarsal and o ne phalange fi'o lll the
hand. The relative pro portio ns of the bodies' di ftercn t bones therefore do
not correspo nd to a no rm al representation fo r complete skeletons.
However, in th e case of th e remajns of large herbi vo res slich as
moufions, fall ow deer, red dee r, reindeer, bisolls, or horse, all hunted for
The emergence of symbolic thought 15

2.7. Hornblend handaxe (Durondo/). Caune de l'A rago, Tautavel, France, 500,000 ya.

2.8, Handaxe from Nadaouiyeh, EI Kowm, Syria. l evel 9, 400,000 ya.

16 Henry de Lumley

subsistence purposes, the vertebrae, ribs, carpals and tarsals, mctapodials,

and phalanges arc mo re numero us than crania and mandibles. They
indi cate the lise and dispersion of whole skeletons.
I t would appear therefo re that the trcatment of human bodies was not
the same as that of large herbivores killed dUling o rgan ized hUll ting
expeditions. It is evident that the meat 011 huma n bones was also removed
and the bones broken, which we may observe fi'olll spiral fractures, impact
po in ts and ell t marks 1I ndc rtake n on fres h bone . It seems, however, that d1is
activity was not carri ed out with the same pu rpose as fo r the animal bones.
There was a deliberate selection among the human bones treated, with
a preference for the crania and the mand ibles, as well as the most meaty
parts of the body (thighs, legs, arms, etc. ). It is possible that the skinn ing
and butchery of the human crania might be an indication of practices of
ritual cannibalism some 45 0,000 years ago .

The domestication of fire and the birth of regional

cultural identities

Around four hu ndred tho usand yea rs ago, with the appearance of the
fi rst hearths (Tcrra Amata, in Nicc, Mcnez Dregan in Brittany, and
Vc rtcszollos in Hun gary) (sec Figures 2.9 and 2. 10), a mo rc o rgan ised

2.9. Hearth at Menez Oregan I. Finistere. France. 400.000 ya.

The emergence of symbolic thought 17

2.10. Hearth at Terra Amata. Nice. France, 400,000 ya.

social life began to develop around the fire. Fi re was a formidable driving
force for hominisation. Its li ght extended daytime and shortened the
night; it allowed humans to penetrate deep into caves. Fire provided
warm th , prolonged summe rtime and shorten ed winters. Fire allowed
humans to occupy the cooler temperate areas of the planet. I t enabled
humans to cook food :md , as a result, to red uce parasitosis. It helped to
improve tool makin g by providin g heat to harden the points of spears.
But fire was mainly a facto r inspiring convivi ality. Group spirit was surely
kindled around the hearth. This was the birth of the first myths. It is at
this point that the first regional traditions emerged: the first cultural
identities, showing styles and designs in the manufacture of some tools.

The burial in the sink-hole at the Sima de los

Huesos: the application of symbolic thought

Some three hundred thousand yea rs ago, Homo heidclbc1"gclIsis at the

Sima de los Huesos, in the Atapucrca Sierra, Castille Leon province in
Spain , showed the first incontestable signs of symbolic thought. In this
15m deep sink-hole, located today 400m from the entrance of Cueva
JVlayor) an immense cave of the Sierra of Arapuerca, Eudald Carbonell i
Roura, Juan- Luis Arsuaga, and Jose-J\llaria Bermudez de Castro
18 Henry d e Lumley

2.1 I. Accumulation of human remains at the bottom of the sink-hole. at Sima de los
Huesos. Atapuerca Sierra. Castille l eon Province, Spain, 300,000 ya.

discovered morc than thirty-five hundred human bones, gene rally

unbroken , belonging to thirty-two individuals (sec Fig ure 2. 11).
The proportions by relative age of the individuals represented reAect
those of a population with a natu ral death ratio: a high percentage of
chi ldren's deaths between seven and ten years old, female deaths at
around fifteen years o ld , that is to say, at the age of their first childbirth,
adu lt deaths betwee n eighteen and twent), th ree years o ld and a slllall
percentage of deaths at 1110re than thirty yea rs o ld (sec Figure 2 .12). T he
long bones are not broken, suggesting that the individuals had been
thrown into thc si nk-hole in a stare of rigo r-mortis. It seems obvious that
Hrnno bcidelbcrgclIsis ritually threw thirty-two of their dead into th is
sink-hole, into the world of the dead , into an invisible world.
No large herbivore bones wcre found at the site, bur amon g a number of
handaxes, there is o ne that is particularl y magnificent, discovered amongst
the heap of human bo nes (see Plate f ). It was made from a naturall y pink-
coloured block of quartzite, brought from a so urce about thirty kilomcu'cs
from the site. It was perfectly rcgular and symmetrical and remarkably
well -madc, and the freshness of irs clltting edges gives tlle imprcssion that
the piece had never been used. It was evidently a fune rary gift.
The emergence of symbolic thought 19

\'Ve arc in the presence of the oldest sepulchral depos it known , and the
fi rst exprcssion of ri tual thought.

The first burials and the birth of metaphysical anguish

It was, however, a little less than one hund red thousand years ago that the
first real burials appea red , in 3 tVlousteri311 cu ltu ral context in the Nea r
East where carly modern humans are 31so found (sec Figure 2. 13 ). In
Eu rope and in ce ntral Asia the first bu ri als arc of Neande rt hals, a cui ·
mi nation in the evolu tion of the pre· Nea nderthals.
In these cases an oval o I' rectangular pit was dug in which to lay
the deceased person. Us uall y these we re individ ual graves, as at La
Chappelle·aux-Saints in Correze, Rcgourdou , in the Dordogne, or at
Spy, in Belgium , at Amud and at Tabun , in Israel. Sometimes there is in
effect a ccmetery, as at La Fe rrassie in the Dordogne whe re seven graves
were discove red (sec Figure 2. 14 ), or at Qafzeh , nca r Nazareth in Israel ,
whe re 1110 re than thirty individ uals wcre bu ried.
In the graves, funerary gifts for the voyage into the afte r-life were
often made: re indeer bo dy or bison leg at La Chappelle-aux -$aints,
deer antlers at Qafzeh. The graves may have been fi lled with field flowers
at Shanidar IV in Iraqi Ku rdistan , as suggested by the frequencies o f

Irdvidus maseullns
todividus femlnins
Sexe indelermlrWI

3H3h"$

2.12 . Individua l mortality according to age and sex at Sima de los Huesos. Atapuerca
Sierra. Castille Leon Province , Spain .
20 Henry de Lumley

2.13 . Child's grave at the Qafzeh cave, Nazareth. Israel. 95,000 ya.

polle n di scovered in the grave. At T es hik Tash in Central Asia, five

pairs of ibex antl e rs surrou nd ed the burial of a ten year o ld c hild.
Some tim es a pa vin g sto ne (at La Fe rrassic and Sh anidar 1) was p laced
above th e pit.
In the cave at La C happclle-aux-Saints, a toothless old man of abollt
fi fty, a vene rable age fo r that period , was placed in a rectan gular pit (sec
Figu re 2.15). H e lay o n his back, li p against o ne corner of the pit, sup-
ported by a few stones, with his right arm bent, brin ging the hand
towards the head, and his left arm straight. His legs were bent into a
fo rced position against his to rso .
In th e large rock shelter at La Fcrrassic, seven burials were discovered.
One co ntai ned t he co mplete skeleton of a man lying o n his back, his head
turned towards the Icft a nd h is legs bent towards thc rig ht. In a second
gravc, a woman was buricd fac ing hjm. Nea rby, five othcr pits contained
t he skeletons of c hildre n and newbo rn babies.
In thc Q afzc h cavc, t here was a careful burial of a ninc ycar o ld chi ld ,
dating to ninety- five t ho usa nd years ago (see Fig ure 2. 14 ). T he arms of
the child , in t he Palco-C hristian prayin g position, held a dcer antlcr; its
legs arc bcnt and turned to thc side. Lct us re membe r t hat, amo ng Indo-
Europea ns, the d ee r is a sy mbo l of fe rtility, ofcternal yo uth and , eve n of
resurrection , since alt ho ug h the antle rs are lost in Autumn , t hcy g row
The emergence of symbolic thought 21

back in [h e Spring, like [he leaves ofplan[s. Perhaps [his idea ofs),l11 bolie
rebirth had begun already in MOll sterian cu ltu res, some o ne hundred
thousa nd years ago.
Burial was at this tim e sporadic - t he prac ti ce was in fact not yet in
ge ne ral lise amon g the Neanderthal s - and it bea rs w it n ess to t h e fac t
t hat humans, in protecting their dead and bringing them offerin gs ,
question the mea nin g of their existence, and their place in the history
of li fe . They seem to delly death, as each o ne o f LI S indeed d oes.
The)' desire to follow the path towa rds their ultimate goa l: li fe after
death . In other wo rds, burial ma)' be sa id to constitu te evidence
for the birth of metaphysica l a ngu ish and fo r rh e eme rgence of
reli gio us thou ght.

2.14. Neanderthal burial at La Ferrassie . Dordogne. France. 40.000 ya.

22 Henry de Lumley

2. 15 . Neanderthal burial at La Chapelle -

aux-Saints. Correze, France. 40.000 ya.

Je w e lle ry, sculpture and cave art: the explosion

of symbolic thought

Finally, rr llJ )' l11odernHmno sapiells appeared 0 11 the scene, with thei r
high, straight foreheads and their well -developed frontal lobes. They
developed associative thought, permitting the emergence o f a high level
of symbolic thought. At this point sapient humans made the fi rst lise of
jewellery, lIsing shells, fossils and pierced teeth to ma ke ncckJ accs and
bracelets, or to sew them onto headdresses o r clothing.
Scu lptu re and parietal art now make the ir appearance. vVe fi nd dec-
orati ve art fo r the first time, Jnd with it the creati on ofscuipture, that is to
say, of representation o n stone, ivo ry, bo ne, or clay. These now act ua.ll y
rep roduce an imals in three dimensions, such as the statuette of J
mJmmoth from Hoh lenstein -Stadel in the Vogclhcrd Bad-Wtirtcmberg.
The emergence o f symbolic thought 23

Sometimes even imagi nary fi g ures arc found , such as humans with lion's
heads from Hohlenstein -Stadel (see Plate 11 ) and from Hohl e Fels, ncar
Ulm (see Figure 2. 16 ). These are dated to ma rc than thirty-tIVo thou -
sand years ago and attributed to th e Au rignacian culture. Late r, about
twenty-eig ht thousJnd years ago, in th e Gravcttian culture, fe male fi g ures
were made, with corpulent form s apparen tl y sym bol izing fec undity (see
also Renfi-ew, this volume ). Figu rati ve parieta l art was also created.

2.16. Statue of a man with lion's head from

Hohle Fels. Ulm. Germany. Aurignacian cui·
ture. 32.000 ya.
24 Henry de Lumley

T hrough engraving or painting, humans reprodu ced on a flat surf.:1ce in

two dimensio ns what existed in the natural world in three dimensions;
this may be said to constirute th e inventio n of t he image.
Jewellery, decorative art, and parietal art all bear witness to the newly
acquired conceptual capacities of humankind and, of course, to t he
deve lopment of symbolic tho ught, furthe r elaborated in relation to mythic
stories and religious thought (see Plate Ill ). Control of the symbol, a
complex cognitive process characteristic of modern humans, was fin ally
achieved. The explosion of symbol ic thought, arising from the growing
complexity of the brain , seems to be a featu re specific to modern humans.

The first ideograms: humans transmit a message

through space and time

From the end of the fOllrth millenn ium before Ch rist, between the Tigris
and Euphrates rivers, Sumerian pictographic writing appears (3,300 Be),
and in the N ile Valley, Egyptian hieroglyphs arc first seen (3,5 00 BC). On
th e rocks of the sacred Bego Mountain in Tcndc, in the Alpes-Maritimes
( 3,3 00 BC) , people we re alread y carvi ng ideograms (see Fig ures 2. 17

_.... __.
----
Z-IVo.-OI . . - .. O

__
-.~-
c_*~

-
~ .}
' . ':::Jo .

6- iI!>
oti ·
11
C].
i'~
( '=t
1,'1 '
L.
f§

t~Q'P
D't
'*
L20cm

2.17. Carved stone known as "Th e Sorcerer" (Z VII. G. R3 (4). oppos ite), Merveilles
Valley, Mount Bego. Tende. France. About 3,000 yrs BC .
The eme rgence of symbolic thought 2S

.... O ... T REGO

S~(tfur : l.ES ME R\' EILLES

Zont- VIII Oroupr II Roelle l(~). FlICc C

DtJII~ di~ ... -s..r.....
Nat= de .. rodlc KIuw
Coulcur de Ia _be <nllae

o ,,=
--~

2. 18. Carved stone known as "Anthropomorphic figure with zigzag arms" and "acephalic
horned praying figure" (Z IV Gi l l. R 160). Th e divine pr imordial couple . Mervei lles Va ll ey,
Mount Bego. Tende. France. About ),000 yrs BC .

and 2.18 ). Through the association of signs, they were able to combine
ideas which may have transm itted their myths, the ir religiolls thoughts,
their knowledge, and their concepts of the wo rld: a message sent down
through space and time.
Amo ng the Great Apcs, we may say that the emotional or motivatio nal
brain uses con tinll o lls re la t io nsh ips in o rde r to establish simp le t ics sli ch
as stimu lus-response; among humans, cogni tive activity rel ics on more
complex relationshi ps in the fo rm of propositions whic h presuppose the
knowledge of a goal and [he verification of results. Should we not
26 H enry de Luml ey

consider the invention of manufactured tools, embedded in an

operational schema in fulfilment of an intention , as the first definition of
what it means to become human?
At the same time, should we not conclude that this progressive
enrichment of cognitive processes, with the emergence of symbol ic
thought and its explosion among modern humans, is a proof that
humans may be said to be in a state of perpetua l becom ing?
SECTION I

AFRICAN ORIGINS,
EUROPEAN BEGINNINGS,
AND WORLD PREHISTORY
3

The origins of symbolism, spirituality, and

shamans: exploring Middle Stone Age material
cultu r e in South Africa

Cin'istophel' HenshiilJlood

Introduction

The rapid and \\~desprcad appearance of 'symbo lically mediated' m3rcri31

cultu re characte ri zes the Upper Palaeoli thic associated with Hom o sn-piclls
after c. 40 kya. Amon g others, cave art, personal ornaments, and tools with
elaborate engraved designs arc typicaJly portrayed as central to under-
stand ing the o rigins of o ur symbolic ab ilities (Mellars 1973, 1989; Mit hen
1996; Ga mble 1999 ). At the core of this 'symbo lic ex plosion ' was th e
development of fully syntactic lan guage that provided the means for
"semantically unbounded discourse" (H. appaport 1999). Archaeological
relics fi'ol11 the pcIiod provide evidence for in d ividu ality, innova ti on, and a
rapidly evolving social comple xity (Gabor. 2001 ). While the interpretation
of these 'symbolic' finds may be polysemic (Conkey 1996), it has long
been argued, too, dlat the fi rst in klings of what is euphemistically referred
to by archaeologists as 'spirituality', 'ritual' or 'shamanism' {l nso ll 2004:
154) can be teased out from a plethora of symbolic mate rial culture
(e .g. H addon 1934; C hi Ide 1958 ; Gamble 1999; Ga bo r. 200 1; fo r a
review) sec Inso1l2004 ). Rcpresentational wall paintings o f animals in deep
cave recesses) abstract geometric patterns and elabo rate grave goods suggest
that the exosomatic evolution of H. sapie1ls) at least in Europe, included
'spiritual' values, 'shamanistic' practi ces and belief in an afterlife (Clottes &
Lewis-Williams 1998 ). Although beyo nd the scope of this paper, a simila r
lin e o f reaso ning is suggested for Neanderthal modernity emerging at about
this time o r just earlicr (fo r a revicw, see d'Errico ct al. 2003 ).
In the absence of wri ttcn records or ethnographic analogy , interpre -
tati o n o f these ancient find s is open to erro r: "unfortunate ly the ex ternal

29
30 Chr istoph er H enshilwood

symbo ls th emselves never contain eno ug h in for matio n to allow us to

rediscove r th e detailed tho ug ht-habits o f an ancient cu ltu re fl, posteriori.
Symbo li c artefacts, even of th e mo rc elaborate kind , rarel y encode th e
conve ntions gove rnin g their usc" ( Do nald 1998 : 184 ).
D espite these senti ments a comn1on assu rnp tio n is that the o rigins
of symbo lism and religio n are closely linked (e.g. Lewis-Will ia ms &
Dawson 1990; C lottes & Lewis- Wi llia ms 199 8; sec a review in Insoll
2004). Esse ntial perh aps to th e earl y development of rcli gious beliefs and
practices was a society med iated by sym bolism. \'Vithout sym bolism there
co uld a rguabl y be no link to supe rn aruraJ age ncy, a key featu re, some
beli eve, of most religio us concepts (Boyer 200 3; Lewis-Willi ams &
Pearce 2004 ). Once symbo lis m was in place, innovati ve materia l culture,
includin g 'rel igio us' icons, flou rished in Europe and contin ued to do so
in subsequ ent genera tio ns. As Lock (2000 ) po ints o ut " th e process of
elabo ra ting the symbo lic su ppOrt fo r, and amplificati o n of, cogniti ve
abilities, is embedd ed in a nex us of influences tha t feed forward and
back to each other". T he crafted physical settings of cave art (see Lewis-
Williams & Dowso n 1990; C lones & Lewis-Wil liams 1998 ), fo r exam -
ple, m ay have fun ctio ned symbo li call y iJl multi ple dimensio ns, one
perhaps being a cond uit fo r 'spiri tuality' o r ' rel igio us notio ns', another
perhaps being th e means o f entry into ano th er wo rld. Associated with the
ad o ptio n o f a 'spiritu al' culture is a social behav iou r th at is increasingly
com plex an d proba bly mediued by th ese emergin g belief systems.
In terpretatio ns of the archaeological evide nce fi'om the Afri can
Middle Stone Age (MSA) suggested , until recently, th at modern human
behavio ur developed late on the continent and pro bably no t before
about 45 kya (Klein 2000 ). Wi th some excepti o ns (sec tVlcBrearty &
Brooks 2000 ) evidence tor sym bolicall y d rive n mate rial culture seemed
absent fi'o m th e MSA and in itiall y patc hy in th e Later Stone Age (LSA)-
a fe w beads at c . 40 kya and some mobiliary art at c. 27 kya . In their
review Lindl y and C lark (1990 : 233 ) concl ud e that " neither archaic
H . sapie1/s nor mo rpho logicall y modern humans demonstrate symbo lic
behavio r pri o r to th e Upper Palaeo lithi c" .
An o bvio lls qllestio n is if anato mi call y modern H . sapieus had evol ved
in Mrica by at least 160 kya (Wh ite et al . 2003 ), and pro ba bly before
200 k'ya ( ln gm ann et al. 2000 ) then we re th e saille fea tu res that defin e
behavio ral modern ity in E urope (Mell ars 1973 ; Ga mble 1996 ) present in
M ri ca befo re 50 kya~ Did an ato mi call y modern H 01J[.o sapiens who left
The origins of symbolism, spirituality. and shamans? 31

Africa between 70 and 40 kya have the capacity for syn1bolisIll and was
their behaviour sym bolical ly driven? l[the earliest evidence of religious
practice does lie in Africa, then when modern humans left the continent
to spread across Eurasia the capacity for spirituality, for ' reli gious', for
' shamanistic' experience must already have been in place. They must have
been behaviourally modern when they left. Does the availa ble evidence
support this scenari o or could the earliest evidence for rdi gion and
symbolism in Africa fit only into a post 50 kya timeframe?

The Archaeology of Religion

Different methodological tools are required for examining the ori gin s of
religion , whether religious behaviour has ecological determinants, the
development of religious institu tions and whether religio n is adaptive
(Sosis & Alcorta 2003 ). In this paper the physical evidence for earl y
religious practice is highlighted. Seeking the 'ori gins of spirituaJi ty' in
prehistory is fraught with the same kinds of problems that confiont
arc haeologists seekin g material evidence for the origins of language.
No direct evidence for language exists and similarly eviden ce for
reli gio n. Recovered material culture arguabl y provides the only means of
recovering such data.
A startin g point in this search is the suggestion by Boyer (2003) that
religion cannot function without symbolism. Evidence that early members
of OlU' species, H. ergaster or H . heidelbel'gcllsis or even earl y H . sapiens,
we re functioning symbolically is scarce. Even if they we rc capable of
symbolic bchaviour, as has been argued fo r the production of handaxes,
then the symbol systems they \overe using were minimally elaborated (Lock
2000 ). Psychologists generall y agree that we have several different kinds
of ' intelli gence' or t)rpes of cognitive abilities that are associated with
specialised situations: social sense, naive physics, numerosity, and so on.
Cogn itive fluidity occurs, Mithen (1996: 143) argues, when the separate
domains of thought (natural history intelligence, technical intel li ge nce,
social and linguistic intelligence) are integrated - his descri ption is a 'super-
chapel ' of th e mind, in an anaJogy in which a number of the specialist small
'chapels' dedicated to specific func tions are amalgamated. Sperber'S
(1 994 ) " module of meta-representation", a place where we represent f.l cts
abo ut representatio n itself, is likened by Mithen (1996) to this 'super-
chapel'. Early hominids, Mithen (1996) argues, had not linked these
32 Christ opher H e nshi lwood
in telligences and were thus incapable of cognitively flu id comm u nication .
Belief in noncorporeal beings (the supernatu ral) is the most cOlllmonly
offered definition for religion in anthropology, although t he distinction
between the supernatural associated with rit ual practices and paranormal
beliefs that arc not ritualised is oftcn ignored (Sosis & Alcorta 2004: 265 ).
Only when rcijgiolls ideas are t ranslated into material artefacts, Mithen
(1996 ) suggests, can re ligion become possible. These material artefacts
take on the role. of 'anchors', in some ways similar to t hat of a rosary,
that enable early modern humans to recall, understand and transmit
these ideas.
If we assume then that hominids prior to H. sapiens in Europe were
not cogn itivel y modern (see Mithen 1996 ), then we should not expect to
find physical evidence of symbolic artefacts, ritual or other mate rial cul-
ture associated with the paranormal in sites that predate the Uppe r
Palaeol.ithic, or in the Middle Stone Age in Africa - but we should fi nd
this evidence in sites occupied by behaviourall y modern H . sapie·ns. T he
argument is somewhat circu lar but begs the question - how do we rec -
ognise material culture associated with the paranormal and how do we
distinguish artefacts that may have functioned in a symbolic but non -
religious mode frol11 those that we re in tegral to a bel.iefsystem o r perhaps
even ritualised? Also is t he separation likely to be d istinct? Accord ing to
Mit hcn ( 1996: 165 ) there is no evidence th at material symbols ex isted
beyond the start of the Upper Palaeolithic, and he maintains that without
them shared ideas about supernatural bein gs could not exist. It is at th is
point, about 30 kya that ritual , symbolk cultu re and emerging cognitive
fluidity intersected - what Mithen describes as a "spandrel of re ligion".
This assertion, ifcorrect, may make the task of the archaeologist seeking
these material beginnings of religion somewhat easier, or at least con-
strains the period with in which such 'sacred' o r ' ritual' objects are likely
to first appcar.
A brief review of what religion is, o r migh t have been , may alsb
contribute some ideas to the above questions but anthropo logy has no
widely accepted, universal definition of the concept 'religion' (Lambeck
2002 ). Insoll (2004: 155 ) describes it as an "an awe-inspiring crea-
ture ... irreducible and complex". "What sort of science is it", Durk.hcim
asks of religion, "whose principal discovery is that the subject of which it
t reats docs not exist?" (Jones 1986). H'c rejected anim ism as a basis for
rel ig ion on the grou nds that such a doctrine implies that rel igious
T he origins o f symbo lism . spirituality, a nd shamans?
symbols are products of t he vague, ill -conceived hall ucin ations of our
dream -experience . To him this was untenable as was naturism whereby
religion ultimately rests upon a real experience, that of thc principal
phenomena of nature and which is sufficient to d irectly arouse rel igious
idcas in the mind (jones 1986; I nsoll 2004 ). In The Elementary FOT>ns
published in 1912 Durkheim opted instead for totemism (Sosis &
Alcorta 2004). Totemism is not a relig ion of emblems o r ani mals o r men
at all, but rather of an anonymous, impersonal 'force', immanent in t he
world and d.iffused among its various material objects. He stressed t hat
God is nothing mo rc than society apotheosized (H ad don 1934; Jones
1986) . Inte restingly, th is argurnent was bou nd to his co nception of t he
ro le of symbols in society. Symbols can stand as expressions of social
sentiment but also serve to create the sentiments themselves. Col.lective
symbols are atu'ibuted solely, he thought, to the mutual reactio ns of
individual minds, one upo n the other and represe ntatio ns wou ld rapidly
diminish or disappear in the abse nce of these collective sym bols. Society
" in all its aspects and in every period of its history, is ma de possi ble on ly
by a vast symboLism" (jones 1986; InsoIl2004 ). To confi rm his theori es
for the origins of religion Du rkheim turned to eth nography and the
Arunta in Australia. In th is, he failed as fi rst he ignored counterbeliefs of
nearby groups and second, his deve loped argument contained a petitio
pTincipii (Jones 1986 ). D urkhcim, with mino r cha nges effectivel y
presumed t.he conclusion, w hi ch was at question in the fi rst place.
Durkheim's search for the 'essence of religion' among th e Aru nta
co ntains a stark warning for archaeologists seeking to assoc iate ' rel igio us
intent' with ancient material cu ltu re. "What one finds among the Arunta
are the beliefs and p ractices of the Arunta, and even to call these
'religious' is to impose the conventions of o ne's own culture and
historical period" (Geertz 1973 : 22 ). Carrying the theme furthe r to t he
archaeology of religion , Insoll (2004: 153 ) emphasizes th e importance of
examining the context of recovered material culture in both its individual
and communal forms before we can begin to reconstruct relevant
past meaning.
The 'essence of religion' is obviously mu ltifacetted and extraordinarily
complex and is perhaps the reason that h umans are the on ly species that
engage in religious behaviour (e .g. Mithcn 1999 ). It is also the cont ra-
dictory nature of re li gion that is one of its critical and complex featu res
(c.g . Rappapo rt 1999; Wilson 2002; Boyer 2003 ). Factors t hat f.1Vourcd
14 Christophe r Hensh ilwood
religious practice in Q lIr evolutio nary histo ry may help shed some light o n
how the material cu lture of religion may manifest in the archaeological
record. What is also puzzling is how reli gious behaviour is apparentl y
so pervasive throughollt human populatio ns after abo ut 30 kya
(J'vlithen 1996: 149 ).
A comprehensive rcvic\\' of the history of rcligion ~ oric ntatcd researc h
is elegantly presented by 1nsoJl (2004 ). Three approaches that may be
useful for archaeologists contemplati ng the material evidence for religion
are briefly considered here: one that reli gio n is adaptive, two, that its
o rigins lie in a biological capacity for hypnosis (shama1lism) and, three
that it is a byp rodu ct of brain function. Indi vidual actio ns arc ge nerally
no t effective in th e explo itation of resources and to maximise the benefits
humans g ro ups coalesce. These adapti ve units that form do so bccause
they have moral systems and th e g ro up's behaviour is regulated through
rel igious image ry and symbolism (Wilson 2002 ). Cu ltural selection, an
o ngo ing process, adaptively selects fo r those religious practices mOst
benefici al to the g roup and ma y n:ject or modify those that arc delete·
rious. The latte r may not necessarily be the case as maladapti ve traits are
known also to survive among some g roups (M.ithen 1996). Groups
fu nctio n as adaptive units through their ab ili ty to relate to supernatural
agents. The essence of H' ilson's argument is that uni fying systems enable
humans to fo rm adaptive groups and th at religion is onc example of th is.
He emphasiscs that g roup selection docs OCC lI r, that in tergroup sol ida ri ty
is promoted by reli gio n and that thc gcncti c isolation of religiolls groups
could lead to fitness differences (sec also Bo)'er 2004 ). His viewpoint
is not in agrecment with an emerging consensus that is rooted in
evolutionary psychology (sec, e.g., Mit hen 1996; Boyer 2001 , 2003;
Rappaport 1999 ). Both th e possibility and impo rtan ce of group selection
are hig hlig hted by 'Ni lson who is opposed to the individual or gcnc-level
selection model ( Boyer 2004: 43 1). But perhaps the major problem with
the adaptive approac h for archaeologists seeking the o ri gi ns of reli gio n in
prehistory is that \Vilson's approach considers reli gio ns that are institu -
tionalised and whose beliefs and dogma arc controlled and managed by
doctrinal specialists - in essence rhe reli gio ns of complex state sociery.
evertheless, if rel igion in early hunter· ga therer societies was adaptive
would it Ieavc material t races and if so what? One could argue that
reciprocity for med an essential part of inter- and intragroup cohesion to
III ain amicable social rela[ion~ One Jart of this ma" hav been
The origins o f symbolism, spirituality, a nd shama ns?
exchange and reciprocity - in essence 'gift giving'. Imbued with value
due to rarity or fine craftsmanship gift items may acquire intrinsic
symbol ic/spiritua l mea ni ng. The recovery of such items may be one
indicator of symbolicall y mediated behaviour, without which spi rituality
can arguably not function.
An innate biological fun ction that unde rl ies hypnotic capac ity is
argued by McClcno n (200 I ) as the origin of reli gio us beliefs and healing
practices. In 1870, Lubbock proposed a not dissimilar idea exce pt that he
ranked shamanism low o n an evolutio nary scale of re ligion and just above
tote mism, then fe tishism and atheism (1nsoll 2004: 43 ). A hypnotic
capacity that produces an altered state of conscio usness enhanced sur-
vival, reproduction and aided wi th recovery fi·om disease. j\1anifestations
du ring a hypnotic state incl ude creative visions, perceptions of spirits
and o ut of body experi ences. It is the associati o n of these anomalous
experiences durin g hypnosis and ritual thar form the foundations for
shamanism and religion ( McLenon 2001 ). Supporting rh is Grgu mcnt
Lewis Williams & Pearce (2004: 36 ) contend that a ne uro logical fo un -
dation lies at the base of a di ve rse, worldwide spiritual ity - "spirituality is
a construct, bur o ne with a mate rial, neurological function".
The contribution o f individuals in the evolutio n of cultu ral complexity
is a top ic addressed by a number of researchers (e.g. Gabora 1997;
Ri cherson & Boyd 1998; Pearce 2002 ; Al va rd 2003 ). Individua l in no-
vatio n may have played a key role in the origins of rel igion (also see
Gabora 2001 ) as hyp notic experien ce enhanced access to the uncon-
scious mind. The most distinctive characteristi c of human cultural evo-
lution is described as the ' ratchet effect' , by Tomasello ( 1999 ) as it allows
for the ideas and in ve ntio ns of an indi vid ual to build on the ideas and
inventions of others. Modi fications ro an artefacr or a social practice made
by one individ ual or a g roup of individuals may spread within the g roup ,
and then stay in place until some future ind ividual or individua ls make
further modificatio ns. \Vhich memes spread and wh ich die is determined
by the d ynamics of the entire society of individuals which hosts these
ideas and in ve ntions (Gabora L997: 5). C reativity is a collective afia ir that
de rives fi'olll within the g roup 's cognitive system and the concept of
individual creativity shou ld not however obscure that f.,ct.
Most agree that the birth of:.1 creative idea can only lie with an indi -
vidual. A group of individuals may disclIss the pros and cons of a new
conce Jt and each individu;lJ within the roul2 ma ' c tribute-ideas bUi
 ,-nrlStOpner Henshilwood
the final idea that is accc pted by the group wou ld have been ge nerated
by one individ ual, even if ir came about th rough group input. Gabora's
(2000 : 3 ) concept of an ' inkling', desc ri bes wel l the concept of individu al
creativity:
An inkling, then, is a collapse on an association or relationship amongst
mcmories or concepts that, although their distribution regions overlap,
we re stored there at di Hc renr timcs, and have never before been simlll ~
t;\I1collsly perturbed, and evoked in the samc collapse. A1thollgh it is a
reconstructed blend, something never actuall y experienced, it can still be
said to have been evoked fro m memory. It is like gettin g a ' bi te' on many
fishi ng rods at once, and when YO ll red them in yo u get a fis h that is a
mixture of the char:lcteristics of the v:lrious fish that bit.
Richerson & Boyd ( 1998 : 14 ) suggest that the complexities of subsis-
tence systems, artistic productio ns, languages, and the like wo uld have
prohi bited one individual frorn inventing them. The same reasoning can
equa ll y be applied to formative conceptions of spirituality. It was most
likely the incremental, marginal modifications of many innovators,
arguably with some chan ge being contributed o r created through altered
states of consciousncss that over 111 ,\I1y gene rations contributed to rhe
complexity of religious practice and behavioural modernity.
Alte red states of consciousness and hyp nosis interrup t the normal
cycle of transm itters produ cing a dream li ke state of mind , anomalous
experiences and assist with physical recuperation. McClenon (2001 )
proposes that biology provides the basis for rel igion , physiologicall y and
genetically. Spi rits, an after life, haunting, posscssion and o ur of body
experiences are uni ve rsal featu res of shamanistic hea lin g and point to a
neurological foundation fo r religiolls experience and spi ritual healing. An
almost uni versal belief in a tiered cosmos with spiritual realms above and
bdow the level in which they li ve is prod uced by the human nervous
system and can be verified by altered states of consciollsness (Lewis-
Wi lliams & Pearce 2004 : 35). H allucinatin g shamans or seers that retell
of this phenome non are tho ught to have access to unseen realms beyond
the ordinary. A powerful tool is created for understanding the o ri gins of
human cultural complexity, and archaeologica l marcrials, by linki ng
shamanic and other rel igious experiences and beliefs with contemporary
hyp notic ph enomena. Can mate ria l cu lrun.: be :l prox y for that which
cannOt be seen in the past, for that which c x i~ [cd primaril y within the
The origins of symbolism, spirituality, and shamans?
human brain? How an:. we to interpret these fragmentary remains?
Un ravding the o ri gins and mean ing of abstract image ry, representational
paintin gs, personal orn aments and other symbolic material cultu re may
be aided by reference [0 sham:lI1istic practice but caution is advised. \Ve
just cannot be certain that the ne urological systems of H. sapicHs 70 kya
were the same as ours, or that the recovered material we now label as
nonfunctional, sym bolic, rel igio us, and so on was gene rated within the
same frame of reference ( [l1sol1 2004: 32 ).
Some evolutionary psychologists consid er the ori gins of religio n
and religious thought to be ' nat ural', a by ~ product of brain fU llction
(e.g. Kirkpatrick 1999; Mi the n 1996, 1999; Pinker 1997; Boyer 1994,
200l, 2003, 2004 ). Re li gious ideas develop as a result of cognitive
capacities within the human brain that developed o ri ginally to handle
non -rel igious in for matio n ( Boyer 200 I ). Religion is therefore nor an
intrinsic part of the cogniti ve capacities of modern humans) as is the case
for language acquisition. Boyer (2001 ) argues that all normal humans
acqu ire a natural language and that this acq uisition is an adaptation . Not
so for music o r religion, he says, and the evidence is that al though most
humans can recognize Illusic and religiolls concepts, the extent to which
they may enjoy mllsic o r ad here to religiolls concepts may be profoundly
diffe rent. Not all humans a rc natu ra lly religious, in fact many arc not.
Evidence that some ge nes code fo r religion an d that reli gion is therefore a
function of natural selectio n has not been proven - despite the fact that
Hamer (2004) deduced from a qucstion naire that sampled about onc
thousand people that there was a correlation betwee n the presence of a
particular gene and his in terpretation of the meaning of 'spirituality'.
Boyer's (2000: 11 ) criticism of most 'ori gin of religion theories' is that
they are fimctio nalist and ul1 tcsrable . Accounts of religious systems arc
often ethnocelltlic and foclls 0 11 cogniti ve and emotional aspects of reli -
gion that cannot be gene rali zed fo r human society. Others seek to acco unt
for ou r mortality, justify social orders, and seck life's meaning. Ad herents
to the 'by-product' view maintain it is empiricall y justifiable and mo re
prudent to consider religion as the offshoot of an evolutionary cognitive
system t ha t developed throu gh natural selectio n (Boye r & Rambl e 200 1),
although some argue this approach is essentiaJist (Insoll 2004: 93).
Evidence fo r this app roach is that religious ideas do not f.l l1 within a
separate reaJm of cognitive functionin g. Boyer (200 I ) provides three
reasons why religion is 'natural' and not the result of a 'sleep of reason'.
 Christopher Henshilwood The origins of symbolism, spirituality, and shamans?
38

First, religion denes many of o ur most basic instinctual perceptions provide SOme insights into the proble ms faced by arch3.cologists III
and hence are relevant (e.g. we all grow old and die but spirits do not); constructi ng In archJeology of religio n. Wheth er religio n cvolved as a
second, the survival of religious concepts connrms many of o ur intuitive by-prod uct of the brain , becausc it WJS adaptive o r d ue to th e phvsio-
l

principles; third, the systems that create similar norms, like mo ral intuitio n, logical ability of humans to go into trance, wi ll continuc to stim~date
or emotio ns, like a fea r of contaminants, are the same ones t hat dl;ve dc bate. Sosis and Alco rta (2003: 272 ) suggest that a basic point that has
religious ideas and emotions. To sustain reli gious thoughts, stich as been missed is that traits arc adaptive with respect to a particular set
ancesto r spirits, an afterlife o r ghosts means tweaking ordinal)1 cognition. of selective pressu res. \IVhether religious traits contribute d irectly to
Intuitive physics tells us that unsupported objects [111, that humans cannot reproductive success, as has been suggested for selection within eco-
fly unaided, and so o n, ye t we adhere to many religious notions that defY logica l contexts, has yet to be demonstrated. The. selective pressu res
ou r own logic (sec Boyer 2000 : 197). T he reason , Boyer (200 I ) argues, wi th in vario us ecological contexts may also lead to religious behaviour
is not because humans suspend o rd inary cognitive processes but rather adapting. The maladaptive traits that arc suggested as being cosdy III

because the context in which these cognitive resources are used is dif'tcrent rel igio n (sec Mi thc n 1996 ) may not be so; in taCt, the contrary may be
to that for which they we re designed . true in that costlin ess may be a critical adaptive feature of religio us
A potentiall y useful insight for arc haeologists is the view that there arc beha vio ur (Sosis & Alcorta 2003 : 272 ). It is appropriate that archae.
not man y ways of tweaking intuitive onto logy ( Boyer 2000: 198 ). This o logists keep an open mind and adopt a critical, multidiscipl inary
suggests that supernatural concepts produced within the human mind approach . T he stones won It speak but perhaps Some aspects of the matcri~
may be constrained to include on ly person, animal, plant, artefact, natural cul ture of ancient religions will be revealed if the door is kept open .
object. Violations of these basic categories are produced by 'breach' or by
' transfe r'. Breachin g is a contradictio n of intuitive expectatio ns, for Modern Humans in Africa
example , an animal that disa ppears and thus breac hes intui tive physics
(see Boyer 2000: 197) . T ransfe r is when intuitive knowledge of one If the 'O ut of Mrica' hypothesis is correct ... it is in Afi-ica that we shall
find clues that point to the earliest mani festations of'spiritualiry' - ifonl"
category is extended to another catego ry, for example a rock th at flies.
wc can SpOt them . The problem is that we do not know what they I11a~
The resu ltan t list of te mplates is thus relatively small and com patible, loo k like. (Lewis·Williams & Dowson 2004: 5) .
accordin g to Boye r (2001: 199 ) with the anthropological record. Most
rel igious concepts, the evidence suggests, arc based o n one of these If human cognitive ab ilities underwent a major transitio n aboLlt 45 kya, is
' templates' . 'vVhilc the possible physical evidence for religious practice the re physiological evidence of this? \,Vhile noth in g palaeoneurological
may still be considered wide this concept may aid archaeologists at least in can be said wi d, confidence abo llt possible changes with the emerge nce
narrowing down likely evidence for 'religious' material culture. In ter- of anatom ically modern H . sapiclIJ( H o ll oway 1996) it seems certa in that
estin gly, artefacts arc included in this list. Alterations of artefacts are likely hom inid brains evolved through the sa me selection processes as other
to be by breach of physical expectations, by transfer of biological bod)' parts (Gabora, 2001 ). Bio logical evol utio n selected fo r genes that
expectations and by rransfer of psychological expectation . Of course, promoted a capacity for symbo lism thus the fo undatio ns for symbolic
these alte rations are most likely conceptual and may not be visible on culture Illust be grounded in biology.
recovered mate rial. Nevertheless it docs suggest that at least some arte- New genetic and foss il evidence suggests that humans we re
facts , apart from paintings or carvin gs may have been imbued with reli - anato mi call y near modern in Africa by 16 0 kya (c.g. Ing man ct at. 2000;
gious signincance. The challenge of how this might be recognized on a Cavalli -Sforza 2000; \Vhite et a!. 200 3) . Key questions are whether
bone or sto ne tool made fifty thousand years ago remains. anatomical and behaviou ral modernity deVeloped in tandem and l

Reli gio n and its origins is a neglected area of arc haeological method wh:n criteria archaeologists shou ld lise to idcJ1 ti f)' mode rn behavior.
' -_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ,~Ild...J:hCOr:v.'...Jlli..·.!·"·,,'_
' ,"llX:.;ro;:;.:\C:;:.;I..l\~·\~t_o_r..e;.:li;;,:;io;:.'~l..:l;:.h:::a:::t.,:'.:.ve::.r~c;...::tO:;:.:;:lI.:.c:,:h.:.c;;:d.,:o::,,:,:'.,;":,:b:,:o;;,';,;'c;;,____...L_ _ Cor rcl a tin ~ anatomical u:.it
40 Christophe r H e nshilwood
unlike fossils, the eviden ce for behaviour is no t easi ly extractab lc from
the archaeological reco rd. It is probable that post- Co 160 kya the only
hom inid in Africa was anatomically mo dern H. sapiens, and behavior
changes du rin g this period arc restricted to o ne species of homin id.
A review of the Ali-ican e,odcnce by McBrearty & Brooks (2000)
indicates a variabl e mosaic pattern of cogn itive advances associated with
anatomically modern humans (AlvIH ) can be detected in the MSA. A
number of other authors also make the point that the develo pment of
'modern ' behaviour is likel y to have been a vast and comp lex series of
events that developed in a mosaic way, and that the likely scale and
rcpertoire of 'mo dern ' behavior in the Ivlidd le to Late Pleistoccne is
eno rmo us (cf. C hase & Dibble 1990; Foley & Lahr 1997; Gibson 1996;
Renfrew 1996; Deacon 1998; McBrearty & Brooks 2000; Henshilwood &
Marean 2003 ). For example, at 160 kya, AMH's in Ethiopia show
ev idence for deliberate treatment of the dead associated with modern
type behaviour yet the ir lithic technology remains a mix of Achcu lcan and
MSA (Clark et al. 200 3). At Katanda in West Ati'ica sophisticated bone
harpoons arc manufuctured at c. 90 kya (Yellen et al. 1995; Brooks et al.
1995 ). During the t ransition from Mode 2 to Mode 3 (Foley & Lahr,
2003 ) thcre is di rectional change but th e developmcnt ofinrer-asscmblage
variation is mainly the result oflocal style developing. The Still Bay dated
at c. 75 kya (Henshil wood et al. 2002; Jacobs et al. 2003a, 200 3b ) is
specificall)' regarded by Foley and Lahr (2003: 12 l ) as one example. In
southcrn Mrica, 'vVurz et al. (2003 ) demonstrate distinct techndogical
changes in lith ic style between the MSA I period (c. I lO- 11 5 kya) and the
MSA II (c. 94 - 85 kya). They identif)' these MSA substages as separate
'techno-traditions' and arguc fo r vo lati lity rather than stasis at the MSA 1/
I I interf."lcc that ca n be extended to othe r parts of Mrica. Cogniti ve ly
modern bchaviour, they contend , is assoc iated with these observed
changes in technological conventio ns at the K1asies NISA sitc.
\Vh at defines modern o r no nhuman behaviour? A typically classic
marker of nonmodern human behaviour is a lack of innova tio n in
material culture. For in stance, some archaeolog ists take the relati ve
technological stasis of th e Midd le Stone Age between about c. 250- 240
kya as an argume nt against behavio ural modernity. It seems there is no
clear agreement as to what consti tu tes 'modern' or 'fully modern ' (cf.
C hase & Dibble 1990 ; Gibso n 1996; Re nrrcw 1996; "01<)' & Lahr 1997;
Deacon 1998· McB rcarr & Brooks 2000; Hc nshil wood & M~a;;;I~
I -c;;;a,;,;
n_ _ _ _& _ _ _
The origins of symbolism, spiritualit y, a nd shamans?
2003 ). One defin ition is that fully modern behavior is mediated by
socially constructed patterns of symbo li c thinking, actions and commu -
nication that allow for material and information exchange and cultural
continuity between and across generatio ns and contemporaneous COm-
munities (Henshilwood & Nlarean 2003 ). The kev factor here is the lise
of sym bolism to media te behaviour rather than JU St having the capacity for
symbolic thought. Do nald's ( l 99 1) three-stage model provides a useful
framework. In the third stage he suggests that the ability to store and app ly
symbols externally all ows matcria l cu lture to intervene d irec tl y o n social
behavio r. The transi ti o n to symbo l.ica ll y lite rate societies, according to
Donald (199 1, 1998) is a defi ning f.lcto r fo r behavioral modern ity.
Cri tical innovative clements for defining modern behaviou r incl ude ,
among others, advanced subsistence practices especially fishing, shaped
bone tools, rapid chan ge in roo l kits, art and personal o rnaments, and
deliberate burial with g rave goods. This is an approach based on :1 com-
parison of the material c ulture of Neanderthals with that of C ro-magnons
at c. 35 kya in Europe (sec Mellars 1973 ). Alte rnative approaches to
recognising modern behaviour in the archaeological record have been
proposed (e.g. McBrearty & Brooks 2000; Henshilwood & Marean
2003 ). Principal among these is the recognition of material cu ltu re that
carries an implicit symbolic message. Agreement on the best approach is
lacking and for many the Europcan 'Iist' -bascd approach ho lds sway.
Blombos Cave - e arly e vidence for symbolism
Over the past twel ve years, Blombos Cave ( BBC), situated near Still Bay
in the southern Cape, South Africa, has yielded a well prescrved sample of
f:"l unal and cultural material in MSA leve ls. The J\1SA phases are separated
fi'o m the < 2 kya LSA levels by a blanketing aeol ian dune sand 5- 50 cm
thick dated at c. 70 kya by optically stimu lated luminescence (OSL)
( H enshilwood ct al. 2002; Jacobs ot al. 2003 ). Careful examination of
sediments and anth ropogenical ly de rived deposits within ind ividuallcvels
over the past few yea rs ha ve all owed us to subd ivide the J'VlSA leve ls into
th ree major phases: (i) a Still Bay, or M I phase dated at c. 75 k-ya by OSL
and thcrmo lum incscence, (ii ) a middle M2 phase, perhaps earl y Sti ll Bay,
provisionall y dated by OSL at c. 78-82 kya , (iii) a lower .M.3 phase that is
provisionall y dared at > L25 kya. Subsistence behavio ur in the upper
two phases is similar to tta fu nd in C. LSA levels and~ncllld(.s till"
 Christopher Henshilwood
2
abi lity to hunt large bovids, collcct shellfish, and catch large marine fish.
Artcfacts unu sual in a Middle Stonc Age context have been recovered .
These include engraved ochre and bone, marine shell beads, and finely
made bifacial points in ,"II , and shaped bone tools in MI and M2. The
likely symbolic significance of t hese finds suggests levels of cognitivcly
modern behaviour not previously associated with Middle Stone Age
people. T wo of these finds arc described here : th e cngraved och res and
the shell beads.
ENGRAVED OCHRES
More than eig ht thousand pieces of ochre, man y bearing signs of utili -
sation, have been recovered fro m the .MSA layers at BBC . Nine pieces are
potentially eng raved and und er study. Two unequivocally engraved
pieces were recovered in si tu from the MI phase (H ens hilwood 2002 )
(sec Plate lV). Both specimens were located in a matri x of undi sturbed
and well consolidated ash and sand. On one piece, SAM -AA 8937 both
the Rat surfaces and one edge are modified by scra ping and g rin ding. The
edge has twO g rou nd facets and the larger of t hese bears a cross-hatched
eng raved design. The engravill g 0 11 the secolld piece, SAM -AA 8938
consists of a row of cross-hatching, bounded top and bottom by parallel
lilles, alld divided through the middle by a third parallel line which
d ivides the lozenge shapes into tri angles. Choice of raw material, situa-
tion and preparation of the eng raved surface, engraving technique, and
final design arc similar for both pieces indicatin g a deliberate sequence of
choices and intent. Arguably the engraved BBC ochres are the most
complex and best formed of claimed ea rly representatio ns (Noble &
Davidson 1996; d'Errico & Villa 1997; Bahll 1998; Lewis-Williams &
Pearce 2004 ). They are not isolated occ urrences or the resu lt of idi o-
syncratic behaviour, as suggested for many ea rly 'palaeo-art' objects.
They would certainly not be o ut of place in a UP context. The trans-
mission and sharin g of the symbolic meaning of these pieces must
arguably have depended on syntactical language.
MARINE SHELL BEADS
Thirty-nine marine shell beads wcre recovcred from the M I phase and
twO from the M2 phase ( Hcnshilwood ct al. 2004; d 'Erri co ct al. 2005 ).
The beads wcre made by piercing N. k1-n.lIssimllls ' tick' shells and then
..._ _ _ _~_ _~'s.trllur~....ili.kUL Qrobabl ' for U!,I; as personal ornaments (sec Plate V).
The origins of symbolism, spirituality, and shamans?
Tick shells OCcur only in estuaries and were probably brought to the site
from ri ve rs located 20 kill west and east of the cavc. AJI th e tick shells
found in the MSA levels are adu lt, contra-indicating a random coUcction
and rathe r a deliberate selection for size_ Non -human taphonomic pro-
ccsses arc known to produce pscudo personal ornaments that appear
morphologically sim ilar to human- modified and used bcads. Un like a
natural collection all the recovered MSA shells arc perforated dorsall y,
and 88 per cent have unique mcdium size perforations located ncar the
lip (d'Errico et al. 2005 ). These perforations arc anthropogenic and
deliberate. Jvl icroscopic ana lysis of the JvlSA tick shclls revcals a distinct
usc-wear consisting of facets which Rattcn the outer lip o r create a con-
cave surf-lce on the lip close to thc antcrior canal. A simi lar concave facet
is often seen opposite to the first one, on the parietal wall ofthc aperture.
Usc-wca r patterns on the tick shells arc consistent with friction fro m
rubbin g agai nst th read, clothes or other beads and are the principal f..lctor
that defines the MSA shells as beads. Microscopic residues of ochre
detected inside the MSA shells may also result from such friction o r
del iberate colou rin g of the beads. Beads were found in groups of two to
seventee n, clustering in the sa me o r neig hbou ri ng 50 x 50 cm quadrates.
VVith in a gro up, beads display a similar size, shade, usc-wca r pattern
and type of perforation. Each cluster may represent beads coming
fi'olll the same beadwork item , lost or disposed du rin g a sin gle event
(d'E rrico ct al. 2005 ).
A new dimension is ad ded to the modern human behavio ur debatcs
by the excavation of the MSA beads from accu ratel y datcd and strati-
graphicall y sec ure hori zo ns at Blombos Cave; that beads are regarded
as symbolic is und isputed ( Henshilwood et al. 2004). The sy mbolic
meaning of these beads must havc becn shared and transmittcd through
syntactical language, as is suggested for the engraved ochre pieces. The
recovcry of shell beads provides material evidence that by 75 kya human
commu nication was mcdiatcd by sym bo lism, an unambiguolls marker of
modern human behavior.
Discussion
Neural reorganisation within thc human brain OVCI' mi lknnia, rather
than as a punctuated cvcnt, may have led to periods of rapid innov-
ation o r stasis depending on selectivc criteria that favoured or
 Chris t o phe r He nshilwoo d
disfavourcd innovation. The introduction of inn ov:.1tive ideas such as a
new subsistence practice, remodelling of space within a living site or the
shaping of a bone point may act as crucial arc haeological markers for the
recogn ition of 'modern'-type behaviour in sites such as BB e. However,
detecting evidence for symbolically mediated behaviour is distinctly more
subtle . An essential attribute of cogn itivcly modern societies is tllc ir
capacity to crcate symbolic systen1s and to reflect these visibly in their
material cu lture. The combined presence of shell beads and engraved
ochres in the same MSA phase provides absolute evidence that t he
behaviour of the make rs and users of these artef.1cts was med iated by
symbo lism. Perhaps, the Blambos evidence also tells us that at th is point
modern humans were cognitively fluid and alread y possessed a ge neral-
ized type of intelli gence, as suggested by Mithen ( 1996).
Docs the BBe j\1SA provide any indicators for supernarur:.1 l imagina-
tion, a behaviour closely linked to religious notions? We have no evidence
for two of the categories tllat may be typical indicators ofrcligion (Boyer
1994); first, spi rits after death and second the performance of rituals aimed
at spiritual manipulation of the natural world. A thi rd category, tile 'divine'
ability of individuals who have a different 'essence' to others within a grollp
(Boyer 1994) and arc able to communicate with supernatural agencies is
open to interpretation. I nnovative behavio ur, sllch as the engraving of
abstract images o n ochre, may be the result of the inspirational ~ esse nce ' of
o ne individu al, perhaps a 'shaman' , and be ge nerated by 'religious'
thoughts typicall y activated when people deal with emotions like death,
disease or birth ( Boyer 2003). Sim ilarly, the Blombos beads mal' also
represent a 'religiously' derived symbol that med iates and is mediated by
group behaviour. Both categories of material cu ltu re are symbolic and
innovative, and plausibly wcre linked to religious agency.
The 'identity' imparted by the engravings and beads probably fOfmed
part ofa collective set of characteristics by which thcse and other symbolic
itcms were recognizable withi n a cognition system that operated in
imaginary and real dimensions t hat were inseparable. Symbols change
through time because of remodclin g the original concepts. Meanings can
also change and the origins of thl.: concept can be lost. This may have
bl.:l.:n the case for the BBC engravings and beads as succecd ing .MSA
phases in the region do not, as t'3r as wc know, contain simi lar artefacts.
Indi vid uals playa major role in this process, either stimulating changes in
the mcanin s of s tmbolic representations or experimenting with novel
The o rigins of symbolism, sp iritu a li ty, and sha man s?
material expression of the sa me concepts. Some change may be driven by
individuals' intuitivc 'religious' dloughts, salient personal experiences o r
interpretation of doctr ine. As Boyer (2003: I 19 ) points o ut, religious
thoughts are not a dramatic departure from, but a predictable by-product
of, ordinary cognitive function. Religious concepts likely de rive fi·om the
same notions experienced in dreams, f.1 ntasy and legends. The same
functiona ll y distinct neural resources that are activated by concepts such
as social exchange, moral intuitio n and representations of animacy arc
also activated by reli gio us concepts but somc tweaking is likely that allows
notions of su pernatural agency to be intuitively plausible (Boye r 2003).
The Blombos evidence and new finds at other African sites is
debunking the myt h that Afri cans were behavio urall y no n-mod ern unt il
about the timc of the Pal aeolithic cu ltural revolution. Although evi-
dence ofa 'symbolic explosio n' in the Africa n MSA is lacking it ca n be
argucd that by at least 75 kya the social intelli gence of humans had been
invaded by nOll-social ideas to create what Sperber ( 1994) describes as
th e "superchapel of the mind ". Once the human mind had advanced to
this point, peoples' cogn itive domains cou ld expand into spiritual
dimensions not previously explored. The o ri gins of religion ma y nOt
have been a d ramatic phenomenon, Or even had particularly auspiciolls
beginn ings. It may have started in a cave somcwhere in Africa, perhaps a
cave like Blombos, at least seventy-five thousand years ago, probably
ea rlier. Whethe r religion was inevitable o r not is debatable, but it
seems certain thar only when human cogni tio n allowed for the inter-
pretatio n of one's Own mental state that be lief in supernatural agents
became possible.
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Insti tute.: Monograp hs, 11- 14.
Ri cherso n, I)., & R. Boyd , 1998. The Pl cistoce.:nc and t he o ri gi ns of human
1b
c ulturc: built for speed. Pape r Presentcd at 77Jt: 5 BimJUlln.t Symposiu1JJ ou
/bc Sriwcc of Bebfl.Jliolll': J3dlfll ,ioll r, EpO/lltioli anrl ClIltm·c. Feb ruary 23 ,
1998. U ni ve rsity of Guad:tiajafn, J\'lcxico.

4
Neanderthal symbolic behaviour?
Jane M . RenfrelJl
Ever since rhe first remains of Neande rth als were di scove red in 1856 in
t he Feldhofcr cave in the Neander va ll ey in Germany, th ey have su tfe red
from a bad press. This was partly due to a reluctance to accept that
mode rn hum ans might be descended from morc primitive an cestors,
after all these fossi ls wcre found some th re e yea rs befo re Da rwin
publ ished his Origin of Species, and partly due to the reconstru ction
by Marccllin Bou le, from th e F rench Natio nal Museum of Natu ral
Hi sto ry, of the man from La C hapcl le-aux -Saints, o ne ofa series of fossil
remains of Neanderthals found in the Dordognc region in t h e ca rl y
years of last ce ntury. Bou le m isconstructcd the skel eton so as to
make the Neande rth al ap pear like a shurning, hun c h - backed ape. He
d esc ribed the Nea nd erthals as hav in g a clumsy, muscular body and a
heavy jawed sk ull w hi ch indicated a pu rely vegetative o r bestial kind of
mind . This he contrasted with the 1110re elegant, Uppe r Palaeolithic
C ro-Mag no ns' large r foreheads and the evid e nce fo r their ma terial skill s
a nd a rtistic a nd religioll s preoccupati o ns - ind ications of abst ract
t ho u ght. This attitude towards th e Nea nd e rt h als has stuck fi rml y in t h e
li terature.
More find s and recent studies have given a mllch fu llc r picture of
t he Nea nd ert hals (e .g. M ellars 1995; Strin ger & Ga mble 1993 ). It is
now proba bly rime to rc. -examine th e evidence in a less prejudiced
way ill order to get a mo re accura te picture of the Nca lldcrth::tls'
co ntri bution to th e orig ins of symboli c behaviour. The evidencc for
the ir abilities fo r abst ract thought, beyond the practicaliti es of
eve ryday surviva l, ma y be summarised und c r t hree headi ngs: human
relationships, re la tions hi ps with cave bears a nd evidence for artistic
e nd eavo ur.
Neanderthal symbolic behaviour?
Human relationships
Carin g for severely disabled members of t he co mmunity must be o ne of
the indicators of respect for the indi vid ual and for human life. It is clear
that Nea nd erthals fed and looked afte r severely handicapped members of
th ei r co mmunities who we re too disabled to co ntribute to the food
q uest. For example, the Shanidar 1 ind ividual fo und in a cave in the
Zagros /vlts in Iraq had suffe red fi'om a withe red right arm and shou lder
probably from birth, his right ankle showed extensive arthritic degen -
eration, and he had recei ved a seve rc blow to th e left side of his face wh ic h
was not fata l bu t wou ld ce rtai nl y have b li nded h is left eye. W ithout t he
sup port of his g ro up he could not have survived to the age o ffo r!)1( Klein
1989: 333). Anoth er skeleton, La Quina 5, fi·om SW France, also had
a withered arm ( Klein 1989: 334). The "old " man of La C hapellc-au x-
Saints, aged 40-45, was also seve rely disabled. H e had su ffe red from
seve re osteoarthritis in his mandiblc, spi ne, hip and foot, and had also lost
most o f his teeth (Klein 1989: 333). Other Neanderth al skeletons show
injuries to th eir limbs: fo r exa m p le t he o ri g inal Nea ndert hal skeleton , and
one ti'om Krap ina, Croatia, both had damaged u lnae w hi ch deformed
t heir forear ms; La Fcrrassic 1 had a damaged femur, and t he Shanidar 3
skeleton had arthritis in his an kle and foot (Kl ein 1989: 334) w hi ch must
have made them both lame.
There is evid ence for another in teresting aspect of Nea nd erthal atti-
tudes to life: stud y of two of the skulls found in th e Shanidar cave,
Shanidar 1 and 5, sh ow signs that their heads had bee n bound and
artinc ially disto rted, p ro babl y wit h a Rexible band worn fo r six to twelve
months when they wc re very young, whi ch made their heads Rat in front
and rounded beh ind . T his Trinkhaus dcscribes as showin g "3 se nse of
personal aesthetic" (Trin kha us 1982: 198 ).
Another aspect of respect fo r the individual can be see n in the t rea t-
ment of the dead. The Neanderth als were t he earl iest people in the
a.rchaeo logical record to have del ibe rately bu ried the ir dead. Some
colleagues have questioned t his (e .g. Ga rgett 1989: 157f: Stri nger &
Gamble 1993: 158 ), but in Western Europe the bu ri als at La Chapelle
aux Saints, La FerrJssie and Lc Moustier can only be satisfactorily
explained as being ddibe ratc burials in pits (Nlcllars 1995: 375f). Some
sites ha ve produced a number of b urials: at L, Ferrassie t here were at least
seve n, at Shanidar nin e. T he bu rials consist of largel y in tact flexed
 Jane M. Renfrew
skeletons. At La Ferrassie the rock shclter seems to have served as a
cemctery: it contained pits with skeletons of a man , wOlllan (buried head
to head ), twO chi ldren about five years old and two infants. There were
also a number of hollows and mounds which did not contain any human
bones. Burial no. 6 (ofa child ) was separated from the others and the fi ll
of the pit was topped by a large triangular stone decorated on the
underside with artificial cupmarks. The skull of the child lay at a distance
ti'om the rest of the skeleton (Constable 1973: 98 ). A similar bmial to
this was found in the Mezmaiskaya Cave, northern Caucasus, where
twenty-four cranial fragm ents from a Neanderthal child aged one to two
yea rs were found in a pit covered by a limestone block (Pettitt 2002: 16).
The Shanidar finds consist of seven more or less complete adults
deposited in the cave over a period of fifteen thousand yea rs (S hanidar 1
and 5 fi'om c. 45,000-50,000 yea rs BI': Shanidar 4, 6-9 dating to 60,000
BP or earl ier) together with the incom plete remains of two others
(Sha nidar 8 and 9 ) who were probably not deliberately buried.
A number of Middle PalaeoJjthic burials have been excavated in the
Near East, especially in the Tabun , SkhUl and Kebara caves on Mount
Carmel, near Haifa and at Qafzeh ncar N azareth. They are interesting
and enigmati c since the popu lations represented are of mixed morphol -
ogies although they are all associated with Mousterian tool industries.
Dating techniques have shown that the more modern- looking skeletons
from SkhUl and Qafzeh arc in fact much older (at c. 100,000 BI') than the
more typical Neanderthals from Tabun and Kebara (at c. 70,000 BP).
The burial of a child , Qafzeh 11 , lVas accompanied by the sku ll and
antlers of a large deer (Stringer & Gamble 1993: 98 ). At ti,e Skhu l cavc
the burial SkhUl 5 lay on his back with his head bent down on his chest
and his legs tightl y flexed and in his anns he was holding th e jawbone of a
large wi ld boar (Strin ger & Ga mble 1993: 97 ). These two special burials
have been treated as Neanderthal in the literature but it is not now clear
whether th is is approp riate anymore (fo r a concise djsclIssion of the
position see Strin ger and Gamble 1993: 104 ). At the very back of the
Sh::midar cave in 1raq Ralph Solecki found the grave of a Neanderthal,
Shanidar 4, with a badly crushed sku ll. Subsequent examination of soil
samples from the grave showed that the body had been laid on bedding
of woody horsetai l. The presence ofclusters ofpotlc1l3nd parts offlowcrs
including grape hyacinths, bachelor'S buttons and holl yhocks suggested
that flowers mav have been put on the grave: it is too far inside the
Neanderthal symbolic behavi our?
cave for the pollen to have blowll in accidentally (Pfeiffer ]985: 153 ),
altho ugh the fact that two of the members of the excavation tcam wore
flowers in their sashes whilst excavating (Johanson & Edgar 2006) has
prevented interpretations from being clear-cut.
Two flexed bu rials, of an adult male and an infant, were found in an
artificiall y widened natural ho llow in the floor in the lower layer at Kiik
Koba in the C rim ea. At Teshik Tash ill Uzbekistan the grave of an eight-
to ten -year-old boy was discovered surrounded by six pairs of Siberian
mountain goat horn cores still attached to their frontlet bones (Stringer
& Gamble 1993: 158 ) It seems that these pairs of horns had been driven
into the ground aro und the body possibly for some sort of symboli c
protection. Deliberate burials and fi.lI1era ls imply the belief that some
essential quality of human existence - spirit o r soul - cannot be destroyed
and lives on in some form after death.
Much has been made of the fact that the Neanderth al burials have
been found onl y in caves. It has even been suggested that carnivores at
th is time had changed their behaviour patterns away from using caves and
rock shelters, and thus left the corpses undisturbed . Stringe r and Gamble
describe it as "corpse disposal" rather than burials (Stringer & Gamble
1993: 160 ).
Apart from deliberate burials there are indications of other treatments
of the dead. At the Grona Gu ittari , JVlonte C irceo, an upturned skull was
found with a greatl y enlarged foramen magnum , surrounded by a setting
ofstol1es (Constable 1973: 106). This individ ual had been killed by a
blow to the head. Another example of the enlargement of the fo ramen
magnurn comes fi'om a fema le sku ll found at Ehringsdo rf, Germany
(Constable 1973: 105 ). She, too, had met a vio lent deatll by repeated
clubbing on the forehead. The en.largemcn t of the foramen magnum is
not a new Neanderthal phenomenon: the female skull fi'ol11 Stei nheil11 ,
dated to ti,e MindeljRiss In terglacial about 250,000 years ago and
probably belongin g to Archa.ic Homo sapiens ( Homo heideLbcr;geusis), also
showed signs of the forcible en largement of t he skull base, afte r the
removal o f the skull ti'om the rest of the body. There is no evidence in this
case tha t it was done by hyae nas or othcr non-human agcncy (Adam in
Dclson 1985: 275- 6 ). It has been argued that the enlargement of the
foramen magnum might as well have been done by hyenas as humans
to extract the brain (Bahn in Joncs et al. 1994: 330 ). It is intercsting to
note, however, that the extraction of the brain through an enla r cd
 Ja n e M. Renfre w
foramen magnum is exactly the techn ique used by contemporary head-
hunters in New Guinea, who then cook it and cat it (Co nstable 1973 106).
Cut marks on the long bones of some of the mutilated remains of 20
Neanderthals found at Krap ina, Cro;'ltia, indicate that they had been
deAcshed after death: the [,ct that sOllle ofthc bones had been split and
crushed and others showed signs of burning have suggested that they
Illight have been cooked ( Balm op. cit. 330; Constable 1973: 104).
Recent finds from the excavations at Moula-Gucrcy, Ardcchc (level A'V),
by Alban Dcflcur, of six Neanderthals: two adults, twO teenagers and two
childrcn, about one hund rcd thousand years old, show clear evidence of
cannibalism ( DcAeur 1999). Careful study of tOO I III arks and fractures of
thci r bones rcvc;'ll th;'lt thc cheek musclcs of chi ld ren wc re filleted out,
tendons we re sliced and sku lls were cmcked open to remove the brains.
Other cut m;'l rks show that th igh m uscles were removed and in at least
one case thc to ngue had been cut out. All the sku lls and limb bones we re
broken apart and only the bones ofh:1I1ds and feet remained intact. None
of the bones show any signs of having been gnawed by wi ld animals nor
are there any signs of charring, suggesting that the meat was eaten either
raw o r cooked off the bone. Cut marks on Neandcrthal bones from
Engis, Belgium; Marillac and Combe Grcllal, Francc may also represent
to deAesh ing (Pettitt 2002: 12 ).
Contemporary peoples who eat their fe llow humans rarely do so o ut
ofshcer hun ger, but fo r ritual isti c reasons: eithcr to de ri ve strength fro m
the dep~lrted o r to prevent t heir ghosts from haun ting them .
In one or two cases Ncanderthal skulls have been fou nd wit hout the
rest of their skeletons - for example, the child's skull from d, e Rock of
Gibraltar, and the woman's skull frolll Ehringsdorf- and this has led some
authors into thinking that the Neanderthals may have had some sort of
sku ll cult whilst others have suggested that dley may have become
detached fi·om the rest of their skeletons by natural causes sllch as the
activities ofhl'enas (Constable 1973: 105 ). It is clearthat the Neanderdlals'
treatment of thei r dead was varied, complex and Illultid imensional.
Rel a tionships with cave bears
Perhaps the most controversial as pect of possible symbol ic behaviour of
the NC:l.I1derthals is in their reported trcatlne nt of cave bear sku lls and
occasional long bones. T he reputed collection and ~t() r,lgc of these bones
Neanderth a l symbolic b e haviour?
in box -like constructions ofstonc has been doubted mOSt notably by the
Swiss palaeontologisr F. E. Koby who claimed that natural 1"00f-611s
could have led to the apparent fo rmation of these structu res which
happened to enclose cave bear skulls that we re lying o n the cave floor
quite naturally. Nonetheless it is worth revisiting the evidence which
comes chiefly frol11 three sites: the Veternica cave, Croatia, the Rego ll rdOll
cave in France and the cave at Drachenloch in the Swiss Alps. ]11 the
Vcternica cave a stone recess contained a bear skull and femur in a middle
Palaeolithic layer. The recess was thcn blocked off with la rge stones set
one above anothe r (Jeli nek 1989: 47 ). At Rcgourdou two stone box like
constructions had been made in the cave, capped by large stones-one
weighing nearl), a to n (Jelinek 1989: 47 ). He re a rectangula r pi t con-
tained the bones, main ly sku lls, of more tha n twenty cave bears, the other
contained a compiete cave bear skeleton (except for the sku ll ) ( Pfe ifler
1985: 150). Anothe r pit contained a Neanderthal bu rial with a cave bear
humerus bone. The Drachen loch cave, at a height of eight thousand feet
in the Swiss Alps, to the south of Lake Constance, was excavated by Emile
B:ichlcr between 1917 and 1923. The front part of the cave was occupied
by Neanderthals, and a hearth between the second and thi rd sections of
the chamber has yielded a carbon 14 date of mo re than 50,000 B.P.
Further back in thc cave Bachler fo und a cubica l stonc chest, somethi ng
over a metre square, contain in g seven bear skulls with thei r mu zzles
facing the cave entrance, topped by a capstone. At the back of the cave six
bear skulls were found set in niches along the wal ls, some wi th li mb
bones, not necessari ly from the sa me bear. One of the skulls of a th rec
year old bear had a fernu r of a younge r bear thrust through its zygomatic
arch, which could not have happened naturally, and it rested on long
bones fi·om two other animals (Coles & Higgs 1969: 256-7; Constable
1973: 108-9). It is a great misfortune that Ihchler did not record his
finds more systematically or give clcar plans and sections of the stone
chest in wh ich the cave bear skulls we re found. Another interesti ng find
from Bruniqucl in France where Ma rk Berkowitz reported a structu re
made fi·o m broken stalactites and stalagmites several hundred metres
inside the cave, whic h contained a burnt bea r bone dated to 47,600 BP
(Berkowitz 1996: 22). The re are a nu mbe r of other sites in Switze rland,
France and Ge rmany where cave be:"! r sku lls and bones and tVlousterian
tools have been found together. In the Petersh6h1c ncar Velden, Central
Franconia, Ge rmany, for example, Dr H o rmann found bears' sku lls
 Jane M. Renfrew
carefu ll y deposited in holes and niches in the cave wall. In one instance,
fivc bear skulls, two fcmurs and a humcrus wcre found in a reccss some
four feet above the cave floor: it is difficult to see how they could have got
there by natu ral mcans.
Thesc stone built chests and niches in cavc walls filled with cave bear
bones wcre not merely hunting trophies. A related find suggestivc of
hunting magic comes from the Basua Cave (Cave of Witches), ncar
Genoa, Italy. Here, some fifteen hundred feet fl'om the cntrancc,
Neande rthal hunters thrcw clay pe llets at a stalagm ite wi th a vaguely
animal shape. The f:lct t hat they wcnt so far into thc cave suggests that
this was mo re than just target practice or some sort of children 's hunting
game (Co nstable 1973: 108 ).
No do ubt Neanderthals and cave bears were in competition for the
shelter of cavcs at the onsct of thc last glaciation. Cave bears we re fero -
cious creatures, large r than grizzly bears, and an unlikcly choice for food
when easicr prcy was available, but possibly prized for thei r skins to make
warm cloth in g.
These special reposito ries of bones may \vell represe nt some form of
bear ritual as is practised today in some northern areas from North
Amcrican lndians to the Lapps to the Ainu of northe rn Japan. In some
places bears arc regarded as myt hica l fi rst men, and in others as
in termed iaries between man and the spirits of the land (Ain u bear sac-
rifice is well desc ri bed in Coon 1972: 340-4 ). The cave bear became
extinct d urin g the Wlirm glaciation.
A related find - but not o f a cave bear - was made by Ralph Solecki in
1970 at Nahr Ibrahim near Beirut, Lebanon. Here he found the dis-
mcmbered skeleton of a f.1110w deer, Damn. mcsopotamica, laid out on a
bed of stones and sprin kl ed with red ochre (Ca mpbell & Loy 1996;
4401). It is interesting that the bears depicted in Uppe r Palacolithic cave
art appcar to be brown bcars father than cave bears, and the re does not
see m to have becn the same collection ofbcars' sku lls in special structures
within the caves.
Artistic activities; use of pigments
The usc of pigments has a ve nerable antiqui ty in Europe going back at
least to Lhree hund red thousand yea rs ago, for example at Terra Amata,
Nice. France where seven ,-Ii Ie limns of Jigmcnl from ycllow to brown,
Neanderthal symbolic behaviour?
red and purple wcre found mainly showing signs of abrasion. They must
have been introduced to the site as thcy do not occllr 10caJly ( Hahn &
Ve rtllt 1997: 24 ). l t is rhus not surprising to find that Nea nderthals also
collected lumps and crayons ofochre, manga nese d ioxide and iron oxide.
For exa mple in a single laye r in the cave at Pech de L'Azc 1 there we re
218 blocks ofmangancse dioxide (yielding a blue/black colour), and 23
pieces of iron oxide (red ) ( Balm 1997: 26). In fact Mellars reports that
fragme nts of ochre havc been fo und in Neanderthal contexts in at least a
dozen sites in S\iV France and ma ngancse oxide is even more common
(Mellars 1996: 370).
What were these mate ri als bei ng used for? The burial of a Neanderthal
skeleton at Le Moustier was sprinkled with red powder, and red pi gment
was found ro und the head of the man bu ried at La C hapcllc-aux-Saints.
Two Neanderthal skeletons from Qafzc h, Israel had seventy-one frag-
ments of ochrc alongside their bo nes. Thc dismcmbered fallow dee r at
Nah r lbrahim , Leba no n , was also sprinkled with red ochre (Solecki 1982:
47f). Apart from these documented examples we are left o nl y with
speculations. These we re the same substances that werc used in thc
Uppe r Palaeolithic to decQl'ate cave walls, but so far we have no examples
of Middle Palaeolithic cave art. T hey may we ll have been used to deeQl'ate
the bod ies of the li ving o r to decQl'atc animal skins and tools but so tar we
have no evidence.
Decorated bones and stones
There havc been a number of find s of animal bones from Neanderthal
contexts with inciscd lines which have been claimed as having been
decorated - fo r example in the Pro lOll1 II cave in the Crimea a large series
of decorated bones included a ho rse canine with five parallel engraved
lincs and a saiga phalange with a tan -like engraved moti f. L..1 Quina
yieldcd a bovid sho ulder blade engraved with very fine parallel lines.
Notched bones are known from La Ferrassic and the Cueva Morin in
Spa in wh ilst the Bulgarian cave of B:lcho Kiro yielded a bone decorated
with a zigzag motifand dated to 47,000 BP (Ba11l1 & Vertut 1997: 25 ) A
bone from Pcch de I'Azc II had a simibr zigzag motif (Stringer &
Gamble 1993: 160). Whi lst some of these marks may be the resul t of
butchery (C hase 199 1: 2 10 ), others may be deco rative. Sin ce they arc
absu'act pattern the ' mav a car meanin less to LI S alth l I I c lar ·
 Jane M. Renfre w
may have had great significance to rhose who made them. Stringer and
Gamble ( 1993: 160 ) claim that "they most pro bably lacked any symbolic
rationale" , but how can we tell?
The finds of decorated stoncs are equally enigmatic. The nummulite
fossil from Tata in Hungary has a finely incised line funning at 90 degrees
to a natural crack to form a rcgular symmet ri c::d cross (Mcllars 1996:
374 ). A Ain t cortex from Quncitra, Israel , somc 54,000 years o ld , is
engraved with four concentric scmi -circles carefull y incised on its su rf.,ce
( Bahn & Vertut 1997: 25 ). A recent find ofa large Aint nodu le in rhe
likeness ofa hum :1I1 face with a bone rammed through a natu ral hole and
wedged in position with two slllall pebbles nuking it look as ifit has two
eyes was reported by l\!larqu et and Lo rblan chet in Antiquity ( December
2003 ). It lVas fo und on the banks of the Loire at La Roche -Cotard and
dates to 35 ,000 gP. It is a unique find q uite unl ike anything d se fi'om
th is period.
Perforated bones and teeth
Some of the perforated bones found associated with Neanderthal deposits
have been dismissed as the results of natural damage o r carni vore gnawing:
fo r example the perforated bone fi·om Pech de l'Azc II and the perfo ra ted
re indeer phalange from La Quina (Mella rs j 996: 374t). The perfo rated
teeth of a fox fi'om La Quina, a wolf incisor from Rcpo lusth6hlc and the
swan 's vertebrae and wolfmctapodial from Bockstcinschmcide, Ge rmany
arc not so easily dismissed (Meliars 1996: 375 ). At the Grotte de Renne,
Arcy-sur-C ure a collection of 36 personal ornaments of diffcrent kinds -
perforated animal teeth, ivo ry beads and bones with pcrforations or
grooves for suspension wcre found associated with a juvenile temporal
bone ofa Neanderthal child dating back 45 ,000 BP, and Ch5telperronian
stone too ls. Joao Zil hao, Francesco d'Errico and colleagues claim that
these reprcsent an ~~ indcpc ndent development, not the product of trade,
acculturation or imitation precipitated by cultural contact with modern
humans" migratin g into western Europe (Z ilhao 2000: 30).
The find of a femur of a yo ung cave bear with four pe rforation s all in a
row at Divje babe I in the Idrijca valley, Western Slovenia has been
claimed to be a Aure. T he question has been raised as to whether the
holes we rc madc by the teeth of a carni vo re 0" the pointed Stone
too ls used by humans. Nb rccl One writing in Currellt Aut/;ropolog),
Neanderthal symbolic behaviour?
(Vol. 41, No.2, Apri l 2000 ) says "The idea of J\Ilousterian ineptitude is
one of the deepest and one of the most perverse because it reassures us
about ou rselves. The destin y o f the Iv loustcrian fiute discove red at Divje
babe was preo rdained: it cou ld be only disputable and doubtfi..d a priori."
So the evidence for personal decoratio n in the fo rm of pendants and of
musical instrumcnts in the tor m of bone Autes and whistles is at best
slight and at worst not accepted .
Conclusions
This paper sets o ut some of the evidence which is currently ava ilable to
the nonspecial ist in Neand crthal studies that Ill:ly be exa mined to indicate
whether o r not Ne:l nderthals werc capable of abstract thought and
symbolic behaviour. Their human relatio ns and values, their relationship
with cave bears and other ani mals and their adm ittedly modest artistic
activities do see m to indicate that they were ca p:lble of symbolic behav-
iour beyond the struggle fo r everyday surviva l. They seem to have been
consistentl y underesti mated and maligned si nce thei r first discovery in
1856. As Stringer and Gamble ri ghtl y say, "No othe r group of prehistoric
pco ples carries such a weight of scicntific and popular preconceptions or
has its name so associated with deep an tiqui ty and lin gering taints of
savagery, stupidity and animal strength" (1993: 26 ). It is surely time that
Nea nderthals we re give n cred it for some of thei r pioneerin g abstract
tho ughts.
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Jelinek J. , 1989. PrimitiJlc Hunters: A Search for Alan tbc H,mter. London:
preservation , and interpretation
Haml yn .
Johansen, D. & Edgar, B. , 2006. FI'om Llfc), to Langllnge (2nd Ed. ). New York: Paul S. C. TafOl"
Simon :md Schuster.
Jones S., R. lvlartin & D. Pilbc:ll11, 1994. The Call/.bririgc Encyclopedia of
HUlIlfHl EvoLution.. Cambridge: Cam bridge University Press .

Klein R. H. , 1989. 77Je Human Career. Chicago: Univcrsity of Chicago Press.

Marquet J. C., & IVl. Lo rbbnchet M., 2003. A Neanderthal face? The proto
figurine fro m the Rock-eotard, Langeais (Indre-a nd - Lo ire, France).
Alltiquity 77,661-70.
Melbrs P., 1996. 77le Nemtdert/ml Legacy: Au A,'chaeological PerspectiIJe from.
Western. Em'ope. Princeton: Princc ron Un ive rsity Press.
Pettitt, P. B., 2002. The Neanderthal dead: exploring mortuary variabil ity in
Middk Palaeo lithic Eurasia. Bejore Farming I , 1- 26.
Pfeiffer J. E., 1985. TIle Emell}encc of HlIJIlaukind (4th cd.). New York:
Harper and Row.
Solecki R. S., 1982. A ritual Middle Pabeol ithic deer burial at Na hr Ibrahim
Cave, Lebanon. Archeologic au LWf1.nt: Rewed fl. la memoire de Roger
SnidniJ. Lyo n: Maison de l'Orienr, 47- 56.
Stringer c., & C. Gamble, 1993. lu Search of the Neanderthals. London:
TlulllCS and Hudson .
Trinkaus E., 1982. Artific ial crania l deformation of the Sh:ln ida r I and 5
Neanderthals Current AuthrQPolog)' 23 , 198-199.
Zilhao J. , 2000. Fate of th e Neanderta ls. A1'chaeology 53 , 25- 3 1.
Origins
Whe n d id religiou s ideas first register in t he m inds of ea rl y humans?
When di d ideologic311y motivated depiction and other forms of art
emerge? D o changes in art and m ate ri a l cu lt ure alllon g anc ient peoples
reflect c hanges in religious th inking o r o rie n ta ti on? H ow do we detect
the earl iest evidence o r roots of hum an religiolls expression? And how do
we avoid the t rap of readi ng our own ways of th inking into the enigmatic
records of the past? These are challenging questions that go ri g h t to t he
heart of any d isc uss io n concerning the origin of reli gio n . They are also
funda mental if we are ever to kn ow how religio n beca m e sll ch a do min ant
force the world over.
The re 3re bot h b road and specific definitions of religion , with ma ny
people emphasising d ifferences between the major o rga nised world
re ligions and va riolls shamanistic, totemic, ani m istic and other bel iefs
he ld by variolls indigeno us peoples past and present. Th is is nor t he p13ce
to review all of these (e .g. see Lessa and Vogt 1958). O ne of the mo re
sllccinct b ut incl usive defi nitions of rel igion has been p rovided by
Haviland (1989: 5 11 ):

Religion may be regarded as the beliefs and p3trerns of be havior by which

humans t ry to deal with what t hey view as important problems t hat
cannot be solved through dl e application of known tec hnology or
tec hniq ues of o rganizatio n. To ove rcome t hese limitatio ns, people t urn
to the manipu lation of supern atural bei ngs and powe rs.
Religio n co nsists of va ri o us ri tu als - praye rs, songs, da nces, offeri ngs,
and sacrifices - throug h whi ch people try to man ipulate supe rn atu ra l
 Paul S. C. Ta~on
beings :lI1d powers [Q their advantage. Thesc beings and powers may
consist of gods and goddesses, ancestral and othcr spirits, or impersonal
powers, either by themselves or in various combinations. In all societies
the re arc cerrai n individuals especially skilled at dealing with these beings
and powers, who assist other members of society in thcir ritual activities.
A body of myths rationalizes or "explains" the systcm in a manner
consistent with people's experience in the world in which they live.
Perhaps religion is a naUIrai phenomenon. Once a certain amount of
in te ll igence is attained, creatures question their being. I n order to survive
better they nced to place their experience in a much wider universe.
But once this universe is sought it needs to be explained. Thus religion is
born - through insight, revelation, contemplation and self-reflection.
But th is is not enough, for in order to truly understand and to believe,
religious ideas need to be shared and reaffi rmed - transmitted ac ross time
and space to others but also rei nforced through repetitive, out of the
ordinary, action. Re ligious art and ritual WaS born to aid this process,
reaffirming ideas but also conveying complexity in ways that are more
easily managed. Visual symbols were also invented, as a form of short-
hand and for restricted knowledge. Ultimately, the use of symbols made
social statcments about status and power. Rappaport ( 1999 ) argues
religion is the inevitable consequence of language acq uisition but perhaps
it was the other way around. Others suggcst reli gious experience is a
conseq ucnce of the hard wiring of our brain s (c .g. sec Ho lm es 200 1 for a
rev icw). vVh3tevc r the case, it appears a certain amo unt of evolutionary
dcvelopment - biological, cu ltu ral and social - was necessary for hu mans
to be capable of rel igious experience .
There arc man y definitions of what it is to bc hurnan . Certainly we are
one of the fcw creatures that can contemplate our own predicament of
existence. Using our minds, we can reflect on experience and interpret the
larger universe with a range of intellectual tools of religious and scientific
natures. Also unlike other creatures, the gods and uni\'ersal forces we
define, think about and describe can be given materi:ti fo rm - through
drawing, painti ng, sculpting and , today, a ra nge o f multi -med ia techni -
ques. Symbol transposed into and combin ed with other irnagery is a ve ry
powerful form of com munication but uSll:llly therc is structure, grammar
Jnd codin g (e.g. see Sauvet and Wlodarczyk 1995 ). Ofcollrsc, imagery has
also long becn lIsed to communicate a vast array of mcssages, ncve r being
restricted to the purely religious. One oflhc challenges is to find a way to
Identifying ancient religious thought and iconography
better identif)r the truly religious and to se parate this fi·om design and
imagery t hat resul ted from othcr moti vations and cxperiences. Other
forms of archacological evidcnce also need better evaluation.
Early Surviving Evidence
PIGMENT AND IMAGES
For at least 32,000 yea rs humans have been highly productive and
creative artistic beings, given the man y accompl ished wo rks of parietal
and portable imagery surviving across vVestern Europe and Siberia
(e.g. see Bal1l1 and Ve rnlt 1997; Clottes 1998; Clottcs ct al. 1995 ; Hahn
197 1). In Eastern Europe and much of Asia no n-figurative art designs
were also made for many te ns of tho usands of yea rs (e .g. sec Bednarik
2003). In Australia, used ochre is found throughout most levels of rock
shelter excavations and is associated with the lowest le"els of many of the
continent's oldest dated sites (sec Allen and O'Connell 2003; Ta~on
1999 ). In South Africa, Henshilwood et al. (2002, 2004 ) found evidence
for modern art behaviour at about seven ty seven thousand years, in thc
fonn of shell beads and shaped pieces of red ochre incised with engraved
cross-hatch designs. Are these the carli est su rviving abstract sym bols?
We re they purely deco rative in functio n or did they represent some
spiritual idca or expericnce?
To help answer thesc qu cstions , we need to furth er ex plo re the
global roots o f art activity (Bed narik 2003 ). Recent evide nce suggcsts
pigment has been used to create colo urful designs 011 bodi es, if not
objects o r rock-shelter wa lls, for at least three hund red thousa nd years
( Ta~on 2003a ). In parts of Zambia, India and even Europe aJ"Chaeo-
logical sites containing vast quantities of imported pigment - haematite,
limonite, manganese dioxide and other substances - ha ve been exca-
\'ated and dated to betwecn twO hundred thousand and three hundred
thousand years ago (e.g. sec Ba rh am 2002 ; Bednarik 1990; IVlcBrearty
and Brooks 2000; Mell ars 1996; Ta,on 2003a). In Africa, fo r in stance,
Barh am (2002 ) found Ivli ddlc Pleistocene homi nids we rc us ing a range
of mincral pigments from different parts of thc landscape on a grand
sca le. He concluded 'Central and East African ho minids had in co rp o-
rated colour into their li ves by 270,000 yea rs ago, and this addition to
their behavioural rcpcrtoirc wou ld rcmain a fcature of the African
archaeological rccord until the historica l present' (2002: 188- 9 ). 1n
4 Paul S. C. Ta~on
Europe, Neanderthals were also lI si ng manganese and red ochre since
three hundred thousand years ago ( Barham 2002: 188- 9; McBrearty &
Brooks 2000; Mellars 1996 ) while Homo crcctllsin India left used pieces
of ochre, some with striations, at sites dated to [wo hundred thousand
to three hundred thousand yea rs ago ( Bednarik 1990; Petraglia pers.
co mm .2004 ).
This widesp read pigment evidence, along with scattered instances of
extremely ancient ClipuieS, engraved sto ne tools, enha nced manuporrs,
elystal collections and highly aesthetic handaxes ( Figure 5.1, and e.g.
sec Bednarik 2003; Oakley 1972, 1981 ) suggests that it was durin g th e
Achculean that art activity first blossomed. It soon went on to become an
integral part of people's lives. Some of this activity wou ld have been related
to expressing individua1 and gro up identity, thus sclf-awan.:ncss and group
awareness must have been impo rtant d urin g the Acheu lian. Whether the
lise of pig ment was independently invented in widely separated places or
stems from a si ngle sourcc, rapidly transmitted through cu lture contact
.1. A symmetrical handaxe from Sterkfontein. South
frica. over seven hundred thousand years old.
andaxes may have had symbolic as well as practical
ignificance. (Photo: P.S.c. Ta'fon)
Identifying ancient religious thought and iconography
and trade, we may never know. \,IVe may aJso never know if pigment was
uscd as early as three hundred thousand years ago to exp ress religious
thinking. The evidence neither supports nor refutcs such a hypothesis
although, among peoples known ethnographically, ochre usc is invariably
associatcd witll ritual. Thus, it docs providc the possibility that religious
exp ression could havc occurrcd among archa.ic humans sin ce at least tlu'ce
hundred thousand years ago. Bur is the re other archacological evidencc to
support such an carly start to thc cxpression of belief?
BURIALS
There are many known fo rms of d isposal or burial of the dead but
the coml11on element is that bodics wcre in sOl11e way rituall y and/or
habitually prepared, adorned, augme nted or purposely placed, some-
times with material cu ltu re. In other words, they we re not randomly
dropped, left behind or otherwise disca.rded. And thcy werc not disposed
of from a purely practical , clinical, nutritionaJ or sanitary point of view.
Dcflcshing i.s practiccd among some cu ltures as part of ritual bu ri al
practice and this is somcthin g th at can bc archacologicall y visible.
The o ldest exam pic, from Stcrkfontein 5 in South Africa, is dated to
1.5 million years ago. C lear Cllt marks associated with defleshing are
visiblc on the remains of a H omo /mbilis individual, STW53 (Pickering
ct al. 2000 ). The re are othc r more recent examples (e.g. the Middle
Pleistocene Bodo cran ium ) but the problcm is that the ma rks on th e
bones may have resulted from calln ibaJisl11 rather than burial practice.
Howcver, among recent modern humans cannibalism was rardy purely
nutritional in natllrc. Instead, it more often was heavily ritualistic with
formalised cu ltural clements.
It is nor until about 320,000 years ago that more concrete evidence of
the ritua lised treatment of the dead emerges. For instan ce, at Atapuc rca
in Spain, it has long been argued that the 'Pit of Bones" resu lting fi·olll
Homo bcidclbc1lJcllsis bodies being pu rposely dropped down a decp shaft,
is evidence of ritual burial. Almost three dozen skelctons have been darcd
to between 320,000 to 200,000 years ago ( Bischoff ct al. 1997).
However, it was only recently that 1110re conclusive evidence was found,
in the form of a stone axe hcad placed among some of the oldest bones.
Although the axe has sparked controversy and debate, Henry de Lum ley,
director of France's National Musellm of Natural History, has declared
the discover' is "Rfoof of the birth 0 he first IlllJnaI ~ths_
" ___
66 Paul S. C. Ta~on
(sec Tremlett 2003; D e Lumley, th is volu me ). Cb rk et 31. (2003 ) claim
anatomically modern hum an remains f1·om Middle Awas h , Ethiopi a,
recently dated to between 154,000- 160,000 years ago (White et al.
2003 ), were ritu~Iily prepared. They note th ree crania "all bear cultural
modification indicative of mo rtu ary p ractice" . Furthermore, they co n-
clude "Polish ing and intentional sc raping m odifi cations evident on two
o f these crania indicate t hat th e Upper Herto hom inids may have manip-
ulated the cran ia of their dead in mortuary practices whose dimensions,
context and mean ing mi ght be reve;1led only by fu rth er discove ri es"
(Clark et al. 2003: 751 ).
Pettit (2002: 2), on the other hand , suggests " The archaic skeleton of
SkhiH 9 may be the oldest burial known as ye t (Stringer 1998 ) although it
is concei vable that the Tabun C l Neanderthal is as o ld as 120 kys 81' (e.g,
McDermott et 01 1993; G rein et al 199 1)." At Qafzeh , in the Levant,
there are at least fo ur delibe rate bu rial s, o ne with possible grave goods.
They have been confidentl y dated to between 90 ,000 and 120,000 yea rs
ago, using a range of techn iques (Bar- Yosef 1998; McBrearty & Brooks
2000: 519; Vandermeersch 1981 ). Certainly, the Neanderthal were
practicing ritualised bu ri al on a regu lar basis since at least seve nty
thousa nd yea rs ago:
In the later Middle Pleistocene Nea nd erthals may have been cac hing
t he dead in unmodified natu ral surrollndings. After 70 ka BP so me
Neande rthal groups buried infants, or parts ofthcm, in pits, infanrs and
adults in sha llow grave cuttings and indul ged in primary corpse modifi-
ca tion and su bsequenr burial. It may have been o n occasio n too that
ce rtain enclosed sites served as mortuary ce ntres, and that their function
as such was perpetuated in t he memory of Neanderthal groups either
through physical grave.: markers or social tradition . In all it wou ld see m
thar at least in some Neanderthal groups th e dead body was explored
and treated in sociall y meaningful ways. (Pettitt 2002: 1)
Sign ifican tl y, in Austral ia both cremation and burial with ochre wcre
practiced at least forty three thousand years ago (Bowler et al. 2003 ), and
possibly as much as sixty fi ve t ho usand years ago (T horne et al. 1999).
This suggests so me forms of religious belief were well establ ished, and
that th ey had ex pression in fi re, oc hre and soil , in Asia before the a.rriva.1of
humans in Australia. In ot her wo rds, an orga nised religious and symbolic
belief system was parr of the cultural baggage the first immigrants to
Australia brought wi th them .
Identifying ancient religious thought and iconography
Therianthropes/Composite Creatures
\Nh3.t might we recognise as the o ldest torms of depiction that reflect
religiolls ideas, thinking or belief'? Would it be abstract designs or figu -
rative iJllages~ Perhaps t he very act of creati ng images, representations,
desig ns and so forth is reflecti ve of a religioLis outlook in t hat it can
involve belief, creativity, symbol-making, ritu al and so forth. Tn terms of
the old art of Europe, Ucko and Rosenfeld ( 1967) conclude that there
likely were lllallY motivations behind the production of Palaeoli thic art.
However, they suggest "some were used in acts of sympathetic magic
(perhaps some of the represe ntations pie rced with holes) ... and that
so m e we re illustrations of myths and traditions (perhaps those wh ich
contain imaginary creatures, ;1 nthropomorp hs and un i:xpected combi -
nations of animal species )" (1967 : 239).
For the Aboriginal people o f wcstern Arnhem Land ( Northern
Territory, Australia ), depictions of co mposite creat ures, although rela -
ti vel y rare, are t he most easily identifiable and most signifi ca nt forms of
o ld and recent roc k-art t hat encode reijgiolls ideas. In most cases, they
represent important Ancestral Beings associated with the C rea tion Era of
the ' Dre<1mtime' and their composite ·unn atural' cha ractcr makes thc m
particularly potent as religious iconograp hy (see Ta,on & Chippindale
2001 ). These cultu re heroes "defined , shaped and transfo rmed th e world
before and during the time of the First People" (Ta,on & Chippindale
200 I: 200 ). It is these images in Australian rock-art (including Dynamic
Figures at least ten tho usand and possibly as much as eighteen th ousand
years of age; Plates VT and VU ) more t han any other that can be
identified , with a high degree of co nfid ence, as being deep ly religious
in intent.
For instance, in J\1;1)' 2003 the Indigenous reaction to an important
rock-art discovery made in \.yollemi National Park, with in the Blue
Mountains World Heritage Area of New South Wales (Ta,on 2003b;
Tat;on et al. 2003 ) was particularly revealing in the context ofidenti~'ing
religious iconograph y. The sitc, now known as Eagle's Reach , contains
ove r two hundred drawings and stenci ls. There are a number of Ancestral
Beings depicted, including o ne.: distortcd creature identified as DarJmulan,
o ne of the morc sign ificant C reation Beings of southeast Australia. An
incredible Eagle a ncestor 'hold ing' a boomerang and hafte.:d stone axc is
featured (Plate VII I). The re arc also doze.:ns of pa rt animal/ part human
68 Paul S. C. Ta~on
creatures, with either bird~ l ikc or l11acropod~like heads. Although the site
was ' lost' to Aboriginal cosmology for perhaps 150 years, when Wiradjcri,
Darug and Darkinjung elders saw photographs of the images, on separate
occasions, they each arrived at the same conclusion - that thjs site was lIsed
to tell stories of creation. lndeed , all elders sajd important Ancestral Beings
of the region were depicted. The images told of how life came into being,
how some creatures wcre t ransformed fi~om human to animal or vice verS3,
and the laws or rules of conduct humans wefe given to uphold.
Although it can be argued that the Aboriginal people associated with
t he site have had t heir cu ltures radicaJl y chan ged by ove r two hundred
years of contact with European society it is interesting to note how
consistent interpretations were with each other . They were also consis-
tent with the scant early ethnog raphic record of southeast Australia and
with the detailed eth.nographic record of other parts of Aust ralia. This
suggests that the composite creatures, animals with artefacts and dis-
torted fi g ures provoke a common religious-oriented response among
Austra li an Aboriginal people. But as was found in a larger study of
therianthropes and composite creatures (Ta,on & Cllippindale 2001 ),
prior to the Eagle'S Reac h discovery, t his sort of response is much more
universal. In a g lobal survey of composite and other unusual creations six
types of supe rnatural creature were identified in wo rld o ral histo ry, art
and literature, as we ll as Australian rock -art (Ta<;on & Chippindale 2001:
176-9 ). These are (a) anima l-human combinations (Plates VI and Vll);
(b ) composite animals (Plates IX and X); (c) double-headed an imals
(Plate Xl); (d ) creatures with different an imal body parts; (e) ani ma ls wi t h
artefacts (Plates VIIT and XlI ); and (f) disto rted -defo rmed human -like
creatures. It was also found that humans past and present the world over
have used suc h imagery in similar ways - to illustrate, tell stories about
and represent other forms of reality, religious bel.ief and what Westerners
more ge nerally call the su pernatural:
Animal-headed beings also denote another world , another dimension of
time and space that humans can sometimes tap into, through trance,
ritual, ingestion of certain drugs or in other special contexts. Com posite
creature can be guides, messengers, helpers, frie nds, ancestors, gods,
fools , villains, enemies, beings of great evil , symbols of the greater good.
In a clinical, scientifi c se nse they arc sym bols and tools lIsed for teaching
history, laws, lessons, norms of cond uct and the rules of society. But they
arc also creatures of t he Drcamtime ~ not the Australia.n Aborigi nal
Identifying ancient religious thought and iconography
Drcamtime but the Dreamtime of humanity, that rich ancestral world of
times long ago that every so often penetrates the present to provide
insight and other-world expe rience . (Ta<;on & C hippindale 2001: 176)
T he earli est survivin g depictions of these creatures are indicative of the
minimum age of t his widespread expression of rel ig ious thinking. One of
the most reliabl y dated of th ese is a portable piece, the human-feline
Hohlenstein-Stadel statuette, about th irty-two thousand years of age (see
Balm & Vertut 1997: 100- 1; Hahn 1971 ; De Lumley, this volume).
However, a second human -feline carved figure has recently been repor -
ted from HolLie Fcls Cave, not t:'U" from the earlier find. This much
smaller piece, along w ith associated carvings of a water bird and probable
horse head, is of comparable age and possibly a bit older (Co nard 2003 ).
The conclusion to be drawn is that th is fundamenta l expression of reli-
giou s thought, the existence of powerful supernatural creatures, has been
a part of humanity for as long as the o ldest surviving rock-an figura tive
pictu res, also thirty-two thousand years, suggesting this g lobal human
belief has much mo re ancient o ri gins.
Conclusion
It is clear that the roots of both art and religion are very deep, extending
back probably to at least three hundred thousand or more years ago. The
earl iest surviving evide nce found to date consists primarily of used pieces
of pigment - mainly red oc hre or haematite but also limonite, manga-
nese, and specu larite - along with a range of purposely selected or
fashioned stone. The evidence is widespread, froll) Africa, Asia and
Europe. Th.is suggests similar cultural pursuits among diffe rent types of
archaic humans, spanning t he evolutionary t ransition fi·om various
archaic H01YtD species to what we define as modern H01no sapiens.
However, it is on ly from the past 160,000 yea rs that clear-cut signs of
religious thinking have survived, with purposeful human burial in several
parts of the world, includin g cremation and with red ochre by forty-three
thousand to sixty-five tl)ousand years ago in Australia. The oldest sur -
vivi ng reliably dated form of abstract portable 'art' is about seventy-seven
t ho usand years of age (Africa ) while the oldest su rvivin g religiously
motivated figurative image ry we can recognise with confidence is dated
to more than thirty-two thousand yea rs ago (Eu rope).
 Paul S . C. Tat;on
Most ofehe early evidence ofrcligion is associated with behaviourally,
physically and cogn itively modern humans but the early use of pigment
and othcr potentially symbolic substances (e.g. quartz, fossi ls, colourful
stone, manu ports) was widesp read among archaic humans. Furthermore,
thcre is much defin itive evidence Neanderthals practiced various form s of
burial, and possibly figurative sculpture (c.g. Marquet & Lorblanchet
2003 ). What all of this suggests is that in many ways human ancestors
have been behaviourally modern Illuch longe r than has generally been
accepted and that it is probable Homo ercctlls, Homo ergaster and H011J,O
nealldc1'thalensisall q uestioned their position in the universe. As to which
had divine insight or intervention is still a matter of debate but the
religious ly and scientificall y inspired 'story' of Adam and Eve arising in a
garden of Eden somewhere in Africa holds much we ig ht amo ng many
scientists (c. g. see Sh ipman 2003 ).
My own vicw is that the wo rl d was changed fo reve r by the increased
contacts and interactions that occurred amo ng archa ic humans across
M ri ca, Asia, and Eu rope, si nce at least 160,000 yea rs ago. Further per-
iods of intense migration and contact followcd, one of t hem occurring
betwecn fifty tho usand and thirty thousand yea rs ago. These contacts
would have radicall y changed group world views, regardless of their
nature. \>Vhethcr populations were replaced by in vaders 'Ollt of Afri ca',
different g roups interbred and/or the re was an exc hange of id eas,
materia l culture and technology, the result of contact fo r all in evitably
wou ld have been a changed view of the world and one's place in it.
Perhaps in those moments that followed revelation occurred and
religious thinking as we know it began to blossom and take ho ld.
Acknowledgements
I wo uld like to sincerely thank the many Australian Aboriginal traditionaJ
owners and custodians of the various parts of Australia I have worked in for
their generosity, patience, hosp itali ty, permissio n to undertake field research
I d an d I'e.
and dlC time they took to teach me so much a b out art, b e I·IC f ,an lie.
In particular, elders past and present of the Arrcnte, Darkingjung, Darug,
Gagudju, Gu ndjebmi, G ung, Jawoyn, Kun wi njku , vVaan yi, and \Viradjuri
comm un ities afC gratefully acknowledged for sharing thei r wisdom .
T he Templeton Foundation is thanked j{)r inviting me to prese nt an
earl ier vc rsio n of t his paper at a symposi um held at Lcs Eyzics, France, on
Identifying ancient religious thought and iconography
14-16 May 2004 and for funding my participation. I am especiall y
grateful to Mary Ann J\l1eyers tor organising things for me and inviting
me to submit th is revised paper for publication.
Kirk Huflinan, David Lewis-Wi lliams, M.ike Smith, and Alan Thorne
are thanked tor commentS that imp roved this paper. Christopher
Chippindale is thanked for man y insights since we began working together
in 1990. The Australian J\lluse ul11 has supported much of my research
referred to in this paper, including work with C hristopher Chippindale
inK'lkadu/Arnhem Land and \rVayne Brennan , Shallil Hooper, Dave
Pross, and Evan Yanna J\lluru in Wollemi National Park, NS\rV.
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6
Situating the creative explosion: universal or local?
Colin Renfrew
In this chapter, the intention is to reassess the sig nificance of what has
been ter med the 'creative explosion' ( Ptc ifrcr 1982 ), that is to say the
appearance in Europe du ri ng the Upper Palaeolith ic period of t he cave
art, and o hhe smaller carvi ngs o n bone and ivo ry (the so -called mobiliary
art ) which for m th e subject matter fo r so mllch of this book. As noted in
the Introd uction , and as auth o ri tatively doculllented in the paper by
Hcnshilwood, OU f notio n o f the ' human revolutio n' has rcccild y been
transformed. T he emergence of Hom o sapiells, and of Illost of the beha-
viours associated with t he appea rance of Homo sapicus is to be soug ht and
fo un d in Ati-ic:.1. With th e out-of-Afri ca dispersal of our species aro und
sixty th o usand years ago, these sapient behaviour patterns wcre carri ed by
the new pop ulation to Asia and along thc so uthern ro ute as far as Australia,
and by forty tho usand years ago to Euro pe. T here is no reason to think
that the cognitive capacities of o ne g ro up o f these new humans diftered
sig nificantl y fl'om those of another gro up o f the same species.
Yet in o ne specific area, in Europe, there came, before the end of
the Pleistocene climatic period, an almost explosive proliferation of new
activities and behaviours. In most earlier accounts, especiall y th ose which
tended to locate the ' human revolutio n', in the sense o f the emergence of
the species Hom o snpiens and the acco mpany in g behaviours reAecred in
the new lithic industry and other ways, in Europe, the new creati vity in
painting and sculpture was viewed as an impo rtant component of that
' human revolution'. For this reason such products were often regarded as
an in teg ral part of that revolutio n, inextrica bly assoc iated wit h th e
emergence and ea rl y existe nce of Homo snpicUJ.
It can now be demonstrated that this assumption was an errOr. \Ve can
indeed recogn ise that symbo lic c~lPacitics were part of that ' human
Situating the creative explosion
revolu tion ' assoc iated with the emerge nce of ou r species. They arc seen in
a modest way al ready at Blombos in Southern Afi'ica, prior to the out-of·
Africa dispersal , and then , nOt lo ng after that displ.:rsal, in Australia. But
scu lptures like those of the G ravcttian culture of Europe are not, in
ge neral, seen elsewhere until after t he end of the Pleistocene period. And
it seems that cave art in the Franco-Cantabri an style, with I3 rge, somc-
times almost life -sized represe ntations of mammals, often scen in profi le,
in a manner which might be described as ' naturalistic" we re, du rin g the
Upper Palaeol ithic peri od , found o nl y in so uthern France, northern
Spain and a few outlying sites, mainl y in Italy. Cave art was not a general
featu re of the human revolu tion o r of thc Uppcr Pabcoli thic, o n a
worldwide scale, but a vcry spl.:ciai phenomeno n, restricted exclusively at
that time to wcstcrn Europe.
To say this is not, I ho pe, merely to develo p a novel expression of
Eu rocentrism . And of course there will , over the years to come, be man y
important new d isco veri es elsewhere which may change th at cmerging
pictu re. But the ge neral so undn ess o f this positi o n should , I believe, be
recognised and its implicatio ns no ted. Instead it may be worth com-
paring this creative ex plosion (of the Franco-Cantabrian Uppe r Palaeo-
lithic) with anothe r, perh aps even more sig ni fica nt explosion which
occurred in \Nestcrn Asia rathe r later, around 10,000 Be: the sedentary
revo lution. Both were localised phenomena, and both d rew upo n qua li ties
which must have been latent withi n the marl.: ge neral human capacities
which had been distributed widely over the world fo Uowing the o ut-of-
Mrica d ispersal.
In a late r pape r in th is volum c, Paul M cllars o ffers an interesting
ana lysis, seekin g an expl3natio n for this local isatio n o f Upper Pab eoli thic
cave an to the Franco-Cantabrian region. Here m)' intentio n is simply to
stress the sign ificance of that localisatio n , and to compare tha t creative
episode with others which took place I3te r in the human story.
Relo cating the human revolution: the shift to Africa
The astonishing antiquity of human kind was first established in France
(Daniel & Rcnficw 1988 ), in that rcmarkab le yea r 1859 , which also saw
the publicatio n o f Darwin 's Ou tile Origin of Species ( Da rwi n 1859 ).
Thcre the first finds of fossilised remains of ca rl y H omo snpiclls we re
made at va rious sites in the Do rdognc, which have given their name to
76 C o lin Renfrew
'era-Magnan man') and to th e Aurignacian lithic industry wh ich
accomp:lI1ied these earl y fin ds. In France, too, wc re fi rst recogn ised the
(hand axes' and other earl y fl int too ls which arc representative of the
mllch ea rli er Lower and Middl e Palaeolithi c pe ri ods, and which we now
associated with tha t m uc h earl ier hom inid Homo C1'·ectUJ. And it was
in Germany, at a site in the Neander T hai, that fossil remains of o ur
imlllediate predecessor in Eu rope, Homo 1/,crwdutiJalc1Jsis, we re first
recog nised. Indeed the social behaviour of these earl y ho minids has been
very well studied in France. Vari ous important ad vances, sllc h as the usc of
fire and the development of their skil ls in lith ic ma nu facture, have also been
investigated there, as H en ry de Lu mley'S pa pcr 'T he emergence of sym-
bolic tho ugh t' (th is vol um e) ind icates. Another feature of in terest to the
modern observer is t he craftsmanship we sec in some of the flint tools,
pa rtiCll larl y the hand axes, which are symmetrical 3nd ca refu lly produced in
a man ner wh ich we fin d satist)ring and sometimes beauti ful . It is interesting
to wonder wheth cr the creator of objects whic h we admire in this way were
themselvcs suscepti ble to such aesthetic feeli ngs - and why no t? But we
ourselves arc capable of seeing beauty in the natural world also, and must
be careful nOt to fall into the ' pathetic fallacy' of ascribing o ur own hu man
feeli ngs and sentiments to the material thi ngs which provoke thcm.
Since the 1920s the remarkable discove ries in Africa, fj-om the recog-
nitio n of that very early ancestral te rm AlIstralopithec1J.s by Raymo nd Dart
to the ri ch rcsea rches of Lo uis Leakey at O ld uva i and the recovery of _H omo
habilis, the foc us of attcn ti o n has moved south. I t is now wcll docum ented
that o ur own species H01IJ,O .mpiells developed in Africa from the ancestra l
Homo crcctus o r Hom.o cl;gnster, which indeed ultimately were themselves
the descendents of AltStralopitheclIs. All of this has become increasingly
clear in recent decades. But un til recently it was sti ll possible to take seri -
o usly the notion of multilineal evolution, with comparable processes tak-
ing place in East Asia, and perha ps also in Eu rope. T he impact of DNA
studies (Fo rste r 2004 ) now docum ents in a much morc detai led way the
ollt-of-Afi-ica ex pansion of our species aro und sixty thousand years ago.
U nti l recentl y, however, the behavio ural changes whic h we see as
accorn pa nying the emergence of ou r species, o r fo ll owi ng fro 111 that
cmergence (see, for instancc, Mcllars 199 1) we re see n as emerging most
clea rly in Europe. T his was the so-call cd human revo lu tion (l\llellars &
Stringe r 1989 ). Now, howcver, with the increase in Ou r knowledge
of the Afri ca n Nlidd le Stone Age, th at perception has changed
Situating the c reative exp losio n
(McB rearty & Brooks 2000). T he finds at th e Blombos Cave in southe rn
Afi-ica ( H ens hi lwood, this volum e) confirm that at least two im portant
traits w hi ch we recogni se as integral to that h um an revolu tio n m ay be
d iscerned in Afri ca as Illuch as seventy thousand years ago . T he first of
these is the prod uctio n of beads of pierced shell , whic h are am o ng the
ve ry earliest indications o f del iberate h um an adorn ment. Such body
decorations are rig htly regarded as an indication that perso nal identity
was now finding exp ression in th e for m of material culture. T hese small
artefactS are th us o f ve ry considerable sign ificance for o ur un de rstandi ng
not on ly of the emcrgence of social relations of new kinds, but also of
new kinds of attractive ness o r even !lew pe rceptions of human beauty, a
beauty wh ich can be enhanced through bod il y ado rnm ent.
T he remarkable patterns incised o n th e small , carefull y shaped blo ck o f
red ochre at Blombos, fo r all their mo desty, h:we comparably significant
implicatio ns. They are not representati onaJ - to call them 'art ' mig ht be too
ambitious: patterni ng is a suffi ciently g rand te rm. But here are ma rki ngs,
delibe ratel y made by a huma n being, w hich wc may at least regard as
'expressive'. T hey mark the first step of what Merlin Do nald (1991 ) has
te rmcd 'external symbolic storage'. J\llcaningful marks are being made
upon some object, so that thei r meaning can be revisited at a later datc
when that o bject is returned to. For the first time, a device is being created
where elements of memo ry may be stored o utside the brain. O f co urse the
vario us too ls that h umans had made, well betere that time, wo uld have
carried vario us memories with them o r at lcast were able to kindle such
memories in the ir maker o n subseq uent occasio ns. But they remai ned too ls.
Here we see the beginn ing of deli berate ma rki ngs, which we can regard as
thc starting po int in the long process whic h Icd to th e deve lopment of
art in the Upper Palaeo lith ic period, and ve ry much la ter, to writing.
The sa lient clements of th e ' human revo lution' have been set out by
MeHars (1991 ) in a much-q uoted article in wh ich he listed some ofthc
bchaviou ral changes which cha racterise the tra nsition fro m Middle to
Upper Palaeolith ic) notab ly in France:
1. a shi ft in the produ ction of s ton~ tools, fro m a 'fla ke' technology to
one whic h g ives mo re reg ul ar and sta ndard ised fo rms of 'blade)
manufactu re;
2 . an increase in the variety and com plexity of the sto ne tools prod uced,
with mo rc obvio us standardisJtio n of prod uctio n;
78 Colin Renfrew
3. the appeara nce for the fi rst ti me of artefacts made out of bone, antler
an d ivory which have been extensively shaped;
4. an increased tempo of technological change, with an increased degree
of regional diversification;
5. the appearance for the fi rst time of a wide range of beads, pend ants
and personal ado rnm ents;
6 . signi ficant changes in both the econom ic and social organisa tion of
human groups;
7. the appearance for rhe first ti me of representational or ' natura listic'
art, seen bo th in small ca rvings, mainly on bone, antle r or ivo ry, an d
in t he remarka ble painted an imals seen in the painted caves slIch as
Lascaux or AJrami ra , o r earl ier at the Groue Chau vet;
We can now recognise th at the first six of these were indeed a ge neral
feature of the human revolution, as seen fi rst in Afri ca (McBrearty &
Brooks 2000 ) and then subsequently in other parts ofthe g lobe, with th e
dispersa l of our species (Mellars 2006 ). The seventh , howeve r, was at tha t
time specific to the 'creative ex plosion' of France and Spain. Instead one
could insert a new and more modest claim in place of number 7:
7 . t he de libe rate use of simpl e patterns insc ribed on small objects (and
sometimes painted ) documenting an external exp ressio n , which
might be conside red a basic instan ce of external sy mbolic storage.
Later it wil l be appropriate to co nsider mo re ca refu ll y t he repertoire of
visible symbolic exp ression, patterning, rep resen tati ve figuration and
othe r prod uction of expressive form which might be su bsu med under the
notion of 'art', seen in di ffere nt plac es world wide during th e Uppe r
Palaeolithic period - th at is to say before t he end of t he Pleistocene
cl imatic regime around 9,500 or 10,000 Be . But first it is app rop ri ate to
seek to specify some of t he features whk h were special to t ha t much more
localised creative explosion of thc Franco-Cantabrian Upper Palaeolithic
and its other European relatives.
Special features of the 'creative explosion ' of the European
Upper Palaeolithic
Having separated these two major pheno mena: th e ' hum an revolution'
(Afri ca n ge nesis and worldwide dispe rsal of Homo sapiens) and the
Situating the creative explosion
'creative explosion ' (p ro liferati on of social products including scu lp ture
and painting in the European Upper Palaeolithic), it may be useful to
seek to define th e latter ra t her 1110re closely. As alread y ac kn owledged,
there may be a limited range of creative exp ressions which might just be
cha racte rised as 'art' wh ich were produced elsew here in t he wo rld during
the Upper Palaeol ithi c period, that is to say before the end of t he
Pleistocene clim ati c phase aro und 10,000 Be. VVe shall t urn again to
them in a moment. But first we can list so me of the salient feat ures which
seem to have been in effect restri cted to Europe at that time.
VVe may list, among th e notable features of th e European Upper
Palaeo lithi c creative ex plosio n (Balm & Vertu t 1988 ), the following
features, some of th em of restricted distributi on:
1. Small , th ree-dimensiona l hand-sized human figu rines of bone,
ivory, stone and so metimes baked clay, often readily identifi ed as fema le
and then sometimes termed 'Venus' figurines. These occu r with a well-
defined tim e range in th e G rave ttian culture of Europe, ft'om c. 28,000
BP to c. 21,000 BP with a distribution exte ndin g f.:1r beyond that o f the
Franco-Cantab rian cave art, extendin g through th e Czech Rep ublic to
sites in th e Ukraine (e.g. Kostenki ) associated with mammoth hun te rs.
Among th e more celebrated exam ples are those fi'om Wi llendorf in
Austria (sec Figure 6.1 ), and those fro m Brassempouy (Fig ure 6 .2) and
Lespugue in France (F ig u re 6.3) . Their approximate distribution is
shown in Figu re 6.4 (Renfrcw 1991 ; Gamble 1982 ).
There is an extensive literature upon these in te resting sc ulptures.
Belonging with them in t he Gravettian cu ltu re, within t he sa me time
frame, are so me of the earliest known fi g urations in baked clay, also
from sites in Moravia, in the Czech Republic, such as Pavlov and Dolni
Vcsto ni ce (Figure 6 .5 ).
Thei r OCCU1Tence outside the franco-Cantab rian area might be seen to
support Mellars' suggestion th at their genesis is due to a sh ift towards
sedentism. for the finds fi.-om Pavlov and Doln{ Vcston icc, like those
from Kostienki, suggest that they come from the camps of mammoth
hun ters. These we re not permanent dwe llings, but they \vere well -
established encampmen ts. The use of baked clay fo r the creation of th ese
anima l and human figurincs is particularly notable at these sites . The very
clear use of this technique for p roducing human fig urations is seen at
an early datc in the )omo n culturc of Japan towa rd s t he end of the
Pl eistocene period and at th e beginning of t hc H o loccne .
I Colin Renfrew Situating the creative explosion

(d'Errico & Nowell 2000 ), the fonner d ated to some 300,000 ),ears ago,
the larte r to 230,000 yea rs ago. These arc so far the only possible fig~
urations which might be datcd so ea rl y, f..'lr earlier than Ho'mo sapiells, and
indeed back to the time of Ho1l/.o ercctlts. At the moment thei r Status
should be considcred as un certain.)
It is rem arkable that, despite the undoubted capacity of Homo sapiens
to produce such figures, as clearl y documcnted by the objects mentioned,
their distribution during the Palaeol ithic period is restricted to Europe.
2. Sma ll ~s i zed carvings, usuall y on bone or ivo ry, of ani mals or animal
heads, seen on small objects, as decOl'ation, sometimes on what have been
identified as 'spear throwers' (Ga rrod 1955). These are often referred to
as 'mobiliary art'. They may be in relief o r incised (Figure 6.6).

6.2, 'Venus' of Brassempouy, Fro

height 3.6 ems .. ea 28,000 BP. FoUl
associated with Aurignacian mate
presumably earlier than the Gravi
ines. (PhotO by Jean Vertut. Fro
The Cambridge Illustrated History 4

. 'Venus' of Willendorf, Austria. Stone, Art. p. 82)

ght I 1.1 ems .. ca. 25,000 to 23,000 BP. One
the figurines of the Gravettian culture, the
liest established category of sculpture
wn. (Cast, Natural History Museum,
ndon)

As noted earlier, the principal distribu tion of these slllall sc ulptures

occurred during the Gravettian period. Their origins probably go back
ea rli er, to th e preceding Aurignacian phase. For it is to this early time,
around thirty-two thousand years ago that the rema rkable lion -headed
anthropomorphic (the rianthropic) figu re from Hohlenstei n-Stadel in
Ge rman), is dated (Plate II ).
The pu rpose he re, however, is not to disc li ss in detai l t hese first
representations of the human body in three dimensions, but to
emphasise the ir exceptional place in world history. Their d istribu tion is
limited to Europe (including some Italian sites ). ( In saying this, brief
reference should be made to tWO ve ry mu ch earlier objects from
Bcdna °ik 201)3 and Bcrckhat l:Um in Israel
 82 Colin Renfrew S it uati ng the c reative explos io n

may represent developments similar to those of the lomon culture of

Japan at this time.
3. Larger carvings, often-in low relief either remaining in si tu on the
cave wall, or on heavy stone slabs. The so-called Venus ofLaussel offers a
good example (Figure 6.8 ).
Relief carvings are a noted feature of Franco-Cantabrian art. They
are not yet documcnted for the Upper PalaeoLithic period outside its
distribution.
4. Sculptures in clay, left remaining in situ (s uch as the famo lls bison at
Tuc d'Audobert: Figure 6.9 ). Such fi gurations as t hesc have again not
been reported outside the Franco-Cantabri an area for the Palaeolithic
period.
5. Pajntings of animals on the walls of caves or rock shelters,
approach ing life size, with 'naturalistic' outlines and sometimes with
polychrome infilling to g ive a viv id effect. They were first recognised at
Altami ra (Plate XlIl ) and then at numerOliS sites in France and Spain,
including Le Portel ( Plate XIV ). The carll' dates fo r t hei r occurrence at
the Grone Chauvet (Plate XV ), some thi rty-two thollsand years ago,
occasioned surprise in vicw of the accomp lishment of the figurations.

6.3. 'Venus' of Lespugue. France. Ivory. height

r 4.7 ems., ca. 25,000 to 23,000 SP. (Cast, Nat-
ural History Mu seum. london)

These arc widely found in co ntexts of the Au rignacian culUlre in

Franco-Cantabria and beyond (Figure 6.7 ), and arc also a teature of the
Gravcttian period. They arc not well -documented elsewhere du ring the
Upper Palaeolithic. Simple figuration s o f this kind will, I suspect, be
foulld more widely frolll contexts of this period. For some of the simpler
figu rations would seem to be quite a predictable occurrence quite early in
the dcvclopmcnt::tl trajectory ofhul11an culture. But, so far as I 3Ill aware,
they have not been documented in the Upper Pa laeo lithic of Australia or
t he Americas. Some terracotta figures of an ima ls have reportedly been
found along wit h human figu rin es in con texts dati ng from the end of the 6.4. Map of the distribution of 'Venus' figurines. c. 25,000 to 23.000 BP. (From Renfrew
...._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _lCJ' d.s.tru.:L:l1.c. .J~.criod..Qn the northern Qar ofrhe Pacific coas of Asia. They 1991.9; after Gamble 1982)
84
- Situating the creative explosion
Colin Renfrew

of subjects and styles rnay be, prior to the onset of the Holoce ne period
so me ten thousand years ago. So far nothing has been published whi ch
compares with the Franco-Cantabri a n stylc.
This picture may yet c hange . The discovery of a painted p laque in the
Apollo 11 Cave in Nam ibia ( Platc A'V I) well d ated to before 25 ,000 years
ago (Wendt 1976) is o f particu lar inte rest. But so far, this is o ne of the
vc ry few cases of Palaeolithic painting o utside of Australia a nd the
Franco-Cantabrian d istribution.
6. Paintings of hands o n th e walls o f rock shelter o r caves, resemblin g
handprin ts, but often wit h t he paint ou tli ni ng the shape of the hand.
These arc a freq uent feature of Franco-Cantab rian cave a rt ( Plate XVI I).
Superficially vc ry sim ilar paintings, bur of t he Holoce ne peri od ) have
been found in different parts of the wor ld ) fo r instan ce, in Borneo and in
Argenti na (P late XV III ).
7. Paintings of sc hematic indi vidual fo rm s o n th e wal ls of caves or roc k
shelters, sometimes including ' tectifor ms' and signs indicatin g the female
sex (Figure 6.10 ).

6 .6 . Spear thrower from Mas d'Azil,

Probably Magdalenian (ca. 15,000 B
Jean Vertut. From Bahn, P. & J.
Journey Through the Ice Age. p. 98)

6.S. 'Venus' of Doln i Vestonice. Moravia. Baked

clay, 11 . 1 ems., ca 25 .000 to 23,000 BP. (Cast.
N atu ral History Mu seum. London)
{r

Such splendid images as these naturall y represe nt the paradigm

case of what is meant by Palaeolithic cave art. Images of co mparable
scale , althou g h differing ill style , arc found in the rock art of hunter-
gathe rer cOlllllluniti es of the Holoce ne period, after 10 ,000 He, in
many parts of t he worl d. These havl: bt.:cll well studi ed in Australia
(sec Tac;oll , this vo lullle ), in SOllth Afr ica (sec Lcwis· \l\fi l1iams, this
vo lume), in No rth Africa (for instance in the Tassili area ) and in th e
Ame ri cas.
The occurrences of an imal pai ntin gs in the Pleistocene period arc,
however, fcw. Their vcry ea rly occurre nce in Australia is now we ll
doc umented , as Tar;o n indicates. Eu il is no t Ict clear wha th e full range
86 Colin Renfrew Situating the creative ex plosion

Implications for the human story

This brief, and in somc respects superficial su rvey has set ou t to doc um ent
that the df.:ve lop ment of Franco-Cantab ri an cave art represents what was
in some respects a u ni que episode in hum an experience. The cave art ill
question and the associated mate ri al culture does not rep resent a general
phase in the development of human cultu re, as has often been claimed .

6.7. Map of find Spots of spear throwers from Palaeolithic Europe, showing a similar
distribution to the 'Venus' figurines seen in Figure 6.4. (After Garrod 1955, 21)

T his is somewhat of a residual category, and it wou ld be surprising

if examples outside of E urope were not found , even for the Upper
Palaeolithic period.
S. Incisions on the walls of caves and rock shelters showing ani mals in
profile, often carved in th e same place as earl ier representations and so
fo rmin g a pali mpsest (Pl ate XIX).
Such figurations as these arc vc ry fi'cq ucnt in the caves and rock
shelters of Franco-Cantabria. They occ ur also in t he Coa vat ley in
Portugal not only in rock shelters, but carved on rock surfaces in the
open air. Their Occurrence there has been secu rely dated to the Upper
Palaeol it hi c period.
It is notoriously diHlcult to date rock art at open -air sites, and it may
well be t hat Palaeoli t hi c rock art will b~ fo und much more widely. At
6.8. 'Venus' of Laussel, Fra nce. Carved stone block, height 44 cms. Probably Gravettian
present, however, the main Pabeolithic cases rcm ain Franco-Cantabria (ca. 24,000 BP). (Ph oto by Jean Vertut. From Bahn, P. & J. Vertut, 1997. Journey Through
and Australia. the Ice Age , p. 1 13)
88 Colin Renfrew Situating the creat ive explosio n

in Pre- Ponery Neoli thi c B. That was, of course, in a different part of the
wo rld . Its consequences were even more momentous, since the sedentalY
life w hich then developed was sustained by the domestication of wheat
and barley, and the rearing of sheep, goat a.nd cattIe. This economy
proved exceedingly durable, although we do not yet know whether the
cycle of growth which it sustained wi ll last as long as the creative cycle of
the cave art of Franco-Cantabria.
Of course sedentism and the domestication of plants and animals
occurred in different parts of tIle world also. Each of these might be
regarded as a creative explosion in its D\vn right, in what may be termed
the ' tectonic' phase of h uman development (Renfrew 2006 ). Seen from a
distance they were not so numerous (Bell wood 2005 ). And of course, at a
micro level , we might seek to discern mo re n um erous creative episodes,
for instance ofsedentism and domestication (Barker 2006). We cou ld go
on to apply the same approac h to tIle urban revolu tions which occurred
indepe ndently in d ifferent parts of the world (Renfrew 2007 ). In each of

6.9. Modelled clay bison, T uc d'Audobert, France. Length 63 and 61 ems. Probably
Magdalenian (ca. 15,000 BP) . (Photo by Jean Vertut. from Bahn. P. The Cambridge Illus-
or
trated History Prehistoric Art. p. 139)

Such a claim can be made for the morc modest products of the human
revolutio n, such as arc seen at Biombos, and then more widely . And sllch
a claim cou ld perhaps be sustained for t he h u nter-gathere r rock art so
widely seen in the early Holocene pe ri od.
This particular creative explosion was something different. But
although in its own way unique, as I have sought to emphasise, it may
belong to a different class of event or process, which we can recognise at
other places and times. For example, at aboll t the tirnc that the many
mi llennia of cave art in Europe were falli ng into decline, around 10,000 Be,
anothe r creative explosion was building up in vVesrcrn Asia . The very
climatic changes that made no longe r tenable the hunter-gathere r life
mode which had sustained the Eu ropean Upper Palaeolithic made pos-
sible new adaptations in Western Asia, doc umented for instance by th e
6 . 10. ··Female sex"; carved in bas re lief, Abri Cellier. France. Length of block 60 ems.
Natufian cu lture of the Levant, which soon developed into Pre-pottery Aurignacian (ca. 28,000 BP). (Photo by Jean Vertut. From Bahn. P. & J. Vertut, 1997,
Neo li thic A, and then the full emergence of sedentism and domestication Journey Through tile Ice Age, p. 104)
90 Colin Renfrew
these, economic c hanges wcre acco mpanied , or perhaps preceded b y
spiritual devdopmcnrs, changes in belief systems which sometimes leave
vc ry clear traces, even if these 3rc not always easy to interpret.
A notable example is oflercd by the di scove ry of what call be claimed
as the world's first temple, o r first bui lt sa nctuary, at Gobekli Tepc in
so uth -east Turkey (Plates XX and XXI ). Dating from c. 9000 Be, th e
build ings there precede the d evelop me nt of d o mesticated plants and
animals (Schmidt 2001 , 2006). Indeed the community cannot yet be
rega rd ed as full y sed entary, althou g h in retrospect it can be seen that
scdcntis111 was 0 11 the way .
\Nhat is remarkable is that here an enti rely new style is born , and see n
exercised wit h g reat accomp lishm ent o n the rcli cfstclac of the sa nct ua ry.
This, taken with the other d evelo pments in the Leva nt at this tim e was
certai nly ano th er creative explosio n .
It may be helpful to see the creative explosio n of the European Uppe r
Palaeo li thic in th is perspective . The notion of punctuated equilibrium has
alread y been thoughtfully applied in prehistoric a rchaeologv (Cherry
1984). Indeed t he concept has its co unterpart in ca tastro phe theory, with
t he 'anastrop he' of sudden creative development ( Ren frew 1979 ). The
Franco·Cantabrian creative explosion may be see n as perhaps the first
g reat upsu rge in human creativi ty - in mate ria l cul tu re and , one may
surmise, in spirituali ty . There arc clear suggestions that a comparable
developmc nt occurred in Australia at much t he samc time.
When sc holars agree to shift thc loc us of th e human revolution to
Africa, as seems now to be widel y agreed, the creative explosio n docu ·
mcntcd for the Europea n Upper Palaeolithi c does not represent a
wo rldwidc phenomenon. It was intense and local ised. It was the first of a
number of sllch episod es in t hc human story. Each o f them had its own
co nte xt of origin and its ow n particularitics. It is fi'om these creative
episodes that the human story was crcatcd.
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Barke r, C. , 2006. nJC AgriCIIlrurnl R cpolution '-11 PrdJistory. Oxford: O xfo rd
Universi ty Prcss.
Bednarik, R. G., 2003. A fig urin e from the Al"ri cln Aclll:ul ian. Cun'wI
Antbropology 44,405- 13.
Situating the creative explosion
Bellwood, P., 2005. First Fanners: TIle Origins of AgriCIIlturnl Societies.
Oxford: Bbd,·'wcll.
Cherry, J. F. , 1984. The emcrgcnce of the statc in the prehistoric Aegean.
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Darwin, C., 1859. On the Origin of Species b), AI/elms of Nawrnl Selection.
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d'Errico, F. & A. Nowcll, 2000. A new look at the Berckhat Ram figurin e:
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IOllmal IO , 123- 67.
Donald, M., 199 1. Origiw of tlJe M odern Mi1ld: Three Stage.r in the
E1'ol1ltioll of Culture a11d Cog1lieiol/ . Ca mbridge (MA ): Harvard
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Forster, P., 2004. Icc ages and the mi toc ho nd rial DNA chronology of human
dispersals: a rcview. Philosophical Tml1snctions of the R OJ·al Society. of LOlldou
Series B 359, 255-64.
Gamble, C., 1982 . Interaction and :-.lIi:-.nce in Palaeolith ic society. Mal1 17 ,
19- 107.
G:-.rrod, D. , 1955. Pa laeoli thic spca r· throwe rs. Proceedings of the Prehistoric
Society 21 , 21-35.
McBrearty S. & A. S. Brooks, 2000. The revol ution that wasn' t: a new
inte rpretatio n of the o ri gin of modern human behaviou r. jOllrna./ of
H'HJla11 Epoll/tioll 39, 453- 563.
Mcllars, P. , 199 1. Cognitive chan ges and the emergen ce of mode rn hum ans in
Europe. CalJlbridge Archn.eologica./ jom'un/ l , 63-76
j\klbrs, P. IVt. , 2006. \Vhy did mod ern human populations disperse fr0111 Afri ca
ea. 60,000 years ago? A new mod el. Proccedillgs of the Nntional Academy of
Scie1lces of the USA 10 3, 9 38 1-6.
Mellars, P. & C. Stri nge r, 1989. n)e HI/ 1IIaH R elloll/timJ. Edinburgh:
Edinburgh Uni vcrsiry Press.
Pfeifler, J., 1982 . 77" Crea tiJle £-.:plosioll, nil 11Iquiry il1tO tbe Origi1ls of Art aun
Rcligioll. New York: Harper and Row.
Renfrew) C., 1979. System collapse as social transformarion: catastrop hc and
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Renfi'cw, c., 2006. Beco ming human - rhc :lrchaeologica l challenge.
Proceedings of tlJC Briti.rb Acnde1U~v 139, 21 7-38.
Re nfrew, C., 2007. Prehistory: 77le Mnkin...', of tbe Humnll AlhJd. London :
\Vcidcnfcld :-.nd Nico lson.
92 Colin Renfrew

Schmidr, K. , 200 1. GobekJi Tcpc, Southeastern Turkc),. A prel im inall' reporr on

the ] 995-1999 excavations. Pnli:ol'icllt 26 , 45-54.
Schmidt, K., 2006. Sic Bau ten die £"steu Tempel. DfJS Riusclbnftc H ciligtulIl del'
Stci}/:,citjiigcr. Die Archii%gisciJc ElItdecll1f118 a1Jl Gobeldi Tcpe. Munc hcn:
Vc rbg C. H. Beck oi-IG . SEC TION II
vVendr, W. E., 1976. 'Art mobili cr' £i'OIll the Apollo 11 cave, SOllth West Afi'ica:
Africa's oldest dated works of art. South African A1"Clmeoiogical Bulletin.
31 ,5- 11 .
A PPROACHES TO 'ART
AND RELIGION'
-
7

Th e roots of art and religion in ancient

material culture

Merlin Do"ald

This chapter focuses o n the function s served by art and rel igio n in th e
context of human cogniti ve and cultural evolu tion. Art and reli g io n arc
cultural ac hievements th::tt ca n on ly be und ers tood in terms of their
complex cognitive functions. They arc ultimately prod ucts of Oll r own
,lttempts at cognitive self gove rn ance.
Like every other majo r ach ievement o f human tho ug ht and memory,
they have emerged on the culturallcvcl gradually, as biologically modern
humans have strugg led with their own intellectual and spiritual birth.
The final evolutionary Pllsh ofr hc human brain created a fa r more plasti c
cognitive system , with possibili ties fo r future growth that culture is still
exploring. In this respect, human culture is a gigantic search-eng ine that
seeks out, and tests, va ri o us solutio ns to the many cognitive challenges
faced by people living in symbo lic cu ltures, with rap id informatio n-flows,
and high population densities. Art and relig ion are among the most
important products of those cultural explo ra tio ns.

The cognitive importance of high culture

Art and reli g io n can bc vicwed as closely related cognitive doma ins that
constitute the foundations of w hat we mi g ht call traditio nal ' hi g h
culture'. Vicwed stricrl y in terms of its function vis-a.-vis thc indi vidual
mind, the latter may bc constru ed as a le"eI of culture that endows its
members with an artic ul ated world-vicw that goes beyond the pragmatics
of me re surviva l. World -views provide the imaginative engines that
determ ine a g reat deal about how people live, what they va lue, and how
they vicw reality. They rakc time, measured in many ge nerations, and
considerable communal effort to build.
 96 Merlin Dona ld
In this context, the word 'art' refers to more than the visual image·
making compo nen t of high culture; it includes many other expressive
forms , such as music, dance, and theatrical performances, and aspects of
the built e.:nviro nmcnt, inasmuch as thcy serve the samc cognitive ends. A
complex tapestry of artistic expression defi nes the public surface of human
social life, and I have referred to it as the 'mi mctic' dimension of culture.
The logic of mimetic cul ture is metaphorical; it works by an underlying
logic of perceptual si milarity. Mimesis e.:x tends beyond art, to encompass
othcr nonverbal aspccts of cultural life, including such things as public
spectacle, athletic events, body-language, and the nonverbal transmissio n
of skills. For a valiery o f reasons, which 1 have listed elscwhere (D onald,
1991 , 1993, 1998, 1999, 2000,200 1, 2005 ), mimetic capacity is one
of the basic building blocks of language, and must havc preceded its
evolution in hominid prehistory.
The word ' reli gion' refers broadly to a subcategory of hi gh cu lture
that comprises the fundamenta l belie fs that encapsulate and suppo rt th e
world ·view of a society. In traci ng the crucial ro le of language in con -
structin g belief, I have called the gove rnin g representational fOfm of
traditiona l reli gious cul ture ' mythi c', referrin g to its underl yi ng logic of
thought, whic h is bascd mostly on allegorical reasoning. M yths and
myth ologies are coll ectively re.: mcmbered stories that tell people by
example who they arc, how to livc, and what to value. Beca use their
gove rnin g Illyths cut so deep ly into the shared bc liefs o f a po pulatio n,
religions can shape the pattern o f dail y life in society, and dictate
behaviour in sllch Illundane areas as birth , mar riage, the treatment and
consumptio n o ffood , the proper progress of li fe, attitudes to death, and
so o n . These beliefs dominate other ideas. In the cognitive chain of
comma nd , myt hs rank at the top, in most societies.
In traditional societies, art is onc ofthc principal means by whic h thc
mythic com ponent of this hicra rchy, reli gio n , exerts its influence. In
such societies , the uses and themcs of art tend to be d o minated by
rel igion , and sacred artwo rks intrude into da ily life , keeping the mind (2 )
'o n track', that is, under constant cogni tive regu latio n by the do minant (3 )
worldvicw. For example, for m:111y centu ries \I\lcstern art was d o minated
by the major thcm es and arc hetypes of the Judeo-Christia n religious
tradition ; during t hat period, most arts and crafts , includ ing all those (4 )
that contributed to the build ing of cathedrals and shrin es wcre ded i-
..._________-<:·at.c.d....Qrimarily 0 QUfl20ses defined by the Churc h. Th is re resented a ___. .____.,\,;5;./)
The roots of art and re ligion in ancie nt m a t erial
collective patter n of se lf-regulation, a hie rarchy of cognitive control
that has often becn repeated in human history. Such contro l in no
way implies dictatorship; it resides in the entire population, and is no
ditlcrent in principle from many othcr methods of self-regulation,
except that in this case, the 'self' that is regu lated includes the notio n of
collective idcn tity.
Art and religion h:lve thus been closely interwoven during the cmcr·
gc ncc of modern cu lture, usually with art in an impo rtant subsid iary rolc,
and rel igion (that is, the myt hic component of cogn itive regulation ) in
the dom inan t ro le. This is entirely und erstandable, since one of the major
functions of art is the constr uction and advocacy ofworldvicws. Reli gions
constitute the large r social ·cogni tive apparatus of th e two; art provides
o ne.: major mea ns for th at ap paratus to exert regulatory control over
thought and memol)f on the popu lation.
It takes a great dea l of com munal intellectual wo rk to build a society
and a shared wo rld view. The collective intellectual apparatus o f human
society is very special, in evolutional)1 terms, because it is both ma rc
complex and more explicitly symbolic in nature than that of any othcr
species, by fa r. Humanity is unique in the elaborate cultural stru ctures it
has created to smooth and coordinate thc sha red processes of cogn itio n .
Viewed in terms of their functio n in society, artists have traditiona ll y
played key ro lcs in that social-cognitivc apparatus.
Art as a means o f cog nitive self·governance
From a cogni tivc standpOint, art is a uniqucly human cognitive activit),
characterized by the following featu res (tor 1110re detail, see Donald,
in press) :
( 1) art is aimed at influencing the minds of an audicnce, and as such, it
might be call ed a form of 'cogniti ve. enginccring';
art always occurs in the conte xt ofa distributed social nctwork; and
it is constructivist in natu re, that is, :l imed at the deliberate refi nc·
I11cnt and elaboration of somc aspect of the worldview of the artist,
which is usua ll y derived from society; moreover,
most art is metacognitive in function , that is, it engages in self-
rcflection , both individually :lnd soci:dly;
the fo rms and med ia of art are technolob'Y.-drivcn;
98 Merlin Donald
(6 ) nei ther the role of the artist, no r the local social defini tion of art,
are fixed , and may change as a fun ctio n of the state o f the social-
cogniti ve network in which the artist wo rks; and finall y,
(7 ) an , unli ke most conve ntio nal physical enginee rin g , is always aimed
at a cognitive outcome, that is, at infl uencing the mind of an audie nce
(even if the onl y audience were to be the mind of the artist).
Art grows fro m the simple f.:1ct of mu tual atte ntio nal influence, which
is an exquisitely evolved skill in human beings. Peo ple are ex pert at
controllin g o ne ano ther's attenti on fro m in fancy, and ultimatel y this
extends to mo re elabo rate means o finAu encing the ideas, beliefs, images,
and ul timatel y world -views, o f o neself and others, thro ugh the use of
extern al representations. This culminates in vari o us forms of art.
T his quintessentially human ga me, of incessant mutual attentio nal
infl ue nce, creates a fi ercc social compctitio n fo r cognitive contro l, and
imposes a tremendous burden o n human memo ry. The resulting social
netwo rks elicit unend in g exchanges o f kn owledge and gesture
th ro ughout the lifespan . This exchange of infl ue nce is com plex eno ugh
in small tribal and f.:1ll1ily groups; but in large societies, it ge nerates tOO
much complex ity to remain informal and unstru c[Ured. In large groups,
it can o nly attain a degree of coherence whcn it is supported by mo re
fo rmal insti tutio nal structures, which serve to gove rn and regulate it. The
fl ow-patterns of that influence foll ow a pattern that reflects the lines o f
power, interest , and affiliati o n in any give n society.
For this reaso n, evcnru aHy, cogniti ve regula tio n had to become con-
centrated in a unitary political and reli gio us stru cture that included visual
art as o ne of its means o f gove rnan ce. Histo ri call y, most cultures have not
made an explicit distinctio n between religio n and other aspects of cul -
tu ral Iifc , incl udin g visual art, music, and litcrature. Indeed , religio n
cncom passcd much of traditional culturalli fc , and the idea tha t the latte r
co uld become 'secular" and that religio n could be hi ved offas an isolable
component of the larger cul ture is rccent, and marks a major shift in the
\,Vcstcrn traditio n. Since the Enli ghtenment, religion has grad ually been
isolated fro m most o thcr Western inrcllcc[U al and artistic acti vity, and
studied as an anthropological phenomeno n . H owever, this is a mis-
leading way to loo k at it, because it is thc result o f strippin g reli gious
institu tio ns of man y of their traditio nal functio ns. It is not clcar
that secular culture roduces a type of gove rnment that is any less ___
The roots of art and religion in ancient material
ideologicaJ or value-lade n than those provided by so-caJled traditio na.l
rd igio ns in earlier timcs.
One might say that , fo r man y cultures, art is the quintessence
of religious exprcssion. In many ways, secular high art is in a positio n
vis-a.-vis society that is remarkably similar to th at of its mo re ex plicitly
religious prcdeccssors, because it usuall y expresses a world -vicw. This is
tru e not o nl y of artists whose wo rk is o bvio usly religio us in nature, such
as Rothko, Morea u, o r Ro uaul t, but also o f those whose work is apparentl y
foc used o n the surf.,1ce of ex perience, such as Nbtisse or the Futurists.
Again , this raises qu esti o ns o f definiti on in modern society, which has
superseded this ancient cognitive power stru cture with an open mu lti -
cu ltural configuratio n that is unprecedentcd in human histo ry. Within
this new contex t , the influence of reli gion has often extended into
what might be called sccular spacc. For example, the term ' Hinduism'
encompasses a widely subscribed systcm of myths and beliefs, including a
caste systcm, nume rous custo ms and rituals that de fi ne daily lIfe , styles o f
dress and gesturc, systems of architecture, music and art, as well as
myriads of fo rmal insti tutions, with sacred texts, o rga ni zatio ns dedicated
to edu cation and welfa rc, and other sphcres of influcnce that have par-
:.I Uds in many secular governments. In a similar vein , terms such as
' Islam', ' Juda ism' , and 'Catho licism' are vast inclusive categories that
Co\'cr much mo re than re ligio us belie f itself o r its most common insti -
tutio nal reflections in fo rm al custom and ritu al. Moreover, the infl ue nce
o f rel igio ns can carry f..1 r beyond thcir formal institutional reach. It
re mains possible today to idc ntif)r o nesel f as culturall y JVluslim , Jewish,
Or Cathol ic, witho ut acceding to any of the beliefs or dogmas that
sup posed ly defin ed thosc religio ns in thc first place. The same may be said
of ma ny no nreligio us ideo logies, somc of which have tried to contro l art
in most of its for ms. Both com mun ism and fascism tried to usc art in a
frankly pro paga ndistic mann er. Thc many nationalisms o f the past cen -
tu ry used art in a similar way, as have multinatio nal corpo ratio ns, in thcir
O\\"n ways. The boundaries bctwcen rel igio n, secular cultural identi ty,
.lnd 3rt appear to bc less clear today than in the pas t.
Howcve r, ac ross these many fo rms o f political and social co ntrol
Over cognitio n, the cffecti veness of art is a constant. It speaks to the
human mind in a particular wa y, with a logic of its own tha t is rootcd
in human evolution. Traditi onal religions have used art successfull y to
_ _ __....p.crsuade, convc rt, remind , and g uide the behavio ur of their fo ll owers.
100 Merlin Donald
The metaphorical and allegorical styles of thou g ht that arc the hallmarks
of religion have been well served by art, and th e honoured place of art in
man y societies is a result of its firm association with religion and belief.
The sa me is true of secular institutions, including that most secul ar of all
institu tions, the lnu lticu lulI"ai state. Artists arc employed by rhe modern
state fo r the same reason they have always been emplo yed by the state :
rhey, morc than anyone else, have mastered the most powerful means of
rep resentation an d persuasion.
More recentl y, natio nalism and secu lar ideologies have se rved roughly
the 53111C social-cognitive organ izing functions as tradi ti ona l religion.
Some things have changed, especiall y the opc.:nness and diversity of
wo rl dviews. But world -views are still composed with th e same basic
representational components, becau se the human mind can work on ly
within the parameters of its own biological and cu ltural evolu tion.
Human societies arc massive minds haring networks that exchange
knowledge and be lief. In an y society that enjoys a degree of cogni tive
unity, human beings share mind in certain cru cial areas from a yo un g age,
and in doing this, they share the products of a long-standjng, cumulative,
and collective cognitive effo rt. Societies that lack th is element of unity arc
always in danger of internal strife and collapse. However, there must also
be eno ug h diversity of ideas to satisfy the social need for innovation and
creative adaptatio n to new circumstances. l\1ai ntaining a productive
balance between unity and diversity is not easy, as the histo ry of the
vVeste rn experim ent with di ve rsity testifies. But it is esse ntial.
The special case of Franco-Cantabrian cave art
There is no reason to think that visual art in the U pper PalacolitJlic came
from a different creative source than it does today. The human brain is
the biological constrain t on , and ultimate source of, creativity. Cu lture
provides the specific se mantic fields that determine meaning.
Thus, we cannot expect that the inspiration for Uppc.:r Palaeo lithic
parietal art was somehow derived o utside ofrhe socia l-cogni tive networks
that have shaped its modern cqu ivale nts. Art ists must wo rk within a
traditio n . Images, tec hno logies, and cultural archetypes do not spring
full y formed fi·om artists (if they d id, they wo uld nOt wo rk, since th e
audience must share them ). Total o ri ginality is an illusion , even in cases of
cn ius. It would be preslim )tllOUS to aSS um e that the cultures of ___
The roots of art and religion in ancient material
the Upper Palaeolithic were an exception to this rule . Therefore we must
view the anc ient images painted on the walls of caves in the Franco-
Cantabrian regio n as reflections, however incomplete and indi rect, of
a religious world vicw; that is, of myths and stori es, archetypcs and
allcgories, that gave human life meaning.
~lOl'eover, givcn the extraordinary locations of these images, thc
tre mendous effort that it too k to create them and to develop the tcch -
niques for their creation, an d the consistency of the ir themcs, across time
and place, for man y millenni a, a religious interpretation seems apt. In
\'iew o f the similarity of these images and places to the rel ig io us imagery
o f sol11e surviving New Stone Age societies, we have no alternative but to
interpret thcm in th e context of a vc ry endurin g mythic civili zation ,
bo und together by a cOl11mon set of beliefs, whose reach was both wide
and incredibly durab le. I know of no other mechanism of cognitive
contro l by which such consistency can be explained.
In my view, it is also legitimate to regard man y of these images, and
the larger corpus as a who le, as rel igious in motivation. It seems vcry
li kely that these images reflect a rcligious worldvicw that was cssentiall y
An imisti c, likc that of many other docllmented Stone Age cultures. An
Animistic wo rld vicw is hi g hl y likel y in this case because thei r artists we re
obsessed with animals and hybrid hum an-animal imagcs, to thc cxclusion
of ma ny othcr com mon kinds of imagery. M orcover, the cavc settings in
which many of these images were fOllnd werc gcne rall y not habitable,
and in somc cases, th e surro undin gs showed clear evidence of ritualisti c
beh:.wiour. Eve n though we know little about the specific beliefs of
the Nlagdalenian and Gravcttian cultures, it is a vi rtu al ccrtainty, in the
abse nce o f an y cred ible alternativc, that the long tradi ti o n of parietal art
in the Dordogne Va lley and adjacent regio ns reflccts the prescnce of an
influential Animistic religious world view that was widel y dissem inated,
and informall y institutionalized in a hierarchy of ritual and social custom
for th o usands of yea rs. This is scarcely 3n original conclusion, but its
credibility is perhaps strengthened by the cognitivc and evolutio nal) '
considerations raised in this paper.
The time-span brid ged by these images is cnormous. The cavc-
painting culture appears to have been main ta ined over tens ofm illcnnia,
whic h suggests a very slow rate of change, whcn compared to th c rapid
turnover of modern civil izations. H owever, in Stone Age societies, the
...._ _ _....range of ideas and ima res available to their artists would have been ve r
102 Merlin Donald
small, Ilot for any lack of imagination on the part of artists, but simply
because the technologies of image-making were limited , and writing was
virtually nonexistent. Without these powerfu l technologies, reflection
and radical revision wo ul d have been diffic ul t, and the inertia created by
existing informal institutions and rituals of sllch societies wou ld have
been hard to challenge.
In any case, this body of great parietal art constitutes a phenomenon
of enormOllS cognitive significance for humanity, because it is at once so
ancient, so modern in appearance, so visually skilled, and so endu rin g in
its effects . The techniques underlying this art we re undoubted ly the
product of man y years of experimentation, and suggest an apprenticeship
system of some sort that carried a u'ad ition of cultivating and t ransmit-
ting such skills across many generatio ns.
However, it did not endure forever. The conditions of lite eventually
changed, an d Franco-Cantabrian cave art changed as well, and eve ntuall y
disappeared. The fact th at this tradition came to an end is not surprising,
give n the mu ch shorter time span t hat most civil izatio ns have enjoyed.
Summary and conclusions
Ancient material cu lture contains the only incontrovertible evi d ence that
art ex isted long betore th e invention of writin g. This, combined wi th
modern anthropological studies of New Stone Age societies, provides a
sound evidentia1 basis for the inference that th e foundations of ' high
cultu re', that is, art and reli gious belief, have exjsted since the 'sym bolic
explosion' began some fifty thousand years ago.
Viewed in terms of their cognitive functions, art and religion appear to
be part of a social system of cognitive self-regulation whereby the ideas
and images of a society can be coordinated and trans mi tted to the next
generation, in a coherent and optimall y understood form. They remain
an imm ensely powerful means of social-cogn itive coo rd ination. In the
recent past , the technology of symbol ic representation has improved
enormously, and the means of dissem inating ideas and images has im -
proved even more. As a result, art and religion arc resurgent in t hei r
worldwide influcnce.
The rise to dom inance of 'theoretic' cu lture during the post-
Enlightenmcnt period has shattered t he pattern of trad itional cu ltural-
co nitive regulation. Its cmergence has been rapid and seemin g lv
The roots of art and religion in ancient material
unstoppab le. Because of th is shift, the artistic cl ites of t he vVestern world
have declared their independence of religion, and the uses of art have thus
been split between secular and rel igious en d s. However, only time will
tell whether humanity as a whole wi ll relax back into its more traditional
cultural-cognitive mode whe rein t hey are reuni ted. Tn that t raditional
mode, social coo rdination is achieved t hrough a formal system of re li -
gious bel ief, and the latter is reinforced by the tools and techn iques of arts
employed largely in the se rvice of enfo rcing those beLiefs. The efficiencies
of that system are considerable, and it has survi ved the test of time.
REFEREN CES
Donald, M. VI/., 1991. Origius Of the Modern Mi1ld: Three Stages iu the EJlolntio1J.
ofCultm'c and Cognition. Cambridge (MA ): Harvard University Press .
Donald, M. W., 1993. Precis of "Origins of the j\J[odern Mind" with multiple
reviews :1I1d author's response. BehaJlioml and Brain Sciences 16, 737-91.
Donald, M. W., 1998. Hominid enculturation and cognitive evolution, in
Coguitioll and j\4rttc1'ird Culture: the A1'chneology of Symbolic Storage,
eds. C. Renfrew & c. Scan'C. Cambridge: McDonald Institute Mono-
graphs, 7-17.
Donald, M. VV ., 1999 . Preconditions for the evolution of protolangu::lgcs, in The
DesceHt ofkfilld, eds . M. C. Cot'ballis & 1. Lea. Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 120-36.
Donald, M. VV., 2000. The cen tral role of culture in cognitivc evolution: a
reflection on the myth of the isolated mind, in Culture, Thollght flnd
DeJlciopmC1lt, cds, L. Nucci, G. Saxc, & E. Turiel, New York: Lawrence
Erlbau l11 , 19- 38.
Donald, M. W. , 2001. A Mind So RaTe: TIle EJlolution of H1I1IIa1]. COlISciousuesJ.
New York: Norton.
Donald, M. \'V. 2005. Imitation and Mimesis, in PerJpectivcs on Imitation: F1'01It
Neurosciencc to Social Science, eds. N. Chatel' & S. Hurley. Cambridge
(!vIA): M IT Press .
Donald, M. W. , in press b. Art viewed in the light of cognitive evolution, in 17Je
Artful Miud, cd . M. Turner. Oxford: Oxford University Press .
 The archaeology of early religious practices

were to ass um e from the start that th ese advantages were both dramati c
8
and mai nl y determined by biological change, we might easily reach the
su rprising conclusion that th e study of past material culture can cast littIe
light on this issue. Populations would be conside red smart, eloquent and
The archaeology of early religious practices:
symbo lic simpl y accordin g to th eir taxo nomic status and not on the basis
a plea for a hypothesis-testing approach of material culture th ey have left behind, In con trast, if we see archae -
ology as an independent discipline (d'Errico 200 3; d'Errico ct al. 1998;
Francesco d' Errico
200 3, in press; Zilhao 200 1; Zilhao & d 'Errico 2003; Jehs 2004) we
sho uld be able to assess issues which deal with cultural and behavioural
change on primarily archaeo logical grounds, rather tha n limit o urselves
to mo dels shaped by current hypotheses of human biological evolution.
Religion and the origin of modern behaviour debate fo llowing th is reaso ni ng it is legiti mate to ask a q uestion such as " is
religio n a species-specific or a trans-species phenomenon:". In th e first of
The paradox of the archaeology of religion lies in the fact that while
these two cases, religion wo uld rep resent, together with lang uage,
archaeologists arc probably not the best scientific commu ni ty who m to
symbolism , and advanced cogniti ve abilities, the behavioural outcome of
ask what rel igion is and how and when it arose, they retain in their hands
the biological shift that created our species . Tn the second case, we may
the best informatio n to answe r these q uestions. To solve th is paradox
have shared th is and possibly other of these behavio ural traits with
archaeologists should try to grasp the wide-ranging implications of th e
hominids such as Nea ndert hals or archaic sapiens popu lations, Sho uld
phenomenon. Historians of religion, on their side, sho uld understand
that be so, were the religious beliefs and assoc iated practi ces of these
what role these and other related topics arc playi ng among Palaeoli thic
ancestors com parable to th ose of contempo rary o r succeeding modern
archaeologists and evolutio nary anthro pologists in the debate on the
human popu latio ns, an d we re they significantly diffe rent from those of
origi n of behaviou ral modernity. I hope th at th e questi ons I will add ress
eth nog raph icall y kn ow n human societies? Does archaeology recognise
in this pape r wi ll be of interest for both communities and open the path
unive rsal trends in earl y reli gious beliefs and practices: Sho uld we, for
for constructive collaborations .
example, assume that all past hunter-gatherer societies had shaman ic
In the last decade there has been a strong tendency among palaoan-
(Lommel1970; Lewis-Wi lliams & Dowso n 1988 , 1989; Lewis-\iVilliams
thro pologists to liken th e bio logical o rigin of modern humans with the
2004) or totemic (Frazer 1890; Soli as 1911) beliefs or can we conceive
origin of modern behaviour and developed cogni tive abili ties (Mithen
early human societies capable ofsymbol.ic thinking but hav ing a diffe rent
1996; Mellars 1998; Foley & Lahr 1997; Klein 1999, 2000, 2003; Klein &
way to conceive th e Beyond? In t he first case, th e identification of an earl y
Blake 2003; McBrearty & Brooks 2000 ). The idea behind this model,
sym bo lic material cul ture becomes synonymous witI1 t he identi ficatio n
which is becoming a dOininant parad.ig m , is quite simple . Since th e
of the first shaman ic/totemic practices; in the second o ne, we f.l ce the
publication of the 'Out of Afri ca' model for the o ri gin of our species
diffic ult endeavour of hypothesizing what these very early beliefs co uJ d
(Cann ct al. 1987), based on J11tDNA an d V-ch romosome va liarion and
look like o r whether we can say anythin g significant abo ut th em.
confirmed by furt her studies (Ingman et al. 2000; Barbujani 2003 ), it
has become generally accepted that Afi"ica was the continent where o ur
species emerged. The process that produced o ur species in Africa must W hat is religion? An operation definition
also have gra nted dlis species a number of advantages (e .g . language,
To answe r these q uesti o ns, we must explai n what we mea n by rcligion~
higher cognitive abi liti es, symbolic think.jng) that have determined its
establis h how early religiolls practices may be identified in pre histo ri c
spread o ut of Aft"ica and f.:lVo ured its eventual evol uti o nary success. Tfwe
matc "i, I V I · · ·o :'lr' h ~ I" :1 " 01 , 1"(" I' " 'l l" 1
106 Francesco d'Errico
for these naces, study their nature and occurrence in time and space, and
investigate their associatio n with difYerent hominid populations. As
youn g initiates in a fervent search for the truth, we must clear our mind of
dominant paradigms, wishful thinking, and mainstream opinions and
considcr them as no 1110re than working hypotheses wc wish to test
agai nst the archaeological record. I n other words, I consider all these
topics as matters of scientific enqui ry. This implies that contrary to those
who sce this as a dan ge rous ficld that is better to avoid, I consider, with
Renfrew ( 1.994), the emergence and characterisation of prehistoric
rel igious beliefs proper subjects for archaeological study, that shou ld
not be left to lunatic fringc.
It is not among the goals of this paper to list and discuss all the
definitions of religion (Tylor 1971; Du rkheim 1915 ; Sollas 19 1 I ; Frazer
1890; Gee rz 1985 ) or the lack ofa need fo r a definition (Weber 1966 )
givcn by a distinguished tradition of scholars.
For the goals of this paper religion may be defined as a set of socially
shared and transmitted beliefs cncod in g a grou p's und erstand ing of
the essence of reality. I would complement this first definition with
that proposed by Geertz ( 1966 ) of " a system of symbols which acts to
establish powerful, pervasive, and long-lasting moods and motivations in
men by formulating conceptions of a general order of ex istence and
clothing thesc co nceptions with such an aura oftacruality that the moods
and motivations seem uniquel y realistic." In simple words religion is
about the deep symbolic contcnt of life. Personal beliefs are of reduced
interest here. They are rare, if any, in traditional societies and have little
probability, even when associated with practice, to su rvive archaeologi -
call y. One ma y correctly arguc tha t sllch a dry view underestimates the
spiritllJI naturc of thc phcnome.:non. The reason for takin g this stand is
operational. In archaeology we need to conce ntrate o n people's actions
and their outcome in the matcrial cu ltu re rather than on beliefs since the
former are more within the realm of the discipline than the latter.
Heuristic tools to arc haeologicaJly investigate the cme rgence of this
beh:.wiour and char::lcterisc its earl y stages of developme nt may come, in
general, fi'om the analysis of how religion changes people's vicw of the
wo rl d and how this is mirrored by and may survive in the archaeological
record. In p::l rticuia r, cross-cu ltural analysis of the material cu lture
involved in religiolls performances may provide criteria by wh ich to assess
'---
The archaeology of early religious practices
Th is approach may be complemcn ted by the analysis of other
categories of material cu ltu re. Because of the.: eminently sym bolic char-
acter of all known religiOUS beliefs, modern language and symbolic
thinking must be considered as necessary prereq uisites for the emerge nce
of religion. Human lang uage is esse ntial to conce.:ive, commun icatc , and
pass fro m one generation to anothe r religious complex understandings,
H uman language is the on ly means of communication that has a built-in
me ta-language enabling us to create and socially share a multitude of
sym bo lic codes, including those that make possible the creation and
trans mission of religious practiccs (Aiello 1998). L1nguage docs not
fossilize. The usc of symbol ic codes, in contrast, may leave archaeological
trJCCS when these codes arc embodied in long-lasting material cultu re.
Beliefs have more probabi lity of becoming stable traditions when they
involve the use of long-lasting sym bol ic itern s. In SUI11 , although sym-
bolic material culture cannot be considered as a direct proxy for religion,
it is clear that it is in such a social , cu ltural , and cognitive e.:nvirol1ment
that religion may rapidly spread and take hold.
The archaeology of the earliest religious
practices, a breviarium
I\L111y authors have proposed crite ria by which to assess the symbolic
status o f prehistoric material cul ture ( Byres 1994, 1999, 2001; Chase
199 1, 1999; C hase and Dibble, 1987 ; McBrearty & Brooks 2000;
Henshilwood & Marean 2003; d'Errico et al. 2003; Donald 1991 ; Lock
& Peters 1999; Buissac 2003 ). Complex technologies, regio nal trends in
the style and decoration of tools, systcmatic usc of pigments, abstract and
represe ntatio nal depictions on a variety of media, burials, grave goods,
and personal o rnaments are among the more cOl11mon lo ng-lasting
creatio ns that attest to the complex symbol ic natu re of eth nographicall y
reco rd ed human cultu res. These features Illay be reasonably seen as
arc haeo logica l proxies for the emergence of religious beliefs. HowevCl',
views diverge on the signi fi cance of each of these categories and on the
interpretation of individual finds.
A symbol ic iJlterpreratio n has been fo rmally discarded fo r a number of
objects as it has been dcmonstrate.:d that the modifications described as
anthropogenic and bearing symbol ic meaning wcre in fact natural in
origi n . Cases in point are grooved and perforated objects I""om Lower and
-
8 Francesco d'Errico
Middle Palaeol ithi c sites frolll Europe and North Afi-ica, interpreted as
purposely engraved ite ms, perso nal 0n13 I11 CnrS, musical instruments or
elaborated bone tools, that when su bm itted to a close sc rutiny have
appeared to be (F igures 8.1 and 8.2 ) bones bearing vasc ular grooves
(d 'Errico & Villa 1997) or variously damaged by carni vo res (d'Errico
1991 ; d'Er rico ct al. 1998; C hase & Nowell 1998; d 'Errico & Lawson
2006 ). In other cases slich as for a number of Neandert hal burials
(Gargen 1989, 1999 ; but see d 'Errico 2003; d 'Errico et al. 2003 ) a
natu ral origi n is not demonstrated but rather suggested as an al ternative
interpretation of the evidence in t he absence of contextual data d em-
onstratin g cl ea r human intervention. Still in oth ers, as fo r the LIse of
pigment by Middle Stone Age and /"lo Llsrcrian popubtions o r some
sha ped representations (d'E rrico & Nowell 2 000 ), human u ti lisation is
widely accepted bu t a sym bolic intention ruled o u t by so me authors on
t he ground that pigmen ts might have been used fo r purely fu nctional
reasons (Klein 1999,2000; Wadley 2001,2002 ). Abstract or depictiona]
representations and personal ornaments are t he on ly unqucstion ed
evidence for t he emerge nce of symbolism.
If the emergence of t hese innovations was deter mined by a biological
change, sllch as a ge netic mutation or a spcciation process that would
have 'switched on' t he light of humankind we sho uld expect to fi nd t hem
reflected in th e material culture produced by ea rl y, anatomically modern
populations. Specifica ll y, we sho ul d find sll ch arc haeo logical evidence at
8.1. Bovid rib from th e Pec h de rAze II Mo uste ri an site bearing grooves interpreted by
some authors as de li berate engravings. Microscopic ana lysis o f these grooves and their
comparison with reference collections have demonstrated that they are impreS Sio ns of
blood vessels. (Modi fi e d after d'Errico & Villa J 997) Scale bars = J em
The archaeology of early religious practices 109
8.2. Perforated cave-bear femur from Divje babe II Mo usterian site. Sloven ia. interp reted
by some aUthors as a Neanderthal flute. Taph onomic analy ses of cave bear bone accu-
mulations and microscopic analysis of the object clearly indicate t hat the perforations are
t he result o f carn ivore damage . (Modified after d' Er rico & Lawson 2006 ) Scale bars = I cm
sites in Africa from between two hund red thousand and one hundred
thousa nd years ago, and see it rapid ly sp readi ng withi n this continent. If
t his wa~ th e case o ne could speculate that early re ligious beliefs origi nated
at a g iven time an d place, in co njun ction with the origi n of modern
humanity and it cou ld even be possible in t he fu t ure to identi fy t he most
Likely area and pe ri o d whe n t his cogniti ve revolution too k place. Things,
however, arc mo re com plicated. Archaeologically, what we see instead is
a gradual emerge nce of be havio ural innovati o ns in and o utsid e Africa
between t hree hundred t housand and twenty thousand yea rs ago . More-
over, anatomicall y modern popu lations shared a number of these inno-
vatio ns wit h Neanderthals, whi ch m any anthropo log ists and geneticists
conside r a diflcrent species, or a human type inheren tl y inca pable of
reach ing o ur cognitive level (Figure 8.3 ).
For example, elongated sto ne blades arc fo u nd not o nl y at Nea nderth al
sites in Europe and t he Near East) but also at sites inhabitcd by Modcrns in
the Near East and Afj-ica since at least one hundred t ho usa nd years ago .
Blade technologies t hen d isappca red an d reapp eared cycl icall y in t hese
areas, and in so me regions, such as Australi a, t hey o nl y appcared a few
thousand yea rs ago, in spite ofthcm being colonised by modern humans at
least fifty t housa nd years earl icr.
110 Francesco d'Errico The archaeology of early religious practices

Images_ T he intentiona l character and symbolic significance of burials prio r

Beads_ ~ Africa .LSA
Microliths _ _ to thirty thousa nd years ago, especiall y those of Nea nderthals, remain
. MSA
Burials_ the subject of inte nse debate (d'E rrico ct al. 2003 ). But t here is
Incised Pieces _ . __ ~

Bone A w l s _ ····· enough evidence [0 bel ieve that both anatom ically modern humans and
Bone Spearpoints_
Hafting _ _ '"!!!!!!~_ ;\'canderthals began burying thei r dead one hund red thousand years
Mining_ i
Barbed Points _ ? ago and probably before, as suggested by the recent dating at 16 0 ,000

~~~~~~~~~~~~~:~;;;;E~::~,-_________
Marine Fishing_ \'c;,1rs of ~l. Neanderthal burial site at Tabun , Israel.
Shellfishing _
Blades _ Sophisticated bone tools, such as harpoons , spear points, and awls,
Fresh Water Fishing _
Grindstones
Pigment Processing _ seem to have appeared in Africa ninety thousand years ago, much earlier
Images _ tiun in the rest of the world (Henshi lwood et al. 2002 ). T his also ap plies
Beads _ ? Near East • Upper Palaeolithic
Microliths_ Mousterian (AMH) to personal ornaments, with rece ntly discove red shell beads from
Burials _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _________ _
Incised Pieces _ _ ? • Mouslerian (Neanderthals) Blumbos Cave, South Africa ( Figure 8.4, also Plate V), dated at seventy
BoneAwls_ .
Bone Spearpoints_ fi,·e tho usand years ago (H enshilwood ct al. 2004; d'Erri co et al. 2005,
Hafting _ :~==:::"';;;;=
Mining_
_____ Vanhac ren 2005 ).
Barbed Points B Ul these innovations do not secm to havc been widesp read. Bone
Fresh Water Fishing ?
Marine Fishing ? tools an d beads arc vi rtually absent from sites in Afr ica and the l'\'ear East
Shellfishing _
inhabited b) modern humans beginning one hundred thousand years
Blades;~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Grindstones _
Pigment Processin g _
____ ago, and f'Cw abstract engravings o n bone and on fragments of ochre are
Images _ t(>lllld at African sites dated to seventy-five tho usa nd years ago. Depic-
Beads _ _ Europe • Upper Palaeolithic
Microliths _ _ tions of animals, human beings, and other natural features do not occur
• Mousterian (Neanderthals)
Burials _'"::::~
Incised Pieces _ ~ •••• - ------- •••••••••••••••
Bone Awls _ _
Bone Spearpoinls _ _
Hafting _ •••••••••••• _
Mining_
Barbed Points _
Fresh Water Fishing _ ..._ _ _ _ _ _ __
Marine Fishing _ _ ••••••

Blades_
Grindstones _
Pigment Shellfishing
Processing _ ;;;~;~~~;~~~;~~~;~~~~~ •••••••••••••••• _ _-,-_ _ _-,-_ _ __

o 100 200 300 400ka

8 .3. Occurrence of "modern" traits in the African. Near Eastern. and European archaeological
records. Interrupted lines indicate discontinuous presence. (Modified after d'Errico 2003)

Si milarly, standard ized tools produced by both Neande rthals and

Moderns appeared eighty thousand yea rs ago. Pigments ( Plate X.x ll ),
probably used in symbolic activities such as tattooing or body painting,
arc found at Southern Africa n sites since three hund red thousand yea rs
8.4 . Na ssarius kraussianus shell beads from M idd l e Stone Age layers of Blombos Cave
( Barham 1998, 2002 ), but also at contemporaneous and more recent dated at seventy-five thousand years ago. (Modified after Henshilwood et al. 2004) Scale
Neanderthal sires in Europe and the Ncar East (Hovers et aI. 2003). bars =: I cm
112 Fran cesco d'Errico
in the three records - Africa , Europe, and the Nca r East - before torty
thousand to thirty thousand years ago, and they appear much Iatcr in
some areas than others.
In Slim, some behavioural innovatio ns scern to appear in Afi-i cJ
betwee n ten th o llsand and thirty tho usand years before Neanderthals
express them. But one Can doubt that this g3p represe nts the evidence of
sig nificantly diffe rent cognitive abi lities. Afte r all , it took seven thousand
years for ag riculrure to arrive in Bri tai n fi'olll the Near East, and nobody
wou ld arg ue that th e cogn itive ab ilities of Nlcsolithic hunter-gathe rers
from Britain we re inferi o r to those of carly agri culturalists.
In o ther wo rds ifrh e emergence of the modern traits listed above , and
in particular those indicating th e emergence of symbo lic thinkin g reflect,
as o nc may reasonably argue, thc raising of a comprehensive and sociall y
shared symbo lic view of the world , one must concl ud e that reli gious
practices developed graduall y, at diftcrent places, and among a number of
human populations, probably including Neanderthals and Archaic sapi-
ens. This is the only take~home message the reader of this contribution
must retain . But this is not the end of the story.
During this long timespan religio us beliefs certainly took a variety of
forms , pe rh aps in volving a number of sta ges in the way they have per-
vaded the human soul. Religion as we kn ow it probably originated in an
attempt to o rd er shared beliefs and symbols ari sin g in response to direct
ex peri ence o f th e spirituaL As this attempt ex pands in its elaboration, it
bccomcs a process that creates mean ing fo r itself o n a sustaining basis.
The main challenge that faces the arc haeo logy of reli gion is to propose
reliab le scenarios for thjs complex process and find means to test those
scenarios o n the archaeological and paleoanthropological records.
In my view, five types of inferences Illay help us to speculate abo ut
the earliest phases of this process, but also cautio n us against reaching
excessively has ty concl usio ns: (1) the observation of those among o ur
close relatives that possess, to some cxtent, the capac ity or the potential
for symbo lic behaviours; (2 ) the cross-cultural comparati ve anal ysis of
symbolic behaviours produced by modern and submodern traditio nal
societies; (3 ) the stud y of the material cu lrure of past symbolic societies;
(4 ) the identification of natura l phenomena that can be erron eo usly
interpreted as the resu lt of symbolic human behavio urs; and (5 ) the
cxperi mental reproduct.ion of human behaviours producing o n durable
material cu lture features [hat may have had symbol ic purposes.
The archaeo logy o f early re ligious practices
Althoug h cri teria relative to each of the above categories of data we re
published in the li te rature , few attempts ha ve been made so far to unify
them in a comprehensive research strategy and refine them throu g h
application to concrete archaeological case studies. This is mainly due to
the fact that each of these potential sou rces of reflection t:1.lIs with in th e
competence of a different discipline (ethology, cross-cultural anthropol-
ogy, taphonomy, experi mental archaeology, semiotics, etc. ) approaching
the issue fro m a diflerc nt \~ewpoin t, and often with a limited under-
standing of the potential contri bution offered by the others.
Ethology
Trained chimpa nzees seem full y capable of learnin g and transmit com-
plex systems of signs and , to some ex tent, und erstand articulated and, by
definition, high ly symbolic human lang ua ge (Premark 1986; Savage-
Rumbaugh et al. 1998 ). Wild chimpanzees, however, show little interest
in using these cogni tive capacities to transform their gestu ral conve ntions
in proper systems of signs and embody them in their material culture.
\Vhat are the implications of chimpanzee symbolic abilities for the elab-
oration of predictive models about the o rigin of rel igio n that archae-
ologists could test agai nst the empi ri cal evidence? The first implication is
that hominid cultures ma y ha ve existed with rath er complex systems of
signs, transmitted ti'om ge neration to ge neration , that have left 110 du -
rable traces of the ir cxistance. After all o ral traditio ns were responsible
until recently fo r the transmissio n of the mo re pec ul iar aspects of human
cultural traditions. Th is means t hat the absence of symbolic material
Culture does not imply the absence of sym bo lic thinking or religio n . It
only indicates that it was, perhaps, not there or it was there at such a level
of consciousness as not to need a degree of formulation and elaboration
im'olving a material expressio n and a fonna liscd ritua l.
Cultural anthropology
.M ode rn cultural anthro po logy abhors cvolutio nary models for the origin
of un ive rsals such as symbo lism since it fea rs that they may be used, as
they were by nineteenth cen tury ethnology, to classify societies acco rdin g
to thei r 'stage of civilisati o n' or th c nature of their way of thinking
___ _ ......;
T.J.y.;:lo:;:!r 1891 ; Lcvy- Bruh l 1922 . C laude Levi-Strauss is one of the veDt
114 Francesco d'Errico
few cultural anthropologists of the second half of the t\ventieth century
who has developed an anthropo logical theory comprising a mechanism
for the origin of the symbolic function and pred ic tin g social behaviours
that wou ld demonstrate its acqu isition. Although some of these beha-
viours may be reflected in the archaeological record thus paving the way
for the creation of predictive archaeological models, little interest has
been paid by archaeologists to Lcvi-Strauss's co ntribution in th is field.
The taboo of incest, on which basis, according to Levi-S trauss, sym-
bolic societies organise thei r social structu re an d symbolic systems,
implies the existence of links of solidarity between males reinforced by
ritualised exchange of gifts (Mauss 192 3-24). In a number of societies
these gifts take the form of mere symbol ic objects, often made in exotic
or rare raw material 0[, when functional, of items which differ for their
quality of manufacture and design fj-Oill every- d ay too ls. vVhcn did
objects that may be reasonabl y interpreted as such gifts ap pear in the
archaeological record~
I believe there is no proof that shamanism should be considered to be
a universa l of hunter-gatherers societies nor, as a conseque nce, that the
origin of symbo lism and shamanism should necessaril y be linked. [ also
reali ze that shaman ism is a complex and articulated phenomenon,
encompassing very different realities. It is a fact , however , that this way of
conceiving the outside world and inte racting with it characterises most
hu nter-gatherers societies, living in very different regions of the planet
and adapted to dramatically di ffere nt environments. Thus , we may expect
that a number of ea rl y symbolic societies were shamani c.
In many shamanic societies the power of the shaman is materialised by
his dress and tools. These objects are an integral part of his/her activities.
At the end of his life, the well- kn own Siberian shaman Tubiaku refused to
treat very ill patients saying t.hat without his dress and drum, sold to a
museum , he could only \vork with nearby spi ri ts, not powe rful enough to
treat mortaJ illnesses. Although no extensive comparative ethnoarchaeo-
logical study of these artefacts has been conducted so far, my prelimi nary
cross-cultural survey identifies three basic categories: unmodified nat ural
objects, natural objects canying anthropic or natural perforations used to
include th em in a chain, put them on a hat belt and so on, and a large
va ri et)1offully manuf.:tctured arte£'lcts such as dolls, often wearing personal
o rn aments, rnini atures of too ls and animals (Plate XXIII). These objects
arc gene rall y of smail to vcry small size and when unmodificd they are kept
The archaeo logy of early religious practices
in skin bags, nets or boxes. Composite shamanic tools are generaJly made
of a variety of objects strun g together. \Near £i'om transport or prolonged
manjpulation which mayor may not be assoc.iated with traces of pigments
are a common feature on these objects. Considering the trans-cu lturaJ
occurrence of such objects, we may reasonably expect to find a number of
them in t he materiaJ culture left by carl y symbolic societies.
Levi-Strauss 's theory predicts other features on wh ich archaeologists
may build. Traditional societies pay much attention to details of the
natu ral wo rld , incl uding the human body itself, in search of feat ures -
colo urs, flavours, shapes, rh ythms - on which systems of signs and, by
extensio n , of beliefs can be based. The importance fu lfiJled by pigmcnts
amo ng MSA and Neanderthal populations at some stages of thei r cultural
e\'oluti o n might well reflect the emergence of this ncw way ofiooki ng at
the na tural wo rld. Lcvi-Strauss's d istinction bet\veen 'societcs f)-oides',
li\'ing in an eternal present and 'societes chaudes' attributin g more
importance to events creating a 'cumulative history' is also rel evant here:
it provides an explanation for the apparent low rate of innovati on that
arc haeo lo gists observe when they stud y earl y symbolic systems.
Semiotics
A paradox appears when we compare the powerful means th at, in prin-
ciple, semiotics should provide for recognising ea rl y systems of signs,
including those closely linked to religious practices, and the little fac tu al
conu-ibution this discipline has given so far to the debate on the emer-
gence of sym bolic thinking. Scmioticians may claim th at in o rder to
demo nstrate th e symbolic nature of prehistoric societies we must, ideall y,
find in the archaeological record systems of signs comparable, in their
organisation, to those observed in modern and ethnographica ll y known
human societies. That is a material cultu re with a range of deliberate
human -made representations. Thc tcrm ' range' is used because a system
of sig ns is by definition based on a variet)1of meaningful representations.
Whi le all symbolic societies use elements of the natural world in their
symbo lic systems there is no way to establish that this was indeed the case
for a past society in absence of other indications of its symbol ic naturc.
We ITlay also expect to find these systems of signs sha red by a numbe r
of close conte mporary human gro ups. Archacologicall y this should take
the form of a cluster of ncighbouring sites characte ri sed by similar
 Francesco d 'Errico
represcntations, artefact stylc and decOl'atio n. A sym bolic culture can
hardl y survive in isolation. A powerfu l fun ction of symbo lic matc rial
cu lture is that of transmitting, reinfo rcing and preserving cultural iden-
ti ty. T his means that the above- mentioned cluster of sites shou ld bc
su rround ed by othcr clusters, charactc riscd by d ifferent symbolic material
cultures and, possibly, by meaningfu l gradients toward the periphery of
each regio n. Even in LCvi -Strauss's 'cold socicties' systcms of sign evolve,
change dramaticall y or disappear accordin g to historica l and ecological
contin ge ncies. Th ese chan ges shou ld also, in principle, be detected by
archacologists either within a particular site stratigrap hy o r whell corre-
lating contemporaneous sitcs. Symbo ls arc never displayed random ly.
T hey always appear in mcaningful contexts, that is, o n media (objects, the
human body, walls ctc. ) and at times (pcriods of the yea r, mo ments oft hc
individ ual life . . .) which grant them communicatin g powcr. Alth ough
such locations may be lost in the majo rity of the cascs, it is possible that
somc ofthesc regu lari tics may survive arc hacologicaUy and be dctected as
consistent pattcrns.
Experimental archaeology
In the absence of reliab le prcdictivc models, somc mcaningful informa-
tiOll , o nce the anthropic o ri gin of thc modification is warranted by
contextual and actualistic data, is provided by tcc hn ological anal ysis of
the object. T he usc of this analogy is bascd on thc assumption that Ollr
ancesto rs shared with LI S most neurom otor constrai nts, thus cnabling LI S
to reconstru ct thc motions resulting in certain modificat ions. Of course
one ca nnot tackle mcaning thro ugh tcchno logical analysis nor will thc
result of such analysis directl y accou nt for the dcvelopment of symbolism.
It will neverthclcss provide factual in formation o n the ty pe o f too l used ,
o n possiblc changes of too ls, on the chronology of the anthropic mod-
ificatio ns, Jnd on thc time taken to produce thcm. T his informatio n wi ll
help us to evaluate the degree of intentio nality o f the makers and try to
make sc nse of the sequence of choices and decisions behind their acts in
te rms of cogniti ve processes at wo rk. Thesc tcchnical cho ices, in partic-
ular when they ca n be exa mincd on a number of simi lar objects, may
become integral to any arg ument o n thc significance of earl y symbo lic
behavio ur and they can by J step-by-stcp process ge nerate testable
theories on the first stages o fd evc loprncnt of th is capacity.
The archaeology of early religious practices
Howeve r, arc haeologists face a final difficulty when it comes to using
this evidence. T he link between technical actio ns and thc recogn itio n of
the symbolic nature of an artcfact possibly involvcd in symbolic activitics
is Jm biguous. The discovcry of pigmcnts with traces of usc in the fo rm of
gro und facets, scraping marks and groovcs is gc nerall y not considered as
tormal proof that thcse pigme nts wc re used in sym bo lic activities . The
reaso n is thJt the activities in which pigments we re lIsed (colou rin g on a
variety of media, body painti ng, camouflage , hide preparation, etc. ) are
considcrcd difficul t to infcr fro m the mineral fi'agmcnts found at archae-
ological sites. Engraved lincs, espccially whcn they create regu lar abstract
patterns, such as those from Blombos, or thosc that may be interpretcd
as depictions of o bjects o r beings, are generall y scen as more powcrfu l
argu ments in favo llr of the sym bolic nature of a material culturc.
T he problem is that each artefact is the reflectio n of actio ns we kn ow
little about and that the critcria used to attribute to the evidence a more
or less convincin g power are rarely made explicit . To find reliable criteria
of symbolicity it is necessary to creatc an in te rp retive framework in which
\ \ 'C explain in dcrail thc relationship betwecn tec hnical action or, better,
sequenccs o f tcchnical actions and their imp lications for the interprcta-
tion o f an artcfact Ln te rm of symbo licity.
The next qucstion must concern when repctition of actions becomcs a
'consistent pattern'? It is dange rous to equate thc frcquen cy of a type of
archaeological material with its ancient social signifi cance. The JmQunt o f
pigment recovercd from an excavation depends on taphonomic factors,
includ ing the tech niqu e used to prcpJrc the pigmcnt, thc med ia on
which the pigment was applied , and the frequen cy of the activities in
which pigments we re used . The presence of used pigment indicates
that other colou rants may also have been used but did not survive
archaeologically.
Conclusion
Contrary to a popular bel ief, arc haeology has the means to conduct
il1\"cstigatio ns o n the ca rliest religious practices and intcgratc resu lts of
this search o n the broader debate concerni ng the o ri gin of modern
cognitio n ( Renfrew 1994). The ' Out of Africa' model for the origin
of Our species implies that the emerge nce of modern cogn ition was a
Stocastic evc nt. Thorough anal ys is of currcnt archaeological evidence
118 Francesco d' Er-rico
from Africa and Eu rope shows that an alte rn ative scenari o is consistent
with the empirical data. Features Llsed to define modern behaviour arose
over a long period of time among different human pop ulations including
Neanderthals. Ou r anatomicall y modern ancestors certai nly shared with
Neande rthals and other contemporary popu lations many traits that
we have for long preferred to consider the monopoly of oLir species,
including religion. The nature of t hese ca rly rel igioll s p ractices and thei r
variability in time and space is still a topic we know little abo ll t. Research
strategies that may ena ble LIS to gain a better insight into this crucia l
p henomenon exis t though, and wi ll certainly provide llew relevant data
in the nex t few years.
Ackno wledgements
Many thanks to the holde rs of image copyrights who kind ly gave per-
m ission fo r figures to be rep rod uced here, T hey are listed in the
acknowledgeme nts at the front of the book.
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122 Francesco d'Errico
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9
Out of the mind: material culture
and the supernatural
Stel'cu 1l1ithen
I . Cogn itive evolution and Upper Palaeolithic art
J\ly concern is with the contribution that an evolutionary pcrspectivc
on the human mind provides to ou r understanding of thc relationship
betwcen Uppe r Palaeolithic art and reli gio n . I will draw on the ideas of
t\\'o social anthropologists, Ha rvey Whitehouse (2000, 2004) and Pascal
Bo)'cr (1994, 200 I ), and two philosophers, Peter Carruthers (2002 ) and
Andy Clark ( 1997, 2003; C lark & C halmers 1998 ). Thei r ideas \\'ill be
embedded within my Own wor k (Mithen 1996, 1998,2004 ) concerning
the evo lution of the hum an mind with regard to the two cognitive
de"e1opments that resu lted in religion and art - the emerge nce of cog·
nitivc fluidity and the extension of the hUl11al1mind beyond the brain into
mate rial culture. [ wi ll characte rise the pai ntings and carvings of the ice
age as part of the Upper Palaeoli th ic mind: the art played an active role in
gene rating, manipulating a.nd tra. nsmitting ideas abo ut the supernatural
beings ofthc ice age world. Such ideas an:. in he rentl y difficult for huma.n
brains alone to comprehend. This is used as ju st one example of the large r
phcnomenon of pcople using materi al and othcr types of cu ltllrc including
song and dance to make religious ideas tangible so that they can be more
casil y manipulated in the mind and transmitted to othcr individuals.
2. What is religion?
f or the purposes of th is article I will use the defin ition of religion recently
cln ployed by Whitehouse in his 2004 book At/ones of R eligiosity: "any set
o f shared beliefs and actions appealing to supernatural agency". This begs
the qucstion of what constitutes 'supernatural agcncy' and why th is
124 Steven M it hen
co ncept is so widespread within hu man society. Indeed, belief in
supernatural beings is a u n ive rsal feat u re of recent human comm u nities
and we have no reason to th ink t hat this was not also the case in pre-
history, at least back to the origin of the first lllodern h um ans c. 170,000
years ago. A significant and ever-growing number of individuals in
modern western society exp ress disbelief in superna tu ra l beings, but
these remai n in the minority and the possession of sllch views seems
to involve a greater mental etfort than does the converse. I assume that
atheism was ra re, if not absent, in u'aditional and especially prehistoric
society. I n most, if not all , religions, supernatural beings require that
rituaJs are practiced and arc associatcd with stories about a mytho logical
world. So when faced with the art of the Upper Palaeolith ic we can ha rd ly
doubt that it dep icts the supernatu ral beings of the ice age - either
directly or via mctaphor - and t he myt hological worlds wi th which those
beings were associated . .Moreover, it is natu ral to assume t hat t he pai nt-
ings, engravings and carvings had been either made o r uti lised during the
ritua ls practiced by ice age hunter-gathere rs.
If Upper Palaeoli thic art is evide nce for icc age religion, then that
religion is likely to fall into t he 'imagistic' mode rather than the
' doctrinal' mode as denned by Wh iteho llse (2000, 2004 ). This dichot-
omy is simi lar to that drawn by other social anthropologists such as
Max Weber (1947, charismatic vs . routinized religion ), Jac k Goody
(1968, unlitcrate vs. lite rate rel igion) an d F redrik Barth (1990, 'guru' vs.
'conj u rer' religious regimes ). I n Whitehouse's te rms, the imagistic mode
of religion is characterised by practices that are rarely enacted, highly
arousing and lead to 'spontaneous exegetical reflection'. Such practi ces
resu lt in a diversity of religious experiences: while those of d iffe rent
individuals may converge on a simi lar theme they are li kely to lack any
expl icitly shared meaning even though t here is agreement about t he
ritual procedures themselves. \Vhite house re lates th is religious mode to a
specific set of social circumstances that includc an absence of dyna mic
leadersh ip and the presence of intensc social re latio nsh ips.
The 'doctrinal mode' of religiosity involves the highly ro u tinized
transmission of religio us teachings and expl icit docu'ines about the
nature of supernatural beings that co nstinltes a for m a1 theology (\Nhite-
house 2000). Such religions rely on the presence of religious leaders
and 'orthodoA)' checks' to ensu re th at highl y standardized vers ions of
religious teach ings become widely shared and accepted via p u blic re hearsal
O ut of the mind : material cultu re a nd th e su pernatural
and frequent repetition . A~ with the imagistic mode, certai.n social
circu.mstances are consisten tly related to doct rinal modes of religion , eit her
as cause or cffect: centralisation, formal leadership an d 'open communities'
in the sense that one can join them simply by ascribi ng to the religious
doctrine. Doctrinal re ligions are characteristic of literate societies in which
the teachings are wlitten down in sacred texts.
The characte ristics of ice age religion as inferred from Upper
Palaeoli th ic art by scholars such as Jean C lottes and David Lewis Will.iams
(Clottes et al. 1998; Lewis-Will iams 2002) are consistent with White-
house's co ncept of the i.magistic rel igious. These include traumatic or
violent initiation rituals, experiences of collective possession an d altered
states of co nsciousness. The specific role that the art played in sllch ice age
religion re m ains unclear. Sim ilarl y, it remains q uestionable as to wheth er
we can dr aw any specific inferences abo ut t he na t ure of ice age supe r-
natural beings fi~om that art and assoc iated archaeological data. Before
addressing such questi ons, we must consider the origin of reli g ious
thought. This requires a concern with thc evolution of the human mi nd .
3. Origin of religion
The exte nt to which pre-modern humans undertook rit ual acti vities and
had religio us beliefs has been a subject of substantial debate. Most of th is
debate has focused on the Nea nderthals and what infe rences can be
drawn fro m the f:lct that they buried some of their dea d . The li terature
regarding t his subject is im mense (e.g. Gargett 1989; Mel lars 1996; and
references t herein ) and t he concl usions that I draw arc: ( I ) some
Neanderthals wcre de liberately buried, and (2 ) there is no evidence for
graveside ritual o r the presence of grave goods.
The abse nce of such ritual , symbolic artefacts in general, and other
characteristics of the Neanderthal archaeological record, indicates that th cy
lacked religious thought and d id not conceive of supernatural beings
(Mithen 1996). They were, I believe, very li teral minded humans fo r
reasons [ have explained at length in my 1996 book The Prehistory of the
Mi'nd. Wi thin that wo rk T argued on t he basis of both theory (from evo-
I .
UtlonalY psychology) and data (fi'om arc haeology ) that the Neande rthals
had a domain-speci.fic mcntality . By th is, T. mean that the Neand erthal
mind had mental modules that had been selected duri ng the co urse of
eVOlution to solve t he prob lems posed by a hu n ter-gat hering an d highl y
126 Ste ve n Mithen
social way of life. In this rcga.rd the Neanderth al had botanical and
zoological knowledge eq uivalent to that of modern hunter-gatherers
within their domain of natural history intelligence, a theory of mind and
at least third o rder intentionali ty withjn their social inrcll.i gcl1cc, and 3n
und erstand ing of fracture mec han ics and basic physics within the ir tech -
nical intellige nce . But they wc re unabl e to co mbine ways of th in king and
stores of knowledge tj'OI11 di ffere nt cognitive dOl1uins/intelli gcnces as is
characteristic of H . Sn-piCHS. In other words, they lacked the ability for
metaph or and had limited imagination.
As I will explain late r, th e mental conception of a supernatural bein g
rcquirc.::s cognitivel y Aui d t hought - t hat wh ich makes such connections
between cogni tive domains. One reason why the Neanderthals lacked
cogn it ive Auidjty was the nature of th ei r vocaJ co mmuni cation. This
was ) 1 bel ieve) complex and sop histicated but lacked sy mbols a nd syntax.
In my recent book on the o ri gin of lang ua ge and mu sic ( M ithe n 2005 )
I refer to Neanderthal com lllunication by the ac ron ym ' Hlllmmlllm '
as I argue that it was Hol istic multi- moda l, manipulative, mus ical
and m imetic. As such it p layed a major role in ex pressing and
inducing em otion .
While t he Nea nderthals lacked religious t hought, t heir burial activities
would have bee n events of intense emotional expe rience. In light of their
large brains) t heir co mpl ex material cul ture, and the challenging envi-
rOllmental co nditions in whi ch they survived , it see ms likel y that the
Nea nd erthals lived in groups with strong social bonds to f.1cilitate coop-
erati on. On the basis of mortality data (Trinkaus 1995 ), their pop ulations
appear m arginall y viab le. H ence the loss o f any member of the social g ro up
would have been of considera ble significance. Their burial would have
been h ig hly emotional events , most likel y associated with expressive
Hmmmmm ' song' and 'd ance'. As such ) t hese evems would have served as
precursors to those t hat arc c haracteristic of the imagistic religious mode.
But th ey wcre not re ligious eve nts themselves, because th e Neanderthals
had no concept of th e superna tural. Simi larly, I am sympa thetic to t he idea
that Neande rtilal music may have been used for the same ' healin g' pur-
poses fo r their sick and injured, as found amongst many hunter-gatherers
today (e.g. Roseman .1 99 1; Gouk 2000); but agai n it \vou ld h ave lacked
the rel igious d imension that is often found today.
Hmmmm type communication and doma in -specific mentality wou ld
have also been characteristic of the immediate ancestor to H. sapiens in
Ou t of the mind: material culture and the supernatural
Africa, althoug h in a less extreme fo rm than fou nd amongst the
Nea nderthals. That ancesto r is gene rall y referred to as H. hei1Jl.ci, wh ich
may have also been the direct ancestor to the Nea nderthals (Foley & Lahr
1993). During the last five years the ge netic and fossi l arch aeological
evide nce have conve rged to suggest that H. sapiens had evolved in Africa
by 170,000 yea rs ago (Wh ite et al. 2003; Ingman et al. 2000 ).lvlorcover,
studies of the FOXP2 gene (Lai <t al. 2001 ) have been used to suggest
that language evolved within t hat Same time frame ( Enard et al. 2002;
Bisho p 2002 ), whi le there are traces in the fo rm of p igment usage
t hat sy mbolic activity might reach back beyond one hundred tho usa nd
yea rs ago in Africa (McBrearty & Brooks 2000). Consequently, I will
ass u me that the speciation event of H. sapiens involved th e orig in of
language and symbolic thought.
Lan guage is th e key to the t ransition from domain -specific thought to
cogniti ve Auid ity, which, ill turn , is necessary for co nce iving of supernat-
ural beings. In my book, I argue that language evolved fi'om Hmmmm by
the process of segm e ntation t hat has been described by AJiso n \!\fray
(1998, 2000 ) and formed the basis for the computational models of
Simon Kirby (2000, 2002 ). Indeed, [ suggest that Hmmmmm fo rmed the
basis fo r the two modern aural co mmunicatio n systems: language and
music (Mithen 2005 ).
La nguage p rovides th e vehicle fo r the flow of knowledge and ways of
thinkin g fro m one cogn.i tive doma in to anothe r (lvti then 1996). The
philosopher Peter Carruthers (2002 ) has argued th is in greatest detail
and length within his important 2002 paper o n the 'Cogniti ve F un ctio ns
of La ng uage'. He argued that t he ' imagined sente nces' we create in ou r
minds allow the outp uts fr0111 one intell igence/ module to be combined
with those fi'om o ne or 1110rc others, and thereby create new types of
conscio us thoughts. The consequence is tha t we can imagine entities that
do nOt - and ca nnot - exist in th e real wo rld. Perhaps t he m ost pe rvasive
consequence of cognitive Auidity has been for moder n hU111ans to
imagine that a ll events have intentionality and meaning. A key element of
the pre- modern hum a n social intdligence was to infer the intentions
beh ind anoth er pe rson'!' actions. Once that way of th inking became
accessible to natura l histo ry and tec hni cal inte lli ge nce, people began
to wonder what t he intentio n was behind natu ra l p henome na, suc h
as t hu nderstorms ) earthq uakes and th e sig h t of ran: an imals. As Guth rie
( 1993 has argued, sllch anthro 0 or til' tUL.a L.j)Jll.U_ _ __
128 Steve n Mithen
inanimate world is a pcrvasi,"c feature of religious thought, and perhaps a
defining characteristic. A morc specific consequence of cognitive fluidity
was rhe ability [0 imagine the existence of supernatural beings.
The cognitive anthropo logist Pascal Boyer ( 1994, 200 I ; Boyer &
R;:llnb lc 2001 ) has made extensive cross-cu ltu ral swdics of sllch beings.
As with Mithen ( 1996 ) he argues that they combine features of different
cognitive domains (or in hjs term inology, intuitive ontologies ). Ghosts,
for instance, arc often envisaged as being just like huma ns, except that
they can pass through solid objects in the manner that so un d o r vi b ra ~
[io lls arc ab le to do. A statue of t he Vi rg in Ma ry is an in::l l1 imatc o bject
but has somehow acq uired th e psychological propensities of a person
because it/ she can hear prayc rs. Through his anth ropological and
experimental studies, Boyer has found that thc types of supernatural
beings that arc most prone to be believed and most resilient to cultura l
transmission arc those that arc on ly 'm inimally counterintuitive'. They
must have countcr-intu itive properties to have salience - such as a 'man'
that can rise from the dead , does not need to feed , or lives in some other
reality such as 'heaven J or the Dreamtime. On the other hand , they must
have sufficient contact with an evolved cognitive domain for th em to be
conceived at all and to be transmitted across gene ratio ns: hence the
C lassical Greek Gods, Abo ri ginal Ancestral Bein gs and the vast majority
of supernatu ral beings reco rded by anth ropologists have often behaved
and t ho ught like 'real' people.
The chain of arg ument is, therefo re, that the origin oflanguage led to
cognitive fluidity and th is enabled the mental conccption of supernatural
beings (along with many other new types of ideas ) and hence formed the
basis for religio us tho ught.
4. The rol e of material symbols within religion
Although modern hu mans, language, cognitive fluidity and symbolic
tho ug ht are likely to have been present in Afi'ica by 170,000 years ago, it
is not until 70,000 yea rs ago that the first symbolic artefacts have been
found - the incised ochre fragments and shell beads from Blombos Cave
( Hensh il wood et al. 2002; H enshil wood et al. 2004). The most dramatic
ch:lI1ges in mate ri al cu lture do not occur until after fifty thousand years
ago (McB rearty & Brooks 2 00 0 ). The most likely explanatio n fo r this
seemin g time lapse between th e o ri gi n of new cogniti ve capac ities " "~_ _
Out of the mind: material culture and th e supernatural
their manifestation in material cu lture is demography. Both the genetic
(l ng man et al. 2000 ) and archaeological evidence (McB rearty & Brooks
2000 ) suggest a sign ificant population expansion at arou nd fifty
thousand years, wh ich ma y have had profound conseq uences for the
process of culnlral transmission and the 'fixing' of new ideas, technologies
.1nd symbols \vithin human communities (Shennan 2001 ).
Ea rl y H. snpiem had dispersed into the Near East by one hundred
thousa nd years ago, as evident fr0 111 the caves ofQafzeh and Skhul where
ritua lised burial took place. I do nOt consider those earl y H . sapiells as
full y cognitively modern , arguin g that they had on ly ac hi eved pa rtial
cogn itive flu id ity (M ithen 1996) and lingu istic abil ities (M ithen 2005 )
The direct ancestors of the first H. sapiens in Eu rope appear to have left
Afi-ica only fifty thousand years ago, and then rapid ly d ispersed
throughout Europe, out-competing the resident Neanderth al popu la-
tio ns fo r resources. The H . sapiens com petitive edge was provided by the
cogni tive advantages de livered by having language and cognitive Auidity
JS oppose to Hmmml11m and domain -specific thought that characterised
the Neanderthals. \tYhether or not having religion provided selective
benefi t to the incoming H . sapiclls is debatable: it can be argued that
havi ng f.:lith in supern atura l beings provides a confidence in dec isio n
making that is of adaptive value.
T he material isation of religious ideas by material symbols is a pervasive,
ifnot uni versal , feature of human societies. It is evident that some societies
undertake such materialisation to a f.1 r greater extent than others,
for reasons that remain unclear. T he Upper Palaeolith ic of South-West
Eu ro pe is certainly o ne such example and we must be cautious against
thi nki ng that other hunter-gatherer societies, such as thosc of the early
Holocene in Europe, did not have as complex religious beliefs just because
they did Ilot create such a striking material record. \'Ye face, of course, the
problem that some societies might predominantly make their art objects
Out of organic or non -d urable matc rials (e .g. sand paintings ), which arc
unlikely to survive in the archaeological reco rd. T herc is, howeve r, an
impo rtant question for archaeologists to add ress: why shou ld somc com-
mu nities such as those of the Uppe r Pa.laeol ithic in Eu rope or Earl y
Neolithic in soutll -east Turkey, choose to represent their religious in
m.llcrial form to a greater extent rhan other societies have chose n to do?
'fhe fi rst step in answe ring this questio n is to as k why sho ul d people
130 Steven Mithen
form? 1 believe this relates to the evolution of the mind, and the
relatively recent emergence of cognitive fluidity in hu m an evolution.
Ideas about supernatural beings arc 'unna tural' in the se nse that they
conflict with our deeply evolved domain -specific understanding of the
wo rld and arc hence difficult [0 hold within our minds and transmit to
others. So humans have learnt to li se material symbo ls as an anchor for
such unnatural ideas (Mithen 1998 ). Suc h anchors function to help
formulate, maintain or retrieve the idea of a supe rnatural being within
the mind, and to enable ti13t idea to be sha red with othe r membe rs of
one's cOlllmu nity. In this regard the mate ria l symbo ls are not mere
passive reflectio ns of id eas wit hin the mind, they arc formative of
t hose ideas. In a very real sense such mate rial symbols form an extension
of the mind.
The extension of the mind beyond the bounds of brain, bone and skin
by using material culture may have been as important as the appearance of
language fo r cog ni tive evolution. Merlin Donald ( 1991 ) identified the
significance of 'external sym bolic sto rage'. lVly concern , however, is wi t h
something rather more profound - material cu lture as an extension of
mind in terms of provid ing an ability to manipulate ideas and to 'th in k
th o ughts' that cou ld simpl y not have been possible by the use of the brain
alone. The philosopher Andy Clark has recen tl y used the term 'natural
bo rn cyborgs' to characterise th e manne r in which twentieth -cen tury
humans have exte nd ed their menta l abi li ties by the use of new techn ol-
ogy. I believe tl13t term is also appropriate for the H. sapiens in prehistory
(Mithen 2004) who used art as a cognitive anchor and as a means to
manipulate ideas abou t supernatu ral beings that we re formed by cogn i-
tive Auidity and which had no <natu ral home' within the mind because
they violated domain specifi c knowledge.
5_ Upper Palaeolithic art and religion
vVhen Clark (2003: 53 ) writes about "augmented techno logy" in which
" infor mation might appear attached to the space around an individual"
he co uld be just as effectively wr iting about Upper Palaeolithic art rather
than the twenty-fi rst-century rechno loh')' to which he is in fact referring.
Similarly icc age paintings of bison, horse : 1.I1d su pernaturaJ beings (see
Plates HI and XIII-XV) appea r to ha ve added " new la yers o f meaning
and functionalit r to the ' ) 1 WO' d itself . . a kil d
Out of the mind: material culture and the supernatural
of t he boundaries between physical and informational space" (C lark
2003: 53 ). Indeed we can see the first appearance of art, and especially
that o f supernatural bein gs such as t he lion -man of Hohlenstei n-Sradel
(see Plate II) as "freezing a thought" not in words b u t as a material
object which th en opens up what C lark calls "second-order cognitive
dyna mics" (2003: 79 ).
My argument is, the refore, that t he matcrialisation of the rel igio us
ideology of the Upper Palaeolithic played an active role in the forma tion
of t hat ideology and its transmission between ge nerations. As we are
dea ling with an imag isti c reli g ious mode that ideology wou ld have been
ill -de fined: wh ile sharing some basic ideas, eac h perso n would have had
thei r own particular conception of the super natural beings that were
rep rese nted in the ir art. The paintings and carvings shou ld be considered
as a shared part of the ir U pper Palaeolithic minds rather than as mere
prod ucts or expressions of their m inds. This is, of co urse, no more than
Leac h (1976: 37 ) argued t hirty yea rs ago w hen he explained that lVe
convert rel igious ideas into material form to give them relative penna-
ncnce so t hat they ca n be subj ected to operations which are be yond the
capacity of the brain alone. vVe can now und erstand why this is the case in
terms of the three arguments I have presented: ( I ) the h um an mind has a
deep ly evolved domain -specifi c structure; (2 ) this has been subverted by
language that delivers cogn itive fluidity resu lting in the formatio n of
ideas that have no natu ral place within the brain; (3) to help for m ,
ma nipulate and transmit such ideas, t hey arc represented in material
form t hat constitutes an extension of the mind.
T he evolutionary pe rspective on the mind informs the work of
\Vhite house and Boyer and allows us to draw further inferences about t he
ice age supernatural beings that wou ld otherwise bc the casco \rVhen we
see the paintings of the ' Vcnus'/ bison-man from Chauvet Cave or the
lio n-man from Hohlenstein -Stadel (see Plate 11 ) lVe should be confident
that t hese represent entities that had the " minimall y coun ter-intuitivc
properties" th at Boyer (200] ) has found characteristic of supernatural
bei ngs in ge neraL Such beings may have had partial animal form, but it
would be surp rising if they did not have human-like psychological
p rope rties, especial ly those that allow <mind reading') frequently refe rred
to as theo ry of mind. Indeed, ] t hink it likely that sllch beings were the
·com plete strategic agents' that Boye r (200 I ) has clai med to be charac-
teristic of many religions - beings that had tota l kn owled c of the worl d
132 Steven Mithen
including t he thou g hts and behaviour of all people. In t his rega rd , they
are still watching and listenjng to LIS today.
While m y concern has been the art of the Upper Palaeolithic, 111)'
argu ll1e nt is o f general relevance to the role of material culture in rel i-
g ious thought. Day ( 2004), a Professor of Religi o n from Florida State
University, has recently addressed t he rel atio nships between 'oft-:" line'
cogni ti on, t he extended mind and religioll s thought in general, drawing
not only on rny own wo rk and that o f C lnrk (1997, 2003 ), bur also
Dennett ( 1996) and Hutchins ( 1995 ), bo t h of whom have cont ri buted
to the idea of the extended m ind. D ennett has stressed how too ls no t
on ly require intelligence to be Inadc but also co nfer in te ll igence o n t he
lIser, w hile Hutchins has foc used on the idea of distri b uted cognition.
Day find s a com m o n t hread through this work a nd summarises it as
fo ll ows, whi ch providcs me with an approp riate co ncludin g statement:
T he broad spectrum of rituals, relics, sc ri ptu res, StaTUes and bui ldings
typ icall y associated with reli gious traditi o ns are no longer seen as me re
ethn ographic icin g o n the computational cake. Rath er than thin cultural
"wrap arollnds" that dress up real cognitivc processes goi ng on under-
neath, they begin to look like central co mponents o f the relevant
machinery of reli gious thou ght .. . \'Vit hollt these elaborate laye rs of
cogniti ve tech nology the gods wo uld bc, to o ne de grce o r a nother,
unthinkable. ( Day 2004: 11 6- 17)
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This controversy is interesting from three perspectives:
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• first, there are major substantive issues: Were Neanderthals the intel-
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Ethiopia. Nntur, 423 , 742-7. cond uct it , Recentl y, therc has been a tendency to d raw in moral issues.
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the abil ity of Neanderthals to achieve certain things closet racists? On
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the other hand , are we morall y liberated if we claim Neanderthals as
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Langllngc nlld CommunicntioN 1 8 , 4 7-67. • Third ly, the debate ill ustrates the pivotal role that archaeology has
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J. R. H urford. Cambridge: Cambridge Universit), Press, 285~302.
the thought- li ves of t he earliest people, for it is t he re that we
136 David Lewis-Williams
encounter the seeds of modern thought and religious belief.
A rchaeology goes to the heart of the matter.
In this contribution to the debate I consider, first, a few of the
debilitating platitudes, sometimes laced with mo ral strictures, th at have
established themselves in the literature. Then, r move on to exam ine the
west E uropean Upper Palaeolithic origins of two-dimensional image-
making that produced the stun nin g subterranean pictLlres of, largely,
animals such as bison, horse and aurochs. This second, and major, part
of the chapter, stands independently of what we may think about
Neanderthal abilities, t hough r offer suggesti ons as to what might have
happened when incoming Ronta sapiens groups were livin g beside long-
established Neanderthal comrn unities. Finally, I point to some of tlle
implications of Upper Palaeolithic evidence for an und erstandin g of
religion in twcnty-first-ccntu ry, science-oriented society. This evidence
shows that the Neanderthal debate is not merely an esoteric dispute
among inhabitants of an ivory tower: it has major implications for the way
in which we see life today.
A moral morass
The overtly moral position assumes that the view of NeandertllJls as
mentally less than equal to Homo sapiens is a (constru ct'. It is said that late
nineteenth -century writers, trapped in a Eurocentric, evoluti onary pa r-
adigm, set a trend when they published imaginative pictorial recon-
structions of what Neandert hals looked like, how they walked and
behaved . They were (and sometimes sti ll are) depicted as dim, low-
browed) shambling (cave men'; the argument parallels the feminist
position that detects the subordi nation of women in accou nts oftlle deep
past. This dual perspective was taken up by cartoonists who sketch club-
wielding Neanderthal men dragging their women by the hair. That
images of this kind are lo dged in the public imagination is ) quite possibly,
true. But to imply that im aginative reconstructions and cartoons Ijkewise
influence archaeologists in their perceptions and research is absurd .
Today it may be fun to laugh at crude reconstructions of Neande rth al life,
but to imply that present-d ay resea rchers have in some way been brain-
washed by these reconstructions into believing that Nea nd erthals were
limited in thei r mental capabilities is a calumny. Researchers who believe
Of people and pictures
that Neande rthals were 'mentall y challenged' do so because they believe
the archaeological evidence points to this concl usio n.
T he implication that researchers are duped by cartoonists is encap-
su lated in the broader view that ali accounts of the past are necessarily
and entirely 'constru cts' moulded by the present. It has become pol iti-
cally de rigucur to claim that the social milieu in which archaeologists
work shapes their explanations of the past. Taken at face va lue th is
asserti o n is not really controversial , nor is it as new as we are sometimes
led to believe. What is controversial is the implication th at the present
is ineluctable. This is not the place to enter into a discussion of
present-day relativism and epistemolobry. So I shall simply make a co upl e
of brief points.
It has long been known that histOlY can be a tool in the hands of a
dominant minority - w hat was known as ~b i ased history', now reinvented
as ~co nstructs'. The interests of the present may we ll colour tlle past - no
one do ubts that - bu t it is ncvertllcless possiblc to And out certain truths.
Thosc who successfully challenge tendentious illustrations and cartoons
show that constructs can be exposed: some accounts of thc past are
demonstrably closer th an others to w ha t actuall y happened. Constructs
can be exposed by facts.
So it is with the Nea nderthal question. Some younger researchers
today cl aim that their youth spent d uring the 19605 when segregatio n
was at last seriously chall enged in the United States has shown them
that it is racist to bel ieve that Neand ertha ls were mentally inferio r to
ana tomi call y modern humans and that older researchers who do thi nk
th is are still enmeshed in th e trammels of colonial racism. This position
is even more absurd tha n to say that those ol der (and not so o ld )
researchers are the victims of cartoons. By impu gning the morality of
the ir academic oppo nen ts, th e (free the Neande rthals' schoo l of
tho ught is able to dismiss without argument evidence and logic that it
finds un comfortable. The upshot of these unfortunately prominent
com ponents of present-day debate is the implication that th e palm must
go to the morally pure and that any evidence contra ry to their position is
so me how ta in ted.
Part of the problem that we face in debating the nature of the
Nea nderthal m ind may (it is impossible to be certain about such matters )
derive from those tu rbulent 1960s. Since then, Western society seems to
have placed an increasing value on 'spirituality' . It is thercfore the de nial
 David Lewis-Williams
of Nea nderth :.l l spiritual ity (evidenced, it is said , largely by Neand erthal
burials th at indicate a belief in life after death ) that sc.:e ms to elicit the
most ve hement respo nse from Neanderth al supporters (see debate o n
Neande rth al burials in Gargett 1989, 1999; Ri el-Salvatore & C lark
2001 ; Stringe r & Gamble 1993). Whether or not th e Neanderth als had
the ab ili ty to conceive of a li fe after death is a matter that I discuss in a
later part of this chap te r; fo r the moment all I need say is that, in my view,
spirituality (closely associated as it is wi th bel iefs in supernatural realms
:1 nd influences) is :1 part of hum:1n existen ce best left behind. Tn :1 bter
sectio n I describe the neurological found :1tion of spirituality. Certainl y,
the notio n th:1t spirituality is a fine and defining trait of Homo sapicns
should not cloud the issue of the evolutionary st:1[US of t he Nea nderthals.
This mix of f..1cr and morality in the Neande rthal debate is inimical to
the adva nce of knowledge. The problems tha t it has ge nerated therefore
need to be confro nted head -on, not side-stepped , if we are to get to a
position in whic h debates about the nature of the past do not have to be
couched in the politicaJly correct language of the present - even if they
touch on such inflam mato ry issues as belief in the su pernatura l and
spiritual ity. It is here that archacology can supply crucial data rele va nt to
discussions between reli gion ists and scientists .
Neanderthal evolutionary status
In th is debate, there are certain facts (I use thl: wo rd un as hamcdl y) that I
believe we cannot avoid. I state them briefly:
• There was a time ( ± 40 ,000-3 3,000 BP ) when in France, Spain and
Portugal Neanderthals lived side by side with Homo sapiens com -
Illunities who had moved in to weste rn Europe fro m the cast. Just
how closely 'side by side' is sometimes debated , but the ava ilable
dates show that, whethe r the n vo groups alternately occ upied the
same caves or not, they were.:: contem porary in the geog raphic region
that Illatte rs for the issues that we are add ressing. They cou ld not
have avoided knowing about each o ther, even if the population was
sparse at that time.
• The Neanderthals develo pc.:d their too l kits and soci:.ll structu re very
slowly (ifat al l in some places ) prior to the arri val of the H omo sapicns
Tro u s. \!\There some changes in stone tool technology ca n be
Of people and picture s
discern ed in late Neanderthal sites they can , by th eir te mpo ral
closeness to the physica l arri val of Homo sapiclIs groups, be cxplained
by what Paul Mellars calls the 'bow-wave effect'. Ideas can spread
swiftJy and fa r through hunter-gatherer popu latio ns.
• Immcd iately afte r the arri val of the HOHta sapiells groups in western
Europe Neanderthal life became more similar to Homo sapicns life-
ways - but not entirel y so and with highl y significant exceptions. In
short, they borrowed some things fi'om their new neighbo urs but
not others (see below). If Neandert hals were rnental equals of H01-JtO
sapie1ls, why did they not borrowcJJel),thillg and so confro nt their Ilew
neighbou rs o n thei r own tefms?
• N eand erthals seem to have begun to blllY some of their dead, per-
haps by the bow-wave efTect o r by imitating their new neighbou rs.
But they did Ilot place elaborate grave goods in thei r graves, an
o mission that sugges ts that their notio ns of death and bu rial wc re
different from thosc of HouJ,o sap'iC11J (although see also J. Renfrew,
this JJolmne).
• \Vhcn the Neanderthals borrowed stone tool technologies, they used
the too ls for the sa me purposes as did H omo sapiens people. (For
instance, Neanderth als used scrape rs fo r scraping skins and so forth. )
By contrast, when Nea nderthals used (rarely ) body ornamcnts (e .g.,
pendants ) which they themselves made or obtained from Homo sa-
pinls gro ups, those ornarnents must have had different social mean -
ings in the Nea ndertha l contex t from what they signified in Hmno
sapiens communities. Body ornaments signi fy social distinctions.
Neanderthal society was ditTerentl y structured fro m that of Homo
sapiens, and their ornaments must therefore have signified differently.
• Afte r a few thousand years of side-by-sid e li ving, the Neanderthals
died out without contributing to the H omo sapiens genepool. I t
seems that, althou gh inter-species copulation Illay have taken place,
there was no successful , long-term intnbrec.:d in g . The Nea nde rthals
and Homo sapiells were two species.
• It was at this time of west European cohabitation that H 01llo sapiclls
comlll uni ties began to make twO- and three-dimensional imagery.
Neanderthals did not make image ry.
These seven points stand independentl y of an y moral objections. And,
mo reover, independentl y of an y disclission of whether Neanderthals
140 David Lewis-Williams
wc re capable o f ' symboli c thought' - in a ny evc.: n r a very slippCI)I)
ill -d efin ed co ncep t t hat inhabi ts t he lirc r:l turc o n thi s topic. Becau se o f
t he defini tio nal diffi culti es with slIch phrases, it is bette r t o seek a m o rc
e mp iri cal way of fi nd in g Ollt about differe nces betwee n Nea nderth als and
H omo sapiells.
\Vh ar we need to ex plain now is: vVh y d id Homo sapiens begin to
m ake abu nd ant im age ry of astonishin g so phistication , o ft en in d ee p
caves, whil e t he I ca nd e rthals d id nor a nd eve n t u all y di ed o ut ? One way
of answerin g this q uestion is to pro pose a hypothesis and then to sec
(3) iLlIl )' evide nce co ntradicts it, (b ) if it ex plains th e availab le evidence,
(c ) if, in d o in g so, it co -ordinates wh at m ay o th e rwise see m di spara te
types o f bc h;wi o ur.
Intelligence and consciousness
Accounts of huma n evolution almo st inv::lIiab ly e mphasise in tellige nce and
igno re hum an co nsciousness. But a di A-c re nce in in te llige nce alone d ocs
no t sufficien tly ex plai n the d isti nctio ns be tween what t he N eandertha.ls
bo rro wed and what they igno red . I t he refo re propose that it was diA-c r-
c nccs in consciousness, rathe r tha n in intellige nce, th at are the key to t he
questions t ha t I ask in this c hapter abo ut th e o ri gins of image -m aking . To
suppo rt th is hypo thesis, I outl in c th e natllrc of mo d ern hum an co n-
scio usness and then d istinguis h betwcen types of co nscio usness.
H urn an co nsciousness is no t a unitary m e n tal state. It is not a case of
sirnpl y bei ng co nscio us o r un conscio us. Rath e r, co nscio usness is bette r
t ho ug ht of as a spectrum tha t g rad es fro m alert states thro ug h mo re
mcd itative co nd itio ns, to day-drea min g , to d ecp revc ri e, to d rea min g,
and on to ' ull co nsciousness' (e.g. , Ntart indale 198 1 ). T he spectrum t hus
has ale rt and introve rted e nds . Dail y, all people move back an d fo rt h
alo ng th is spect rum .
T he shi fting nature o f co nscio usness is a fact (again t hat word ) th at
m;:1I1 Y arc haeo logists igllo re. They ass um e th at, in d ecisio n -m akin g co n -
texts, bo th earl y and recent Homo sapiclI:j always ex pe ri e nced on ly th e
alert end o f t he spec trum. Behaviour and acti o ns th at arc explained as
~l dapta ti o n to the e nvironment arc th e refo re ( usuall y ta citl y) acce pted as
th e res ult o f a ncient rational d ecisio ns.
\\fh at arc so me o f the conseque nces of th e shiftin g character o f hum an
co nscio ness for archaeo lo ists?
O f people and pictures
]n t h e ve ry n ature of communal li fe , all co mmun iti es a re o bli ged t o
divide u p th e spec trum o f co n sc io usness in to recog ni zed a nd , impo r-
ta n tly, evalu ated secti o ns . In m o dern Wes te rn life it is th e alert e nd of
the spec t rum that is m o st valu ed , fo r it is in ale rt states that scie nt ific
and tec hn o logical ad va n ces a re be lieved t o bc ge ne rated. Day-dreamin g
and fantasising a re trea ted wit h scepticism . Dreams a re ge ne rall y
regarded as amll sing , o r, in so m c in sta nccs, te rri fyin g, bu t no g rea t
signi fican ce is accord ed t he m (except by a cou ple of sc hools of psy-
chology) . Ifa n answe r to a prob lc m co m cs to a resea rch e r in a d rea m , its
origi n is no argu m e nt fo r its va lu e : the answc r has t o be test ed und e r
rigo ro us co nditi o ns.
This patte rn o f evaluatio n o f t he spectrum of co nsciousness was no t
always em braced in t he West, no r is it uni versall y accepted today. 1n
mediaeval t imes d rea ms were believed to be o ne of t he ways in which
God spo ke to his c hosen , o r o ne of t he ro utes by whi ch th e D evil infil -
trated himself in to hum an so uls. Othe r cultures p lace di ffere nt \'alue
on dreams . People m ay bel ieve th e m to be the vo ices of a nces to rs o r
intimations o f hi dde n witc h craft. Apa rt fro m d reams, \·Ves te rn e rs
canno t agrec, even tod ay, on how to eva lu ate t he introverted , m cdita -
ti\'c e nd of t he co nscio usness spec trum. New Age and associated
mO\'eme nts e m p loy va ri o us tec hniqu es to shut o ut the immediate
ellvi ro n m e n t an d to c ulti vate states th a t th ey call 'spiritual', a word that
auto mat ica ll y b es to ws hi g h value. These e xamp les show that we cannot
ass llme t h at Uppe r Palaeolithic peo pl e evalua ted th e spec t rum of con -
sciollsness in t he same way that hi g hl y ra t io n al Weste rners do today. In
all prO babil ity, t h ey did not.
Fo r whateve r reasons (a srudy in itscl f) , people in all times and cultures
go furt her than va lu ing th e introve rted e nd of t he co nscio llsness spec-
trum. They in te rfere wit h co nsciousness and launch it o n what may b e
called an intc nsified t rajccto ry. T his t rajecto ry lead s thro u gh stages of
what we call altc red consciousness to a 'd eep ' state in whi ch subjects
expe rience visual, so m atic, J ural , gust ato ry and o lfacto ry hallu cinatio ns
(Lcwis-Williams 2002 ). In this sta gc people 'sec' animals, mo nste rs,
biza rre tra nsfo rmations and so forth. The inte nsified t raj ecto ry may be
e nte red upo n by the ingestion of psyc hotro pi c substan ces or by a udi o
an d rhythmi c driving, intense concentrati o n and m editati o n , se nsory
deprivati o n , pro lo nged pain, or pathological conditi o ns such as temporal
lo be e pilepsy a nd schi zophrenia. Recent criticisms ( Bahn & He! vcnston
142 David Lewis-Williams
2002 ) th at suggest that all three ofthc stages arc ind uced only by certain
psyc hotropic substances arc incor rect ( Lcwis-vVill iams 2004 ).
People cvaJu3te the intensified trajecto ry, as they do the ordinary
spectrulll of co nsciollsness. It is social ized and people in a give n COIll-
Illun ity agree o n what it signifies, t hough there arc often those who
contest th e ge nerall y accepted eva luation. The process of social ization
often entails parts of the trajectory being marked off as the preserve of
special people, the 'seers' , those who 'sec' and thereby have access to
realms t hat ordin ary people ca n o nl y glimpse in their dreams. The seers
(ot hers word s Illay be used: priests, shamans, pro phets, psychopomps)
o ften co ntro l o ther peopl e's access to t he in tcnsified t rajectory, and
becomin g a seer in vo lves learning to expe ri ence and und erstand the
sta ges of alte red consciousness. The in te nsified spectrum of conscious-
ncss thus beco mes a powe rful foundation for social d iscrim in ati o n that
cross-cuts stratifications based 0 11 sex, age and brute strength.
H ow did human beings come to have th is d istinctive way of
underwriting social disti nctions?
Two types of consciousness
Adopting an evolutionary perspective, Gerald Edelman (1992, 2004 ;
Ed elm an & Tonolli 2000 ) distingu ishes two kinds of co nsciousness,
primJ ry and hi g her-o rd er.
Prilltary consciousness is not a sing le, unitary co ndition. Animals oth er
than human bein gs expe rience it to va ryin g degrees; ea rl y hom in ids had
it, also in different degrees. It entails an awareness of th e environment
and t he entertainin g of mental ima ges in the present. Ed el man likens it to
bein g in a dark room with a flas hli g ht. As t he bea m moves aroll nd , it
illuminates parts of the room and t hen lets t hem slip back into darkness .
Primary consciousness t h us permits the construction of an integrated
mentJ I scene in t he present th at does not req uirc bng uagc or a true sense
ofsclf. T his is wha t Edelman calls 'a remembered present'. As a result of
its esse ntial restri ction to th e present, animals with p rim ary co nsciousness
do not have a sense of a perso n \Vith a past an d a future. They have some
lo ng -term memory, but t hey are una ble to plan an exte nded futu re
based on mc.: mory. Some ani mals may have what may be ca lled a proto-
language, but o ne without past and future tenses . 1n short, th ey ca n
have no socially constructed self. A co nseq ucnce of p rimary co'nsci ()l1!;no~_ __
Of people and pictures
is t hat animals with it drea m (sleep is a conditio n that leads to the
man ufacture of proteins in t he b rain ; Greenfield 1997, 200 1; Rock 2004)
but afe u nab le to remember and sociali ze their dreams. Altered states of
consciousness of t he intensified trajectory may be induced in them , bu t
they d o not remember and later act upon sociall y constru cted under-
standings of those ex periences.
Higbcr-ordcr consciousness is the kind of co nsciousness experienced
today by all human beings and , in a restri cted sense, by some primates
(Edelm an 2004 ). Acco rdin g to Edelman , it evolved out of prim ary
co nscio usness not just by g ross changes in brain morphology but, more
impo rtantly, by the establishm ent of what he ca ll s ' reentry' circuitry. This
new 'wiring' wit hin th e brain co ntributed substantially to a new o rd er
of com plexity (he uses t he p hrase ' meshwork of the thalamocortical
system' ) an d to the integrati o n of co nscious experience (Edelma n &
T ononi 2000: 216 ). Because Uppe r Pa laeo lithic H . sapiens communities
we re anatom ically full y mo d ern , we ca n ass ume t hat their neurological
wiri ng \Vas t he same as it is to d ay. We the refore have a neurologica l
bridge to the U ppe r Palaeol it hi c.
Higher-o rder consciousness is characteri zed by recognjtio n of one's
own acts and emotions, co ncepts of a d ee p past, a future mode l of the
world, a sociall y constructed se lf, and lo ng -term storage of sociJlly
constructed symbo lic rela tions. This kind of consciousness is found ed o n
complex language th at em braces past, prese nt Jnd future tenses and the
Ulte rance of neve r-before ani cu b ted se ntences t hat ca n be und erstood by
membe rs of the lang uage community. It makes possible long- term
planni ng and stratcgizin g, the maintenance o f complex kin ship systems,
and t he ma nipulation of sy mbols to ex press and impact upon complex
social re lations. In additi o n, higher-order consciousness permits people
to remembe r and to social ize dre ams and visio ns.
T his kind of conscio usness probably evolved in Africa, so that by the
time H 01flO sapiells comm uni ties reached western Europe th ey had the
potential to ex perience all of its functio ns. Discussions of ' modern human
behavio ur', a concept difficult to define, lIsua.lly omit any mention of
consciousness . Yet it is hi g her-o rder co nscio usness t hat makes modernity
pOssible. Modern human behavio ur cam e together piecemeal and spas-
modically in Africa (McBrearty & Broo ks 2000 ) on , I argue, a foundati o n
o f highe r-o rder conscio usness. 1t cannot be unde rstood witho u t an
144 David Lewis-Williams
The differences between th e two types of conscio llsness that Edelman
di stingu ishes are empi rical isslIes: they arc not open [0 1110ral evaluation.
The consciousness hypothesis
The hypothesis that Homo snpicHs communities had hi g her-order can·
SCiOllSIlCSS and that the Neanderthals had n form ofprimary consciollsness
is a hypothesis that ex plains why Nea nderthals we re able to borrow
certai n things but not others, and why Homo sn.piclls supplanted the
Neanderthals in wester n Europe. I foclis o n burials and image-making.
vVith OlI t higher-order consciollsness Neande rthals wou ld have been
unab le to conceive of a spirit realm or all afte rl ife - a state of being far
removed in the future o r, rather, o utside of time. They wou ld therefore
have becn incapable of understand ing thc placing of va luable items in
Howo sapiclIs graves; grave goods could have had no meaning for thc m .
Nor cou ld they have had any clear idea of why some H omosapiclls people
were give n elaborate burials and others wc re not. vYithout any notio n of
social distinctions based on criteria othcr than age, sex and stren gth they
wou ld have been baffled as to why sorn eo ne who see med to have so little
going for him o r her would be accorded such treatment. They may have
been able to sec so me purpose in plac ing bodies beneath the grou nd , if
on ly to emu la te Homo sapiclts behaviour o r to perfo rm ::111 act of concern ,
but they cou ld not have entertained ~\I1 y rel igio us concepts about death
and burial. Neande rthals were congenita l atheists.
Upper Palaeolithic image-makin g poses more comp lex problems
than burials. First , we need to ask how people C::1 I11 C to believe that small ,
static marks o n a two-dimensio nal surface co uld represent a hu ge, live,
moving, th ree-dimensional bison o r ho rse. (For a discussion of thrce-
dimensional image-making, see Lewis-\·Yilliams 2002 ). The conventions
of two-dimensional represe ntatio ns arc not inherited ; they have to be
Ie, rn ed. This is what the anthropo logist Anthony Forge ( 19 70 ) found in
New Guinea. The Abclam , among whom he wo rked , did not understand
pho togr3phs. vVhe n he explai ned the conventions to them, they read il y
learned to 'sec' photograp hs, but the ability was not in -built. It is this
point that exposes the inadeq uacy of some of the o ld explan ations of
image-making. People cou ld not have fortuitou sly d iscerned t he outline
of, say, a bison in natural or random hu m3n -madc marks on cave wa lls
w' ho I t 'Tst havin a concept of two-d imensional o icrures.
Of people and pictures
The pop ular notion that an especiall y intelligent individual noticed such
J.n o utline and then told others about it, or simp ly invented image-making,
is therefo re flawed. If the origi n ofimage-making was idiosyncratic in this
way, we canno t explai n w hy, right fi·om the beg inning of image-making
O\"er the whole of vYestcrn Europe, the makers confined themselves to
a fai rl y restricted set of animals: bison , ho rses, felines, aurochs. Other
creatures, such as birds, mammoths and reind eer, were less frequently
dep icted ; still other motifs, such as human beings, are extremely rare. Pro-
portio ns between depicted species varied tllI'ou gh the Upper Pa.laeolithic,
but the funda mental set of motifs rcm3 incd the same. There was never a
time when people made pictures of an ything that caug ht their f.:lncy. The
most plausible ex planation is that the vocabulary of motifs existed befo"re
people started m3king images of them. T here was a widely shared,
socialized bestiary o f an imals with symbolic assoc iations, and tll is bestiary
(not some 'aesthetic se nse' ) in some way triggered and informed the
beginnings of image-making. Along with stone tool technologies, the
incoming Aurignacians brought an established religio n and symbology,
although not highly developed ,nd subterranc,n image-m,king. That
came later, when they were living Ileal' Neanderthals in vVestern Europe.
Seeing and making images
The answer to the questio n of how people camc to und erstand and make
two-dimensio nal images of th is bestiary li es in features of hi gher-order
co nsciousness and the intensified trajectory (Lewis-Wi lliams & Dowson
1988; Lewis-Williams 2002 ). Neuropsychological research h" shown
th at hallucinatio ns expe ri enced o n the intensified trajectory are projected
onto plane surf.lces, such as wa lls or ceilings. Subjects liken this experi -
ence to a slide or film show ( KJii ve r 1926: 505, 506; Siegel & Jan'ik
1975: 109; Siegel 1977: 134). Nonve ridic,l men,,1 imagery can thus
come to be associated with a surface in fj'ont of the subject. Four
implications flow fro m this observation.
first, Upper Palaeol irhic people did nOt have to invent two-d imensional
imagery. If somc of them experienced projected imagery unde r certa in
circumstanccs, as they had the ne urologi ca l pote ntial to do , twO-
dimensional ' picturcs' would already have bccn part of their worl d undcr
ct.'rtniu mcntnl aud emotional couditions. Those conditions wo uld almost
I'
146 David Lewis~Williams
Secondly, if the vocabula ry of motifs was established before image-
making started, as the archaeological evidence shows it was, the projected
images of t hose selected animals Illllst have had sy mbol ic significance
beyond being 'pictu res' of creatures seen in daily life. They wcre not
staple food animals. The projected images Ill u st have had some value or
'power' beyond being sou rces of food.
Thirdly, it woul d the n have been a short step for people in a 'light'
altered state to reach O ll t to touch their projected images and t hus to fix
them on the walls with a finger in soft su rfaces or with pigment. Or, after
having returned to the alert end of the spectrulll , they may have made
images in an attempt to call back and recreate mental im ages on the
surfaces on which they had been projected wh ile they were in a deeper
state. The first images were therefore not 'pictures of real life' but rather
fixed, projected mentaJ images of important anim als that were pa rt of an
established symboli c bestiary.
fourthly, as Forge was easi ly able to teach t he Abe lam the
conventions of two -dimensional Imagery, so too would U pper
Palaeoli thic seers have been able to teach others to comprehe nd
projected imagery that they had fixed on rock walls . Once those
people were able to understand th e conventions involved in twO-
dimensional imagery, t hey wou ld have been able to make the ir own
pictures without having experienced an altered state and projected
mental images. The fact that they did not then start making pictures of
a wide range of su bjects shows that they, like the seers, we re bound
by the religious, symbolic bestiary. Image-making remained wi thin the
sphere of religion.
This explanation fo r the origin of two -dimensionaJ image-making is
supported by characteristics of the painted and engraved images in the
caves of south-west Europe.
• Researchers have long noticed that they appear to float on the wa lls
without any suggestion of a ground line or other context - t here arc
no trees , g rass o r hills. Often , animals have 'hanging' hoofs that are
not o ri ented to a ground su rface.
• The images are often integrated with the co nvolutions of t he surface;
it is as t hough t he projected mental image locked into feat ures of the
rock wa ll. As a result, some im ages arc III vertical positi ons, not as
11 w I S v CO urse, n
O f people and pictures
• In some instances, it is necessary to hold one's lamp in a give n
position so t hat the shadows cast across the wall form, say, the dorsal
li ne ofa bison. T he image -fixer then added legs and perhaps horns to
complete the figure. If t he viewer moves the lamp back and forth, th e
image disappears and re-appears.
• An impression of 'appearing' is also created by images that are
positio ned so that they seem to be coming out of cracks or fissures in
th e rock walls.
The co nsciousness hypothesis thus coordinates and explains empiri -
caJly o bse rved featu res of Up per PaJaeolithic images. Further, t he in ti-
macy o f the relation between images and surfaces, and th e highly selective
vocab ulary of the motifs are two points that lead to inferences abou t the
caves an d their topography.
Subterranean realms
Perhaps the most striking feature of Upper Palaeolithic cave Images is
their loca tion in deep und ergroun d chambers, passages and small niches.
In SOme instances, people walked, waded, crawled and squeezed through
narrow o penings for more than a kilomeu'e underground before they
made images. These were not 'art galleri es' for leisurely co ntemplation of
objets dJat·t. Some of the remote images may never have been seen by
anyone aparr t"i'om their makers; others, by contrast, are in large chambers
that co uld have accommodated a number of people. W hat did 'viewing
images' mean to Upper Palaeolithic people?
The answer to this question lies agai n in the spectrum of human
conscio usness and its inte nsified trajectory. Two hallucinato ry experi-
ences th at are wired into the brain are of im po rtance (Lewis-Williams &
Dowson 1988; Lewis- Williams 2002).
First, as subjects move along the intensified t rajectory, they may
expe ri ence a sensation of rising up, attenuation and flying. Secondly, they
may ex perience a vortex, a constricting tunnel, through which they pass
and emerge on the other side in to a realm of hallu cinations where they
'sec' monsters, people and bizarre events .
T hese two hard -wired experiences, T arg ue, give ri se to world wide
beliefs in spi ri t realms above and below the level of dai ly lj fe. There is, of
) . 'V .,
~v
v lifi· for t • II ·h
148 David Lewis-Williams
spheres of sllpcrnawrai, or spiritual , existence, yet people everywhe re
believe in them. The only persuas ive explanation for this universa lity is
that the experiences of rising up and sinking down into the gro und are
hard -wired in the Homo sapicHs brain and lead to bel iefs in the existence,
though not t he details, of rea lms above and below. The Christian concept
of Heaven above and Hell below is but one example. In some instances,
the upper and nether realms arc subdivided into Illultiple levels.
Bcliefin a tiered cosmos explains why Upper Palaeolithic people went
underground to make images of a set of symbolic anima ls and why those
images arc intimately integrated with t he walls of the caves . Ph ys ical entry
into the caves paralleled, was pe rh aps indisting uishable fi-om, mental
ent ry into t he neurologically generated vOrtex that leads to deep ly aJte red
states and hallucinations. The caves IPere the nethe r world, a rea lm
inhabited by powerful animals and , probably, beings. These anima1s and
beings lived in the chambers or behind cave walls. They were so ught by
sight, tO llch, the interplay of ligh t and shadow, echoing sound, and
p robably by responding to au ral hallucinations of animal sounds. It was
the aim of the deeply penetrating subterranea n quester to 'sec' these
powerfu l animals, sometimes to draw them through the 'membrane' of
the walls and to 'fix' them there. They wcre ji..'l:cd IJisiolls of special,
powerful animals whose supernatura l, empowering essence image-
seekers and irnage-makers desired. The context of the images was not
' Natu re' but ra t her the nether realm and the membrane of the cave
wall. The image-ma kers went into the cave to seek visio ns of animals;
they did not consciously take recollectio ns of real animals and incidents
with t hcm so that they could paint or engravc thcm.
What, then, was the relationship between the 'fixed' spirit animals and
their look-alikes t hat roamed o utside the cavd Worldwide hunter-
gatherer et hn ography offers some clues. For instance, the nineteenth-
centllry/ Xam San of southern Afi'ica believed that somc of their !gi:ten
(ritual specialists, shamans; si ng. fgi:xn-) possessed spi rit animals that
cou ld be caused to go among a herd of springbok and lead them in t he
direction of the hunters' ambush. One .'gi:xa described such an animal
as her 'heart's springbok' ( Bieek MS L.V.IO.4729 rev. ). Unless they
behaved in some pecu liar way, spirit an imals were indistinguis hable from
real animals, and an info rmant told how one was acc ide ntally shot, with
ulllDrtunate co nsequ ences (B leck 1935: 44-47). A !Kung (ju/'hoan)
)Crson said that her husba nd had hunted a gi raffe that uille.x peclt<;<:!ly_ __
Of people and pictures
tu rned out to be a spi rit anim al; the man the n acquired supernatural
potency from it (Biesele 1993: 68- 69 ). Such beliefs are a reflection ofthc
im manence and si multaneous transcendence of the spiri t world. Gene rated
in a person's head, the spirit world is both ' with ' o ne and 'beyond' one.
Furt her hints come from the South American Desana, who speak of
Vaf- mashc, Lord of the Animals, a being who has control of an imals t hat
he keeps in spiritual form in his maloca, o r house ( Reichel ~Dolmatoff
197 1:80- 86 ). He is associated with isolated rock for mations that rise out
of the Amazo nian forest ' like dark islands on the hori zon'. In their
'cavern s and dark recesses' there are painted images made by shamans,
who alone are strong enough to visit suc h dread places. They do so in
real ity and in u'ance (induced by inhaling the narcotic powder of IJihh, th e
plant Piptadc-nia). Once in the presence of Val-mas he, they negotiate
with him to release animals for t he benefit of hUll ters. In additio n to
being the place where supernatu ral animals and bei ngs res ide, the rock
formatio ns arc said to contai n ill ness
and their da rk and inhospitable aspect indicates da nger. The cracks,
caverns, and tunnels are the entrances to the interior of th e hills, to the
great malocas of the animals. There, withi n thei r dark interio r, the
giga ntic prototypes of each species exist and thousands of animals
arc ke pt. (Re ichcl -DolmatotT 197 1: 8 1)
In some west European caves, sllch as En lCne, people pushed small
pieces o f bone into crac ks in the wa lls. In the small C hambe r of the Lions,
in the adjacent cave Les Trois Frcres, a cave bear tooth was placed in a
small niche. The pieces of bone in En lcne are so small and the cracks so
narrow t hat intense concentration and close scrutiny of the cave wall
must have been necessary. In the rotal darkness of the cha mbers the
person's flicke ring tallow lamp mllst have sharply focused his o r her
attentio n. People were ca refull y passing pieces of animals back throug h
the membrane, perhaps propitiating the spirits behind the rock wall,
perhaps hoping that the pieces wo ul d reconstitute themselves into spirit
anima ls which some gu iding being, perhaps a Lord of the Animals, wo uld
late r re lease into the o utside wo rld as real anima ls that could be hunted.
Whilst direct, ol1e~ to~one parallels with ethnographi call y reco rded
practi ces, such as the San and Dcsana reports I have cited, ar e naive and
pote ntially m isleading, t hey do g ive LIS something of the flavou r of the
I t hat I Palacolithi c have betwcen
150 David Lewis-Williams
real animals, spirit animals and the caves. Upper Pabeolithic society and
belief almost certainly have no presc nt·day ethnographic analogues. But,
given the hard -wired experiences of human consciollsness, we can for-
mulate ge neralities that provide a Illulti -component conte xt for tentati ve
in te rpretation of Uppe r Palaeolithic image-makin g .
In some instances, ethnography records the hallucinogen that people
used to access the spirit wo rld , but in others, sllch as the San , no
psychotropic substances arc lIsed today. In the 'Nest European Upper
Palaeolithic th e altered state of conscio usness necessa ry to induce
projected mental imagery co uld have been ge nerated by any of the
mechanisms 1 listed earlier. But it is worth no ting that sensory depr iva-
tion of th e kind experi enced in the totJlI y d J rk, silent caves induces
alte red states of consciousness. To ex pectant minds, isolated for long
enou g h in th e bowels of the earth, imJges wou ld have appeared.
Some images are, however, so large th at they co uld have been made
on ly by cooperating people. Those in the Hall of the Bulls in Lascaux arc
examples. Elabo rate images such as these are usuall y in large chambers
and are often fairl y close to the cave entrance or easi ly accessed. These
images, 1 suggest, were communall y produced rath er than the resu lt of
the sort of individual experi ences th at led to the limning o f the more
bri efl y made images in the spatially constri cted depths.
Social differentiation
There were thus what I call ' acti vity areas'. These were selected places
in the labyrinthine caves w here images of diftc rent kinds and executed
by means of different techniques (some by a few solitary, deft strokes,
others by pooled labour) or where othcr kinds of ritual, such as chanting
and dan cing, took place. An implication of this conclusion is t hat the
caves we re templates for social disc riminations ( Lewis- \Vi lliams 1997,
2002 ). Religion is always sociall y divisivc, both within religiolls COIll -
munities and between those communiti es and other people (as a reading
o f the Bible or a newspaper exempli fies ) and those discriminations are
often reprod uced by movement in defi ned spaces . Temples are always
social te mplates .
H ow may these di visions of space have fun ctioned in th e U pper
Pa laeo lithi c? Ir sccms likel y that the entire com munity was assoc iated in
multiple ways with the land immed ia tel y beyond the entrance to a ' '::'=_
Of people and pictures
Perha ps ordinary people gath ered o utside caves while seers penetrated
the depths. They were unseeing witnesses to subterranean ritu als.
T hen, as at, for instan ce, Lascaux , a large entrance chamber ncar or
relatively easily accessible from th e entrance contained communall y
made, striking images th at prepared novices, or even experienced seers,
tor what they would 'see' in the isola ted depths. These large images were
probably dramaticall y revealed , pe rhaps enveloped in a nimbus of
chanting. Animated by flicke rin g lamps and torches, they wou ld have
info rmed th e mental image ry of subseq uent altered states. People hal -
luci nate what they ex pect to hallucinate. There is, however, always the
potential for unexpected hall ucinations. ff this happens, the seer must
dec ide whether to igno re the novelty o r to sei ze on it as a unique reve-
latio n. Communall y made images may not have originated in a single
visio n; they were pro babl y composite, socially stabilized recreations of
powe rful animals) the coopera tive manufacture of which exp ressed
and construc ted their sig ni ficance not just for indj viduals but for society
as a whole. Certainl y, they could no t have been made by people in deep ly
altered states of consciousness. But, importantly, they none th e less
derived from the sym bolic bestiary and contributed to the reproduction
of that bestiary.
A select group that exercised contro l of the em bellishment of the
subterranean worl d was pro bably associated with the large chamber.
Beyond that, the narrow passages and sma ll niches ensured that on ly a
few people co uld pen etrate far underground ~ far into the ne ther spi rit
realm . These were th e vision qu esters or initiates who were seeking
perso na l revelations.
T he intensified conscio usness trajecto ry thus paralleled the topogra -
phy o f the caves: diftcrent states of consciousness we re associated with
diffe rent activi ty areas. Outside the cave everyo ne could expe ri ence
drea ms, euphoria, awe, or fea r; deepe r altered consciousness was ex pe-
rienced by a g roup in fro nt of impressive images; in th e rem ote parts of
the cave a few experienced dee pl y altered consciousness and its vivid
visio ns. The cave was a map of the mind.
Mo reover, the consciousness trajecto ry and the topography of th e
caves combined to rei nforce social stru cture. A powerful group of people
co uld protect both the cave and the parallel intensified trajectory o f
al tered consciousness; they cou ld decide to whom special, subte lTJn Ca n
_ _ I
 David lewis-Williams
those experiences accept the authority of the controlling seers? Social
pressures must have been significant, but even ordinary people could
gl impse the spirit world in their d reams. Those dreams were confirmation
of the more elabo rate in timations of spirituality of which the seers
spoke. Social distinctions were thus exp ressed and co nstructed both
neurologicall y and spatially.
Despite mechan isms of this kind , complete consensus is seldom
obtained in religious matters. The rather nebulous, neurological origin
of spi ritu al expe ri ence guarantees dispute. The intensified trajectory,
together wit h its concomitant social and topographic distinctions,
was probably contested from tim e to tirne. As a result, the social dis-
criminations associated with those multiple distinctions almost certainly
changed duri ng the Upper Palaeolithic. Both the caves and human
consciousness we re sites of contestation , active social negotiation and
change. As Stephen Shennan rightl y points out, ' [A) key locus for the
generation of social ineq uality in forager societies was the cultu ral
transmission of ritual knowledge, even in the absence of material
inequalities' (Shennan 2002: 224 ). Roy Rappaport add s the foundatio n
for ' ritual knowledge' : 'The relationship between alterations o f the social
co ndition and alterations of consciousness is not a simple one, but it is safe
to say that they augment and abet each other' (Rappaport 1999: 219 ).
A nexus of origins
This brief account of a more wide-ranging argument ( Lewis-Williams
2002 ; Clottes & Lewis-Williams 1996/ 1998, 200 1) poin ts to a period in
which some of the components of dai ly life that we tod ay consider to be
difterent were in f.:1ct integrated.
As Hmno Jrtpiens communities became aware of the im pli cations of
the differences in consciousness between themselves and Neande rthals,
they emphasised those distinctions as a social stra tegy . They consoli -
dated their own corporate identity by creating socia l and conceptual
distance between themselves and the Neanderthals, whose form of
conscio usness, though more ad vanced than that of other anima ls,
prevented them from entertaining mental imagery, remembering their
dreams and visions, conceivi ng of spiritual worlds, and making images.
We do not know exactly what the circumstances of contact were.
Perh the Neanderthals were able to learn a Auri
Of people and pictures
language and wcre thus able to establish some linguistic contact with
the ir new lIe ighbou rs. But the y were shut out from mental and fixed
imagery and thus from the religion that was the foundation of HO'ino
sapiens society.
Simultaneollsly, the making of religiolls, two-dimensionaJ imagery to
cmphasise (at least in part) the distinction between themselves and the
·other', the Neandcrthals, had eftects within Homo sapie1ls communi ties.
T he practice of making images entrenched social distinctio ns that probably
existed inchoatel y in the in -com ing communities and that were linked
by diftcrent relationships (other than image -making) with the bestialY of
mcntal imagery. The manifestation of the spirit \Vo rld became more
and morc socially im portant not only between themselves and thei r
::'\'eande rthaJ neighbo urs but also within the ir own communi ties. At the
beginn ing of the Upper Palaeolithic, social and mental mechanisms \Vere
thus in itiated , together with their ritual and image-making concomitants.
T hose mechanisms continued to playa social ro le as the Upper Palaeoli thic
unfolded , long after th e last Neanderthals. People were making their own
history in a fas hion that the Neanderthals did nOt - indeed, could not.
In this way, cosmology (a tie red un iverse), religion , image-making
and social d iscriminatio n came togethe r. At that time, I arguc, it was
im possible to distinguish between them:
• A tiered cosmology Was fashioned out of~ principaJly, hard -wired
flying and vortex experie nces.
• Re ligion was traversal of the tiered cosmology by means of altered
states and with concom itan t social and psyc ho logical effects.
• l mage-makin g was a religious ritual aimed, at least initially, at fixing
Jn d controlling visions of powerful animals and thereby creating
social distinctio ns between those who had direct access to those
anima ls and those who did not.
• Social differences we re thu s more and more founded on criteria that
We nt beyond age, sex ) and strength and tha t deri ved fi'om differentia l
access to mcntal and subterranean experiences.
Society as we know it in all its complexity, cross-cutting discriminations,
situa tio nal identities, rituals and imagery was burgeoning, an extended,
complex process begun long before alllong H01llo sapiens populations
in Afi·ica.
154 David Lewis-Williams
Beyond both cave and laboratory
The conscioll sness hypoth esis ho lds impli cations not on ly for the way
in which we understand the period during whi ch Homo sapiens com ·
l11unitics began to make images, but also for the way in w hich we today
confront the enigma o f religio n. 1 say 'enigma ' because the word
're lig ion' is notorio usly difficult to define; many definitions arc actl1:llly
d iffuse pleonasm. vVc cann ot now enter into a protracted discli ssio n
of all the va riolls atte mp ts to defi ne reli gion. Instead , I note w hat I take
to be the fundamental characteristic of reli gio n, o ne that man y w riters
shy away from because of its ano malo lls implicatio ns in a modern,
esse ntiall y 'scientific" wo rld : all reli g ions arc based 0 11 some idea of
;1 sup ern atural realm , dim ension o r influence ti1;lt is immune to
scientific in vestigation.
Theology and th e history of reli g io n arc disci plines that deal with the
supernatural and the impact of supernatural beliefs on human affa irs.
Routinely, they distinguish between animism , anccstor wo rship, poly-
theism , mo no th eism , and some sort of imperso nal 'Something' th;lt is
said to underlie all creation. All these distinctions arc in fact ne g ligible.
It docs not reall y matter if Upper Palaeolithic people were polytheists
or monotheists - unless one wishes to place thcm in an evolutionary
sequence that ends with monotheistic 'hig hcr' reli gions. T here is some-
thin g mu ch morc important than those catego ries.
As I have po inted o ut, all religions claim the ex istence, in o ne way o r
another, of a supernatural realm . All the cultur;lll y and historicall y
specific refincments of this broad claim are , in practi ce , socially dis-
criminatory formulation s: th e history of the Christian C hurch is the
hi story of sc hism and doctrinal d isputes that had seriolls po li tica l and
economic implications. D octrinal dicta were (and sti ll arc ) tools fo r the
exclusio n of groups of peo pl e fro m economic and political power,
whateve r individuals may have thought about their truth. The N icene
Cou nci l, for instance, convened in th e fourth century to settle doctrinal
disputcs, actua ll y ensured thei r lo ngevity by the convo lu ted circuml o-
cutions of the creed that it produ ced. Today, the niceties of trinitarian
doctrine (and thcir political implications) with which the bishops o f that
time wrestled undcr the watchful eye of th e emperor Constantine seem
less and less impo rtant because the soc ial consequences of believing:
o .
Of people and pictures
Doctrine is always more than relig io us expe ri e nce: it is formulated in
social and economic contexts.
What remains toda y is the g reates t hurdle that the C hurch (and all
relig ion ) has had to face, g reater by fa r than the robust challenge of
ninetee nth -century evolutionism. Neurology is now un coverin g no t
just wha t happened at the beginning o f th e Upper Palaeo lithi c, but
the fundamenta l, cont inuing ge ne rat io n o f religious experien ce in the
human brain (e .g. , Pinker 1997; Ramac handran & Blakeslee 1998 ;
d'Aquil i & Newberg 1999; Newbe rg, d 'Aquili , & Rause 2002 ).
T here is no place left for the supe rnatural and the di visive impact that
beliefs abou t it have on human comm uniti es. Instead of atavisticallv
yea rnin g for some indefinable spi ritu ality that is bound up with
supernatu ralism ;l nd th;lt we are said to have Ilost' , we should rej oice
tha t a way ou t of the enta ngling und ergrowth of su pernatural beliefs
h.1s o pe ned up.
C urio usly, th is is an iss ue on which most archaeologists decllllc to
com ment. Some jud ge the moral standin g of researchers who think that
Neanderr haJs were ' less adva nced' than Hom o sapiclIs people, but cannot
bring themselves to facc and d iscuss opcnly the large r issue of the role of
belief in the superna tural , not just ves tigiall y in the West but throughout
the world and deep human history. T oday archaeologists accept th at their
wo rk is cond ucted within , and has a political impact 0 11 , the community
in whi ch they li ve (e.g., Shanks & Tilley 1987a, 1987b); they speak out
on controversial political issues, such as na tio nalism, ge nder relations,
colonial ism and iandrig hts. But they shy away from sayin g anything
abo ut prese nt-day re ligio n and supern atu ralism. Yet there is no reason
why those topics sho uld be no -go areas. Archaeology provides a un iquel y
\·a luable time-breadth and inter-disciplin ary complexity for discussions
between religionists and scientists.
Acknowledgements
I th;lnk the Templeton Foundation for th e in vitatio n to participate in the
2004 Les Eyzies symposium. I am also grateful to colleagues who read
and cOlllmented on this chapter: Geoff Blundell , Jeremy Hollmann ,
David Pearce and Ben Srnith. The chapter is based on research funded by
the National Research Foundation (granr numbers: 2053693 and
..._ __ _..,;I~.::i'IZltLaJ.ld til' Univ.c.rsirv or tlw Wil~_\L:Hi-· r <:r-"l ".1
 David Le wis-Williams
56
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Consideratio ns o f the emerge nce o f symbo li c and spiritual culture have

unders ta nda bl y ofte n fo cLi sed principall y 011 th e ri ch record of reprc 4
scntationa l and abstract image ry of th e Upper Palaeolith ic of Eu rope .
There is, however, at least o ne ot her medium o f ex pression relevant
to su ch co nsid eratio n s and w hi ch can leave an archaeologi cal trace -
musical activity . Altho ugh th ere are some notable disclissions of evi -
dence fo r Illusical ac t ivity in th e Uppe r Palae o li thi c ( man ), of w hi ch arc
cited in t his chapte r ), disclI ssio ns of mll sic in the context of the early
man ifes tatio n of sy mboli c an d religious act ivity a rc surpri singly rarc ,
with earl y Illusical artefacts and activities receivin g a brief mention in
that co ntex t , if th ey arc menti o ned at all (a particularly notable excep -
tio n is provided by d' Erri co et al. 2003 ). T he archaeological record of
reputed soun d-produ cers fro m the Upper Palaeolithi c is, in fact , a
relative ly ri ch one , in cl udin g over 120 o bjects which have been , at
vari o us tim es (admittedl y wi th va riabl e likelihood ), interpreted as flutes
and mo re than ninety objects interpreted (again , with variable likeli -
hood) as whistles (see Morley 2003 ; also Mo rley 2005 ). Th ere is also a
number of o ther o bjects wi th so und-produ cin g potential , interpreted as
bu ll roarers (Dams 1985 ; AJ ebo 1986; Dau vois 1989 , 1999; Scothern
1992) and ras ps ( Hu yge 1990 , 199 1; Dauvois 1989, 1999 ). Finall y the
sou nd -produ cing po tent ial o f rocks and caves th em selves al so appears
to have been ex pl o ited (Glo ry 1964 , 1965 ; Dams 1984 , 1985 ;
Rcz nikoff & Dauvois 1988 ; Dauvois 1989 , 1999 ). At present the o ldest
Wide ly acce pted mu sica l in struments an.: two swan -bone pipes dated to
aro und 36 ,8 00 + / - 1000 years HP, fo und in context with Auri g nac ian
II split bo ne points at Gcisscnklostcrle , Ge rman y ( Hahn & J\1.i.in zcl
 lain Morley
multi-part pipe made from mamllloth ivory from the same site, of
aro und the same age (Conard et al. 2004 ).
Along with language, musical behaviours and religious behaviours are
conspicuous in sharing an apparcnt universality amongst modcrn
humans. As John Blacking ( 1995 ) said in a now oft-quoted passage,
"evcry known human society has what trained m usicologists wou ld
recognise as music" (p. 224 ), and whilst a precise definition of'rel igio n'
might be no rno re easily reached than of music (sec H enshilwood, this
volume, for a discussion ), it would probably be true to say that every
human culture exhibits behaviours that we wou ld recog nise as ' religious'.
Very often these twO sets of behaviours coincide, with m usical activities
forming a fundamental part of ritual activities, and spiriruaJ significance
being attributed to musical activities.
It is important to rcmember that in discussing music we are not
talking about dctached 'autonomous' patterns of sounds. As Bcgbie
(2000 ) putS it: "To insist that a work ofl11usic consists entirel y of sound-
patterns heard in a ccrtain way, o r sound -patterns cod ified in a scorc, is
artificial and inadequate - for it also consists of actions, and this means
actions that can only properly bc understood as tcmporally constitutcd
and situated" (p. 10). This embodied and colltcxrual aspect of musical
activity is one that is often overlookcd, from the perspcctivc of modern
wcstern art-music. The o nl y form in wh ich music might gcnu inely be said
to tach embodied and performance-dependent traits is that of sheet
music. Nevcrtheless this concept of music as somcthing which can exist as
an cntity in its own right, a pattern independent of action and situation, is
one that prcvai ls amongst much analytical discussion of it. In contrast, a
discussion of m usic and riruaI lllust rcly upon a consideration of its form
and ro le in human action and context.
Equally, it is important to remember that, on the basis of what we
know of other societies from around the world, and ours until very recent
years, for the vast majority of people for the vast Illajority of the past there
would be no separation between ' religion' and other daily activities.
'Ritual' and belief might be as much a part of (what we wou ld call ) a daily
practical activity such as making a tool out of stone o r metal, o r cooking a
mcal , as they are a part of an activity like making a votive offerin g in the
corner of a room. By the same tokcn, making a votive offering in the
corner ofa room might be seen as just as 'practical' as making a tool o r a
. .____o;.;;l1tologies of music in other cultures i
Ritual and music
carried out in order to ensure that the world is the way that it nceds to bc
in order to ensure survival. A religio us belief system can provide edlics,
moral guidelines, laws, explanations and understandings of the world, of
people, and of illness and mortality. For many, it constitutes philosophy,
science, law and mcdicine - a framework for understanding and inter-
acting wi th the world which is thus integral to dai ly life. A 'beliefsystclll '
is not as in the sense that wc often lise the term , an nccess01J' to klloll'lcdgc
and ltudcntnlldillB, but is knowledge and understanding.
Music and ritual: shared roles, shared traits
and shared conceptions
vVi th this in mind it might bc expccted that religious significance of some
to I'm wou ld be attached to almost all activities, and its association with
m usical activities is thus perhaps unsurprising. However, there is more to
it than thar. Musical activities and re ligious, or spiritual , activities have
much in cOlllmon. Bodl arc frequendy orchestrated by an 'empowered'
individual, or individuals, but are highly comlllunal, social and integrative
acti\'ities. Both have the potential to elicit powerfu l emotional responses
in participatin g indi viduals, and to have significance, both at a ve ry
private, personal level and at a social, comm unal level. Both musical and
rel igious behaviours can thus be si multaneously profoundly personal and
at the salllc time creators of cOlllmunality thro ugh shared ex perience.
T hese traits are explored furt her latcr in this chapter.
Anothe r significant trait that music and ritual have in comlllon is
the diffic ulty of their definition - o nto logies o f which are appare ntl y at
least as nUlllerous as the cultures practicing them. Some cultures
t:lIllo usly have no single word for music itself, altho ugh they havc words
te)r Illusical activities and instrumcnts of various sorts (e.g. the Hausa
people of Nigeria); others ha ve terms for music which encompass
activities wh ich we, from thc vVestern traditioll , wou ld not consider to be
part of music. Delineating the parameters of ritual activity f.:1ces similar
pro blems. Nevcrtheless there arc particular combinations of traits of
both ritual and musical activities whic h allow us to recognise them, even
if it is difficult to impose parametcrs On thclll.
It is not simply that musical and ritual activities have many traits in
com mon, howevcr. One thing which becomcs clear upon exa mination of
c frequcnc wi Iwhid
162 lain Morley
conceptio ns of mllsic are inseparable fr0111 ritual and religion. In
conside rin g the varied ways in wh ich Illusic rakes roles in other cultu res
Bohlman (2002 ) co nspicllo llsly chooses to ill ustrate this diversity with
exa mples of mus ic's roles within rel igio lls practice :
By the epistemology of Illllsic we mean its abi li ty to be a parr of cu ltu re
as a whole and rhus to acqu ire meanin g in relatio n to other activities.
Examining mllsic cross-c ulturally, we recognise t hat religious meaning
accrues to mllsic in man y ways. Music 1113), se rve as a vch icle for shaping
the voice of a deity; it may demarcate time so that it is morc mea ningful
for the performance of ritual ; Illusic may provide Olle of man y o rn aments
that ll1:.1kc religious practice morc attrac ti ve; certain domains of mu sic-
maki ng (e.g. instrume ntal mu sic in man y religio ns) may raise images
of magic or immorality, thus causin g so me re li g ions to pro hibit mu sic in
wors hip. (1'.5 )
But m usic is fi-equentl y more t han just a f.1c ili tator of ritua l and rel ig io n ,
and in many cases is conceptuaJl y inse parable fro m thcm. Of thirtecn
different ontologies of music from around the world given as cxamples by
Bo hlman (2002 ), eight arc expl icitly associated with religion and/ o r
cos mologies. These vary from concepts s uch as "ira/ nil (in Isla m ) and
ta Jalnc/} ba-m.ikrnh ( in Jud aism ), th e cha nting of rel ig ious texts, which
wou ld be identified as music by exte rnal obse rvers but ncve r by practi-
tio ners ( mu sic being defi ned by th e m nOt by form but by co ntext), to the
Afro - Braz ili an cmuiomble reli g ion in which music is so ubiquito Li s that
t he te rm is Ll sed virtuall y synonymously for reli g ion and music.
Another exa mpl e of synony mity of mu sic and ritual is provided by the
Marin g of Papua New Guinea ( Jt,1ppaport 1999 ). At the Kaiko festival
Marin g groups pe rform a dance which signifies com mimlcnt to come to
the martial aid of the group who is hostin g the festi val , should such aid be
requ ired in the future; the dan ce and the ritua l a re insepa rable_ The dance
in this se nse is indexical , indi catin g a pledge - it does morc t han to
symbo lise the pledge, it is ind exical of it because to the Maring to dance is
to pledge - pledgin g is intrinsic to the conve n tio na lised act of dancing
( Rappapo rt 1999). A fund::lI11cntal c harac ter ist ic of ri tual here is its abi li ty
to bring aboLit a co nve ntional state of affairs - to ::Iffirm, transform, or
bring in to bein g ::I particub r natural orde r - that is, it is meant to affect
rhe wo rld (ibid .).
In this btter se nse ritual is sepa ra ted by Rappaport from 'dranu ' by
its intended ca Li sal influence on t he wo rld . A partici ant in a ritu a l has a
Ritual and music
part in 'the e nd u rin g order th::lt the ir pa rticipation brings into being'
(p. 136) unlike an actor w hose part and act io ns last o nl y as lo ng as th e
performan ce. Co min g fro m t he western musical tl'::Idition we tend to be
inclined to co nsi der t he actio ns o f a mu sician , the act of pelforming, and
the performance itself, in mu ch the same waY::ls those oftb e 'acto r' a nd the
"drama' - with no lasting o r ca usal influence o n the world. H owever, as the
above examp le illustrates, such a d isti nction from 'causall y influe n tial'
ritual ca nnot always be mad e, e ither for 'd rama' o r for ' music'.
Indeed, subst ituti ng the word 'perfo rm ance' tor 'd ram a' and
'perfor mer' fo r ' acto r' in the above d iscllssio n , it is m ade eq uall y re levant
tor both Illusic and drama. As Rappaport himselfobscrves, a partic ular act
may co ntJin both ri tual and d ramJ [pe rfor m ance], an d 's tand so mewhe re
on a co ntinuum ... betwee n the two poiJr form s' (p. 136). Certainl y
there a re nume ro u s exa m p les, o ne of wh ic h c ited by Rappaport is the
performan ce of religious mu sic in a chu rc h . Othe rs t hat p rese nt th e m -
selves are t hat an acto r o r musician (or writer) might hope that their
pcrtor mance wo uld have so me tfansformative effect on the world ,
through its eftccr on the a udi e nce. Conve rsely a ri tuaJ participant may
adopt a persona (of an ancestor or an ima l for example ) for o nly t he
duration of the ritu a l, but this is still neve rtheless perceived to have a
lasting t ransformati ve effec t o n the o rder of th e world.
So is it poss ib le eve r to sepa rate ritua l an d perfo rm ance? I would
suggest t hat in fact th ere is no s Li c h t hin g as jJ1t1"C (polar ) ritu al or pure
(po lar ) perfor mance (by Rappapo rt's crite ri a ) and that t he co ntinu um is
one o nl y of va ryin g reiJtive proporti o ns of t he two, the end s of wh ich are
not abso lutes. Fo r example, it is im possib le to absol utely separate the two
on the basis of the in tended tempo rali ty of effects of t he activity o n the
\\'orld, or on the temporality of the personae adopted. It is also impos-
sible to separate the twO on the basis of the exte nt to which they effect
change through appeal to a supernatura l agent rather than throu g h othcr
humans. The Maring p ledge dance- ritu al allud ed to above makes no
reco urse to a supernatura l agent, but still brings into being a new state of
aff.1 irs. It is also imposs ible to sepa ra te ritual and pcrfo rman ce in term s of
the exte nt to w hi ch change is effected ' dircc tl y' o n the wor ld rath er th an
via aflccting rhe ac ti o ns of o thers (as in t he actor-aud ie nce example
above), be t hey narura l o r supernatural , for the ' d irect' effect of a
ritual co uld concei va bl y on ly be ma nifest in terms of a c han ge in
human behaviour.
164 lain Morley
One of the m ost important traits of ri t ual act ivit)' co ntributin g to
the maintaini ng or changing of established order cOllles fro m the sense
of unity, c01H,1nunitas, that call be c reated by copa rrici pati o n. Once
again Rappapo rt p rovides a n e rudi te el ucidati o n, a nd is worth quoti ng in
full he re:
Indeed, the boundary between individuals and their surroundi ngs, espe-
cially others participatin g in ritual with t hem, may seem to dissolve . ..
such a sense of union is cncour.\gcd by t he coordination of utterance and
movement demanded of co ngregatio ns in many rituals. To sing with
others, to 1110ve as they move in t he perfo rmance ofa ritual is not merely to
symboli ze uni o n. It is in mui of itself to reuni te in the reproduction of a
large r o rd er. Uniso n does not me rel y sym bol ize that order but illdicn.tcs it
and its acceptance. The pa rticipants do nor si mply communicate to each
other about that order but C01U1JlIlU C with eac h othcr within it. in sum , the
state of coml11 unitas experienced in ritual is at once social and experic ntial.
Indeed, the d istinction betwccn social and experiential is surrcndered, o r
even erased , in a general fecling of oneness wi th oneself, wit h the co n-
g regation, o r with th e cosmos. ( 1999, p. 220 , italics in o riginal )
It wi ll be noted that the description of singing and coo rd inatio n of
mo vement with others is not merel y an exemplar in this conception of
ritual activity and its role, but is in tegra1 to it. These roles are fulfilled
through sin ging and dance activ ity. lvl usic and dance ca n ful fi l t his role so
effectivel y within ritu al because, in fact, with th e su bstitu ti on o f ' music
and dance activity' for ' ri tual' in the paragraph it co nstitutes as good a
description of the potential effects of participation in musical and dance
performance as of ritu al pe rformance . The d ifference is t ha t mus ic and
dance arc intrinsic to the description of the potential efleets of ri tua l
activity, whereas t he reverse is not the case; i.e. ri tu al relics o n music
to ach ieve t hese effects, but m usic d oes not rely o n ritual to ac hieve
th em itself.
Performance and participation - audience and congregation
These benefits of, and parallels between, ritual and musical activity
depend to a g reat exte nt upon d irect participation. The perceptio n of
bein g an audience-me mber, o r obse rve r, of a rit ual activi ty wo uld li ke ly
only be held by individuals who co nsider themselves detached fro m t he
belicfsystcm itself; others wou ld conside r th e mselves pa rti,c!E~~:..:t~O~o'~I1~c~_ _
Ri tual and music
degree or another. Similarl y, th e category of a udi ence, as o pposed to
participant, is one that is p redo minant ill modern vVestern m usic, but is
relatively rare elsewhe re. So at what poi nt in the experi ence of musical
activity can a ile be co nsidered to be a pm·"ticipn.Jl.t, in the se nse that we use
the word~ D oes the sim ple act of moving your bod y in time with the
tempo of the music t ransform you fro m 'audience' to ' participant'? From
~aud ie nce ' to 'co ngregation ' ? If so , at what poin t in the scalc.: of magni -
tude - from tapp ing your finger on the arm of your chai r to full body
move ment dance - do you cease to be aud ience and become participant?
vVhat do we reall y mean by pm··ticiprr.1J.t o r participrr.tioll in perfor-
mance - be it ritua l o r musical? T he [lct th at we wou ld be retice nt to
app ly the appellatio n of ' p arti cipant' to so meo ne dancin g to reco rd ed
m usic wou ld suggest that t he re is mo re to participation than ma gnitude
of physical reactio n; indeed , t his o bse rvatio n ca n apply in the case o f
danci ng to 'live' music, although in some ci rcumstances this couid be
considered to be participatio n.
Perhaps, t hen , it is t he exten t to whi ch yo ur actio n is perceived to have
an effect on the stimulus to which yo u are reacting. The extent to wh ic h
you contribute. At what point is response perceived to have an effect o n
the music (o r ritual) itself? For the individual themselves, as soo n as they
start to react to the mllsic, th ei r reaction itself becomes o ne of the stimuli ;
this in itself, then, is not enough to co nstitute co ntributio n , as t his wou ld
apply in all cases, reco rd ed o r li ve. So it must be dependent o n t he
perception by others t hat yo ur acti o n con t ributes to or transfo rms t he
stimulus they are expe ri enci ng. Or, rather, beca use no one has o bjective
knowledge of othe rs' pe rceptio n, it is t he extent to whi ch eac h indi vidual
[a] co ncei ves that othe r individ uals [n] pe rceive t ha t they [a1 a rc co n-
tributing to t he stimulus experienced by those o th e r individuals [n]. It
ca n be seen that to conside r o neself a participant, in the se nse used here,
in a performance (ritual or musical ) relics upon a stro n g se nse of t he
perce ption of you by othcrs e ngaged in the activity, that is, it relies o n
we ll -developed theo ry of mind and social awareness.
Mus ic, meaning and symbolism
In add ition to - and possibl y because of - music's roles within ri t ual and
religious p ractice it also featu res heavil y in d octrin e and m yt ho logy
co ncernin g creatio n, with early beings very often being musicians, a nd
166 lain Morley
using music in va ri olls rfallsformarivc ways ( Bohlman 2002 ), as a
building block of humanity and the world, and as a mediulll fo r the
transformation of boundaries between the natural and supernatural , the
sacred and the profane.
However, musical activities do not 1'ciy 011 syrnbolisl11 or a symbolic
capacity for thei r existence. vVhilst many, or even t he majority, ofl11l1sical
activities that we experience in the modern world have d irect symbolic
associations made explicit, the activity itself of music-making need not be
predicated upon symbolising.
For example, amongst the Blackfoot and Sioux Plains Ind ians of
North Ame rica, music is for t he Illost part considered to have no direct
sy mbolic content. Song has minimal lyri cal co ntent, vocalisatio ns instead
co nsisting o f vocables, w hich are emotive so unds with no obvio us sym -
bol ism. It wou ld seem that the main purpose of th is type of voca lisation
is to contribute to the emotional responses evoked by the music
(McAllestcr 1996 ), and that it has no (conscious) symbolism behind it.
Acco rdin g to Nettl , " nat.i ve info rm ants are able to say almost nothing o n
the symbolic aspect of their [nonlexica!] music" (Nett! 1956, p.2S ). A
very si milar situation exists amongst the Aka and Nlbu ti Pygmies of
equatorial Afri ca, also tradition~ll hunter-gatherer societies, in th at t.he
majo rity of the melodic content of t heir music consists of vocable
vocali zations, appare ntl y lacking an y di rect symbolic co ntent (in te rms of
lexical meaning or mim icry) (TLII·ino 1992).
This being said , whilst the musi c itself is said to have no symbolic
co ntent, it is clearly often used in close association wit.h activities wh ich
do have symbolic co ntent. and associations, and a particular song ca n
relate very specifically to a particular activi ty. It is evident that whi lst the
creation of music CfHt occu r withou t any sy mbolising, with a symb o lising
ca pacity in place music (its performance and perception ) provides a
perfect medium for ca rrying symbolic associations, because of its com-
binatio n o f havin g no nxed meaning (' floating in te ntionality' to use
C ross's 1999 term ) w hilst ha ving the potential to stim ulate powerfu l
emotional reactions.
In a sense, I11llch of what constitutes re li g ious belief systems :1I1 d
practice has the same potential - elemcnts, suc h as cxplanations of the
world and descriptions of spiritual entities , gain mllch of the ir cu rrency
from their ;.1mbiguity; the y can be m;.1n y th ings to many people. The
combina tio n of enough specificity of meaning to allo\V an interpretation
Ritual and music
to be made, \Vith the flexibility to allow that (process of) interpretation
to be perso nal, is a powerful one, and co uld apply equally to the exper-
ience of a t rance state, und erstand ing a passage of doctrinal t.ext, or
ex periencing/ participating in musical activity. The fact that o ne has to
dec ide upon (or accept ) an interpretation of these amb ig uities is one
of the elements that makes a particular be lief system (or, indeed , type of
mus ic) powe rfull y personal \Vhilst at t he same time profound ly uniting,
in the belief that co nspecincs share similar personal in terp reta tions
and app reciations.
If one can be lieve t hat one has come to a particula r interpretation of
o ne's o\Vn vo lition, an inte rpretation that is thus ve ry pe rso nal, but can
also believe that others have come to the same interpretation of their
own vo lition , this ca n create the sense of a powerful bond of shared
t hought and emotio n between t he individu;.1ls, that is, a perceived
em pathy. This is in spite of the fact tha t in real ity both the sense of
independent volition (in coming to an interpretatio n ) and the simi larity
of interpretation of t he in d ividuals co ncerned , arc to an exte nt illu so ry.
Th is is beclUse thc interpretation is oftcn struct ured by suggestion
(w hat \Ve might term 'bou nd ed ambiguity') and because the pncise
natu res of the 'shared' beliefs are often never made exp licit.!
Music and ritual in th e Palaeolithic
So how do the above observations add to o ur picture of music in
t he Palaeolith id Several things are clear: outside of the recent vVeste rn
mus ical tradition, ritual and musical practice arc often closely related,
and in SOme cases virtuall y interdependent (even \Vith in the recent
Weste rn musical and religio us systems the two are po\Verfull y related in
a numbe r o f ways, and such overlaps are explored in so me dept.h by
Begbie 2000 ). The overlaps are a conseque nce not just of symbol ic
rela tedness emergent from the contexts in which th ey arc ca rri ed out,
bu t upon shared characteristics in their forms, execution and their eHects
o n individuals. It seems likely that where \Ve find music in the Upper
Palaeol ithic mchaeological reco rd , we find ritu al roo. Also, that these arc
not solitary meditative activities, but cOl11l11unal and integ rative.
As noted in the introduction there are numerous examples of objects
fro ll) Upper Palaeolithic contexts (Auri gnacian, Gravettian, Solutrean ,
and Magdalenian ) which ha ve been interpreted as musical instruments
168 lain Morley
or, less speci fi cally, sound-p roducers. Unfortunately, ill many cases they
were excavated before tech ni q ues allowed for a fine resolution of spatial
and stratigraphic relationshi ps, meaning t hat palimpsests and t he cir-
cumstan ces of deposition are impossible now to detect. As a conse-
quence , with the majority of examples of re pu ted instrum en ts we cannot
be certain as to whether they were lIsed in solitary musical activity or as
part o f a group activity. In co ntrast , some of the morc recent finds have
been subject to far grea ter scr utin y and th orough contextual recording,
includ in g the aforementioned examples from Geisscnklostcrlc, the ear-
liest currently kn owll instruments associated with anatom ically rnodern
H011W sapiens. The followi n g section describes a few cases of di fferent
types of sound-producer where it is possi ble to say a little more about
their contexts of use. Of course, we should bear in mind t hat mllsical
behaviours an d instrumental use are not synony mo us, and the forme r can
OCCllr without the latter. It is likel y that behaviours we wo uld recognise as
musical predated the occu rrence of inst ru m ents in the archaeological
reco rd by man y years. Nevertlleless, tlle iden tification of musical
instruments from the Palaeo litllic remains the 'acid test' of the existence
of musical behaviour, and can tell LIS somethin g about the contexts in
which such activities we re carri ed out .
Ey far the richest known sou rce of inte ntionally produced sound -
makers is Isturit z, in t he French Pyrenees. This cave site was an important
focal point for large groups of people throu g ho ut th e Upper Palaeo lithic
(Bahn 1983), showing evidence of LIse from Aurignacian through to
Magdalenian contexts. It seems to have been a focus for major gath erings
in sp rin g and autumn in particular and has produced a variety of art and
bone-working. Seventeen bone fl ute-like objects have been retrieved,
from throughout the period of occupation of the site, and several o f th ese
show deliberate signs of working, wi tll truncated ends, h oles bored and
then smoothed, incised lines, and eve n some wh.ich might have been
block-and -duct examples (like a modern recorder ) (Scothern 1992).
Graeme Lawson and Francesco d'Errico (2002 ) have carri ed out exten-
sive analyses oftlle most com plete examples (Lawson and d'Errico 2002;
d'Errico et a!. 2003), and suggest that at least two of the Auri gnacian
examples seem to have been designed to be p layed as end-blown trum-
pet- o r reed -voiced pipes, rath er than as flutes. There seems to be a
great co nsiste ncy in their ma nu f.."1crure, and tlley closely rese mble
numerous Mayan a nd mediaeval exa mples. It is t he va ri ous Isturitz
Ritual and music
examples t h at are most frequently cited and discussed in the literature
regarding Palaeol ithic instrumentation , and they are particularly signifi -
cant in appearing to indicate la rge scale communal mus ical activity or,
at least, musical activity at large scale commu naJ gatherings, and over a
very exte nd ed period of time.
Simi larities in the stone and bone artefacts witll those from the
D o rdogne area, and tlle transfe rra l of flint ove r di stan ces over 100km
(Gamble 1983) suggest wide social co ntact (Scothern 1992 ). Parallels in
tll e bone flute design and engravings are disp layed by examples from Mas
d 'Azil, Le Placa rd and Marcamps; lV1as d'Azil shows simil ar evidence of
la rge aggregations of people (Scothern 1992), and this may also be
represented by tll e nine exam ples from the Magdalen ian co ntexts of tlle
site of Le Placa rd. At least two of these are made from eagle bone, a
ch o ice wh.ich it is ha rd to be.lieve d.id not have sig nifi ca nce beyo nd its
so und -produci ng potential, given th e likely difficulty of the acq uisition
of the material. It is wo rtll remembering tlut a pertcctly fu nctional
fl ute/pipe can be made from much more readil y available materials
tll an bird bone, let alone th at of an eagle.
The flutes are co mmo nl y fo und inside the decorated caves of these
sites, suggesting either that acousti cs we re particul arl y importan t, o r t heir
relation to th e cave art, or both. Of cou rse, t his is not to su ggest that all
music (or ri t ual, or artistic) activity was carried Otlt in caves, as evidence of
suc h activities in other locations is less likely to be preserved or to be
d iscovered. It is also difficult to demonstrate whether the production of
m usic in the caves was a group activity ind ul ged by all or an activit~,
performed only by a select few, an issue wh ich also appl ies to the pro-
d uction of cave art. H owever, in her analysis of the Solutfean Lithophones
(natural cave structures such as stalactites, stalagm ites and stalactitic
Au tings which prod uce clear tones wh en struck) Dams (1984; 1985 )
notes that they occur in caves wh ich generall y also allow a number of
peop le to co n gregate in nearby chambers, up to twe n ty to thirty people at
Roucador, for example ( Dams 1985 ). Indeed, the cave of Nerja has bee n
used in recent times as a ven ue for concerts and dance d urin g t he stlmmer
months (Dams 1984). It is worth noting, however, that the locations of
the lithophones arc dictated by natural cave features rather than h uman
age ncy so their position in relation to othe r large chambers is not pre-
meditated . What wo uld be particularly valuab le as a comparison wou ld be
to know of caves in the salll e regions with t he sa me calcified structures in
170 lain Morley
them that bftl'cu) t been decorated and lIsed percllssively. If slIch examples
exist, it might suggest that the ones in the caves desc ribed by Dams were
chosen selectively because they could accommodate Illany people.
There arc m3ny similarities between the features and decoration of the
lithophoncs at the va rious widesp read sites that DalTls describes, which
suggests wide social contact between the people responsible and the
possibility that large groups of people congregated to experience (and
perhaps participate in ) the sound produced by theill. Whether the
activities in vo lved man y or few people, it is cle::'!r fi·ol11 the work of Glory
( 1964; 1965 ), Daills (1984; 1985 ) and Rc znikofhnd Dauvois (1988 )
t"h3t the acollstics of the caves wc re hi ghly sig nifi ca nt, and that sOllnd
production bore an important relationship with both abstract and
rcp resen tational art.
A sct of six mammoth bones ti'om Mezin , Ukraine, dated to twenty
thousand years ago, provides another potential example of public per-
cussive sound production. These appear to ha ve been deliberately and
repeatcdly struc k, and we re found in conte xt with two beaters and
a variety of ivory 'rattles' ( Bibikov 1978 ). Also found in the same
settlement were pi les of red and ycllow ochre, and other mammoth
bones which had been inciscd and pa in ted. The 'orchestra ' bones (in -
cluding a shou ldcr blade, thigh bone, jaw bones and sku ll fragments)
producc a selection of tonts when stru ck with beaters (B ibikov 1978)
and were found in a large, open -fronted , communa l hut in the Mezin
settlement, rather than a small dwelling. This does suggest, if it is
in deed a collection of instruments, that the so und produced was sup -
posed to be heard by the commun ity, and was not performed in solitary
private ritcs.
Whilc the artefacts do show wea r fi·om percussion , Scothern ( 1992)
and L..'1wson Ct al. ( 1998 ) point out that this does not necessarily merit a
musicological explanation, as man y daily acrivities involve percussive
actions. Hopefu ll y furthcr m icroscopic and usc-wea r analysis of the
assemblage in the future may help to resolve the issue of whether they
we re directly struck by the ne ighbouring 'beaters' or whether they were
struck indirectly as part of anothe r process. Their conte xtual association
with the reindeer antle r mallet and beaters, as weJl as what appea r to be
rattles, co unts in favour of the musi(ologi cal inte rp n.:tation, though.
The re is evidence for th e tratlicking of r;"lW materials and visuall y related
d crwc Euro can 0 )lalation.s and those of the
Ritual and music
of the Magdalcnian (Scothern 1992 ), so it is quite possible that
sound-production trad itions were also sha red.
Concluding remarks
Nlusical and religious activities have mu ch in common with each other, in
the ways that they arc carri ed out and their effects on individual parti -
cipants. In many cultures conceptio ns of music arc to various degrees
inseparable £i'om conceptions of ritual and religion. Indeed, 'ritual ' and
' perfo rmance' arc in many ways sy nonymous. Music is often conceived as
a med ium for the transfo rmation of boundaries between the sacred and
the profane, and the n3tural and supern3tural , probably because of the
ro les that it fulfils in that respect in many societies' ritua ls. These roles,
in turn, arc a product of the commonalities in the potential effects of
musical and rit1l31 performance. Thc gene ration ofa state of c01ll1Jl1mitns
is an important product (and often goal ) of much of both ritua l and
musical activity, 3nd in the Context of ritual frequently depe ndent on
musical activity to be achieved. Because musical activities themselves
stimulate some of the sa me reactions as ritual activities can, and sha re
some of the characteristics of religious stimul i, m usical activities arc a
remarkably effective faci litator of the desired effects of participation in
ritual activities.
The pe rfor mance ~lI1d perception of music can provide the perfect
medium for carrying symbol ic (including religious) associations because
of its combination of hav ing no fixed me:1ning (' flo:1ting intentional ity')
\\' hilst having the potential to stimulate powerful emotional reactions.
!'v1.any clements of ritu al and doctrine share the same combi nation of
having no fixed meanin g (wh ich in these circu mstances might be called
' bounded ambiguity' ) and of having the potential to stimulate powcrful
emotions. This combination of traits allows the experience ofa parricular
belief system or type of music to be powerfu ll y pe rsonal whi lst at the same
time profoundly unitin g, in the belief that conspecifics share similar
personal interpretations and experiences.
The ability to hold such beliefs about others' beliefs and ment:1 1st:1tes
relics on a we ll -developed theory of mind ab ility, and this can be argued
also to be the case for acrual particip:1tion in performance activities: to be
a plwticipant in perfor mance can be argued to rely on the individual
that others erceive the m as contributing to the stimuli to
172 lain Morley
which they are all reacting; t ha t is , it is highly social and also relies on a
we ll -developed theory of mind .
Given the above we call reasona bl y expect that amongst anatomically
modern humans, musi cal activity is likely to have played an important
role in the situations where we see evidence for riuJa i acti vity, and whe re
there is archaeolog ica1 evidence for mu sical activity it will frequent ly have
had associations with co ncepts that we would thin k of as religiolls. It is
perhaps, the n , ull slI rprising that whe re we have contextual evidence for
musical finds from t he Upper Palaeolithic, they arc freq ue ntly in associ-
ation with othe r evidence of symbolic and commu nal activities. Much of
what we have at present comes from cave contexts; this is due largely to
taphonomic and excavation biases, so should not be taken to indicate that
t his is the main context in wh ich musica l (and indeed arti stic or ritual )
activities took place.
Much of the material that is al ready known warrants furthe r exami-
nation slich as that ca rri ed alit by Scothern ( 1992 ) and d'E rrico ct al.
(2003), but the re are nevert he less some cases where it seems that musical
activity was an important parr of large communal activit ies . Undoubted.ly
the majority of t he m usic arch aeology o f the Palaeolithic has been lost;
hopefully t here is m uch still to be found and recognised . Increasi n gly
accurate archaeo logical knowledge of the contexts of deposition of
the evidence for musical activity in the Palaeolithic will allow us to flesh
out the re lationship between ri tual and mus ical activity at t ha t time,
but we can reasonably expect that there was a powe rful relationship
between t he two.
In considering the re lationship bet\veen music and ritual , music can
seem on first exam in ation to be a mere cond.iment, or at best, an optional
ingredient in ritual activity, subse rvient to the require ments of ritua l; on
closer inspection it is revealed to be a p rime mover in determining the
nature and genuine effects of ritual , wit h rhythm , dance and song fi-e-
quently relied on to confer many of the most im portant individual and
social benefits associated with ritual activity.
This chapter has only scratched the surface of the potential parallels
and overlaps between the funct ional qual ities of ritual and music; th.is is
an area with much potential for future investigation. Exploration of the
ph ylogenie and ontogenic relationships between ritua l, p lay, music and
pe rformance activities co uld all bear sig ni ficant results for models of the
cl11crg-c nce of modern social relations, beliefs and sy mbolisrn.
Ritual and music
NOT ES
I Of course, these properties also have the potential to be profoundly divisive, with
differing interpretations being secn as personally incompatible, and casily identified
with ingrollp/olltgroup ca te gorisations.
BIB LIOGRAPHY
A1ebo, L., 1986. Manufacturing of drumskins and tendon strings for prehistoric
musical instruments, in T7Je Sccond ConftTcnce Of thc lCTM Study Group
On MUJic Archaeology: Volume J) General Studies, ed. C. S. Lund. Royal
Swedish Academy Of Music, Stockholm , 4 1-8 .
Ba1111, P., 1983. Late Pleistocene economies in the Frenc h Pyrenees, in HWl"ltC1'-
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S ECTION III

T HE EUROPEAN EXPERIENCE
12

Materiality and meaning-making

in the understanding of the Palaeolithic 'arts'

Mfwgaret W. Con/ley

\\'e [a[so] need to carry the lllllte body of prehistory with LI S rather than step over
its corpse on the road to civilization and texts. ( G ~lInble 1999 )

Perhaps we will have to be content with intuiting that they came here [into the
caves] to experience, and to carry away with them in memory, spcciaimomcnrs
of living a perfect balance between danger and survival, fear and a ~ensc of
protection. Can one hope for more at" any time? ( Berger 2002 )

Introduction

Despite the regular Jnd repeated attempts to conside r the image-maki ng

of the Upper Palaeolithic period as being 'beyond art' (e.g. White 1992;
Conkey ct al. 1997), certain views persist: that these are images that
somehow functioned in Upper Palaeolithic society and cu ltu re, and in
ways tha t we can in fer; th at th ey may be referable to certain abso lu tes of
hun1an experi ence (e.g . f<:rtility or magic ); and that they can be taken by
us as a certain hallmark in the evolution ofhumnl1 cogn ition and cu ltu re.
In this chapter, I want to probe somewhat different dimensions in trying
to move us 'beyond art'. Specifically, I want to begin to layout some
ideas regardin g ' materiality' and also 'meaning-making" as we engage
with the visual and material culture(s) of the Upper Palaeolithic of
Eurasia - that corpus of archaeological materials that we have labeled
' Palaeolith ic art', which includes, of cou rse, man y objects, images, forms,
and materials.
For some time now, we have tho ught about the appeara nce and
ap parent elaboration of im age-making in terms of a symbolic or in for-
mation 'explosion ' (<:.g. pteifler 1982; Barton ct al. 1994; \Vhite
1989). \lVe now have evidence for 'early art' elsewhere in the world
180 Margaret W. Conkey
(c.g. in \Nhitc 2003; Henshihvood ct al. 2004; H enshil wood, this
volume) (see Plate XVI ), and it has always been hard to rule out symbol ic
behavio rs and information-processing at va rioll s times and places just
because the re is a lack of empirical ( prcscrved~ ) arclucologicaJ evidence.
Given this, I find it morc productive to think that what we have
throu g hout t hc Upper Palaeolithic of Eu rope (SCIlSU/fttltJ is a rich corpus
of preserved archaeological materials fro l11 which we Can surely infer an
elaborated engagement with ll13tcri al cultu re and an engagement that
was su rely about the making of meanings. Thus, for me, the Uppe r
Palaeolithic is much more produ ctively considered in terms of materiality
and meaning- making; both dimensions encourage us to envision t he
Uppe r Palaeolithi c peoples as active social age nts who constru cted their
worlds in social and poJjtical contexts.
Man y of us, cspeciaJ ly the wider publi c who arc so often fascinated by
the ri ve ting images that predominate in the display or telling of Pal aeo-
lithic (usuall y cave) art, have been seduced by both our own notio n of art
as aest heti c creations and the uncann y resonances that many (and the
most often illustrated ) Palaeolithic images have with our own aesthetic
sensibilities. But as Gell (1998: 1- 36) has so powerfully arg ued, maybe
art is not primarily an expression of aesthetics, nor does it necessarily
function to express a culturally specific aesthetic system. This vicw does
not deny that such aest hetic systems exist no r docs it suggest that they are
trivial in ou r anthropological und erstandin gs (e .g . Taylo r et al. 1994;
Graburn 2005). Rathe r, the enquiry is re-directed: how might th ose
aesthetic principles that are 'at wo rk' (in th e making of images, of 'a rt')
been mobi lized in social action? Ou r starting points for a deeper (or
perh aps just a different angle of) understandin g rest marc on the premise
th at the objects, images, and forms are linked to concepts of the world
throu g h cultural prax.is, not just through social action but as social action.
Man y yea rs ago, Geertz also advocated such a turn: "works of art",
he noted , arc not me rely nlllctional , not merely "mechan isms for
defining social relatio nships, sustain ing social rul es" (Geertz 1976:
1478 ), as so many of our ea rl y social approaches to Palaeolithi c art
ass umed (c .g. Conkey 1978; Gamble 1982; Joch im 1983 ). To Gecrtz
( 1976 ), the connection between 3rt and coll ective life lies not on an
instrumental plane, but o n a semi otic one. Thus, in order to address
meani ng-making, I have spent a li ttle bit of time considering what the
field of'scmiotics' has to offer (e.g. Conkcy 2001 , 2002 ) since it is a ficld
Materiality a nd meaning-making in the Pa laeolithic 'arts'
explicitly concerned with the signifying process. Indeed , one o f my own
startin g ass llm ptions is that the images are sig ns, in the semiotic sense;
that is, th ey are vehicles of and for meanings.
However, th ere are man y problematic ways in which semiotics have
been drawn upon , even if we just look at this in the study of rock art. Of
course, there are man y different dimensions and notions of what semi-
otics ' is' (fo r archaeology, sec, for example, in Prcucel & Baucr 2001 ).
Certainl y, many object to the often-unive rsali zing tendencies of semiotic
app roac hes (c.g. Lock 1994) and the way that some scmiotieall y- inspired
studies remain primarily quantitati ve and abstracted fi·om any sense of the
informi ng con texts of meaning-making (sec, for examp le, this critique by
Lewis- VVilliams 1990 ). No netheless, there are some interesting questions
raised by somc of th e semiotic premises.
If! take the images of'Palaeo lithic art' as signs, I nonetheless resist th e
notio n that they me rely ' refer' to some externalmcaning(s), and th at our
job is to ' reveal' those meanings . R.ather, the materials and tht:. images
themse lves are integral to both the prod uction of signs as well as the
prod uction and mo bili zations of meaning(s). The material culture m ust
be taken on its own terms, not as mere signs in thc cu ltu ral arena. As
interpretcrs, wc arc concerned wit h how sig ns signify, as mllch as with
what they mi g ht signif)r, and this is necessaril y social and po litical. The
signs and symbols o f Palaeolithic image -makers have a place in semiotic
(that is, in mean in g-making) systems tha t "extend far beyond the craft
that they practi ced " (Gee rtz 1976: 1488 ). The images, and perh aps
everything about them - their colors, shapes, placements, relations to
o thcr images, the textures of th e walls or of t he ivory sup po rt, amo ng
ma ny possibi li ties - materialize a way of experiencing. Or, as Geertz said
so ar ticulatel y: " . .. they bring a particular cast of mind into the world of
objects, where [men] peo ple can look at it" (Geertz 1976: J488 ), aud, 1
wo uld add , where social uses can be made of them.
While f.1r too fcw Palaeoli thic arch3eologists have really put ourselves
into the slippery interpretive terrain of Palaeolithic belief systems (much
less Palaeolithic rel igion ), I if any of LI S 3re reall y the anthropologists we
claim to be, we can not possibly deny that at least some of the signs and
symbols of Palaeo lithic art-makers surely derived from, fed into, and even
constituted spiritual worlds , cosmologies and belief systems. To 'go'
there - 3S interpreters ~ means we arc willing to work with ' the evidence'
as material , visual, ex criential arameters tl13t ca n allow us ro ex lore Icc
182 Margaret W . Conkey
Age se nsib ilities. T his is why, fo r example, so me of LI S have bee n rathe r
insisten t on d isplaci ng th e te rm 'art' from ou r vocab ub rics. Act ual ly, it is
not so m uch t hat we wan t to d ismiss 'art' as it is t hat o ll r prefe rred
concern is wit h t he materi al and social li fe o f objects an d images, and th e
expe ri e ntial wo rld s t hat t hey p rod uce and constit ute. The images and
fo rm s were ge ne rated withi n and by COl1t1n1J.ttitics of practice. T hey arc, in
that se nse then , not art images; rather, rhey arc a n 'artful in tegrati o n ' (sec
Such man 1999 ) of many entangled material and social f..1C [Ors.
G iven this, 1 t he n asslIme th at t he images are mate ri al practi ces an d
performa nces th at are lin ked to social f.1ets an d cu lt ural logics, bo th as
p ro du cts of such and as ways of co nstit uting t hem. We have now beg un
to accu mu late a n array o f stud ies and a nalyses, suc h as o n p ig me nts,
on th e chaillc ope1·atoire of maki ng specific images, o n 'bead ' makin g
(e.g. White 1989; Buisson et 01. 1996; Fritz 19990, 1999 b; D obres
2003; Tosello 200 3) that provide us with the necessa ry fo rensics that
read ily sustain th e su gges ti o n tha t t he raw mate ri als, t he tec hni q ues, th e
for ms, t he subject matte r, the arrange me nts, th e tools llsed, th e su rfaces
selected (o r not), are in tegral to t he making-of-meaning(s ) and, in f.'1 ct,
'material ize a way of expe rie ncing'. T hese image-make rs were not on ly
and qu ite lite rally making meanings and p roducing visual cu ltu re; t hey
were making culture. Up per Palaeoli t hic life was, g iven th e evidence at
hand, ri ch with cul t ure-m aking p ractices .
For exa mp le, we have increasing ly d oc um ented t he circul ation of
materials - be th ey flin t raw mate rials (e.g. Laco m be 1998, G ambl e
1999: 317-19); shells (Tabori n 1993 ); deco rated objects ('mobil iary
art' ); pigments o r pigme nt co m pone n ts (C loues 1997). Th is is, in f.'1ct, a
circu latio n of cu ltu re-maki ng. M ate ri ali ty 'goes o u t' fi·om a nd even
'comes in' to ce rta in locales, mate rial cul tu re t hat is in tegral to th e tell ing,
th e circul atio n, and th e mob ilisatio n of impo rta n t sto ri es . Pe rh aps t he
so-called su per sites (Bah n 1982) o r agg regation sites (Con key 1980 ) are
as mu ch abo u t th e foci where materiali ty both comes in (in th e diversity
an d abundance of po rtable :I n , fo r example) and goes out. Beca use
of t hei r vc ry m:lte ri ality, th e cu ltu r:lll y co nst ructed images are ' p u blic
rep rese ntatio ns', even if th e audie nce fo r t hcm (as pe rh:lps in some of
th e caves) is sn1:1I1 , infrequ c nt, and , in efFect, restri cted . Sp erber ( 1992 :
60-64), shows how absolutel y cru cial th e ex istence and t he makin g
of such ' pu b lic representations' arc - and in t h eir disse mi natio ns and
circ ula tio ns - in th e vely creati o n of society.
Materiality and meaning-making in the Palaeolithic 'arts'
Of course, o ne proble m about a ny approaches t hat a re based o n t he
recurs ive re latio nshi ps be tween materia li ty and social fac ts/cu ltu ral
logics is tha t , for Palaeolith ic archaeology, we have yet to do most of th e
wo rk t h at wo ul d allow us to infe r so cial fac ts o r c ultural logics, b u t th at
work h as begu n, to be sure. We are d ealin g wit h (d ee p tim e', time tha t is
well off t h e wri tten reco rd - p ro bl e mati ca ll y so, for most arc h aeo logists.
Perha ps because of t h is, muc h of wha t we have to say h as bee n mostly
about fair ly ge ne ral p ropositio ns :lbou t t h e human ex p e rie n cc(s), if
experie n ces are eve n expli citly co nsidered in o ur a rc haeo logical
accounts. To give ali I' st ude nts a se nse of w hat Palaeo lithi c ex p eri e nce
migh t have bee n like, most o f us ha ve h ad to rely on ( pro du cti ve ly)
assigning ' Ice Age Novels', suc h as R ciudec1' Moon (Th o mas 1987),
The i1lheriton (Goldi ng 19 55 ), o r Da1lce of the Tig"· (Kurten 198 0 ),
among o th e rs.
To e ngage wit h the Palaeo lithic en tails a particular epistcmic cho ice o f
position from whi ch to do archaeol ogy itsel f, and we find oursel ves at ri sk
in t he in terpretive d o main - given th e di stan ce from ethnog raphi c par-
allels or historic co nn ectivities. T his is a ri sk t hat is compo un ded by th e
prevailin g inte rp retive prefe rences (and associated ep iste mi c pri vileging)
of :lrchacology to e n gage with situatio ns a nd con tex ts that are ' mo re
knowable' :lnd with so-called better d ata. C li ve G ambl e recently ex ho rted
us to not d espair (sec o penin g epig raph ), eve n if sornc ho ld t he idea
(e.g. Renfrew 2 00 I ) t hat more recen t pe ri o ds bo th have ' more data' and
'morc go ing o n ' in te rms of hum an life.
Thi nking semiotically
vVhilc we may not have an ethn ograp hy of t he U ppe r Palaeo lith ic, in th e
strict (and perhaps all-tao -n arrow ) se nse, I d o believe we ca n begin
so met hing o f an 'ethn ograp hy of th e vehicles o f mea nin g' (afte r Gee n z
1976), and a h istory of t he signs and symbols mad e material by t he
practices of U ppe r Palaeolith ic peoples. vVhat I fi nd pa rtic ularl y exciti n g
abo ut all th e image-m aking at th ese ea rl y times in o th e r parts o f t he
world, o r abo llt t he increasing ly earli e r cvidence in M rica, fo r exam ple,
for intenti o nal oc hre-ma rkin g and pe rh aps bead -makin g, is t hat t he visual
Cultu re of Uppe r Palaeolithic E urasia ca n ind eed be app roac hed 0 11 its
Own histo ri cal and co ntex tu al te rm s. This visual cul ture no lo nger has to
'stand fo r' th e
84 Ma rgaret W. Conkey
morc local , more historical, and yct engage with the general processes
of mean ing-making as cultu re- making.
There may be one aspect of semiotics that has some salience he re;
namely, rhe concept of ' unlim ited scmiosis' (after C. S. Peirce ). Sim-
plisticall y, the idea here is that images (and other Illarcrialmanifcstations
of fOfm , representations and symbolic concepts) rend to 'open out', to
allow fo r a l11 ul tio rdcr system of signification, a kind of 'un limi ted
scmiosis', lfwc accept that there is in 'Palaeolith ic art' some aesthetic lise
of image ry, fo rms, shapes, marks, spaces, places, and contexts, the sig-
nificrs tend to man ifest a hig h degree of plu rali ty, even am b igu ity. T his
may especiall y bc the case with visual ly realistic images (see Herzfeld
1992: 68- 69 ), such as the an il11a l depictio ns t hat have been take n as
characteristic of so l11uch Palaeolithic art (Sec Plates III , Xl I! , XlV , A'V) .
The images, however) are not hapha za rd , as wc know not only from all
SOrtS of structu ral studies ( Leroi . Gourhan 1965 ; Sauvet & Wlodarczyk
1995 ), but also fi·om the many pattcrns wc have becn able to in fer
(Clottes, this volul11e).
Scm iotically speaking, we might say that the sO·Gl.[[ed art is a way of
connectin g cultu ral messages together in order to produce ' texts' in
which the rule· breaking ro les of am bigui ty and scl f~ refcrc n ce are foste red
and orga nised (atte r Eco 1976: 262 ). T he effect (whether viewed o r
experienced by a few o r by many) is to ge nerate a ki nd of continuo us
transformationa l process of sign ificances; JUSt as each level of meaning is
established, it is broached, and its denotations arc transfor med in to new
connotatio ns (as Barthes has discussed for l11)'ths , 1972: 109- 59 ). We
never arrive at a final decoding or reading - there is no one final and
absolute ' meaning' - because each ambiguity generates further ru le·
breaki ng and invites us to continuously d ismantle and reassemble what
the imagery see ms to be 'saying' or is 'about' (after Hawkes 1977: 142 ).
The main point here is to consider the idea that what the mntcrin.lity
of Palaeolithic imagery has the potential to do is to not only elicit feel ings
but also to produce further (new ) knowledge and unde rstand ings (Eco
1976: 274). The materiality of Pa laeolith ic images do not me rely reflect
but mobilise, eve n galvanize, meani ngs. T hose who engage with the
images (images in the widest possible sense ) not on ly begi n to 'sec the
wo rld' differently, but learn how to create a new world. T his semiotic
pe rspective reinforces the recognitio n - and all of irs potential implica·
tiOJlS n' ociaL cogni . Ievolu tionar . au sc.manti in rcrorcr:n i n n -
Mate riality and meaning-making in the Palae olithic 'arts'
that Palaeolithic image-making is not the. 'mere embroidery' of reality,
but a way of knowing it, of coping wit h it and of (potentiall y) changing
it ( Hawkes 1977: l 43 ). Or, as Whit ney Davis ( 1984) has pointed Ollt,
"graphic rep resentation is a mode of knowledge" and representation is
the " material site of o ne's thought about one's knowledge of the world",
and of o ne's experiences with the world. Thus, one way to th ink about
the material manifestatio ns of knowledge and expe riences - what we
call images, 3rt, o r artef..1cts - is that they arc both vc hicles fo r and OUf
evidence for sema ntic d isplaccn1ent and multiorder signification. They
can be taken as evidence of a semiotic process that is produci ng (new)
know ledge; they arc evidence of the rcinscription of a mul tiplicity
of meanings and their fu rthe r semantic transformatio n that cou ld
potentially expand and ramify into new understandings and elaborated
knowledge.
'vVhat we sec is, semioticall y speaking, a breaking of the rulc.s of sig·
ni fi cation - a pai nted ho rse is no lo nger (j ust) a ho rse . On the o ne hand,
this ' rule breaking' tends to produce ambiguous m ultiple significations
that do not ' fix ' meaning, but galva nize it. This does not merely record
knowled ge but produces further knowledge. But, on the other hand,
there is now the potential to selecti vely ' fix' mea ning through the social
UJes of materiality. Perhaps he re is whe re we might consider how
mate ria lity 'works' as parr of the estab lishme nt and enactment of 'the
sacred' . Perhaps, as Rappapo rt suggested long ago in his discussion of th e
evolution of t he sacred ( 197 1, and sec again in Rappapo rt 1999 ) - as did
Wobst ( 1977) in reference to the emergence of style - it was with the
appearance and elaboration of the ' unlimited semioses' of cu ltu ral
practices that such constraints - like ' the sacred' and 'style' - simu lta-
neouslyeme rged. 2
'vVhile such truncated musings on semiotic aspects might be fr ustrat-
ing until applied to certain images or materialities, they may give another
\·a ntagc point on considering the dlccts that ' material izing experience'
Can have. One question that was placed before those of us who have
contribu ted to this vol ume was if and how mate ri al forms might have
served as 'tools' for fut ure ritua l practice. 1 think we can push this
q uestio n somewhat n lrthe r. j\1atcrializ:ltio ns ofcxperience are in tegral to
what some have considered as the basics, so·to·speak, of what 'rel igion' is
:lbout. What a rel igio n (se nsu !alU ) 'docs' is to "establish powc rn li ,
nervasivc and 1 ng· lastin moods and motivatio ns in eo Ie by
186 Ma rgare t W . Conke y
form ulating conceptions of a gene ral order of existence, and clothes these
conceptions with slich an au ra of factua li ty that the moods and motiva-
tions see m uniquely realisti c" (Gentz 1966 ). This is brought into exis-
tence th ro ug h a system ofs),mbols and meaning-making practices. vVhilc
kn owledge of all sorts may be ' recorded' in images, which is used to
pro mote new and further knowledge, it is th e embodiment of this
knowledge at both the level of the ind ivid ua l and the social group that,
one might say, mobilised a semiotic - not just an information - elaboration
during the Upper PaJacolithic. And, to judge by the apparent increase in
ma te riality - for example, the so-called in vasion o f bo ne/a ntlcr imple-
ments with imagcs and signs, by the M agdalcnian period (fifteen thousand
years ago ) (see Figure 6.6) - this semiotic elaboratio n enge nd ered further
material isations.
\·Vhat this might imply tor research is to pull together what we know
about those sociall y practiced contex ts of meaning-makin g, of material-
izi ng expe ri ences. The corpu s of excellent fo rensic studies has been
growing, but they can only reall y be und erstood anthropologically with in
a conceptual framework of mate ria lity and social practice. From the lcss-
discussed wo rl d of mobi liary (instead of primarily the cave) art, a number
of examples come immed iately to mind, and I could envisio n a study
entitled , "Materiali zi ng Ex perience: Po rta ble 'Art' and the Social
Construction of Beliefin the Upper Palaeolithic Wo rld ".
vV h)" for examp le, do we have such a notably differe ntial d istribu ti o n
of mobiliary art (Conkey 1990 ) amo ng the known sites of th e later Upper
Palaeolithic (Magda lenian ), the times during which there appears to be
th e ve ritable 'explosion' in mate riality of rep resentations and o bjects?
Rel atively few lYlagdalcnian sites account fo r most of the objects,
includi ng o bjects bearing strikin g rescmb lances to objects found at
smaller sites, as with the well -known example of propu/sc1t1'S (spear-
th rowers) (see Figure 6.6 ) ac ross the Pyrenees (sec in Th iault & Roy
1996 ). As suggested above, are these loci to which materiality 'travels in '
as we ll as sites fi'om w hich materiality 'travels o ut'? T his suggests that
th ere arc clusters o f mate riality, and that there may be, with some o bjects,
somcthin g akin to craft-specialisatio n; what is it about animal -ended
propul5cUr! that moti vated the imaginatio ns and practices of perhaps just
one or a few antlcr-workcrs?
It clearl y cannot be a coincidence that not o nly do most of the
so-called co bcar an ima"'c of a ho rse's head
Materiality and meaning-m a king in th e Palae olithic 'arts'
but that they are usuaJly made from the hyo id (throat ) bones from horse.
Fu rthermore , these COU&0Ilr5 arc made accordi ng to hi g hl y standardised
techniques, even if th ey 'end up ' in a number of d ifferent sites ( Buisso n
et a1. 1996 ), although they are concentrated , it seems, 'llo ng the
Pyrenea n chain . Fro!"n some detailed stud ies of assem blages of eng raved
bo ne/ an tier artdacts, it appears t lut the geo met ric designs chosen and
even some of the animal images arc influenced primarily by th e shape of
the support, a certain iconic merging of raw materials, form and shape
of the su pport, and 'desig n' (Con key J 982 ).
The project would be to bring together sllch material practices with
the burgeoni ng number of technical studies (e.g. White J995, 199 7;
Crcmades 1996; Fritz 1999 a, 1999b; Toscllo 2003; Dobres 2003 ) as part
of an approach that suggests that it is not just specific objects that are being
produced , but also, if you will, what we mi g ht conside r to be specific
(human ) subjects. That is, with shared performance of patterns of behavio r
we mig ht infer no t o nl y that a commu nal ap preciatio n of bclonging is
produced , but si mu ltaneo usly particu lar kinds of subjects arc prod uced
who cannot be d isassociated Ii·om the collective (after Fortier 1999). One
might continue then to consider the gnarl y, but probably crucial ) processes
whereby ' the other' - o r a certai n alterity (Csordas 2004 ) - is produced
with the emerge nce oflan guage and the development oflife-worlds full of
objects (or ' thin g-ness' ) (e.g. Bataille 1989: 56- 57 )-'
The power of place and the place a s sign?
As archaeologists, we must work frolll the known to the unknown (a nd
back again ). vVe don't always make th e most of what we have, in terms of
material evidenccs. Bo th animals and caves, as twO significant, if not just
obvio lls, aspects of ' Palaeolith ic art ' cou ld be pu shed further, as the wo rk
ofClo ttes and Lewis-vVill iams (e.g. 1996) has shown so wel l. For example,
this work has reinforced an important rethi nkin g of th e semiotic possi-
bilities of caves and rock surfuces, wh ich are the very baseline evidence we
have of 'cave' art. Of cou rse, there have always been the observations
regarding the ' interiority' of caves, and the many possible associations
(with an ' under-worl d', with whar we know o f as the womb, etc. ). And
wc have also long held our the possibil ities fo r the caves as liminal (betwixt
and bctween ) locales, whcre o ne can be neither ' in ' the world (o f eve ryday
life o' "in' one'~s.JIJ',o"r!lI",,",a,-1~s~t.'!!t::;e.:...___________
188 Margaret W. C o nkey
More recently, Lcwis·W ill iam s and C lo ttcs (e. g . 1998 ) have
pe rsuasive ly arg ued fo r th e rock slIrf..1ces t hemselves to have bee n part of
t he images an d t heir sig nifi cation , es peciall y with t he notio n o f th e rock
surface as a 'veii' , as a fro ntier or mem b ran e between th e spirit wo rl d
and t he hum an world (see also Lewis-Wi ll iams, th is vo lum e). They
poin t to where certain painted /en g raved images appea r as if eme rging
fro m cra cks an d crevices. Th e rece nt und erstand ing of th e red d o ts at
th e G ro tte C hau ve t as havin g been mad e wit h pig men t o n th e palm of
t he hand , ap plied - in a set o f pl ausibl y pcrfo rmati vc ges tures - li p
against th e rock sllrf3cc is a co m pell in g exampl e of how a matcrial and
tactile (eve n haptic) co nn ectio n to and perh aps t hro ug h t he ro ck wall
\Vas enacted (Baffi cr & Fer ug li o 1998 , 2001 ). W e have long no ted
t he prevale n t use o f natural shapes by cave im age-m akers, and how t he
im agery is often ' in ' th e mate rial - w heth er it is th e cave wall or th e
bo ne/antler fro m withi n whi ch images appear to have bee n ' rel eased ' .
Few seri o Li s ' Palaeo lit hi c art' scho lars tod ay wo ul d be able to susta in
t he idea th at t he pict ures and images are stat ic and separab le , sepa rate
fro m t he co n text, surface, and set ting. This is yet an o th er reaso n w hy
o ne must co nsider t he matcriality, and no t ' ju st' t he image . T hi s is,
however, both a semi o tic po ssibi li ty and a semiotic challen ge . T hi s g ives
us m uch m o re, so- to-speak, to work with as in te rp reters. But, at t he
same tirn e, as o ne recent critic o f t he uses of sem io tics by ma ny rock art
sc ho la rs has po inted o u t, we m ust ask whether the re is anyt hin g at a
petroglyph site t hat is 1J.ot a sig n an d " how m uc h of th e surroundin g
ma te rial is t he pictu re'" ( Lock 1994: 409 ) (italics add ed ). Knllt Helskog
(2 000 ) has p rese nted us \V it h a co mpelli ng stud y of a pa rti cular pet ro-
g lyph surface in N orway, where the ve ry cra cks, fiss u res, and cupu les
in t he ro ck surface are as in teg ral to t he image ry and 'scene' as are
t he pec ked -o u t figures, fi g ures tha t attrac t our eyes and t hat we
d ut ifull y reco rd .
Lock (! 9 94 ) noted so met hi ng simi lar fo r petroglyphs in On tari o
(Ca nada ), where an und erg ro und stream ru ns to rren t iall y in th e win te r,
whi ch is take n by indige no us peoples as aco ustic eviden ce o f th e rock
'ta lkin g' . T he pecked o ut fi gures o n t he rock su rface may only be
bro ug ht into ex istence w hen t he ro ck ' talks'. To LI S, t he petrog lyphs
ma y appear to ' be' t here all the time , b u t t his is no t th e und erstan d in g
t hat th e local indige no us peopks ha ve. Th is, too, is a cau tio nary
talc that o ur ow n visua l co nve n tions (especiall y t hat of 'visual realism "
M ateria lity and meaning-making in the Palaeolltn lc "an:s
c. f. Whi te 1997 ) - wh ich tend to ho ld pictorial signs as static and
stabl e, and rend to unqu estio ning ly ass um e th at they endure indepen -
den tly o f t heir ' maker' - mi g ht be se ndin g us dow n some pro blematic
inte rpretive paths. H o w d o we lo cate any boundary between t he sign
and its co ntex t/settin g~
Once again, beyond art: charting conceptual connections
This is not a chap te r to whi ch t here are an y co nclusio ns, for it has been
primaril y and exp licitl y an atte mpt to ar ray some co ncepts and id eas fo r
future study . I have t ri ed here to sugges t so me co nce p ts t h rou g h which
we migh t t ry to co nn ect O U I" u nd ers tandings of t he archaeological
evidence, o n th e o ne hand , w it h somc scmioticall y inspired thoughts,
on the other hand , about t he pro du ction (a nd galva ni zing) of mean ing
through itnages and fo rms. In o rd er to 'go there' we have to think mo re
broad ly and d ee pl y ab o ut seve ral t hemes, eno ugh o f them to co nstitu tc
a majo r co nceptual project. I have been ad vocatin g a sem iotic app roach
that , howeve r , resists the d elimited notio ns o f material cultu rc-as-sign ,
as somethin g else , as referrin g to anot her (often mo re privileged or
primal) esse nce o r substan ce (s uch as status, iden tity, m agic, fertili ty ,
the hunt ). At t his point, t he wider an t hrop o lo gical and art histori cal
landscape has give n way to t he idea th at o bjec ts, fo rms, styles, images,
and functio ns arc evo lving, mo re mu table, an d mul tival e nt wit ho ut
essentia l p ro perti es .
If we are to move ' beyo nd art', beyond und erstanding ' PalaeolithiC
art' just as info rma tio n, and if we are to t ry to engage with qu es tio ns o f
experience, w hi ch mi g ht incl ude 'the spiritu al' ) we m ight pro fit from
g rapplin g wit h sllch q uestio ns as:
• how m ight have t hese images and fo rms mate rialized ex perience?
• how were th ey p rod uced by communities o f prac ti ce and thus, how
do t hey - th e images and t heir makings - constitute culture-making?
• how d id all t his b ring out particul ar casts o f mind~
• how mi g ht t he images and asso ciated prac ti ces have bee n 'at wo rk' to
sanctify (:ultural premises and beliefs?
• hmv d id t hey co ntri bute to the es tab lish ment o f moods and m oti-
vatio ns that info rmed d aily and spi ritual lives and social relat ions, and
perhaps even formed h u mans as cul t ural subjects?
 190 Margaret W. Conkey
Acknowledgements
I wish to thank the organisers of the Templeton conference held in Les
Eyzics, France tor having invited me to join a unique a nd provocative
g roup of sc holars in w res tl in g with the iss ues p resented in thi s vo lume. ]
was del ighted to make some new acq uain tances and to renew some
collegial connections. I am especially indebted to Jean Clottcs who, over
the years) has allowed me some unparalleled opportun ities to visit
Palaeolith ic sites and stud y materials.
NOTES
I Ofcollrsc, soml~ have: perhaps correctly argucd (and objected to the fun) that most of
the inrcrprct.ltions of P:llacolithic an - ever since tbe c:t r l~' twentieth century - have
been morc or less reli gious in terpretation s, or derive from a set of religious assump-
ti o ns: that rhe caves are sancrllaries, that the image -making practi ces were derived ti'om
an underlying myth ognun , o r that the images an.: pan of a 'rel igious mystery' (e.g.
Ikrbmann & Gonzalez 1999 ). But this appeal to a generally rdigiolls nature or
1110tiv:niol1 has not o ften led (0 a genuine engagement with what a ' religion ' or belief
syStelll would h3ve bee n like among these mobile foragers, what aspects or the images
and thei r production 'worked' in religious syste ms or cosmologies, and so tanh (for
exceprions, sec l'v lirhen 1996, [998 ; Lewis- Willi ams 2002 ). Alth o ugh dr:l\ving pri -
marily on more un ivcrsalised notions of hunter-gatherer shamanism , rhe C lones and
Lewis-Williams's (e.g. 1998) interpreta ti ons of shamanistic praCl'1ceS that prod uced
llluch of the image!)' do engage explicitl)' with some of dlese dimensions.
For Rappaport, it is the evolution and appearance of 'rhe sacred ' that mu),[ have
happened si multaneollsly. "The inn ume rable possibilities inherent in words and du::ir
combinations an: constrained, reduced , and ordered by the un questionable \-Vord
el1 ull ci;'lted in ritual's ;'lppan.:nrly invari :lIlt ca llon . Sa nctity orders ;'l versatility that
othelwise might spawn chaos" ( Rappaport 1999: 4 18 ).
3 Some of I-his might ~llso be augme l1t:ed with the recent ideas about what we sec with
anaromjcal1~' modern humans is the "'e mergence of individuals as creative age nts be-
yond the limits set br lhe rules of co-presence" (Gamble 1999: 269 ); the social,
techni cal and cultural "separation of the gesture from the bod),,' or wha r Gosdell
( 1994: 183) has called rh e (eme rgence ot) "public timc". [n some ways , th e wide-
sp read and patterned v<1 riatiOIlS in what we take ro be , broadly, 'body ornamcntations',
lllay be some of the most compellin g matcrinliry of nOt just an individuated 'seW of
some sort, or of 'social identity', but of an imcrnal isation of 'otherness" of 'alte rity' ,
which seems to piny a pro\'ocarive role in understa nding 'religion' (Csordas 2004- ).
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developme nt of socict)" in Arcbneologicnl TI)cOJ), Today, ed. I. I-Io ddt.: r,
122-40.
Sall\'et, G. & A. \ Vlodarczyk, 1994. Ele ments d'une gra mm ai re fo rmell c de l'art
parietal Palcol ith iquc. U AlIfbropologic 99, 193-2 11.
Sperber, D., 1992. Cu lture and marter, in R eprcsentntions ill ArcbnL'olog:v,
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56-65.
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194 Margaret W. Conkey
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_ __ _ _ l:hlO
13
Sticking bones into cracks in the Upper
Palaeolithic
Jean Clottes
O ne of the most appropriatc ways in which to approach mea ning fo r
Palncolithic cave art is to stud y its archaeological context, that is, the
traces and remains left by the people who visited the caves. Afte r
sketching various aspects relevant to the archaeologica1 context, o ne
particular exam pic wi ll bc cxamined more in dcta il in this paper.
In twenty-two Palaeolithic pai nted caves (including thirteen 111 the
Frcnch Pyrenees), various objccts havc been either deposited o r stuck
into cracks of the walls, or even stuck into thc ground. Those apparently
non -utilitarian gcsturcs havc becn noticed from Asturias in Spain to
Burgu ndy in Francc, from at least the Gravettian to the end of the
l\lagdalenian , that is, fo r :.1 period which lasted fo r thirteen tho usand to
to urtccn thousa nd yca rs. This phcnomenon widc-ran gin g in time and in
Sp.1CC enables us to havc somc inklings about thc mo tives of its autho rs.
One of the major clues to Palaeolithic religious thinking is the art in the
caves. To access some of its mcani ng(s) th rec main lines of research arc
;.wa.ilablc. The most obvious one is studying thc art itself, its thcmes, its
placemcnt, the interrelations bctween the thcmes themselves and \\~th the
morphology of the cave. A second linc of research, which has been gaining
mon.: and more acceptance these days, is studying cavc art in the light of what
i5 direct1y known of thc beliefs and practices of hunter-gatherers elsewherc in
the world. Finally, the context ofthc art, whe rever ir is well -preserved, can
bring intormation on thc activities of those who tl'cq ucnted the caves in the
PleiStocene, all the more so as valuable clues about the actions of those
visitors arc bener preserved in them than in any other CI1\~ ron m cnt,
The inte rnal context of a cave can be defined as the remains and
traces - other than wo rks of art - left by humans and also by animals o n
O"~cu'nn nd Co il r h ,- \.\l.aJls .Jl..thCJ..\.~tic.tb...cc.Il .tl.1 tb.i.~ \w.>o:...,'(,,-UIN'r,,-n
196 Jean Clottes Sti cking bones into cracks in the Upper Palaeolithic

for decades. Specialists stud ied the paintings as if they had been hanging
on the wa lls of a gall ery: what was import:.1I1t then was to investigate
themes , techn iques , styles and their clIitllr:ll and chro nological attri bu -
ti o ns. Artct'acts in a cave wcre on ly considered ofin rcrcs t when they co uld
yield in for mation abo ut the dating of the :lrt. G rad ually the attitude of
researche rs changed , particularly wi th the discovery of well -preserved
caves in the seventies (Fontanet, Le Re s c~l.l1 C b stres in the Ariegc ) and
with the in-depth stud y of w hat could be sal vaged from long-d iscove red
cave rns, such as Lascaux ( Lcroi-Gourhan and Allai n (ed. ) 1979 ). Then
o ne became awa re of the wealth o f in for mation to be found in the
archacologicaJ context. Nowadays research o n th e conte xt is considered
as an integral parr of cave art studies (see the wo rk being carri ed out at
C hauvet in Clottes (ed .) 2003a, 2003b).

The archaeological context of cave art
The context of cave art also includes th e traces and remains of anim al
acti vities) because an imals occasionally wandered into the deepe r galler-
ies) and some animals, particularl y cave bears, hibernated in them. \Nhen
the re were soft sediments bears dug lai rs to sh.:ep in. They left thei r
footp rints o n the g ro und an d thousands of scratches on th e wa lls. Some
died an d thei r skulls and bo nes were strewn o n the g round. AJI this was
scen by Palaeoli thic people in the dim lig ht of the ir burni.ng to rches whcn
they g roped th ei r way through the dark passagcs. For th em some caves
must have been pe rceived as filled with the presence and the power of the
Bear. The very noticcable scratchings Illay sOllletimes have spu rred
people to make finger tracings (Chauvet) o r engravings ( Le Po rtcl ) next
to or o n top ofthcI11 (Fig ure 13. 1). At times cave bear boncs we re picked
up, displaced and used: in Lc Tuc d'A ud ou bcrt (Ariege) they we re strung
along the way and thcir impressive canin cs were removed from thc bear
skulls and taken away. In C hauvet, a sk ull was deposited on a big rock in
the middle of a chamber and two hUllleri we re forcib ly sruck in to the
ground not t;1r fro m the entrance (Figures 13.9 and 13.10 ).
vVhc n the ground was soft (sa nd) wct clay) naked hUIllan footprints
remained printed in it (Niallx (Figu re 13.2 ), Lt Rcscau C lastres, Le Tuc
d'Audolibe rt, Nlo nrcspa n, Labastide, Fontanet, Pec h-M crlc, L'A ldcne,
C hauvct). T his enables us to know that children, at times vel)' young
ones, accom panied adu lts when they went undergro und, and also that
.;;.;...--
1]. 1. Finger tracings (horizontal) su per imposed on cave bear scratc hes (vertica l).
Chauve t Cave (Ardeche) . Bel vedere Gallery. (Photo J. Clones & Y. Le Guillou)
the visitors of t hose deep caves were not ve ry numerous because foo t-
prints and more genera l human traces and rcmains are so few, even when
the conditions wcre favo urable . Foot prin ts became a special field of
resea rch called ' ichn ology' whose specialist in Eu rope is Michel Garcia
(Clottes 1993 ). Such traces provide in va luable information about the
preh istoric visitors to the caves (their numbers and th ei r ages) and they
are the on ly testimon y to living dynamic activities. Fo r exa mple, we can
tell that three chi ldren in Le Roseau Clastrcs (Aricge) wa lked slowly and
carefully along a wa ll in a vast chambcr and that they stopped cautiously
in tj'Ollt of an obstacle before funning, as children wi ll do, after they had
crossed it (C lottes & Simon net 1990 ) (Figure 13.3 ). A careful exami -
natio n of those traces and of others in the cave cou ld determine that the
three child ren were accompanied by two adu lts, probably a male and a
fcma le (Garcia, Duda)" & Courtaud 1990 ).
T hat deep caves have consistentl y been considered as numinous places
is a fact common to peo ple o n all con tin ents and at all times (see later
in th is chapter). The refo re, the most likd y explanatio n for the type of
behavio ur we fi nd in th e French and Spanish caves is that childrcn and
even babies - in Ga rgas there is a sten ci l of a baby's hand held at the wrist
by an adult - were brought into the m for ceremo nies in o rde r to take
198 Jean Clottes StlcRfflg bones into cracks in the Upper t'alaeollthlc

rock. In their case, th e ai m was not to recreate a reality as was do ne wi th

t he an imal images but to tra il o ne's fingers and to leave th eir t races on the
w;:d l, w hereve r t his was possible, ill orde r to establish a direct co ntact with
the powers underl ying t he wall. This mig ht be done by non · in itiates who
parti cipated in the ritual in t hei r own way and with the ir ow n means. In
Ro urngnac, chi ldren we re raised up by adults to make finge r flutings on
t he hig h ceilin g of a chamber, which proves how del iberate such actio ns
we re (Sharpe & Va n Gelder 2004 ).
Humans let-t variolLs sorts of t races, whether deliberately or involun -
ta ril y. The charcoa l f.:1 11cn fro m the ir torches, their fi res, a few objects,
bo nes and flint tools lett o n t he g ro und may be t he remains of meals or of
sun dry acti vities. They arc part o f the docllme ntation unintentio nall y left
by p rehistoric people in th e caves. From the ir study, one ca n say th at in
most cases painted o r eng raved caves were not inhab ited , at least fo r long
pe ri od s. Fires were tc mp orary and remains are relative ly scarce . Naulrall y,
t here arc exceptions (Lasca.ux, Enlene, Labastide, I ,c M.as d 'Azil,
B~de i lhac , Ti to Bustillo ). 1n t hei r case, it is often difficult to make out
whether those settl ements arc in relation - as seems likely - o r not wit h

13.2. Children's footprints in a side gallery of [he Niaux Cave (Ariege). (Photo J. Clones)

adva nta ge of the power to be found th ere. Drawing IllcJ nd crs with o ne's
finge rs on the wet cby o fr he wa lls (Casqu er, Gargas, Trois Fre rcs, Pcch ·
tVl erlc, Ro uffignac ) or agai n engraving or painting indeterminate lines in 13.3. Heaps of cha rcoal abound In t he Megaloceros Ga ll e ry of the Chauvet Cave
so m3n y caves mi ght be a means to access the potency immanent in the (Ardeche). (Photo J. Clones)
200 Jean Clottes Sticking bones into cracks in the Upper Palaeolithic

the art on the walls. The prese nce of po rtabl e art - as in the caves

~
men tioned - may be a valuab le clue to establi sh sllch a rel ationship.
In C hau vc[, 111any fires were made in a relatively n arrow galle ry Icadi ng
to the End C hamber. Great q uanti ties of charcoal we re we ll preserved
.,....,.
,, ,,
,, ,, ,,
and most we re no t tramp led. The stud y of th e area led to th e foUowing , : ,,, I,,
'., ,
,, ,,
,, ,,
co nclusions: the fires wcre made in order to get charcoal with which to \J 1

make the drawings (Io[s of big cha rcoal a nd nor much ash or cinders) ,,, ,,,
(Figure 13.4 ); the place whe re they are located is much higher than the ",, ,,
~, , I
End C hamber and the perce nta ge of ca rbon d ioxide is, as a consequence, ,," ,, 8 bis
,,,
\, J

far less impo rtant th ere, thus all owing fires to be made far more easily; , ,,,
finally, th e ncar absence of prehistoric tra mplin g tes tifi es to that part i I
i I
of th e cave - where the most spectacular images are - to have been ,, .t:::::l
,, ,,
,,
I :

, ,, ,,
rare ly freq uented .
As to t he extraordin ary seven o r so Gravettian b urials recentl y dis-
covered in t he Cussac cave (Aujou lat et al. 2001 ), th ey pose a hu ge
,,
,,,
,,
,,,
,,,
,,,
,,
,
''
I'
''

,'
,I,
,
,,
11
/ ,)
'
, ,,
,
, , ,,'
,, ,,,
problem. It is the first time t ha t human skeletons have been found inside ,
, :, , ,I /
a deep cave with Palaeolithic art. U ntil they have been excavated and , I : /
,,
, ''' ", ,' \
\
,1
,/ ,,/ ,''
studi ed pro perl y it will be impossiblc to know whet her those peo ple died
7 ,, ___ '
I
j
I
a U ' . . . _, 5
,I /
thc re by acc iden t (a most unlikel y hypothesis ), wheth er they we re related ,, '
!
to t hose who d id th e cngravings, whet hcr the y enjoyed a special stat us, ! ////~
and so all. Their presence just stresses thc magic/ reli g io lls character of 9 \ .. ,,--
:lrt in t he deep caves .
The main pro blem regardin g wa ll art in a cave or shelter with an
arc haeo logical co ntex t is proJJillg a rel atio nship between the two. Owing o Scm
to thei r atten tion to detail , modern excavations g ive llS a wealth of
info rmation and so metimes, even, a d irect proo f of the relationship wc
arc lookin g for. For instance, Com bier ( 1984: 597 ) found some drops of
red paint in the midst of a very thin layc r ri g ht und er a painted wall in 13.4. In the Enlene End Chambe r . many fra gments of bones and other ob jects were stuck
th e cave of Bido n (Ardechc ), thus establishin g a d irect link between the into the grou nd at the beginning of the occupation of that d eep chamber. The examples
shown here incl ude one stone plaquette (no. 6). The o thers are bones . The horizontal
art and t he remains on the g round. The latter could be datcd [0 21 ,650
lines indicate the level of the ground in relatio n to them at the time of discovery . (Drawing
bp ± 800 (Ly 84 7 ), a date whi ch also appl ies to the painted panel. S. Lacombe)
T he localisatio n of th e paintings relat ive to the level of an archaeo-
logical laycr ca n also g ive some credible idea, if nOt actual proof, as to
whi ch interp retations are possible and wh ich arc not. For example, in Le Another wcl l-groundcd assumption about th e contemporancity of
Placard (Charente ), only Upper Soiu trean strata arc situated at such a t he works o f art wit h the ir archaeological co ntext exists when th e co n-
d istance fi'om t he pai ntin gs and cngrav ings as would allow it to bc ditio ns in a painted cave arc sli ch that the remains on the ground arc vc ry
to draw t hcm o n the walls (Clottcs, Dupo rt, & few and can not be explained as res ul tin g from habitation , for cxampl c
when the cave is vc ry de ep and th e :.1rt is localiscd in rem ote galleri es.
202 Jean Clo ttes Sticking bones into cracks in the Upper Pa la eolithic

\Ne C311 th e ll safe ly inter a relationship because we kn ow fr o m num erous

wcll ·doclIlllcnrcd examples th at Palaeoli thic humans did not li ve f:ll"

und ergrou nd and that eac h time the y sta yed severa l hundred meters
tj'OIll the entrance for any length of time it was in caves with wa ll art
(e.g. at Labastide, Bedcilhac, Trois Frercs ). Thus, the remains found
in the upper ga llery of Tuc d 'Audoubcrt, and probably also those in
rhe middle gallery of the S3 m e cave, can safel y be ascribed to the
lvlagdalcnia ns who made the wo rks of art o r who went to the ends of
the cave because of them for ceremonies or other related activities
( Bcgo uen & Clottes 1983 ).

A Pa laeolithic gesture in pa inted ca ve s

A nu mber aryears ago, we d rew ou r colleag ues' attention to thc resu lts of
some vc ry pec uliar actions of Nbgdalenian visitors to thc Volp Caves in
the Aricgc ( Enlenc, Lc Tuc d'Audoubert, Les Tro is Frercs), as well as in
so mc other Pyrc nean caves ( Le Portel, Bedcilhac, Fontanet) Montcspan )
( Bogouen & Clottes 1981 ). In particular, bones, flint and other objects
h:ld bccn stuck o r dcpositcd into cr:lcks and fissures o fth c wa lls (also sec
Clottes 1984: 365 ) and occasionally implanted in the ground (Bogouen
et al. 1995 ) ( Figure l 3.5 ).
Nowada ys this phenom cnon has been t..:vidcnccd in 22 painted or
c n gr~lVc d Uppe r Palacolithi c caves in Francc and in Spain. T hcy arc:
111 tlJl: French P P'CHCCS: Enl cne ( Figures 13 .6 and 13.7), Les Tro is
Frercs and Le Tuc d)Audoubert (Nlo ntcsqui eu -Avantes ), Le Po rtel
( Loubens), Bcdeilhac ( Bede il hac-ct -Aynat) and Fontanet (O rno,"c-
Ussat-Ies- Bains ) ( Figu re 13.8 ) in the Ariogc; ,vlontespan (Ganties-
Mo ntcspan ) in thc Hautc-Garo nnc; Gronc du J\llou l.in (Troubat),
Grotte des Chevaux ( L.1bastidc) and Gargas (Avcntignan ) in the
H autes-Pyren ees; Eucberri (Camou -Ci hi g ue ) and Erberua (lsturitz )
in the Pyrenecs-Arlantiques; Grotte du Pape (Brasscmpouy) in the
Landes.
111 Spnin: Altxerri (Aia ) in the Pais Vasco and Llonin (Peilamellera
Alta ) in Ast uri as.
[ 11 QjIC7'CY: Sainte-Eulali c ( Espag nac) and Les Fieux (l\ lliers) in the Lot.
In Perigord: Le Pigeonnicr ( Domlllc ), Bernifa l (Meyra ls) and Lascaux
t\ lonlignac) in t he Dordogne .
13.5. Many pieces of bones ha ve been forcibly stuck into the cracks of the walls in the
cave of Enlene (Ariege) . (Photo J. Clones)
In Bm;guudy: Lc C hcval (Arcy-s ur-C urc, Yo nne).
111 thc south-cast of Fl'nllct:: C hauvct ( Va ll on ~ Pon t- d )A rc, Ard cchc ).
Putting into cracks o bjt..:cts wh ich apparcn tl y do not prcsent any pa rti-
cular interest is a mostl y Pyrcnean phenomenon, as it has bcen cvidenced
in th irteen Pyrc nean Paleolithic paintcd caves) frol11 the Ariegc in the cast
to the Basque cou nt l)' in th e west. Most of those objects arc undistin-
g uished fi'agmcnts of an ima l bones. Ide nti cal examples have bcen fo und in
Spanish caves as far as Asturias and also) in France, in the Lot. T his was thus
a fairly widespread custom . In the Do rdognc, it is rarer (Lascaux ) and flint
was mo re often used for dcposits (Lasc:lU x, Bernif.'ll ) Lc Pigeonnicr), as it
was too, in far away Burgu nd y. Nothing of the so rt) howcver, was found in
the painted cavcs o f so urh ~ eastern France, even in caves with lots of cracks
likc C hauvct or Cosq ucr where in-depth research has been carried out.
Impla ntin g bones into th e g round Gill be construed as bein g a rel::lI'cd
gesture. it was done less often, most times in the center of the Pyrenees
( t.n\cnc (Figurc 13.5 ), Lc Po rtel, MOl1tespan, Fontanct, Labastide ),
except fo r Chall vet where tWO cave bcar humeri we re half-wa y .!ttuck
 204 Jean Clottes Sticking bones into cracks in the Upper Palaeolithic

For a great many millenia, Palacol ithic people have thus behaved in
exactly the same way in a fair numbt.:r of painted or engraved caves both in
France and in Spain. Other discoveries of the same kind will no doubt be
made in the years to come. That a custom shou ld be so widespread, both
in time and in space, should not be surprising within the context of cave
art. After all, the art itself lasted between twenty thousand to twenty-fi ve
thousand years at least and it is to be found all over Europe, from the
so uthern tip of Spain to the Urals. in addition, in the Parpa1l6 cave, ncar
Valencia (Spain ), thousands of painted o r engraved plaquettcs were
excavated fi'om archaeological layers covering more than thirteen
tho usand years (Vill ave rd e Bonilla 1994), wh ich testifies to the same
sort of deposits being made again and again in the same place over
unco unted centu ri es.
The deposition in the caves of the objects mentioned cannot bc
explained away either by natural processes or by so-called functiona l
purposes and activities. They arc too numerous and the conditions they
we re found in arc such that it is impossible to contemplate their being

13.6. Many pieces of bones have been forcibly stuck into the cracks of the walls in the
cave of Enlene (Ariege). (Photo J. Clottes)

into the ground not fa r from the o ri ginal entrance to the cave
(Figures 13.9 and 13.10 ).
The phenomenon und er study lasted for a very long time, th irteen
thollsand to fOllrteen tho usand years at least. In Gargas, the bits of bones
arc closely associated with the famolls hand stencils (Figure 13. 10 ). A
date of 26,8 00 ± 460 bp was obtained for one of the splinters, whic h
tallies with the Gravcttian age generally attribu ted to stencilled hands in
Southern France (Clottes et al. 1992 ). Another bone splinter was also
found next [0 sOllle other hand stenci ls in the Gravcttian cave of Les
FicliX (Miers, Lor), which corroborates the Gargas find ( Lorblanchcr
1999 ). The one in Brasscmpouy could also be quite o ld , ifwc consider
thc archacological context of that site (Aurignacian and Gravcrrial1 )
( Buisson 1995). On the othe r hal1d , Magdalenian dates are certain for
most ofrhc Pyrenean C3Vt.:S (E nlcnc, Ll: Tuc d 'AlIdoubert, Trois Frcres,
Labastidc, J'vlontcspan, !?ontan.:t), as wdl as for Sainte-ElIlalic in thc Lot.
The recent discoveries at Troubat stress the long duration of the 13.7. In the cave of Fontanet (Ariege), pan of a reindeer antler has been stuck into the
L-______________ ht.:nomc non , as late as the end ofthl: ' 'Iagdalcnian ( Barbaza L997 ).
~~~~
soft soil of a high recess next to eleven slits made in the clay. (Photo J. Clottes)
206 Je an Clott es Stic king bones into cracks in the Uppe r Palaeolithic

13.8. A cave bear humerus was stuck halfway into the ground in the Chauvet Cave in the 13.9. Another cave bear humerus was stuck halfway into the ground about thirty feet
Entrance Chamber. (Photo J. Clottes) from the othe r one. (Photo P. Morel)

lost or fo rgotten, or brought there by run ni ng water or by animals, o r

rh:lt they we re t he resu lt of casual gestures, o r cou ld have been lI sed to
bear anyth ing o r even to delineate a particula r space. The caves whe re
t hey were discove red, moreover, are always caves wit h rock art and not
mere habitation sites, and the bones, flint , and other objects deposited or
st uck into fi ssures are mostl y close to some of the works of art. All t h is
means that we are dealing with a vc ry special gesture performed in vc ry
special places.

Ho w to inte rpret those facts

An interpretive hypothesis can o nly be based upon two series of obser-

vatio ns: on the one hand t he hard f.1ctS o bserved, stlch as have just been
mentioned briefly. On t he o th er hand, o n commonalities in the beliefs
and behavior of people t hat may not o nly suppo rt t he hypothesis but
make it more pla usible t han any other. Two sllch obse rvati ons can be 13 .10. In the cave of Gargas (Hautes- Pyrenees), one of the pieces of bone fou nd in cracks
made: they relate fi rst to t he way t he su bterranean wo rld is gene rall y next to stenci lled hands was dated to 26,800 ± 460 bp. (Photo J. Clones)
208 Jean Clottes
perceived Jnd second to well-docu men ted ges tures of depositing Jnd
stickin g objects into rock hollows.
Eve rywhere in the world caves have been considered as being t he place
of spiri ts, of gods, of f.:l iries or o f the dead. This was the case for the ancient
Gree k (see the Ri ve r Styx ) as well as for the K11ash of Pakistan ( Lievre and
Loude 1990: 42 ). Sometimes th e rocks t hemselves arc t he places whe re the
spilirs dwe ll (sec Whitley 2000: 78, for examples in Cali forn ia; Lewis-
Williams 2003: 56, fo r examples in Somh Afriea; Flood 1997: 244, for
Australian Quinkan spirits). T he u biq uity of this sort of belief makes it
possi bl e to extrapolate it to the Uppe r Palaeolith ic. Deliberately ventu ri ng
into the depths a r t he rocks and afthe earth - where people did not live-
was not a casual son of activity. The few who d id so knew tha t they wou ld
have to (1ee supernatu ral dange rs in those awcso me power-laden places.
The spi rits of t he other-wo rl d were there within reach and this might well
explain why objects were depos ited as they werc.
The obvio us reason for doing so was a desire to reach beyond the
o rd inary world, that of the Jjving, to pi erce the veil (Lewis-vVi Uiams &
Dowson 1990) barely separatin g it fi·ol11 t he supe rnatural forees li terally
at hand and to touch them either d irectly or by means of an ol1"ering -
howeve r symbolic it mi ght be. In numerable examples are avai lable. Only a
few will be mentioned, from ve ry different social and geograp hical co n-
tex ts. The most f.lm o us o nt: is what occu rs eve ryday at the Waili ng Wall , in
Jeru salem, where so me of tile f.l ith ful squeeze scraps of paper bea rin g th eir
prayers into t he instersticcs of th e monumental sto nes. The gesture is of
cou rse mea nt to approach the Divini ty in a place perceived as being sacred .
In the eighties, in my capacity as directo r of Prehistoric Antiq ui ties
for the Nlid i-Pyrcn ces region in southern France, I had to d eal wit h an
urgent archaeo logical excavation to be carri ed o ut not f.'1..r from the sacred
Massabiell e cave in Lou rdes, whe re mi llions of Roman Catholic pi lgrims
congregate each yea r. In t he woods next to it, t here was another small
cave, a few hu ndred ya rds away, tlut is, we ll away from t he sa nct uary, in a
remote place where pi lgrims have no reason - and most ce rtain ly arc not
incited or in vited - to go. Now, on o ne of the sides of the cave, a natural
cavity in the roc k, about half a cubic meter, was nearly filled with offerings
and deposits of all so rts: spectacles, wa llets, coins, messages, etc. In th is
case, it was the sub te rranean milieu , sanctified by its vicinity with t he
historical ho ly cave, whi ch eve n in our days had been spontaneously
co nsidered by man y peo ple as a passage to ('he other wo rld.
Sticking bones into cracks in the Upper Palaeolithic
In 1991 , before visiting a rock art site in central Californi a, au I' Yo ku ts
g uide car ri ed out a propitiatory ce remony after which he asked us to
deposit bits of native tobacco into the cracks of the wa ll righ t be low rock
paintings (C lottes 1999: 140- 1). Te n years later, in Monta na, I S3W
coins, small pea rls, cigarettes and other small objects ( Plate x..."X1V)
deposited in the fiss ures of a c lift~ ca lled Arrow Rock inside whi ch t he
spirits, called t he Little People, arc believed to dwell.
Depositing various objects into the hollows of the wa lls deep inside
pai nted caves is akin to t he examples cited above. About the boncs thus
stuck into crac ks, the hypotll csis was made that it could have been "a
restitution ritual " , that is, that the pco ple were both drawing the spirits
und er an :.'lI1i mal fo rm from inside the rock and send ing back fragments of
an imals in a kind of "two-way traffic" ( Lewis-Wi lliams 2002: 253 ). This
hypothes is, however, co ul d not app ly to shells nor to th e lithic mate ri al.
I fthe basic idea motivating t hose acts - i.c. co ntacting t hc other-wo rld-
is beyond reasonable doubt, it can still be put into efFect in two differen t
ways : either by depositing or by sticking objects into the wa lls o r into tile
gro und. vVhen depositing offerings - howeve r modest and symbolic ( Plate
XXIV) - one establishes a one-way lin k fi'om our worl d to the othcr-worl d
without expecting an imm ediatc resu lt, except perhaps somc protecti on,
largcsse or immunity during t hc time one happe ns to be t here or later. It is
a gesture o f allegiance.
Sti cking objccts into cracks or into t he ground co ul d be a related but
slightly ditfcrent action. In this case, one perhaps wa nted to pierce the vei l
scpa rating the world of t he li ving fro m that of the spirits. It was not th e
o bjec t itself that was imporrant - and this might explain why the splin te rs
ofbo ncs arc so commonplace - but rathcr the gesture, the will to b ridge
t he g ap and to contact the powc r hiddcn within the rock o r t he g rou nd in
t hat supernatura l wo rl d of the dark and to b rin g awa y so me of it in order
to he lp with the eternal problems of everyday life, such as illnesses, luck,
an d the provision of food.
REF EREN CES
Aujoul:u, N. , J. -M. Gencs[e, C. Archambeau, C. Delluc, H. Duday & D. Henry-
Gam bier, 2002. La Grotte ornce de Cussac - Le Buisson -de-Cadouin
( Dordognc ): prcmii::res observatio ns. Bullctill dc In Soci!:tf; Prr:b;storiqlfc
Fmu~nisc 99, 129-37 .
210 Jean Clotte s Sticking bones into cracks in the Upper PalaeolithIC

Barbaz:t, M., 1997. T roubo.t: Grottc du Mo uli n. Bilfl.1J. ScientijilJllc 1996, Lewis-Williams, J. D . & T. D owson, 1990. Th ro ug h the veil: sand rock pa in tin gs
S. n. A. klidi-Pyri:1Ji:cs, 154-5. and the rock face. Soltth AfriCfl.lI ArchacologicaL Bulletill 4 5, 5- 16.
BCgOllCl1, R. & J. C[orrt.:s, 198 1. Appo rts 1110bilicrs da ns les C~wc rn t:s du Vol p LicVl"c, V. & J. Y. Loude, 1990. Le CIJn.lIIfl1J.is1Jl.e des Kn./nsh dft Pahistn.lI .
( En lenc, Ics Trois-Frercs, Ie Tue d'Audoubcrt ). Altn.lJJinl- Symposium, Paris: C.N.H..S.
Madrid-Asturias-S antandcr, 15-2 1 Oewbre 1979, 157- 88. Lorblanc het, M., 1999. Grottcs ornees paleolithiques du Querc}': analyse des
1982. Des Ex -voros Magdalcnic ns? La ReelJcrebe 132, 5 18- 20 . pigments. Bilall Scie1/t~fiq1fc 1998) S. R . A. Ivlidi-Pyrimecs, 188-9.
1983. APropos d'unc datation radiocarbonc de " hab itat Ilugctaic ni cn du Tuc Sharpe , K. & L. van Gelder, 2004. Childre n and Paleolithic 'art': indications
d'Audollbcrr. Bulletin de la SocietC Prcbistoriqne Aricgc-Pyrimccs fi'orn Routll gnac C:tvc, France. lutemati01tn./ NelPsletter on Roe/? Art
xxxvrn, 119- 22. 38 , 9- 17.
Bcgollcn, R., 1. Clones, J. -P. Giraud & F. RO Ll zaud, 1996. Os plantts cr Villave rde Bonill a, V., 1994. A1,tc paleoliticlJ de Ln eO]Ja del Pmpallo: eJtudio de la
pcintures I"u pestrcs dans Ia cavcrnc d'En!cnc, in H . Dclportc & J. Clartcs colcccioll de plafJllctns), en.utos gmbndos)' pi1Jtndos. Valencia: Di putaci6.
(cds.) l)rcuces PrcbistorifJllcs: Al'tS ct Societes (Acres du Congrcs du l I 8 c \·Vhidcy, D.S., 2000. 77)e Al°t of the Sbmual1: Nn.tille Americnn Rock A1·t of
Congres Nationa l des Socictes Savan tcs, Pau, 1993 ), 283- 306. CnlijlJl'JJia. Salt Uikc City: Un ive rsity of Uta h Pr~ss.
Buisson, D., 1995. Brasscmpou )': presentation du site ct prob lcl11cs poses par Ics
~oLl i lies rcce m es, in H . Ddportc &]. Clottes (cds.) Pyrellees Pre/Jistoriqllcs:
A/,ts ct Societes (Acres du Congrcs du U 8 c Congrcs Nat.io nal des Societes
S:lVan tes, P ~lll, 1993 ), 423-437.
Clottes, ]. , 1984. Midi -Pyrenees, in L} Art des Callcl'uCJ: Atlas des Grottcs Onlces
Pn/eolit/Ji'l"cs F1"fl. 1J.~aiscs. Paris: Min istcrc de Ia Culture, Imprimeric
Nation:t1c, 358- 68.
1993. Ichnologic, in CAn parietal paleolithiqlle: Tcclmiqlfes et methodes d }
(;tl/.dc, cd. Grou pe de RcAcxio ll sur l'Art Parieta l Palcolit hi quc (G RAPP ),
59- 66.
1999. Grmlfics Gimfcs et FOllrmis )Jertes: Petites Histoil"Cs dc Prchistoi1"e. Paris:
L.1. Maison des Roches.
2003a. Retllm to Chamlct Cn)Jc. London: Tham es & Hudso n.
2003b. Cha'lf.J)ct Crwc: n)C An of Em'licst Times. Salt Lake C ity: The Unive rsity
of Utah Press.
Clottes, ] ., L. Duporr & V. FCl"uglio, 1990 . Les signcs du Placard . Bulletin de la
Societe Prehistoriqlfc Adege-Pyrcl1 ces XLV, 15-49.
C lottes, J. & R. Simonnet, 1990. Retour all Reseal! CJasrres. Prchistoin:
A1'iegeoisc, Bu//etiu de la societe prehistoriqllc Anege-PYl'cl1CCS XLV, 5 1- 139.
Clottes, J. , H. Valladas, H. Cac hier & M. Arnold, 1992. Des dates pour Niaux
ct Ga rgas. Bulletiu de la Soeii:ti: Prchisto1"iqlfc FI"n.1t(aise 89, 2 70-4.
Com bier, ]., 1984. Grotte de la Tctc-d u-Lion. LJArt des Cn]JeJ"1Jes: Atlas des
Grottcs Omces Pali:olitbiqlles Fmu~niscs. Paris: Ministcre de Ia Cu lture,
Imprimc ri e Natio l1:tlc, 595- 9.
Flood, ] ., 1997. Rock Art oftbe Dren1J1timc. Sydney: Angus & Robertso n.
G:t]"cia, M., 1-1 . Duday & P. COll rra ud, 1990. Lcs Emp n.:intcs el u Rcscau
Clastres. Bulletin de In Societe Prcbistoriqlle Aricge-PyrclIces 45 , 167-87.
Lcroi -Gourhan, Ar. &] . Albin, 1979. Lnscflux bJCOlI1lIl. Paris: C.N.H..S .
Lcwis-\·VilkllllS, J. D ., 2002. n)e M illd ill tbe emle. London: Th ames & H udson.

14
Cognition and climate: why is Upper Palaeolithic
cave art almost confined to the Franco-Cantabrian
region?
Patti Mcllan
Lcs Hommes du P~M_olithiqllc superieur rcstcnr pourrant Ics premiers a nOliS
bisser Ie I11cSS~lgC d ' unc hUI1131lirc parycnuc sur notre sol au dcpasscl11cnt spirituel
qui con duit :1 \a creation artistiqu c. ( Denise de Sonncvillc-Bordcs 1960: 500)
Unquestionably the most d ramatic - if enigmatic - expressio n of
human spirituality in the course of ca rl y human development is provided
by the extraordinary concentratio n of cave art hidden deep inside the
interiors of over a hundred separate caves in southern France and
northern Spain. The social, symbolic, and spiritlJa\ ' meaning' of th is art
has occupied a la rge part of the archaeological li terature over the past
centu ry ( Leroi -Gourhan 1968; Ucko & Rosenfeld 1967; Lewis-Williams
2002 ). To say that the cog niti ve mean ings of this art remain hig hly
controversial is no doubt an understatement, as seve ral of the papers in
the prese nt vol um e show. Even so, few wo ul d dispute that the art must
reflect so me kind of deeply 'spiritual' belief syste ms, presumably
reflecting beliefs in some forms of spiritua l entities, gods, o r other
'supernatural' forces, which can fairly be desc ribed as earl y forms of
' religious' expression.
In lllallY ways the most remarkable aspect of this art howcvc.:r is its
geographical concentration (with a few notable exceptions) within one
vcry restri cted area ofwcsrcrn Europe, extending from the Loire valley of
centra] France to the Cantabrian mountains of northwestern Spain (sec
Fi g ure 14.1). The present paper foclises specincally on th is aspect. VVhat,
in short, were the und erlying social, demographic Or other factors which
led to this extraordinary eruption of ca\'e art over such a comparatively
restricted gcogr.tph ica l zone of Upper Palaeolithic Europe?
Cognition and climate
14.1. Oist~ibu.tion of Upper Palaeolithic cave art in Europe (black circles) showing the massive
co ~cemratlon In the Franco-Cantabrian region. Occurrences of Upper Palaeolithic portable art are
rndlcated by triangular symbols. (Adapted (rom Stringer & Andrews 2003)
Part of the answer to th is question of cOll rse lies in geology. The
extensive li mestone formations of so uthwestern France, the Pyrenees and
Cantab rian Spain evidently provided ideal conditions for the fOrlnation of
underground cave systems, which in turn provided the essential pre -
requisi te (in a sense the essentia l artistic canvases) for the production of
the art. But the Occurrence of similar geological for matio ns in man y
o ther parts of Eu rope demonstrate beyond any doubt that geology
alo ne can never provide more than a small part of the explanation for
the remarkable concentration of cave art within the so-called Franco-
Cantab ri an region.
Eve n if gcology alone ca nnot provide the answe r, I wou ld argue that
the ultimate causes for the concentration of cave art within these reg ions
must be sought in some form of broadly environmental facto rs. In brief,
I will suggest that the explosion of this :lIT within this particu lar region
can be see n as a reAection of various demographic mechanisms di rectly
related to the !'pecial nature of climatic and associated ecological
conditions within the region throughout the rime span of the Upper
Palaeolithic period - [hat is, during the later part of the last icc age,
between ca. thi rty-two thousand and thirteen thousand years ago in 'raw'
214 Paul Mellars Cognition and climate

(i.e. ullcalib rated) radi ocarbon terms, or between ca . 36,000 and ]4,000
BP (before present) in ac tu al calend ri cal years (Hughen ct 31. 2004,
Fairbanks ct al. 2005 ). Tn the fi rst section below I will look at the special
ecological features of this region under icc-age conditions, while ill the
second part I wi ll look at the apparent impact of these featu res on
particular aspects of the demographic and social dimensions of the
contemporaneous Upper Palaeolithic societies. fn the third section I will
attempt to suggest - morc speculatively - some of the potential cul tural
mechanisms whereby these social and demographic patterns could have
led to the extraordinary florescence of the Franco-Ca ntabrian cave art.
oxygen-isotope records and associated pollen sequences over this rime
range (see Figure 14.2 ) (Dansgaard et a!. 1993, Shackleton ct al. 2000,
Sanchez-Goni et aL 2002, van Andel & Davies 2003 ). Neve rtllcless, the
combined evidence £1'om these climatic records suggest that the overal l
tem perature range within the oceanic, southwest French region varied
between ca. - 2°C in winte r and 12°C in Slimm er, compared to ranges
between - 10°C and 18°C in the interior areas of central and eastern
Europe (va n Andel & D avies 2003 ).
VEGE TATION PATTERNS

Throughollt the paper th e emp hasis will be primarily on the classic The most direct impact of these temperature regimes was on the char-
southwest French region, thoug h it can be argued that closely simi lar ac ter. of the vegetation within southwestern France - and in particular
facto rs can be extended to both the Pyrenea n regio n and the adjacent, on the de nsity of U"ee cover. T ree growth in general is dependent m uch
ecologically similar areas of Cantabrian Spain . The discussion draws on a more on slimmer th an on win ter temperatu res, and it is now clear that
number ofm )' own earlier papers (MeJlars 1973, 1985, 1996 ) togeth er
with other impo rtant studies b)' Jochim (1983 ), Hayden et a!. (1987 ),
Mithen (1990) and others. CENTRAL FRANCE
PRECIPITATION TEMPERATURE Age
- , - - -- - ---,......;;;; , - - - - - - - - - - - - y - T 0
Environmental factors
10
I wou ld suggest that there we re three particu lar features of climatic and
environm ental patterns within the so uthwest French region during the 20
20
Upper Palaeolith ic period wh ich directly underlay the remarkable con-
centration of both Uppe r Palaeolithic occupation and the florescence of 30

cave art. Briefly, these can be sum marized as follows.

40
40
CLIMATIC PATTER NS

In climatic terms the critical features of the southwest French region derive
50
fi'OIll its extreme oceanic position along the western Atl antic coastl ine of
Eu rope. At the present day th is is reflected in summer-season temperatures
60
which are much cooler than those in the more central , continental regions
uncal cal
of Europe and - equally if not more significantly - su bstantiaJl y wanner
200 400 600 800 -3 o 10 14 ka
winter temperatures. At present, summer temperatures in this region are mm
around SoC cooler than in t he more continental regions, with winter
14.2. Reconstructed climatic fluctuations in central France over the past 60.000 years,
temperatures lip to SoC warmer. The extrapolation of these temperature based on a long pollen seque nce from the Massif Central. Note the occurrence of sig-
contrasts into the Upper Palaeolithic time range is inevitably more hypo- nificant oscillations during the course of the Upper Palaeolithic period (ca. 40.000-12.500 BP)
and the sudden onset of much warmer conditions at the time of the Magdalenian to
thl:tical, and of course varied with some of the rapid climatic oscilbtions Azilian transition around 12,500 (radiocarbon years) BP. (Reproduced from Van Andel &
which have now been documented frol11 the deep-sea core and ice-core Davies 2003)
2 1b Paul M e llars
t he relativel y low sumJ11 er tempe ratu res expe rienced th rougholl t
sou thwestern France duri ng at least the greate r pan of the last glaciati o n
wou ld have led to t he virtual elim ination of sig ni fica n t t ree g rowth in al l
except th e most shel te red , sO ll t h - o r wcst -f:1cin g va lleys ( Huntley cr 31.
2003 , Lcroi-Gourhan 1977). vV hat this means in geograp hical terms is
that these southwestern areas of France and the adj acent regions of
Canta brian Spain would have suppo rted the most southerly areas o f
essentially opell , tundra o r steppe/ tund ra-like vegetatio n encou ntered
anyw here in Europe during t he last glaciation (Figure 14.3 ) (Butzer 1971;
Iversen 1973; Van Andel & Tzedakis 1996). At the same time, ho\vcvc r,
t hese ve ry so utherl y ar eas of steppe/tundra would also have benefited fi·o m
sig nifi cantl y greater sunlight than those in t he mo re no rt herly regio ns of
Europe, and accordingly a m uch richer and mo re prod uctive growth of all
fo rms o fl ow-g rowing vegetation - together wit h a correspo ndingly lo nge r
period o f growth into t he late au tumn , win ter an d earl y spring mo nt hs. As
Karl Butzer ( 197 1: 463) pointed out over thil1Y years ago, combin ed with
abundant rain fall ) t hese so uth westerl y areas of Euro pe are likel y to have
o 200 400 600 miles
a 500 1000 km
.'
o Tundra
_Forest
Q Parkundra
CJSleppe
14. 3. Reco nstructed distribution o f vegetati o n zo nes in Euro pe at t he tim e of the max-
imu m o f the last glaciado n. aro und 20.000 BP . N o t e how t he di stri butio n o f o pen. tund ra-
li ke vegeta tio n extends much furthe r t o th e sout h in sOu thwestern Fra nce than in other
regio ns of Euro pe. (Adapted from Iverse n 1973)
Co g nit io n and climate
expe ri enced some of th e richest co nditio ns (i.e. the hi ghest pro ductivitics)
fo r t he growth o f herbaceous t un dra and steppe vege tatio n ava ilable
anywhe re wit hin the Eu ropean land mass du ri ng glacial ti mes.
A N I MA L COMMU N I T I ES
From the standpoin t of the co ntcmporaneous human communities, t he
most signifi ca n t impact o f t hcse com bined climatic and vegetatio nal
co nditions would have bee n to p rovide almost idcal co nd itio ns to sup-
porr rich aJl d d ense po pulatio ns of vari o us herb ivo rous anim al species) o n
whic h the subsistence and su rviva l of t he Up per Palaeo lit hi c po pulatio ns
clearl y depend ed . T o visualize so uthwcste rn France as a kind of Iast-
glacial Serenge ti gam e rese rve wo uld no do u bt be an exaggeratio n ) b u t
not nccessari ly o n an ove rd ramatic scale. 'liVe know fi·o m t he act ual f.1. un aJ
asse mblages recovered fro m ma ny so ut hwest French U pper Palaeolit hi c
sitcs that t he fa un al communi tics incl ud ed not on ly vast herd s of reindee r
(su pported by thc ri ch tundra vegetation, with g rowth" o f mosses,
lichens, etc. ) but also a r:l nge of other o pcn-coun t ry species incl udin g the
wild horse, wi ld oxen (au rochs), steppe bison and red deer (Figure 14.4 ),
togethe r wit h mo re spo rad ic species suc h as ibex, chamo is, mamm oth)
rhinoce ros and (at least d urin g t he mild er) inte rstad ial episod es) wild pi g)
roc deer and gia n t el k - all species wc ll rep rese nted in th e Palaeo lit hic
cave art itsel f (Delpech 1983; Boyle 1990; Leroi-Gour han 1968 ).
Pe rh aps t he most sig ni ficant feature whi ch evidentl y played a cruci:l l
ro le in t he Up per Palaeo lith ic occupatio n of so uth wes tern France how-
ever was the prese nce of exceptio nall y rich and mi g ratory po pulations o f
rei ndeer. In ~I1 most half of th e doc um cnted Upper Palaeoli t hi c sites in
this region re indeer acco un ts for over 9 0 perce nt of t he total f.1. un ai
rema ins, and in several sites reaches freq ucncies of betwee n 95 and 100
percent (see Figure 14.5 ) ( Boyle 1990; Mel lars 1973, 2004). T he migra-
tion patterns of reindee r in t his regio n have stimulated so me d ebatc,
bu t t here is now increasing evidence from d irect seasonali ty stu d ies of
g rowth -ring patterns in reindeer teet h that th ese herds m ust have bee n
prese nt wit hi n t he majo r ri ve r vall eys of t he Perigo rd and adjace nt regio ns
t hrougho ut most of t he win ter mon ths, with a p ro ba ble m ig ra tion up
into t he hig her elevatio ns of t he Iv lnssif Ccntral (o r co nceivabl y o nto t he
platea ux rcgio ns betwee n thc main ri ve r va lkys) du ring t he mid-Slimme r
mo nths ( Bouchud 1966; Spiess 1979; Gordo n 1988; Pike-Tal' 199 1;
Burke & Pi ke-Ta y 1997). lt was d earl y this pnrti cuia r food reso urce
218 Paul M e llars Cognition and climate

level culture Reindeer Horse Bovids Red Deer populations wou ld appea r to bear o ut ( Birdsell 1968; Kelly 1995;
I I
~ ;
~
Perigordian V b Pennington 200 1; Binford 200 1; Read & LeBla nc 2 003 ). T he important

....
86 - 01

~I (
*••
02 - E4 Perigordian V a caveat in t his co ntext is what is so metimes referred to as t he ecological law
o f the min imum (or 'Leibig's law' ), which asserts t hat the critical control
D4/E Perigordian V a - /
,I exerted by environmental facto rs on biological pop ulations is nOt so
Fl - Ge Aurignacian IV ,.l.: W
( 3 much the opcrn.ll productivity of t he ecosystem on a long-term basis, bu t

•
... ~
F/G o Aurignacian IV t ---- rather the densities of population that can be SupPOl-ted during periods of

G1 - G3 Aurignacian III ~ ~I maximum scarcity - whether t hese occu r on a reg ul ar seasonal or more

Hl - 13 Aurignacian III ~ occasional and unpredictable long-term basis ( Read & LeBlanc 2003 ). In

~
o ther wo rds, there is I.ittl e to be gained by populations expanding dra-
•I
4
J - K3 Aurignacian 11 matical ly during periods of economi c 'a bund ance', if t he populatio ns are
K4 - Ll Aurignacian 1I11 subsequently cut back by intervening episod es of resource scarcity. In th is
~I
/

~
"- context the reforc the main poin t to be stressed is not sim ply the exce p-
l1b - Mlb Chatelperroniani
Aurignacian 0 tional 'wealth' of an im al food resoll rces avai lable wit hin t he so ut h \-vest
,
80 40
, 0, ,
40 ,
80
French regio n as a w hole, but the re lative dil)Crsity of thec;e reso urces in
Percentage
ecological and eco nomic terms (Dclpech 1983; Mellars 1985; Boyle
14.4. Frequencies of different spec ies of <Inimals (rei ndeer, horse, red deer and either
bison or oxen) recorded through the different levels of Upper Palaeolithic occupation at 1990). It is t hi s facto r wh ich m ust have provided t he essen ti al safety net
the site of La Ferrassie (Dordogne) between ca. 40,000 and 25,000 BP. This demonstrates fo r population survival dur ing t he occasional period s whe n tlle regu lar
that all of these species were clearly present in the southwest French region throughout
most if not all of the Upper Palaeolith ic sequence. (From Mellars 1985)
mi gration of large reindee r he rds t hrough the valleys of t he D ordog ne,
Vezerc an d elscw here fa iled , as a resu lt of t he notori o us tc nd ency
of reindeer and carriboll populatio ns to 'crash' as a resu lt of f.1ctO rs
t hat p rovided the ma instay of the d iet of Upper Palaeoli thic groups
throughout at least the autumn , winter and sp ring months of the year.

20 Mousterian 14.5. Percentages of r!

(n = 81) recovered from Upper Pa
Demographic and social patterns
15 southwestern France (upp'
~
pared with those from pre!
POPULATION DENSITY "
0>
10 (Neanderthal) sites. Over
The most obvious and direct ettect of t he va ri o ll s cl imatic an d ecological
'"
:0
E mented Upper Palaeolithic

f.:1crors outlined earlier would have been to support the concentration of "
~
~
5 show overall frequencies 0

ullusually/ exceptionally high densities of human populations within the

'"c
<ii 0
than 90 percent of the t
assemblages. (From Mellars
~
~
southwest French regio n t hro ughout most if not all of t he last-g lacial 30
~ Upper Palaeolithic
pe riod - as the sheer wcalth and density of the archaeological reco rd in II 25 (n = 166)
'0
th is region clearly reveals (de Son nevil 1c- Bordes 1960; Mellars 1973; 20

Laville et al. 198 1; Demars 1996; Boquet-Appc1 & Demars 2000 ). I am

""
ioO 15
a." 10
assuming here of course that in the final ana lysis it is primarily Malthusian
demographic mechanisms which p rovide the primary dete rm inant for th e 5
0
1
r-n
varying levels of h un ter-gatherer pop ulati ons in ditlcrc nt regio ns - an 0 10 ~ W ~ ~ M ro ~ w 100
assurn tion wh ich man I d iffe rent analyses of reccnt hu nter-gathe rer Percentage of tolal faunal remains
220 Paul Mellars
slIch as the sporadic icing-over of tundra vegetation during the winter
mo nths, the effects of vegetation fi res in the slimmer) o r indeed rhe ovcr-
exploitation of the reindeer herds by the human g roups themse lves
( Burch 1972; Spiess 1979; Jackson & Thacker 1997). The devastating
effects of icing-over of reindeer food supplies expe rienced a few years ago
over large areas of northern Siberia provides a graphic illustration of this.
As noted above, the archaeo logical record clearly reveals t hat al t hough
re indeer provided th e ove rwhelming bu lk o f winte r-season food supplies
throughout the greater part of the Upper Palaeol ithic, there wefe always
several other animal species present (horse, bisoll, aurochs, red deer, etc.)
wh ich cou ld be explo ited during occ;1sio nal seasons when the reind ee r
popu lations failed (Figure 14. 3). Unless all these an imal species were
affected sim ultaneously by cl imati c o r other factors, the human popula-
tions would almost certainly still have been ab le to survive on these other
species, until the reindeer popu lations recove red. It is this factor, I wou ld
suggest - ra ther th an the occasional exploit;1tion of salmon or other
fish resou rces, as suggested by Johim ( 1983 ), though as yet with little
archaeological support (Nlellars 1985; H ayden et al. 1987 ) - which
accounts for t he impressive densities of hUITI;1n populations which co ul d
be supported within th e so ut hwest French region throughout ITIost if
not ;111 of the Upper P;1laeolithic time range.
GROUP SIZES
A second probable conseq uence of the unu su;11 we;1lth and co ncentr;1tion
o f anima l popu lations within t he so uthwest French region would be in
the formation - for at least part of the annual cycle - o f re latively large
social and residential groupings, possibl y (t houg h more debatabl y) ori-
ented towards the large-scale communal hunting of the migrating rein -
dee r herds (Kell y 1995 ; Binford 200 I ; Lee & DeVore 1968; Demars
1996). Here, of cou rse, it must be ac knowl edged that incontrovertible
evidence for these large social aggregates remains much more difficult to
demonstrate fi·om the archaeological data alone, since it is clear th at in
some cases apparently large, exte nsive occupation areas in cave and rock
shelter sites co uld conceivably be the products of many repeated visits to
t he sites b y comparatively smail g roups, as opposed to simultaneous
occupation of t he entire settl ement areas by much larger g roups (Mella rs
1973). Even so it is d ifficu lt to visuali ze that the ve ry large occupation
areas documented at sites such as Laugcric Haute, the Ab ri Pataud ,
Cognition and climate
La ussel, La Madeleine and elsewhere in t he Vezerc vailey - in some cases
extendi ng between seventy and two hundred metres alo ng th e adjacent
cliff face (!"'lellars 1973; Laville et al. 1981 ) - can be attributed entirely to
the activities of very small human g roups. This is especiall y the case when
(as at the Abri Pataud ) several of the occupations seem to have been
characte ri zed by large, mo re or less even ly spaced hearths ( NIovius 1966).
The re arc also cases (as in rhe ri ch, ea rl y Aurignacian levels in the closely
adjacent sites of Abri Blanchard , Abri Castanet, and La Souquctte in
the Castelmerle valley) where there are sto ng suggestions t ha t a numbe r
of adjacent rock shelters may have been occupied simultaneously
(de Sonneville-Bordcs 1960: 4 1, 146; White 1989 ). As noted above , the
ques tion of how f.:1r t hese sites ma y reflect the llse of large -scale COm -
munal huntin g strategies for the exploitation of the migratin g reindeer
herds remains more co ntroversial (Spiess 1979; En loe 1993; Dema rs
1998 ). Buteve n so it is hard to escape the impression that at least some ofthe
social aggregations in these large reindee r-hunting sites mllst re Aect some-
thing more than d1C activities of just th ree or four nuclear f.:'lm il y gro ups.
SE DENT ISM
Thirdly, it is equ all y difficu lt to escape the impression that at least some
of these large reindeer-h unting settlements reflect occupation ove r sub-
stantial parts of the annlla l cycle, p robably representing periods ofar least
severa l weeks, if not several months. Tooth -sectionin g and o th er sea-
so nality studi es can rarel y achieve a very nne level of chrono logica l
reso lution, but there are at least stro ng hints from these studies that sites
such as the Abri Castanet, Abri Pataud and La Madeleine were occupied
ove r a substantial part of each winter season, probably extending from
aro und December or January to J\Il arch or April (Spiess 1979; Gordon
1988 ; Pike-Tal' 1991 ; Burke & Pike Tal' 1997). In support of this o ne
could also note the evidence for the excavation of sun ken , pit-like living
structures at sites such as th e Abri Pataud and Fourncau du Diablc, and
the tendency (noted ea rlier ) to ar ran ge hea rths in a f.:lirly regula r, evenly
spaced way (MeHars 1973; Movius 1966 ). The sheer wealth , dcnsity and
concentration of all kind s of occupation debris (lith ic arref..lcts, an imal
bo nes, hearth deposits, etc.) d oc umented in many of the sites ( Lavi ll e
et al. 198 1) co ul d also arguc in th e same d irection. It is as yet diffi cu lt [0
cite evidence for any equall y dense and intensive patterns of Upper
Palaeoli t hi c occ upation in other regions of E urope, wit h the notable
222 Paul Mellars
exception of some of the opcn ~ ai r Gr:wcttial1 and Pavlovian settlements
in centra l Eu rope ( ODin! Vcston icc, Pavlov, etc. ) or perhaps so me of t he
broadly similar sites at Kostcilki and elsewhere o n the South Russian plain
(Gamble 1999; Soffer 1985 ).
TERRITORIALITY AND ETHNICITY
Finall y, one could ad vance a Ilumber of argulll ents that all of th e
demographic and social patterns disclIssed above wou ld have acted as a
stro ng incenti ve towards the emergence of some fairl y sharpl y defined
te rritoria l and ethnic di visio ns between the difterent Upper Palaeolithic
communi ties in southwestern France (David 1973, 1985; Mcllars 1985 ,
1996 ). I n th e anthro pological literatu re, this point hJS been argued in
several different ways. Dyso n- Hudso n and Smith ( 1978 ) arg ued that any
situatio n o f potential o r actua l compe titio n o r co nflict for essential ceo·
nomic resou rces wou ld lead almost inevitab ly to 1110 rc sharpl y defin ed
te rritorial bo undaries, if only as a means of min imi zing infi"ingemcnts and
potential co nflict between adjacent gro ups over the exploitation of scarce
resources (see also Keeley 1988; Read & LeBlanc 2003 ). The point has
also been made that o nl y groups who were li ving in relati vel y hi g h
population densities wou ld in f.:1cr be capablc of exercising an y kind of
effective control o r ' policing' over the adhe rence to te rritorial bo und -
aries. However these social and econo mic mechanisms operated, there is
a large amount of di rect ethn ograph ic evidence that lang uage and kin-
ship-based 'tri bal' groupi ngs amo ng hunter gathere rs tend to occupy
smaller and mo re tightl y defined areas in regio ns of relative ly hi gh popu -
lation densities than among more sparsely distributed groups - best
reflected perhaps in Birdsell's ( 1968 ) correlation betwee n d ialectical u-ibal
g ro up areas and annual rainfall values in diflerent regions of Australia,
and by the supposedl y ' magic number' of ca. five hun dred individuaJs
for the modal size of man y huntc r-gathere r tri bes ( Lee & DeVore 1968 ;
Wo bst 1974; Peterso n 1978; Kelly 1995 ).
In archaeological terms, some attempts to defi ne a number of
potential d ialectical o r tribal groupings of this kind wc re provided in
Ni cholas David 's study of the Noai ll bn (i.e. late r Gr:.wettian ) industries
\Vit hin diffe rent areas o fwcstern and ccntral France, and in simi lar studi es
by Philip Smith of the latcr Solutrbn industries (David 1973, 1985;
Smith 1966 ). Nevertheless it should be noted that in all these cases there
was substantial evidence for thc apparent exchange o f vario us items of
Cognition and climate
ma terial cu ltu re (such as high -quality va rieties of flint, or decorativc
prestige items such as sea shells) betwee n these separate regional popu -
lations (Taborin 199 3; Dcmars 1998 ). Arg uab ly these cou ld be seen as a
further way of mitigating potential sources of conflict over territorial
boundaries and shared resou rces betwee n the adjacent groups, and per-
haps creatin g what C li ve Gamble ( 1983, 1999 ) has aptly descri bed as
' allia nce netwo rks' to allow some potential sharing of either resources)
information or even econom ic te rritories) du ring occasio nal episodes of
seasonal o r more long-te rm resource scarcity (see also Shennan 2002 ;
Read & LeBlanc 2003 ).
The social foundations of Upper Palaeolithic art
T he final ) and most central question ) of course, is what relevance all of
these social and demograph ic patte rns may have as a potential explana-
tio n fo r the dramatic prol iferatio n of elaborate cave art Wilhlll the Uppe r
Palaeolithic comm unities of the Franco-Cantabrian region. Here of
course the arguments inevitably become 1110re specu lative, and o pen to a
variety of diffe rent theoretical perspectives. BrieAy, at least three different
theo retical scenarios can be visualized in th is context.
F irst) one co ul d sec the cave art at least partly as a reflectio n of thc
ethn ic o r terri to rial d ivisio ns withi n the Uppe r Palaeol ithic grou ps. As
d iscussed above, the tig ht pac kin g of Upper Palaeolithic populations
within relati vely small geograp hical areas in so uth western France co uld
be argued as promoting mo rc tightly defined territo ri al and social
d ivisions betwcen the diffe rent g roups, with a corresponding emphasis
o n va rious fo rms of ethnic symbolism to reflect and reinforce these
social and territo ri al d ivisions ('vViess ncr 1983, 1984 ). Seell in broadly
' phe norneno logical' terms, one cou ld see the location of the principal
cave art sites as an atte mpt to legitimate and perpetuate these socio-
territorial divisions - perhaps rep rese ntin g territorial markers in broad ly
the same way as is often envisaged to r, say, the megalithic tombs and
round barrows in later prehistory - al tho ug h clearly in this case with nor
such an immediate visual impact on the slllTounding landscape. In certain
ways perhaps th is pe rspective wou ld reca ll some of the ea rli er notio ns of
tribal 'totem ic' sym bolism (Uc ko & Rose nfeld 1967; Lewis- VV iliiams
2002), as a facto r und erlying rh e distribution and exp ression of d ifferent
fo rms of cave art.
224 Paul Mellars
A second perspective wou ld be to sec the art 35 a particularly graphi c
refl ecti o n o f the power of reli g io n and ritual as a means of integrating and
consolidating social g ro ups, parti cu larly under the impact of potential
competitio n for territories and resources from adjace nt groups, and
perhaps even morc so under the threat of periodic economic crises
resul ting from seasonal or 111 0re lo ng-term fluctuations in the avai lability
of reindeer or oth er criti cal resources - for the va rious climati c and
ecological reasons discussed earlier. Religion and associated ritual in this
context cou ld be seen as a powerful psycho logical fo rce, nor o nl y for
integratin g the social groups and reinforcing adherence [0 group social
no rms and values (as it clearly does in thc case of present-day religious
groups) but also as a psychological force to reduce personal anxiety in the
f..1CC of va rious unpred ictable risks and dangers to the survival of the
society as a whole. At times of personal danger, human groups do perhaps
tend to resort to religion and appeals to othcr 'supernatural' fo rces more
often than in times of social and economic security.
Third ly, we cou ld see the an Illuch mo re directly as a reflection of the
power and authorit)1of particular individuals within the Upper Palaeoli thic
communities, and acting as a powerful ritualistic means of reinforci ng the
status and audl ority of these individuals among other members of the
gro ups. The illdividiuals in questio n could presumably have been eidler
shamans (as David Lcwis-VVilliams and Jean C lottes have argued vcry
effecti vel y in their papers elsewhere and in this volume ) or more general
lbig men' who were able to emerge withi n the relatively large and perhaps
semi perm anent residcntia1 gro upings postulated for many of the larger
Upper Palaeolithic settlements within the south wcstern French region.
vVhicheve r way the situation is el1\~sagcd , the re can be little doubt that
much of the cave art can be attributed to t he activities ofspccialists, either
worki ng d irccdy to suppo rt thei r own status and prestige within societ)', o r
as an ancillary part of the power structure of other individua1s ( Lcwis-
\Villiams 2002 ). Once again, one is remindcd of the importance of rinla1,
art and impressive symbolic centres (s uch as cathed rals or mosques) in
reinforcing the power-base of religiolls and political leaders within historic
and modcrn societies . As argued earlier, powerful individ uals of this kind
wo uld seem f.:1 r morc likely to emerge within the context of relatively large
and sem i-permanent residential units than in the context of very small ,
dispersed and highl y mobile hunter-gatherer groups (Joh nson 1982;
KeeJcx 1988; Ke ll ' 1995; Shennan 2002 ).
Cognition and climate
No doubt all these speculatio ns cou ld be pursued mllch furth er. And
of course we should beware offalling in to the simpljstic assumptio n that a
single explanatory principle can account for the total spectrum ofthc art,
as opposed to a range o f mo re complex (and probably more realistic)
l1lulticausal explanations. J\Il y purpose here has simply been to show how
a variety of what cou ld be termed largely 'functionalist' explanations
cou ld be invoked to account for the extraordinary proliferation and
d iversity of cave an with in o ne small region of Western Europe, and to
argue that the most critical single fac tor underlying th is proliferation is
likely to have been the exceptional density and concentration of human
popu lation s with in th is region , whi ch we re dependent ultimately o n the
special combination of climatic and enviro nmen tal conditions within
these ocean ic regio ns of Western Europe.
If one is looki ng fo r a final demonstra tio n of the powerful role of
ecological factors in promotin g the extraordinary eruptio n of cave art
within the Franco-Canra.brian region , then this is prm lded most
grap hicali y by the remarkabl y sudden and abrupt disappearance of the
cave art at almost precisely the time when the special combination of
climatic and associated enviro nmental features discussed above dis-
appeared at the end of the last-glacial period, at around 12 ,500 BP in
rad iocarbon yea rs, or ca. 14,000 BP in 'absolute' calendrical yea rs. This is
the period of the transition from the classicall y 'U pper Palaeolithic'
cultll rc of the late Magdaknian to the essentially 'Mesolithic' cu lture of
the immed iately succeeding Azilian - now dated closely to around
12,500 BP in rad iocarbon terms (Meliars 1994; Housley et a!. 1997;
Mithen 2003 ). At this time we know that te mperaturcs in western
Europe rose sharpl y by at least 8- IO' C (sec Figure 14. 2 ) (van Andel &
Davies 2003 ), foll owed by the rap id invasio n of filll y forest vegetation
into southwestern France, and the eq uall y rapid extinction of the typically
o pen-country, 'glacial' animal communities o n which the subsistence of
the whole of the Upper Palaeo li thic cul tures had depended. Reindeer
d isap pears totally fr0111 the fa un al assemblages of the Azilian sites, to be
rc placed by a ra.nge of typicall y woodland , or mixed woodl and/o pen
species such as red decr, roe dccr, aurochs and wi ld boar (de Sonncville-
Bordes 1960; Oelpcch 1983; Boylc 1990). From present-day ecological
stud ies wc kn ow th;'lt thesc ;'I nima ls would have been li ving under vc ry
m uch lower overall dcnsities than were the preceding open country
species (due to the much lower productivity of low-growing plant
226 Paul MeHars Cognition and climate

communities in the closed -canopy forests: Butzer 197 1) whjlc the large
migratory herd movements of rhe reindeer - whi ch had fanned the
mainstay of the economy and associated demograph ic and social structures
of t he Upper Palaeo~thic groups - sudden ly disappea red (de Sonneville-
Bo rdes 1960: 498- 500 )_
The impact of this change can be seen in all aspects o f the archaeo-
logical transition from the late Magdalcnian to the Azilian: the OCClII"-
renee of Illuch fewe r (a nd above all mllch smaller and mo rc ephemeral )
occ upation sites; a sharp redu ction in t he size and co mplexity of both
stone tool and bone/antler techno logy; and the vi rtual disappearance
o f all for ms o f art - with t he exception of the enigmatic pai nted pebbles
and a few geometric or simple animal engravings 011 bone or stone
(Figure 14 _6) (de Sonneville-Bordes 1960; Mellars 1994; Mithen 2003 )_
The smail sizes of the Azilian g roups wou ld arguab ly have allowed li ttle
scope for the ro le of specialists craftsmen or artists. The effectively one-
to-one co rrelation of all t hese strikin g social , techn ological and artistic
changes with the simultaneo us changes in climatic and ecological
co nditions is beyo nd disp ute. Overall we cou ld see this as perhaps th e
most graphic illustration in p rehisto ry o f a rapid 'd egeneration' in tech -
nology and the complexity of m ateria l cu lture in the face of environ -
mental change. Stated bluntly, studies of the symbol ic and cog niti ve
di mensions of human culture - even in the twenty- first century - will
igno re the critical ro le of strongl y envi ro nmentall y co ntrol led facto rs
at its peril!
What environme ntal f~crors ca nn ot exp lai n of cou rse are the specific
for1lls taken by the Palaeolithic cave art, and t he deeper symbolic and
pe rce ptual meanings whi ch lay behind the co nception and production of
the art. But this is t he focus of the discussions of other contributors to
th is vo lume.
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Lcroi-Gourhan , AL, 1977. Les c1imats, Ics pl:"tnrcs ct les hommcs: Quaternaire
superieur d ' Europe occidentale. Stlfdia Geologica Polouicn 52, 249-61.
Lcwis-Williams, J. D. , 2002. TIJe MiliA in the Cm'e. London: Thamcs & Hudson .
Mellars, P. A. , 1973. The character of the Middle- Upper Palaeol ithi c transiti o n
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Prebist01Y, cd . C. Renfrew. Lo ndon: Duckworth, 255-76.
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poloLlY 30, 349- 85.
1994. T he Upper Palaeolithi c Revolution, in Tbe O:iforrllllltstmted Prehistory
of Europe, cd. B. C unl ifte. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 42- 78.
13U Paul Mella l"'s Cognition and climate

1996. The emergence of biologic lIly modern populations in Europe::1 social va n An del, T. H . & P. C. Tzedakis, 1996. Palaeolith ic la ndscapes of Europe
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S ECTION IV

REFLECTIONS ON THE
O RIGINS OF SPIRITUALITY
15

Interdisciplinary perspectives on human origins

and religious awareness

J. Wentzel ]Ian H ttysstcClt

As a C hristian theologian interested in human o ngins and th e

controvers ial isslie of hum an ' uniqueness" I have been inc reasing ly
drawn to the contri butions of palacoanthropologists and archaeologists
to th is challenging problem. In my ow n recent work I have been deeply
involved in uying to construct plausible ways for theology to enter into
this important inte rd isciplinary conversation. As a way of facilitating this
ki nd of cross-discipl inary dialoglle I have argued for a post!oJt,udntiounlist
ap proach to interdisciplinary dialogue, which implies three importanr
moves for theological rcAcctio n. First, as th eologians we should
acknowledge the radical conrcxtuality of all our intellectual wo rk, the
epistemically cr ucial role of interpreted ex peri ence, and the way that
d isciplinary trad itions shape th e val ues that info rm our reflectio n abo ut
God an d what wc believe to be God's prese nce in th e world . Second, a
postfoundati onalist notio n of rationali ty sho uld opc n o ur eyes to an
epistemi c obligation that poin ts beyond thc boundari es of o ur ow n
d iscipline, ou r local communities, groups, o r cultu res, toward plausible
fo rms of illterdisciplillaJ)' dialoglle (cf. va n Hu),sstcen \ 999 ). Against this
backg round I have argued fo r disti nct and impo rtan t difterenccs between
reaso ning strategies used by theologians and scientists. 1 have also
argued, howcver, that some importan t sha red rati ona l resources may
actllally be identified for these vcry diffe rent cog niti ve dornains of our
mcntal lives (cf. V3 n H uyssrec n 2006 ). 77)ird~'Y, it is precisel y these
shared ratio nal reso urces tha t en3blc interdiscipl inary dialogue, 3nd arc
ex pressed Illost clearl y by the notion of' tra1JSJ1crsni rationality. In thc..:
dia logue between thcolob'Y and o th er disciplines, transvcrs~d n.:ason in g
pro motes diHcrent but eq ually legitimate ways of viewing specific topics,
problems, traditio ns, or disciplines, and creates the kind of space where
236 J. wentzel van Huyssteen
d ifrc rcnt vo ices need not always be in contrad ictioll , o r in danger of
assi milating one another, but 3rc in fact dynamica ll y in teracti ve \\~th o ne
anothe r. This notion of trallsvc rsali ty thus provides a philosophical
window to ou r wider world of com munication through thought and action
(cf Schrag 1992: 148ft; Welsch 1996: 764ft) , and tcaches us to respect
the disc iplinary integrity of reasoning strategies as diA-crcnt as theology and
the sciences.
This way of dlinking is always concrete ) local, and contextual, but at
the same time reaches beyond local contexts to transdisciplinary con-
cerns. The overrid in g concern he re is as fo ll ows: while we always come to
QU I' inte rpersonal and cross-discipli nJ ry conve rsations with str ong per-
son:'! 1 bel iefs, commitments and even prejudices, :'! postfo und atio nalist
:'!pproach enables us to rea li ze that, in spite of o ur radi call y di ffe rent
reason in g strategies, there is also much that we share in terms of ou r
rational reso urces. An interdisciplina ry app roach, carefully thoug ht
through , can help us to identify these shared resou rces in d ifferent modes
o f knowledge so as to reach beyond the boundaries of our own trad i-
ti o nal disciplines in cross-contextual , cross-disciplinary conversation. It
can also enable us to identify possible shared conceptuaJ problems as
we negotiate the porous boundaries of our d iR-ercnt discipli nes.
One such shared interdiscipl inary problem is the concern fo r human
uniqueness, and how tha t may, o r may not, relate to hu ma n o ri gins
and the evoluti o n of religio us awa reness. It is, therefore, pre cisely in the
problem of' human uniqu eness' that theology and the sciences may find
a shared research trajecto ry. Ou r very h uman capacity (or mania?) for
self-defi nition can most probably be seen as one of the 'crowning
ach icvernents' of our species. As we all know today, however> no o ne trait
or accomplishment should ever be taken as the single defining charac-
teristic of what it means to be human. Moreover, what we see as ou r
humanness, or e\'en our distinct human ' uniqueness' , ultimately implies a
deeply moral choice : we arc not just biological creatures, but as cultural
creatures we have the rema rkable but dangerous abi lity to deter mine
whom we are going to include, or nor, as part of , us' (cf. Proctor 2003:
22Sf). Talki ng abo ut human un ique ness in reaso ning strategies JS dif-
te rent as rheology and th e sciences, th erefo re, wi ll always have a crucia ll y
im po rta nt mo ral dim ensio n. \lVe do Sl:e l11 to have a profo un d mo ral
responsibility when defi nin g o ursel ves, fo r nami ng o urselves always
assumes a specific kin d of reali ty that gives shape to the wo rl ds we create
Interdisciplinary perspectives
and experience. It is also im portant to ask, however, how reaso nable (or
not) it mig ht be for a theologian, afte r immersing hi m/herself in the
challenging contemporary debates in palaeoa nth ropology and archaeo l-
o gy, to expect scientists to providc a starting point, or important links,
for an intc rdisciplinary d isc ussion of issues like h uman o rigins, human
nature, human un iqueness, and even human destiny. Last but not least:
how realistic is it for a Christian theologian to expect scientists to take
theo logical contributions to these cruc iall y important topics seriously?
An interestin g part of our self-perception is that it is often the less
material aspects of the history of ou r specics that f:1sc inates LI S most in the
evolution of mode rn hum ans. We seem to g rasp at an intuitive level that
issues li ke lang uage, self-awa reness, conscio usness, mo ral awa reness,
symbo lic behav io ur and mytho logy arc probably th e defi nin g clements
that reall y make us human (cf. Lewi n 1993: 4 ). Yet exactly these clements
that most suggest h umanness arc often the least visible in th e prehistori c
record. For this rcason palaeoanthropologists have correctly fo cllsed on
more indjrect, but equally plausible material poi nte rs to the presence of
th e symbolic hu man m ind in carly human prehistory. Arguably the most
spectacular of the earliest evidences of symbol ic be havio ur in humans arc
the Palaeolithic cave paintings in South-vVest France and thc Basq uc
Country, pai nted towa rd the end of the last lec Age. T he haun ting
beauty of these preh istori c images, and th e creative cul tural explosio n
that they represe nt, sho ul d indeed fascina te an y theologian in te rested in
huma n o ri g ins.
At fi rst blush there d oes in fact seem to be a rather remarkab le con-
vergence between the evol utionary emergence of Homo sapiCHS, and
C hristian bcliefs in the origins of the human creature (cf. Ga rda- Rivera
2003: 9 ). In a sense the famous cultural explosion of the Upper
Palaeolithic marks the beginning of a new species much as the creation
myths of the Abrahamic religions refer to the arrival of a new species,
created in the 'image of God' . I But easy comparisons stop here, for in the
classic texts of the ancient Nca r East the pri mal human being is seen as
the significan t fo rerunne r of human ity, and as such defi nes the cmerging
relatio nship between h um an ity and the de ity. T he theologian, theretore,
needs to be aware' that the Gcnesis 1 tex ts are mea nt as clear expressio ns
of the uniqu cncss of th e primal human being, who occupi es a positio n
between th e de ity and humani ry, and who is th e o nl y o ne who can lay
claim to this d istinctio n (cf. Ca llender 2000 : 206f). T heologicall y, then,
238 J. Wentzel van Hu yssteen
being created ' in the image of God ' hi gh lig hts th e extraordinary
importance o f human beings: human beings arc in fact walking repre-
se ntations of God, and as slich o f exquisite value and importance
(cf. Towner 2001: 26 ), a tradition that has been aug mented ce nturies
latcr by a vcry specific focli s o n th e rational abi lities and moral awareness
of humans.
Against over two thousand yea rs of complex conceptual evolution in
the histo ry of ideas aftheological thou g ht, the prehistoric treasures from
rhe Upper Palaeolithic today seem to hn vc become almost impossible to
in te rp ret, their 'tru e mean ing' so elusive that it is virtually impossible to
recreate an y 'ori ginaP context of mt..:aning in which they were fi rst cre-
atcd. Yct we join palacoanth ropologists in sensing that these products of
ancient image ry may hold the key to what it means to be human , which
for theology may sig nifican tl y broaden and enrich what is meant toda y
by ' human uniqueness', especially if we shift ou r focus of inquiry to
acco mmodate mo re contextual and particularist interpretations.
For a theologian Like myself, interested in interdisciplinary dialogue,
precisely arguments for more local and contextual interpretations of
Palaeolithic art are especial ly intriguing, and it is these more contextual
approaches that will resonate with my own postfo undationalist approach
to interdisciplinary discourse. A more contextual, local approach would
imply that, rather than asking what the endu rin g m ealliug of these images
ma y be, we shou ld ratllcr try to und erstand what made them 'nlerHtingfltl
for o ur cori)' modern an cestOrs (cf. Conkc), 1997: 343ft} Whot is
und o ubtedly clear is that a fu ll century of the study of Palaeoli thic art has
not prod uced an y definjte or final theory about this ' art', but rather has
brought forth a number o f trul y confli ctin g claims. As a serious advocate of
a radically contextual approach to interpreting Palaeolithic image ry,
Margoret W. Conkey has warned against tOo glibly eal~ng Upper
Palaeoli thic image- making 'art' , since this superimposes a contemporary
Western aestl1ctic perspective onto o ur evaluatio n of these mysterious
images. For this reason Conkey and SoA-cr have reccntly suggested that o ur
unde rstanding of prehistori c imagery wi ll be greatly ad va nced if we can
manage to deco uple this body of archaeo logical evidence about past
lifcways fi'om its categori zation as 'art' (cf. SolTer and Conkey 1997: I A-;
see also Conkey, this vol ume ). These scientists believc that precisely
the understanding of th is material as ~art,' based on unwa rranted
\Vestern aesthcric assumptions, has g reatly constrained ou r subsequent
Interdfs Ciplinary perspectives
unde rstanding of the subject matter. For this reason they propose to te rm
this corpus of PaJaeolitllic d ata as prcbistoric image1)' and , when using the
term , put 'art' in quotatio n ma rks.
This growing, and typicall y postfoundationalist, dissatisfaction with
past approac hes to prehistori c imagery shou ld be seen as a direct resu lt of
prior insufficient attentio n to the concrete time and places whe n the
images we re ac tuall y produced and used , and Soffer and Conkev's
, views ,
the refore, embody a stro ng reactio n aga inst unwarranted un iformitarian
assumptio ns and broad ahisto ric, abstract, and often dccontexualized
fl·ol11es o f reference (cf. Soffer and Conkey 1997: I f). For Softer and
Co nkey th ere are various problematic assumptions at work beh ind the
generally used term 'art' for prehistori c images . As defined in the past
century, art is a cultural phenomenon that is ass umed to function in what
we recognize, and even carve off sepa ratel y, as the aesth etic sphere. It is
exac tl y this aest hetic function that we cannot assume to have existed o r
fu nctio ned similar ly in prehistory, and so we cannot aSSllme that the
so-called 'artists' of thirty thousand yea rs ago discovered something that
is end urin g and true for all humans at all times in all places (cf. Soffer and
Conkey 1997: 2 ). The deeper and more abstract assumption, then , that
so mehow a trans-historic level of the meaning of this prehistoric 'art' may
exist, and that this may be (true for all humans at all times and at all
places' does seem to be troublesome and hig hl y a-co ntextual in its own
ri g ht. SofFer and Conkey's more parti cularist and pro-mosaic, contextual
approach with its clear tra nsversal intent does seem to resonate we ll with
my o\Vn postfoundationalist approach f·o r disce rning meaning th rough
inte rd isciplinary dialogue. Exactl y fo r th is reason I have found the notion
of trlt1JSlJcrsalrcflsoHi1Jg helpful to bring the shiftin g mosaic of current
interpretations in palaeoanthropology into direct dialoguc with the
eq uall y chequ ercd and fragmented history of notions of ' human
unique ness' in C hristian theology (cf. va n Hu yssteen 2006 ).
In the interdisciplinary conve rsatio n between theology and the
sciences the boundaries between ou r discipli nes and reasoning strategies
arc indeed shifting and porous, and deep theological convictions can nor
be easi ly transferred to philosophy, or to science, to function as ' data' in
fore ig n disciplinary systems. In the sam(.: mann er, transve rsal reasoning
do(.:s not imply that scientific data, paradig ms, o r \Vo rldviews, can be
transported into theology to there set the agenda for theological rea-
soning. Transversal reasoning docs mcan that theology and scicnce can
240 J. Wentzel van Huyssteen
sharc concerns and converge on common ly identified conceptual
problcms such as the problem of human uniqu eness. By also recognizing
the limi tations ofinterdisciplinarity, howcvcr, thc disciplinary integrity of
both thcology and the scienccs will be protected (cf. van Huysstecn
2003: 161ft). On this view, for instance , thc theologian can ca ution the
scientist to recogni ze the dan ge r o f materialist reductionism in scientific
worldviews, even as the scientist can caution the theologian against
constructin g esoteric and imperialistic worldvicws, totall y disconnectcd
fi'om the reality of the results of scientific research.
These mutually critic,l tasks prcsuppose, however, the richness o f
the transve rsal moment in which theology and palaeoanthropology may
indeed find amazing transve rsal connections o n issues of human
origins and uniqueness. Furthermore, l be li eve that the most responsible
C hristian theologi cal way to look at human uniqueness requ ires, first of
ail , a move away from esoteric and baroquely abstract notions of human
uniqueness, and second , a return to embod ied notio ns of humanness,
where o ur sexuality and embodied moral awareness are tied directly to
our embodied self-transcendence as creatures who are predisposed
to rcli gious belief. 1 wou ld further arguc that, also from a palaeoan-
thropological point ofvicw, human uniqueness has emerged as a highl y
contcxtuali zed, embodied notion and is directly tied to the embodied ,
symbo lizin g minds o f our prehistoric ancestors as physically manifested in
the spectacularl y painted cave walls of the Uppe r Palaeolithic. This not
on ly opens up the possibility for converging arguments, from both
theology and palaeoanthropology, for the prcscnce of religio us aware ness
in o ur earliest European modern human ancesto rs, but also for the
plausibility of the larger argume nt: since the ve ry beginning of the
emerge nce of H o1Jl.o sapiens, the evolutio n of those characteristics that
made humans uniquel y different from even thei r closest sister species,
that is, characteristics like consciousness, language, imagination , symbolic
rninds and symboli c behavior, has always in cluded religiou s awareness
and reli gious behavior.
Ian Tattersall has recentl y argued exactl y this point: because every
human society, at o ne stage or another, has possessed religion of somc
sort, complete with origin myths that purpo rtcdl y explain the relatio n-
ship o f humans to th e world aro und them , rdi gio n cannot be discounted
from any discussion of t)'picall y human behaviors ( 1998: 201 ). Mo re
importantly, in a velY specific sem;c religiolls belief may be one of the
Interdisciplinary perspectives
earliest special propensities o r dispositions that we are able to detect in
the archaeological rccord ofmodcrn humans. It is in this sense, then , that
neither history, nor anthropology knows of societies from whic h religion
has been totally absent (ef R.'ppaport 197 1: 23ft). There is indeed a
naturalness to religious imagi natio n th at challenges an y viewpoi nt that
wo uld want to see religion o r religiolls imagination as an arbi trary o r
csoteric faculty of the human mind. Therefore, even if we are not ccrtain
what exactl y th e spectacular preh istoric imagery of the European
Palaeolithic modern humans represented to the people who made them ,
it is nonetheless clear that this earl y 'art' reflected a view held by these
peoplc of thei r place in the wo rld and a body o f narrati ve mythology that
explained that place . One of the major functions of rel igious belief has
indeed always been to provide explanations for the deep des ire to deny
the finality of death , and the curious reluctance of our species to accept
the inevitable limitatio ns of human ex perience. This is exactly the reason
why it is possible for us to identi fy so closely with Eu ropclll Palaeolithic
rock 'art', and to recogn ize tha t it goes beyond me re representation
and as such often also embodies a broadly religio us, if elusive, symbolism
(ef. Tattersall 1998: 201 ).2
Agai nst this background it is already clear that certain themes naturall y
eme rge as se min ~d for the intcrdisciplinary dialogue between palacoan -
thropo logy and theology. It is in these scientific discussions that theo-
logians need to find transversa l connections to their own discipline(s).
Scholars like Steven Mith ell ( 1996 ), lall Tattersall ( 1998 ), Merlin
Donald (1991 , 2001 ), and Paul Mellars ( 1990 ) have all argued that
knowing the preh istory of the human mind will provide us with a Illorc
profound understand ing of what it means to be uniquel y human . It
certainly helps LI S to understand a little better the o ri gins of art, tech -
no logy, and of relig io n, and how these cultural domains arc inesc.:lpably
linked to the ab ili ty of the cognitivcl y fluid human mind to dcvelop
creatively powerfu l meta ph ors by crossing the boundaries of ditlcre nt
do mains of knowledge. lain Davidson has argued that early humans
wo rked Ollt thei r relationship with their envirollment and with each othcr
precisely thro ugh Palaeolithic 'art', and he sces the burst of image maki ng
afte r 40,000 BP as reflectin g rh e way that these ancestors of Ollrs explored
the limits and possibilities o r rh e powe r of their recentl y discovered
symbo lically based communication. Because of this, Illost scholars in tht.:
field wo uld take the Uppcr P.llacolithic a~ the standard tor recogni zing
242 J. Wentzel van Huyssteen
symbolism (cf. Davidson 1997: 125; cf. also Diamond 1998 ), although
powerful and convi ncing arguments have now been made by C hristophe r
HCllShilwood and his tC3m for a mo re grad ual emergence of modern
human behavior in MricJ, most notabl y by the discovery o f pe rsonal
o rnam ents fi'om arollnd seventy-five thousand years ago at the Blombos
Cave in South Mrica (cf. Henshi lwood et al. 2004: 4 04f). For lain
Davidson an y kind of symboling power is tied directl y to t he origins of
language: it wou ld ha ve been impossible for creatures withollt language
to create symbolic a rtef..lcrs, or to ho ld opinions abo ut the makin g o r
marking of su rfaces that wou ld eve ntuall y turn them into imagery o r 'art'.
For this reason Davidso n argues tha t it is precisely the exceptional artistic
artefacts from the Upper Pal aeol ithi c that give us unique insights into
evolutio nary processes, in to th e evolution of human behavior, and into
the very nat ure of w ha t it might have meant to become a modern human.
The im portant question now is, what does the o rigin of language
mean fo r our understanding of prehisto ri c image ry? For Davidson o ne of
the most d istinctive featu res of language is the arbitra riness of symbo ls,
and how that necessaril y rcsu lts in inherent ambigui ty, especially whc n
compared to prelinguistic communication systcms (cf. thc complcx calls
ofVcrvct monkcys ) which havc no possibility of ambi gui ty because they
have been honed by natu ral selection. O ne way to copc with thc prolif-
eration of this kind of amb ig uou s creati vity was to produce. embl ems
o r signs which we, even today, can recogni ze as in some sense iconic
(cf. Davidso n 199 7 : 126f). 1 believe tha t successful communication,
therefore, requires means of identification that the utterances or images
arc trustworthy, and in some se nse rep rese nt a recogn izable continuity.
Vve shou ld , therefore, not be surprised to find these kinds of emb lems
amo ng earl y language users. vVe should also not be surprised , 1 thin k,
that wc too arc still fasci nated by the en igmatic character of these sym -
bolic images and signs, especially since they still appea l to ou r own
aesthctic and symboli c ca pac ities.
This argument th at Palaeol ithic im age ry or ' art' is symbo lic , and not
just decorative, is considerabl y strengthened by l\1l argarct Conkey'S
persuasive arguments agaillst trying to capture the generic 'meanin g' of
Palaeolithic art as a sin glc, incl usive mcrathcory, and for a mo re con -
textua l und erstandin g of the ' meanin g' of th is art as enmcshed in the
socia l context of its time. On this view, the o riginal mca nin g can o nl y be
--_.....
said to have ex isted th rough thc contextS in which it was first produced as
Interdisciplinary perspectives
indi vidual paintings o r parts of paintings (cf. Davidson 1997: 128 ).
' Meaning' , therefo re, is not a timeless property of Palaeolithic imagery in
itself, but, as in the case ofrcligious texts , is the res ul t of th e iutu'actiou,
thc n and now, between the human age nts and the materi al. vVe also, in
o ur own rclational , inte ractive inte rpretations of this imagery, discover
and produce meaning. Therefore, the symbolism or 'meaning' we find in
the earliest ' art' prod uced by people like us clearly is a product of ou r
own interpretative interaction with th is stunnin g imagery. What cmerges
here is JJl impo rtant converge nce betwecn theological and palaeoan-
th ropologicalmctho do logy, a postfo un dationa list argument fo r the f.lct
that we relate to Q UI' world(s) through hi g hl y contextua lizcd , interpreted
cxperi ence on ly.
For theology, the most impo rtant lesson learnt is th at , fro m a
palacoanthropo logical point of view, all ta lk of symbolism sho uld be sce n
as part and parccl of turni ng com munication in to language, bitt the lise of
symbols separate from ImliJuage could oui)' hapc been a produce of lau;/luagc
(cf. D avidson 1997: 153 ). What this im plies is that the prehistoric cave
paintings in southwcstern France and in thc Basq uc Country of No rthern
Spain could o nly have had whatevcr symbolic, expressive quality they did
bccausc of the ling uisti c, symbolic context in wh ich thcy must have becn
created. H cncc the im aginatio n, prod uctivity an d creati vity we associate
with humans are very mu ch a product of languagc, which, in both the-
o logy and thc scicnces, make lang uage and exprcssive symbo lic abilities
cent ral to a defin itio n of embod ied human uniqu eness.
Thro ugh o ut the history of palaeoanth ropological research, o ne of the
primary questions has always bee n, when did hu mans begin to thi nk, feel,
and act like humans? Central to this questio n has always been the iss ue of
cognition o r creative self-awareness, and how it might be recogni zed in
its initial stages (cf. Donald 199 1,2 00 I ). Steven Mi then's answcr to this
q uestion is an evolu tion ary app roach to thc o ri gi ns of the human mind ,
an d the developmcnt o f a three stage typo logy of cogn ition that follows
the evolution of doma in s of in te ll ige nce from th e carl icst mcmbers of the
genus H omo th rough to their fina l integration in modern humans. O nl y
in the final phase, in Homo snpic1/s, do we find a dramati c behavio ral
brcak, a ' big bang' of cogniti ve, techn ica l and social innovation with
the risc of cogniti ve Auidi ty as the final phase of mind development
(cf. lvl.i then 1996 ). \'Villiam Noble and rain Davidson , in a sli ghtly dif-
fe rent approac h, see one development, namel y lang uage, as pivotal in the
244 J. We ntzel v a n H uyss'Cee n
evolution of human cognition. Here social context is seen as a primary
selective force , and language, sym boli zation and mind are integrated
into an cxplanatOlY framework for the evolution of human cognition,
ce ntered on the human ability to give meaning to perceptions in a variety
of ways. U ltimately Noble and Davidso n sec language as emerging Ollt
of socially defined contexts of communication, encouraged as a 1110re
efficient form of gesture, with the selection of language occurring
because of its efficiency and flexibility (cf. Noble & D avidson 1996; also
Simek 1998: 444f).
For Terence Deacon , early symbolic communication wo ul d not have
bee n just a simp ler fo rm of language; it would have been diffe rent in
many respects as a resul t of the state of vocal abi lities. Deacon argues that
o ur prehistoric ancestors used languages that we will never hea r and
com municated with symbols that ha ve not survived t he selective sieve of
fossilization. And as far as specific Upper Palaeol ithic imagery goes,
Deacon seems to be in complete agree ment with lain David so n: it is
almost certainly a reliable expectation that a society which constructed
comple x tools and spectacular artistic image ry also had a correspondingly
so phisticated symbolic infrastructure (cf. Deacon 1997: 365 ). Deacon's
arg ument confirms the t ransversal impact of palaeoanthropology on the
interdisciplinary dialogue with theology: a society that leaves behind
evidence of permanent external sy mboli zation in th e form of pain tings,
carvings, and sc ulptu re, most likely also included a social, iconic fu nction
fo r this activity. As far as Palaeolithic imagery goes, t hen, the fi rst cave
paintings and carvings that emerged from this period do give us t he very
first direct expression of a symbolizing mind.
\Vh at has emerged from the work of lv1.ithen, Noble and Davidson ,
Donald, Tattersall and Deaco n, and should be of primary interest to
theologians working on anthropology, is that human mental life includes
biologically unprecedented ways of experiencing and understanding the
world, from aesthetic ex periences to spiritual contemplation. In a recent
articl e, Terence Deacon makes the important point that the spectacular
Palaeolithic imagery and the burial of the dead, though not final guar-
antees of shama nistic or religious acti vities, do suggest strongly the
existence of sop histicated sym bolic reasoning and a rel igious disposition
of t he human mind (cf. Deacon 2003: 504fT). T he symbol ic nature of
Homo sapic1Jsalso explai ns why mystica l or religious incl inations can even
be rega rded as an essentiall y un iversal attribute of human cu lture
In1:~ra I SC lpl l nary perspe ctive s
(cf. Deacon 1997: 436 ), and opens up an important space for Jean
C lottes and David Lewis-Willi am's argument for a shamanistic inter-
pretation of some of the most f.lmous of the Palaeolithic imagery
(cf. Lewis-Wi lliams J 997; 2002; Clottes & Lewis-Williams 1996 ). There
is in f.:lct no culture that lac ks a ri ch mythical, mystical , and rel igious
trad itio n. The coevolution of language and brain not only implies,
however, that human b rai ns cou ld have been reorganized in response to
language, bu t also alerts us to th e fact that the consequences of th is
unp recedented evolutionary trans ition for hu man religious and spirit ual
development must be u nderstood on ma ny levels as well. Deacon argues
th at the way language ca n sy m bol ically refer to t hin gs p rovides t he crucial
catalyst that initiated the t ransition fI'om a species with no in kling of the
mea ning of life into a species where questio ns of ultimate mean ing have
become core organ izers of culture and consciousness. It is these symbol ic
capacities that are ub iquitous for humans, and largely taken for granted
when it comes to spiritual and ethical realms. In this seno;e o ne can say
that the capacity fo r spiritual expe ricnce itself can be understood as an
emergent conseq uence of the symbolic t ransfiguratio n of cognition and
emotions (cf. Deacon 2003: 504ff). Along si m ilar lines Antonio Damasio
has made a powerful arg u men t fo r t he emergence of religious awareness
an d religious na rrati ves as a result of the strong pressu res of basic
emotions like joy and so rrow (cf. Damasio 2 00 3: 158f, 284fT). In th is
sense there is a na t ural ness to religio us awareness: spiritual experiences,
religious or otherwise, are embod ied mc ntal processes, and sho ul d be
recog nized as biolo g ical p rocesses of t he hig hest level of comp lex ity.
The idea that rel igious imagination mig ht not be an isolated facu lty of
hu man rational ity, and that mystical or religious inclinations can indeed
be rega rded as an essentially universa l attribute of the hu man mind , has
recentl y also been taken up in interdisciplinary discllssion by some
theo logians. I n a recent paper Niels Gregersen argues that imagination ,
and the refore also reli giolls imagination , is not an isolated faculry of
human rationality, but ca n be found at the ve ry hea rt of hum an ratio-
nality. On this view, then, the sa mc 'natu ralness' of imagination also
ap plies to religio us imagination, and religious imagination should not be
seen as something eHra o r esoteric that can be added, o r subtracted , from
other me n tal states (cf. Gregersen 2003: If, 23 ). More importan tl y,
though, a th eory abo ut t ht.: eme rgence of religious imagination and
rel igious concepts does not at all answer the ph ilosophical question abo ut
246 J. Wentzel van Huyssteen
the va lidi ty of re ligioll, o r rhe eve n Illorc comple x theological qu estio n
whether, and in what form, religious imagination refers to some for m of
rea li ty o r not. As an interdisciplil1my problem, however, the reasons t hat
may undergird the unreasonable cficcrivcllcss of religious belief and
thought may tra nscend the scope of allY o ne discip line when it comes to
evaluating th e in tegrity o frcli g iolls bel ief. In this specific conversation we
call hopefull y reach an in te rdisciplinary ag reeme nt th at religio us imagi-
nati o n and rcli gio lls concepts shou ld be treated eq uall y with all other
sorts of human re fl ectio n . Religiolls irnagina tion should, therefore, be
treated as an in tegral part of human cogn ition , not se parable from o ur
o th er cognitive endeavours. Moreove r, I also believe that reli gious
imaginatio n sho ul d not just be treated as a ge neric given, but at some
point can on ly be d iscussed and eva luated contex tu ally within the very
specific conte xts of specific reli gio ns. On this view th e cruc ial role of
human imagi natio n in modern human behavio r ca n in f.lct be an
important interdisciplinary link in the dialogue o n h uman uniquen css.
In my reccnt work I have concluded that, if we have inherited fi'om the
coevolution of nature and cu lturc a dcpendable framcwo rk of mind by
which to recognize credibly thc intentions of others, why would this
cognitive and emotive ability Ict us down when we try to relate to the
ico ni c signals and rnessages communicated by o ur own Palaeoli thic
an cestors through paintings, carvings, and ri tua l practices: In fact, in the
case of o ur modern human ancesto rs in Palaeolithic Eu rope, we arc of
exactl y the samc species, wit h thc same symbo lic minds, and the samc
reli g io lls propensities. No wonder, then, that we might feci compelled to
interpret the cave paintings of the Uppe r Palaeolithic as clnbodied
exp ressions of the religiolls and aesthetic imagination of a Uf direct, but
distant, ancestors (cf. van Hu yssteen 2006). If bei ng human impl ies
the uniqu e ability to create symbolic mean in g, and if our Palaeolithic
ancestors we re indeed fu ll y human , then we G Ul also assum e the fo llowin g
about these ancestors and thei r li fe -world : the dimcnsion of meaning that
is so irrevoca bly indige no us to being h uman, \vas also a cru ciaJ compo nent
of these d istant, enigmatic peo ple and the.:ir worl d. Our Palaeolithic
modern hu man anccstors could not have bee.:n fu ll y human without havin g
the symbolic ca pacity to imagine, to create, and thus to exist in a dimension
ofme:ming. And evc n if we may ne.:ve.:r know what the.:se prehistOl;c images
meant in thosc distant times and places, our o nl y access to th ose elusivl.:
levels of narra tive, symbolic meaning arc thl.: image.:s themselves.
Interdisciplinary perspectives
vVhile respecting the integrity of science and the boundaries of the
scientific approach, wc theo logians may now discover how asym metrical
reasoning strategies like theology and palaeoanthropology can actuall y
inte rsect transversa lJ y o n carefu ll y ide ntified issucs like human uniqu eness
and human symbolic propensities. Here a d imension of prehistoric sym -
bolic existence is revealed in which all contempora ry religious belief and
behavior is deep ly and ri chly embedded. Beyo nd sharin g th ese transversal
mo ments on reli gious imagi natio n, however, a contextual approach calls
upon C hristian theology to after its own comprehensive, comp lementary
pe rspective o n th e deeper philosop hical/theological meaning of what it
mca ns to be human. Fo r such a concretc proposal from theology, there is
no blueprint fo r how sci ence sho ul d or co uld respond o n reli gious iss ues of
ultimate mC3nin g. On a postfoundationalist view) thc accepta nce of the
theological perspective as meanin gful and enriching) or as irrelevant and
spcc ulative, will in the cnd depe nd o n t he specific scienti.;;t and his o r her
world view .
In Conclusion
In the prehistori c image ry of the Uppe r Palaeolithic we are clearl y dealing
with the unprecedented manifestatio n of somethin g that is so quintes-
sentiall y human th at it sets us apart tl'om other anima ls and even fro m ou r
closest pre human an cesto rs. Palacoa nthropologists, li ke e.:volutio nary
epistemolog ists (cf. Wuketits 1990: I 17ff), have linked this full emer-
gence of consciollsness and symbo lic bchavior djrectly to the emergence
of religious behavior. This obviously is no t an argument for the truth of
any specific religion, nor fo r the existen ce of God. It is, however, an
argument for the integrity of t he earliest forms o f religiOUS awa reness and
behavior, and poi nts to c\'olu tio nal)' reaso ns for the natura lness and the
integrity of religious f.lith, as we ll as thc possibility of ritu al bchnvio r in
Our ea rli est human ancestors.
As f.1r as C hristian theo logy specificall y is concern ed, I h:.lVc recently
argued that C hristian theolom' traditionally always ass um cd a radica l split
between human beings, created 'i n rhe image of God', and the rest of
creation. This spilt was mostly justifie.:d by cognitive traits like human
rationality o r in tc lligcnce, o r by more.: abstract notions of rclatiOll.llity
which se rved to define what was mea nt b y ' human uniqu eness: e.:vc n as it
Roated fi'cc above nature and the.: hliln.m bod y (cf va n Hu yss rcen 2006 ).
248 J. Wentzel van Huyssteen
Within the transversaJ space of interdisciplinary co nve rsation, however,
theology quickly learns that, crucial to the prehistory of the human mind,
is t he amazing eme rgence of what Steven Mithen has called 'cognitive
fluidity'. Science, art, and religion arc all ind eed deeply embedded in the
cogniti ve flui di ty of the human mind/brain. As sllch t hese ri ch cultural
expressions rely on psychological processes which originally evolved in
specialized cognitive domains and only emerged when these processes
could actuall y work together. Of perhaps even greater significance, t he
cognitive fluidity of QlIr minds allowed fo r the possibility of powerful
metaphors and analogy, without whi ch science, religion, and art co uld
not exist (M ithen 1996). What became clear, then, is that the potential
arose in the mind to undertake science, create art, and to discove r the
need and ab ili ty for religious belief. Clearl y early human behavior is not
und erstood if we do not take this religious dimension into accou n t.
I suggest that a theological appropriation of these rich and complex
results o f science at the ve ry least sho uld inspire the theo logian carefull y
to u'ace and reth ink t he complex evolu tion of the notion of human
uniq uen ess, or the imago Dei, in theology. Interpretations of the doc-
trine of the inlago Dei have indeed varied dramatically throughout the
long history of Christianity. Theologians are now challenged to reth in k
what human uniqueness might mean fo r the human person, a being that
has emerged biolog icall y as a center of self-awareness, identity, and moral
responsibility. Personhood, when reconceived in terms of embodied
imagination, symbolic propensities, and cog niti ve fluidity, may enable
theology to revise its notion of the i'mago Dei as an idea th at does not
imply superiori ty or a g reater value than anim als or ea rli er hominids, but
whi ch might express a specific task and purpose to set forth the presence
of God in t his world (cf. Hefner 1998: 88). I wo uld therefore call for a
revising of the notion of the i o
mago Dei in ways that would not be ove rl y
abstract and exoticall y barogue, that instead acknowledges ou r
embodied existence, our close ties to the animal world and its
uniqueness, and to those homin id ancestors that came befo re us, while
at the same time focusing on what o ur symbolic and cognitive ly fluid
minds might tell us abou t the emergence of an embodied human
uni queness, consciousness, and personhood, and the propensity for
religious awareness and experience.
The most chall enging aspect of an interd isciplinary dialogue between
theo logy and pabeoanthropology, howeve r, may be for theo logy to lift
Interdisciplinary perspectives
up the specific lim itations of th is conversation. This implies a quite
specinc appeal from t heology to the sciences: an appeal for a sensiti vity to
that which is particu lar to the broad er, non -empirical or philosophical
dimensio ns of theo logical discourse. This kind of disciplinary in tegrity
means t hat Christian theo logy has an obligation to explore other issues
that are crucial for understanding human uniq ueness, issues that may not
be em piri cally accessible. My argument for inte rdiscipl inarity has been
precisel), abo ut the 1:1Ct that Ch ristian theology is answerabl e to canons of
inquiry defensible within the various domains of our common discourse
(cf. Brown 1994: 4ft) In this open, interdiscipli nary dialogue we can
learn th at criteria for hum an uniqueness, whethe r in theology or the
sciences, should never be the sole possession of a sin gle perspective or
discipline. Because of t he transversal rati onal ity of interdisciplinary dis-
cou rse, not on ly shared interests and common concern s, but also criteria
from other reasoning strategies ca n be approp riated. This certainly is one
way in \\lhich a multidiscip linary approach to t he problem of human
unique ness can lead to interdisciplinary resu lts when we discover that
criteria not only ove rl ap, b u t can ultimately be shared in reasolllng
strategies as diverse as theo logy and science,
In this kind of interdisciplinary conversation th eology can actual ly
help to significantly broaden the scope of what is meant by 'human
uniqueness .' HOl1'lO sapiens is not o nl y d istin guished by its rem arkable
embodied brain, by a stunning mental cognit ive fluidi ty expressed in
imagination, creati vit)" lingu istic ab ilities, and symbolic propensities. As
rea l-life, embodied persons offlcsh and blood we humans arc also affected
by hostility, arrogance, ruthlessness, and cun n.in g, and therefore are ines-
capab ly caught bcnveen what we have come to call 'good and evil'. This
expcrience of good and evil, and theological d istin ctions betwecn evil,
mo ral fai lurc, si.n , tragedy, and redemption, lie beyond the empirical scope
o f the fossil record, and therefo re beyond dle scope of science. It certainly is
our evolutionarily developed bodies t hat are the bearers of human un iq -
uencss, and it is precisely dlis embodied existence that conn'onts LIS widl
the realities ofvlIlnerability, t ragedy, and affliction. For t he scientist drawn
to the more comprehensive, complementary picture of dle dimension of
meaning in which H01Jlo sapieus has existed since its velY beginning, the-
ology may provide a key to understanding the profound tragic dimensions
of human existence, but also why religiOlls belief has provided O LU' distant
anccstors, and us, with dimcnsio ns of hope, redemption, and grace.
250 J. W e ntze l va n H uysstee n
N O TES
I The first, :lnd most important biblic:l1 n.:ICrcncc to the imngo Dd, is found in Gen.
I : 26-28, se t within the so-c.ll1cd Pric~rly cn:arion narratin: of Gen. 1: 1-2: 4:\:
26 God said, "Let us make hUlll :mi ty in our image, :l~cording to ~)l[r likeness;
,mel let them rule over the fish of th e sea, and over the birds of the skIes, :'Inc! O\'cr
the carrlc, and o\Tr all the earth, and O\'cr l'\'cry creeping thing that creeps upon
the c:lrth,"
27 So God created humanitv in his image:
in the image of God he crc~ tcd him;
male and female he created them.
28 God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply :'Ind ,fill the
earth and subdue it. Ru\c o\'er the fish of till: sea and over the birds of the skIes and
over evcry living thing that c[ecps upon the canh."
2 Tattersall also argucs th;lt, ironicall y, it is precisc!y in our notions of God tlut we sec
our human condition most compactly rcfb:n.:d. I-Iu man beings, despite their unique
associative mental abilities, :1.1"e ilH.:apable of envisioning entities that lie olltside their
own c.--.:pericncc, or that cannot be construed li'om what they know of the material
world. For T attersall the notion of God b just Stich an cntity. And I::vcn with our
dramatic increase in knowledge about lhe unimagi n.lbl y vast expanse of Ollr univcrse,
our concept.s of God - even when expanded commensur::ncly - remain resolutdy
anthropomorphic (cf. 1998: 202 ). We continue to inl.lgine God in our own image
simpl~' because, no matter how much we may pride oursch'cs on our capacity for
abstract thollght, we arc unable to do Otherwise.
Imporr::l.Iltly, from a theological poim of view, ho\\'c\'er, this docs nOt imply the
illu!>Orv character or the non -existence of God, bur in fuct might actually rC\'eal the
on ly it~tcllcctually satisfying way of belie\'ing in the kind of God with whom we might
have a humanly comprehensible personal relationship at all.
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N. Jablonski . San F1.l11Cisco: Nir.:moirs of the Californ i3 Academy of Sciences.
Tatte rs3ll , I. , 1998 . Becoming HU1Il(J,U,: Ello/ution rmrl Hmunu UniquCHess. New
York: Harco urt Brace.
Towner, W.S., 200 1. Genesis, in Wcstmiustcr Bible CompaHioll, cds . P.O.
Millcr, D.L. Bartlett. Loui svi ll e, KY: Westminster John Knox Press .
van H uysstcen , J .W. , 1999 . Thc SIJn.piug of Ra.tio1Jalit)': T0111(f,1'd i ll tc1'disciplin-
(f,1'i~)' i1l Thcology and Sciencc. Grand Rapid s, Ml : Ecrdmans.
van Hu yssteen , J.vV., 2003 . Fallen angels or risi ng beasts? Theological per-
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16
Innovation in material and spiritual culture:
exp loring conjectured relationships
K eith Ward
Religion: the search for origins
Th is chapter de rives fi'om my field of study, the history of religions.
Schol ars of the history of religio ns have always been fascinated by the
questio n of the origins of religion . The ph ilosopher David Hume, in his
Natural H istory of R eligion, depictcd rel igion as 'sick men 's dreams',
ori ginating in an anxious fea r of future events (Hume 1757/1993 : 184 ).
Si r James Fraze r developed this view with an abundance of anthropo-
logical observations, real and im agin ed. For him , religion was a devel -
opment from magic, the attempt to influence the powers of nature by
causally irrelevant rituals. Realisin g this d id not work, religion posited
gods and spirits whom one might seek to propitiate in order to get what
one wants . But this did no t wo rk either. The successor of re ligion is
science, which at last provides the o nly reliable way of controlling nature
(F raze r 1890 ).
These early wliters were distinctly unfriendly to religion , which they saw
as both intellectually and morally misguided. Probably no one wo uld take
their conjecn lres seriously today, but their ge neral attempt to see religion
as a primitive and obsolete way of explaining and conu'olling nature still
has its supporters. Attempts to explain religio n in socia] terms - the best
known being Durkheim 's postulatio n of a 'group mind' which furth ered
social soLidarity and moral enthusiasm, and Nl arx's view of religion as an
instrument of the ruling class to keep the masses subdued - were similarly
unfriencUy to religion. More sophisticated attempts to grou nd re ligiolls
belief and practice in social mechanisms and distinctions still flou rish,
though most of them fo un der on the sheer va riety and complex ity of
rel igio us li fc, which resists any on(>icvci explanation.
 K.eltn vvara
Psychological or psycho-analytic explanations of religion have ;lIsa
been attempted. Freud 's in f.l mous fable of the primal horde, the slaying
of the father and the institution of taboos on incest, has been laid to rest,
but Jung's aIJeged explorations in to the human psyche as the sou rce of
religious beliefs seem sti ll to be alive.
AJI these attempts concerned themselves wi th the origin of reli gion , in
the strange belief that to find the o ri gin of something is to discover its
tru e essencc. Reference to alchemy as the origin of chcmistry should be
I.:nough to demolish that belief. But in any casc, as Evans-Pritchard has
put it, none of thcse writers had any reliable knowlcdge of the origins of
religion (Evans-Pritchard 1965 ). They assumcd that ' primitive' tribes-
often Australian Aborigines - were like the first humans . They also
assu med that the fi rst forms of religion we re more brutish, violent
and f.l ntastic than anything we know today.
Neve rtheless, they did establish two valuable methodological princi-
ples. First , all present rel igions ha ve developed frolll simpler beginnings,
since humans have evolved from less intellige nt species. Second, it is
useful to see religio n as a global phenomenon, rather than take ou r
nearest rel igio us rradjtion as normati ve, and the o thers as degraded or
inferior forms of it. Evolutionary biologists currentl y think that all
mcm bel'S of the species Homo .mpic11s derive fro m just a few , perhaps even
two, indi vidua ls who lived on the African savan nah. If re ligious belief and
practice in some form existed at that primal stage o f human prehistory, it
would predate and form the comm o n o rigin of al l present re ligions.
'vVhile this wo uld not give us the essence of reli gion , it might provide
insight into how the many present forms of religion have developed in
di verse ways fro m a commo n source.
But establishing origins is so difficult that Evans-Pritchard castigated
an y attempt to discover them as little more than guesswork. To reappl y a
well -known remark of the theologian Harnack, when we look back into
the darkness of prehistory, it can be like lookin g into a deep well and
seeing at the bottom, dimly yet inescapably, only our own reflection.
Yet perhaps we need not be too pessimistic. Over the last d ecade or so a
great deal of new research has gone into the study of the ear liest human
artefacts that we know. Among these arc tools, smail female statues, tombs
and the rema rka ble cave paintings of Southern Europe. David Lcwis-
Will iams' work (2002, this volume) provides a vc ry helpful exposition and
analysis of recent research on these paintings. It seems clear that, while the
innovation in material a nd spirit ual cul t ure
artistic standard of man y paintings is ve ry high, they are not meant to be an
fo r public display. The images arc toO often in narrow and almost inac-
cessible passages, too dimly lit, and too o ften su perimposed on one
another and overmarked with lines for that.
It seems to me th at Professor Lcwis-Williams is entirely ri gh t in seei ng
these works as connected with attempts to relate to a spirit worl d. The
journey into the recesses ofthc cave is rem iniscent of the path to the inner
shrine o f a temple. Surrounded by images that express and convey
supernatural powers, by the marks left by priestl y o r shamanistic ri tuals to
co mmunicate Witll tllose powers, and by possible suggestions of sacrifi ce
and the dead (th e deposited skul ls or teet h of animal offerings ), it is hard
to escape the conclusio n that here indeed are our earliest evidences of
proto- religion.
I shall not seek to explain such acti vities as primitive science, social
engineering, ways of com ing to terms with unconscious dri ves and
desi res, o r attempts to overcome simple terro r. Instead I shall try to show
how primal religiolls impu lses arc naturally rooted in the evolution of a
form of mentaLity that was, fo r the fi rst time , capable of constructing
ma terial and spiritual culture. This is, I think, what Steven Mi then calls
the development of'cogniti ve fluidity' (Mith en, 1996, this vol ume). Like
him, I suggest that the origin of religion is likely to lie in tile development
o f a new mental stru ctu re that made possible the rise of culture in both
material and spi ri tua l fo rms. So I will first suggest how 'culture' goes
beyond the provision of basic needs to an interest in distinctively me ntal
ski lls expressed in tile creation and appreciation of artefacts. Th is lays the
basis for what will become religiolls sensi bi lity.
Material culture
When we speak of culture we are speaking of that wh ich is primarily
concerned with the cu ltiva tion, the development or improvement by
ed ucation or training of artistic o r intell ectu al capacities in a specific social
context. Most anima ls manifest behavioura'! routines that are instin cti ve
o r natu ral to thei r species. Some learn new behaviou r by imitation, and
may increase its efficiency by repetitio n . It is not absurd to speak o f the
cu ltu ral life of chimpan zees - their forms of social relationship , patterns
o fl carn ing ncw ski lls and ways o f passing on learned behaviour to others.
But most an imals do not constru ct enduring material signs of their
256 Keith Ward
c lll tllr~ 1 li ves . Only the human species reshapes parts of its environment
so that it expresses, and is intended to exp ress, creative ski lls that have
bee n learned and develo ped with in specific social gro ups.
Like other animal species, humans have basic material needs that
arc IlCCCSSJ I), to survi val - t he provision of food , shelter and clothing,
together with some way of ensuring the care of oflspring, arc rhe most
obviolls. But humans typically elaborate on the provision of these items
in ways that seem to go well beyo nd what is necessa ry for surviva l.
The provision of food is de veloped into the arts of agriculture and
coo kery, which in turn develop into more so phisti ca ted arts of landscape
ga rd eni ng and halite cu isine, that seem to have escaped the bounda ri es of
what is co ndu cive to su rviva l altogether.
Building efficient shelters against the weather d evelops into the art of
architecture, and into the building of g reat temples and cathedrals. From
the provision of warm clothing humans move into the wo rld of high
fashi o n. And the efficient reari ng of child ren is transmuted into the
co nstruction of ed ucational programmes t hat may tra in youn g people
into particular styles of etiquette or co mpetence in d ead languages,
whethe r o r not they equip the m for more efficient survival.
Evolutionary psyc hologists may discover ways in w hi ch such devel -
opments arc, despite appearances, related to the adaptive constraints of
natural selection, but any such rel ationship wi ll have to be ve ry indi rect.
Humans as a species do sccm to enjoy cu lti vating forrn s of train ing and
activity that have little releva nce to the p rovision of basic human needs
from which those activities undoubtedly began. Perso ns o f high c ulture
may even be offended at the tho ug ht that their highl y refined activities
have a ny practical use whatsoever.
C ulture may be seen as a form of play, developing skills conducive to
the fulfilment of basic needs in ways t hat have no purpose at al1 - or, to
put it in another way, whose purpose is simply the free and creative
expression of those skills, released from the constraints of necessity.
The creation of ap propriate clothing requires skills of weaving, sewing
a nd design. Those skills can be developed b y education and trainin g into
di splays of conspicuous ingenuity. I n a given society, traditions of desig n
ca n g row, wh ich can be exte nded , mod ified and redirected by people
of !.:xceptional creative taknt. T hese traditions co me to have the ir own
internal criteria of excellcnce, and connoisse urs of taste decree which
f.1shions arc acceptable and which ::trc undesirable in their cu lture.
Innovation in material and spiritual culture
Fashion becomes an end in itself, having no further purpose than to excel
in the approved style, or to rep lace it with another.
The point of culture is nOt so mu ch the objects it produces as the
creative deployment of skills it makes possible . So in matte rs of fine food
and wine) architecture , fas hi on and ed ucation, a premium is p laced on
creative ski ll and o n the cultivation of refined taste that ca n app reciate
suc h skill. When we look at material culture ) we arc looking at the objects
p rod uced by a society freed fro m the constraints of sheer survival . But we
arc looking at them in a special way - as products of exceptional skill ,
req uiring refin e me nt of taste to appreci-:1.te t hem properly. If the same
o bjects we re produced by ma chin es o r by forces o f nature, we would not
have t he sa me interest in t hem.
\·V hat we arc reall y inte rested in is certain qualities of mind relevant to
their produ ctio n and reception. \IVe admire creative ingenuity, orig i-
naJity and technical competence. \·Ve admire the culti vated sensibility
t hat can di sce rn such originality and ski ll. In other wurds, we take th e
ma terial (mostl y allral o r visua l) objects to sig nify somethin g beyond
the mselves - an ab ility that produced them or that is needed to
appreciate them.
So we might say that f.1shion exp resses the mind , t he creative vision, of
t he designer) and to sec what that is we need to acquire the se nsibility that
ca n read from a material object the skills and interests and goals that
underli e its creation and prese rvation in a specific social context.
That may be very difficu lt - as when the average Eu ropean comes
across Indian music, o r when a twenty first century human looks at
Palaeolithic cave paintings. Such people real ise that t hese arc objects of
sy mbolic material culture, human artef.1ctS inte ntionally produced as an
expressio n of some creative skill. \'Vh at they do not know is what that skill
is, why it is o r was p ri zed, and wha t makes it -:1.dmi rable - what it means to
those who produce, prese rve and val ue it.
This d ocs not yet t-:1.kc us to sp iritu-:1.1 cu lture . But it docs establish the
link between material cu lture and meaning. In brief, you cannot" have a
sy mbolic materi::tl culture unless yo u have thc ca pacity to see objects as
sig nifying so mething beyond themselves, and as being va lued because of
what they signify. By 'sign ify', I do not mc : m ' rep resent' in a picturing
way. I me-:1.n t hat an object is va lued not JUSt because of wh-:1.t it is,
materially, but because of the c reati ve skill it exp resses and the se nsibi lity
required to appnxiate it.
258 Keith Ward
This is not always just a mJ tter of creativity Jnd sensibility. A particular,
and vcry COI11 111011 , approach to rhe arts is that th ey carry cognitive content,
though of a pccuUarly personal istic so rt. This is not necessaril y a reli gious
view, in any sense, but it lays the basis for th inking that there may be a
specific religiolls 'way of knowing', that wo uld be 1110rc individual and
self-in vo lving t han publicly obse rva bl e and dispassionate.
Culture and cognitive content
1 have spoken of culture as play. That mig ht be taken as demeaning by
artists who devote th eir li ves to creatin g c ultural artefacts, and by those
who find the meaning of their lives enriched by learnin g to appreciate
such artefacrs. It is perhaps at this point that a divide opcns up between
thosc who have no problem with seeing culture as play and others who
see it at its hi ghes t level as Icading to highe r forms of app rehe nsio n o r
knowled ge.
People be lo ng ing to t he former g ro up ha ve as the ir pat ron saint
Jeremy Bentham , who t ho ug ht t hat all rational activity aims at pleasure,
and that no pleasures are in principle higher than any others. We play for
pleas ure, and we create cultural a rtef:1cts fo r plcasure, an d wc shou ld no t
try to mystit)r t his p rocess by bringing in ta lk of 'h igher pleasures' or
'deeper experiences'.
For othe rs this seems a dcsperatc trivialisatio n of cu lt ural acti vity. Fo r
them , cul t ural artef.:'lCts sig nity more than the exce ptio nal ski lls of th cir
creators. Bu t what co uld they signi f),? Poetry o r story-telling provides the
most accessib le key. An epic poem like Gilgamcsh , o ne of t he oldest
written works that we have, is certainl y a product of hum an imaginatio n
and dexte rity in language competence. \Ne admire it becausc it is skilfully
co nstructed. It diverts us and gives us pleasure . But it also tells a story, of
what human beings d o and what th eir place is in t he uni ve rse . That sto ry
is, of co urse, fiction. Yct it may be thought to be 'i nspi red', revealing
truths inaccessible to ordi nary consciousness, and only discernible by
those who read it in a sim ilarl y 'inspired' way.
For such a vicw, artistic activity is, or can be, inspired , an d can disclosc
no rm all y hidden, unrealised or un apprec iated t ruths. It is pby with a
se ri o us purpose, a co nstru ct of the human imag inatio n t ha t unlocks
hidden aspects of the ve iled rea li ty of bein g. In a similar way, pictorial art
is so metimes said to disclose the tfue charactc r of people it portrays, to
Innovation in material and spiritual culture
disclose somcthin g sig nifican t abo ut a placc or landscape, o r to enable us
to see so meth ing :lbout the human conditio n that wc have not previously
noticed. But all this is on ly ifwc lea rn to see it in the right way, in a way
th:lt unl ocks the sy m bolism , the rnood and thc mcani n g of the vis ual
object set before LI S.
It is not h:l rd to cxtend t his view to mu sic, w hi ch evo ke s moods and
tecli n gs that can secm fillcd with ve rball y in cxpressibl e profundity.
Blucs singing can set bcfore us the melancholy hardship and poignant
hope of the society it comes from, and let us understa nd what it is li ke to
be a mc mbe r of that society in a mo rc profound manner. vVith haute
c uisin e and hi g h fas hi o n it is not so easy. Yet wha t an d how we cat a nd
how we dress ca rry sy mb o lic meanings of whi c h we may not be awa re.
They ca rry messages, pe rhaps of hum an grecd and ostentation, or
perhaps of d istinctions wc makc bctween 'purc' and ' impurc" acccpt-
ab le a nd unacceptable , or of the social g ro u ps with w hi ch we associate.
Few human activities are without trains of symbolic meanin gs)
recognised an d unrecognised, and th e play of cultural productivity uses
suc h symbo ls to evoke ncw perspectivcs o n these mea nin gs, w hi ch are as
ambiguous, as supcrficial o r as deep , as human life itsclf.
It is clcar that man y cultural activities a rc primarily cognitivc. The
intellcctual disciplines of the natural scicnces, the meditations of philo-
sop hers, the top ical essays of journalists, all requi re imagi native skills o fa
h igh orde r, but their aim is to disclose truth } mo re t han it is to excite t hc
admi ration of othe rs. lndced, if they were not believed to disclose truth,
they wou ld rarely bc ad mircd.
So t he re is nothin g odd abo ut mcntal skills being both c ultivated fo r
the ir own sakc (for the p leasu re they givc ), a nd also for th cir cog nitivc
content, real o r alleged. The cognitive co ntent of Illllsic and painting
does not lie in the p rovision of di spassio natc tactua l information abo ut
the wo rld. Because of t his, Be nthamitcs te nd to deny t hat they have any
cog ni tivc conte nt. What music and paintin g express} howcve r} is the
personal vision of their creators, in such a way t hat it is possible to gain
direct affectivc knowledge of what it is like to be in the world as they arc,
and to sce and feci as they do. The cognitive conte nt of art and Illusic is
aftccrivc knowl edge o fthc subj ec ti vity of others. I do not mea n that we
gain a ma gical entry into somc purely introspecti ve expe ri encc. I mean
that we can lea rn to app reh end and fCel the wo rl d as they do, to ex pe-
rience in ourselves the unique perspective o n thc world that their skills
<ou Keith Ward
enable them to express, sometimes well and sometimes badly. Through
training and experience, we can cOllle to feci what it is like to experience
the world as they do, though we always do so frolll our own perspective,
which adds another layer of meani ng, makin g th is form of kn owledge
intensely personal and only indirectly cOlllmunica ble, and in that respect
quite diffe rent from scientific knowledge.
Artists select frolll the sensory and intcllccrual stimuli in their ellvi-
ronment, in accordance with their own tastes and discrim inations. They
assimi late these stim uli through fccli119, the subjective mode in which
sti muli arc assi milated and evaluated , appreciated or discarded. Then by
an imaginative process of integ ratin g these stim uli and feel in gs in ncw
ways, they try to communicatc their apprehension and feeling-responsc
in external visual forms.
Each artist belongs to a tradition that develops such visual form s in a
partiClllar way, and cach artist continucs that developmcnt by adding new
creative elements that, ifsucccssful , exp ress a personal vision and affective
apprehens ion that will change human perceptions of and responses to the
world. That is how art and music add to human knowledge. They do not
give additional information about the environment. They give knowl-
edge of how the environment, in its widest sensc, may be perccived and
responded to, of possible ways of being in the world, and of what it is like
to exist as a human bei ng .
Such knowledge must itself be received in an in vo lved, affective,
disc rimin ati ng and imaginative way. $0 learning to appreciate the arts
involves a training in discernment, cmpathy and imagination. It requircs
participation in a social lifc in which knowledgc is imparted and shared,
and creative projects are fashioned in cooperation with others. That is
why some find that culture is morc than play, in thc sense of enjoyment.
For them, culture enables a development of what is most trul y personal,
of forms of knowing that are othcrwisc unobtainable, and of forms of
social lifc that are of intrinsic worth.
Material and spiritual culture
Th is is where the link between matcrial and spiritual culture becomes
appa rent. The wo rd 'spiritu al' may be understood in two main senses
(the re arc, of course, many other se nses, but they arc not so relevant in
this context). It may refer to qua lities of mind or intellect, as opposed to
Innovation in material and spiritual culture
the cultivation of physical attributes or the accum ula tion of property.
Or it may refer to some non -matcrial reality that is other and in some
sense of greate r value than the physical unive rse. That 'spiritual reality'
may not be God, though God is one way in w hich it can be construed.
A Benthamite sense of culture wou ld not properly be term cd 'spirituaJ',
and I will exclude it from further discussion here, though it is quite widely
accepted. It sees culture as rooted in human capacities that have escaped
thei r adaptive fu nction, and operate as optional activities that arc to be
rationally assessed in terms of their production of pleasure. It is natural for
such views to seck explanations of cultural activity in terms of the power or
status they confer, o r of the social discriminations they reinforce. Such
cynical explanations have proved very lIseful in exposing some of the
pretensions of cul tured elitcs, who regard all who do not share their forms
oflife as barbarians. But it is clear that they wou ld be rejected as adequate
explanations by those who sec cultural activity as morc than play.
Of the twO se nses of the word 's piritual' that I shall con~ider, thc first
may be termed a humanist sense. For it, cultural arte(,cts (material cul-
ture ) arc seen as manifestations of distinctively human excellences,
capacities of discernment, evaluation and imagination that set humans
apa rt as beings of value in themselves. Both the production and appre-
ciation of cultural objects require train ing in such skills of creativity and
knowledge, and a prioritising of the spiritua l (mental) wo rld of personal
experi ence and respo nsible creativity over material pursuits of bodily
health , power and wealth .
it was in the Eu ropean Enli ghtenment of the eightcenth century
that these core values ofhul11anism were most fully articulated. Stress was
laid on creative individuality, the fullest usc of all distinctively human
capacities, on the importance of the emotionally charged insights of
personal experience, and on the formation of a society in which sllch
capacities and insights could be shared as fully as possible.
The importance of creativity, of affectively charged personal experi -
cnce, and of their development by free participation in a complex social
cultu re, arc the hallm arks of humanism , of that concern for human
development and self-realisation that marked the Enl ightenme nt and its
transition to Romanticism. But those featu res can be found in diA-crcnt
ways in Confucianism, in Stoicism, and in mediaeval Catholicislll, too.
They we re not newly invented in post- Reformation Eu rope, although
they took ncw forrns and definitions then.
262 Keith Ward
Humanism asserts the primacy of the personal. But the second main
sense of t he word 'spiritual' goes much fu rther and asserts that the
fundame ntal nature of reality, deeper and more important than the
physical, is personal. It has characteristics of awareness and intentional
agency, and possibly ofsocia1 re lations hip, too. Within sllch a worldvicw,
cultu ral artefacts do not only provide information about human per-
spectives, visions, id eals and goals . They provide information aboLi t the
world of Spi rit, a supraph ysical realm whose basic nature is more like
awareness and intentionality than it is like insensate matter or the blind
interplay of chance and necessity.
Spiritual culture now becomes t he exploration of the realm of Spirit,
and t he expression of particular ways in which humans interact with and
imaginatively conceive of th at realm.Nlany, bu t not all , creative artists t hink
of thei r artistic productivity in this way. Just as some mathematicians see
themselves as discove ring facts about an intelligible and purely conceptual
realm, so some artists th in k of themselves as bringing to expression features
of spiritual reati ty that cannot be d ispassionately or objectively described,
but can be disclosed by creative imagination and insig ht, as they are able to
discover and articulate new and surprising fearures of the spi ritual realm.
For such a view, the artefacts of material culture become more tha n
exp ressions of human imagination and creativity - though they are that.
They arc also expressions of spiritual culture , symbols of spiritual reality .
They can, and at their best they do, communicate someth ing o f that
reality to those with eyes to discern what they express.
Spiritual culture and religion
For this second sense of spi rituality, there is a close connection benveen
th e arts and religion. There is much debate about how one might define
'rel igion', and indeed about whether it is possible to define it at all. Bur I
think that one can pick Ollt human beliefs and practices, varying enor-
mously in their specific character, thar are concerned to alleviate human
anxiety or obtain human goods and avoid pe rsonal harms by consciolls
relation to a supernatural rea lity, conceived by means of symbols drawn
fi·olll the cult ure and experience of each society, and probably med iated
by a small group of expert practitioners. I th ink it is lIseful to have a term
to mark off those beliefs and practices. 'Religion' seems to be very suit-
ab le for that pu rpose.
Innovation in material and spiritual culture
It is not useful, however, to think that one can, in every case, mark out
a clear boundary between what is religioLis and what is not. An artist may
feel that her work is somehow communicating spiritual power and
meaning that is more than merely human , without being a n1ember of
any rdigious organisation and without undertaking any personal disci-
pline of prayer or practlce of ri tua l worship . H er work may stand about
midwayan a continuu m benveen seeing art as play and seeing it as
he lping to express the beliefs and practices of a formalised religious
institution.
When poets li ke Blake speak of holding 'infinity in the palm of your
hand, and eternity in an hour' (Blake 1956: 2443 ), they are speaking of a
sense of an underlying transcendent spiritual reality, that art o r poetry may
evoke. But t hey are not necessarily suppo rti ng any official religjou s for-
mulation of belief. They may even reject aU suc h fo rmul ations as unduly
restrictive. So, while t heir work conveys depth that may be called religio us
(in Schleiermacher's early definition of religi o n as ' th e sensibility and l.lSte
for the infin ite' ) (Schleiermacher 1799/ 1988: 103 ), t hey may be opposed
to all systems of formal ised religion they know. It was indeed part of
Schleiermacher's su-ategy to convince the anti religious Romantic poets of
Berlin that they were really religious, though they did not realise it.
It might be helpful to distinguish between an awareness of a personal
depth to reality (which I will call , after Rudolf Otto but without fo llowing
his specific definition of the term, a numinous sense ) (O tto 1917/ 1959 ),
and a set of defined beliefs or practices that specif)1 a normative way of
relation to Spirit (a canonical sense). Such a disti.n ction would be rather li ke
vVhitehouse's distinction between ' imagistic' and 'doco·inal' modes of
religion to which Steven Mithen refers in his paper (vVhitehouse 2004;
Mithen this volume) .
The boundary between these modes is not sharply defined . Schleier-
macher wanted to persuade those with a numinous sense that they could
without hypocrisy ally themselves to a particular canonical form of reli-
gion (in his case, what became known as liberal Protestantism ) . There are
many who would agree with him in thinlcing t hat some forms of
canonical religion are very hospitable to, and overlap wit h, many va ri eties
of numinous religion.
In the developed world, there are many 'New Age' practitioners w ho
claim to evoke awa reness of transcendent Spi rit and mediate spiritual
powers for human good, withollt t hinking that the re is one 'correct' ::md
264 Keith Ward
uni ve rsal way of doing SQ . There arc also man y, particul arly in modern
developed societies, who wish to say that they arc 'spiritual' without
being ' religious'. One way of capturin g t his vague d istinction is by
co ntrasting numinous (not intellectuall y defined or limited to a specific
set of revealed beliefs) and cano ni cal (guided by orthodox definitions and
practices) religio usness .
Canonical trad itio ns typically have a 'revealed ' d efinition of w hat the
spiritual worl d is, an d reco mmend a men ta l d iscipline to achieve co n-
sciolls rel ationsh ip to it. vVit hin slI ch trad itio ns, the wo rd 'spirituality' has
t he we ll-established sense o f referring to d isciplines of prayer, especially
discip lines cond ucive to 'mystical' or perso nal expe ri ences of t he divine.
N um ino us form s of spi ri tua li ty often also strcss the importance of per ¥
so nal experience of spiritua l reality, but t he exte nt to w hi ch there are
thought to be normative belicfs or discipli nes of prayer and mcditation
va ri es considerably.
Humanist, numinous and canonical spiritual culture
$0 1 have distin g uished three main typcs of spiritual ity, which correlate
wi th th ree kind s of spiriulal cu lture.
First are t hose, broad ly speaking humanists, who wou ld see the deve l¥
opment ofthc d istinctive mental capacities of humans as of intrinsic worth .
Spi ritual culture is what enables material artef.lcts to be valued as p rodu cts
of o utstanding personal visi o n and creative cxcellcnce, and what gives a
sense of valu e, purpose and significance to human life. This sense migh t be
though t to be no nreli gious, and so metimes it claims to be. But it is hard to
have a se nse of t he moral priodt)' of the pe rsonal without having so me sort
of world view that gives spirinlal (personal ) properties ontological priority.
Thus Confucianism is usuall y co nsidered to be a rel igio n, even though
it co nce ntrates almost enti rel y o n the way of being properl y human. T o
think th at there is a way in which it is propc r to bc human , that this is
so mchow an objective t ruth about t he wo rld , and that the wo rld is sllch
as to make the id eal human life realisablc, is to ground moral principles in
a vicw o f human nature, in an o nto logy, th ar su bordinates the material to
the spi ritual. God o r the gods arc not vcry important for Confucianism .
But t here are temples, rites of ve nerating th e ancestors and spi ritual
prese nces, and beliefs t ha t t he social order sho uld mirror t hc 'Way of
Heaven' and thus realisc o n ea rth a cosmic order and harmony.
Innovation in material and spiritual culture
H ere the boundaries betwecn rel igion and moral practice are
diapha no us. Confucians d o wa nt to uti lisc spirit powers for good, and
t hose spirit powe rs arc more t han ind ivid ual human activi ties. Spirit is
not co nceived as a pe rso nal God, o r cvcn as individuatcd in obviously
pcrsonal spirits. It is mo re li ke a cosmic moral o rd er, a tendency towards
the Good , which individual hum ans ought to accept and promote .
The Confucian moral code is rooted in a spccific wa y of seein g authentic
human existence, and a specific way of bein g human. This is a mon istic
co nception o f spi rit, for whi ch the supe rn atu ral is not so mcthing other
than the naturaJ, but an important aspcct of thc narura l rightl y see n. Bu t
humanism is o nl y ambi g uously reli gio us. I would not wish to call it a
fo rm ofrcl igio us life as such, J nd a decisio n about whether the re call be..: a
humanist fo rm of relig io n will pro babl y depcnd upon w hether or not
specific humanists are p repa rcd to ta lk abou t a 'supernatllral' rcality at all ,
monist o r not.
The second and thi rd types o f spirituality can less am bigll ously be
callcd rel igious. Thc second typc is what I have called numinous religi o n.
Its adherents see the spiritllal as an existent level of reality, probably more
fundamc ntal and of g reatcr va luc than t he physical. For them , spiritual
culrure enab les humans to disccrn and co nscio usly relate to the spiritual ,
t hough wit ho ut gaining any precise theo retical kn owlcdge of it. The
spiritual is cxp ressed by symbo ls taken from sig nificant featu res of the
environ mcn t, that re fl ect th e interest and history of specific social gro ups.
T he spiritua l is thus esse ntiall y vag ue, polyscmic and accessed by perso nal
im aginati ve visio n, but such access provides human lifc with its most
profo un d fo rms of happi ness and fu lfilment. As I have pointed o ut,
thinke rs like Schleie rm ac hcr t ry to ass im ilatc this sc nse of the numinous
ve ry closely with cano ni cal (orthodox ) reli g io n , and agai n a d ecisio n
abo ur whether or not to accep t this ass imilatio n wi ll d cpend upon
the cxtcnt to which indi viduals link thc arts with a disci plinc aiming to
d iscern a supreme objective Good, as described in a cUlll ul ative ritual and
sYlllbolic t radition .
The t hird type of spiritu Jlity is comp riscd of adhere nts of canonical
trad itio ns (traditio ns with an aut ho ritatively d efi ned ca no n of revealed
text o r beliefs) who thi nk that material culture shou ld be put at t he
se rvice o f systems o f belief and practice, so that it can be a reliable
medium of ex pressing and achieving a beneficial relatio nshi p to t he
spiritual (whi ch Illa I be co n ~trlled as God o r the god s, o r in other \VaLYs~)~.__
266 Keith Ward
Canonical spi rituality is the aspect of formalised religious life that
conce ntrates on mental disciplines believed to be conducive to personal
experience of the religious object.
For those who hold such a vicw, some forms of material culture may
be misleading or even demonic (accessing harmful or destructive aspects
of the spiri tual ). lvlost religious institutions wi ll place constraints on the
sorts of art that properly express a spiritual sensc - which is perhaps why
creative artists sometimes rebel against organised religion. Orthodox
Judaism and Islam forbid the making of representational images. But
they encourage the creation of beautiful songs or chants, and revere the
highly metaphorical and symbolic language of the ir holy texts. For cen -
turies, C hristians insisted on authorised forms of iconic represe ntation ,
and chu rch authorities d isapproved of sacred music if it got toO emo -
tionally powerful or grandiose. It may even be said by some that material
and spiritual cultures are opposed to one another, though it should be
appa rent that this is usuall y not qu ite true, since some aspects of material
cu lture arc alm ost always valued as means to access the spiritual - even the
Jains, adherents of the most ascetic of f~liths ) have beautifu l temples and
elegant images of their Tirthankaras, or Jjberated sou ls. Evcn at its most
anicon ic, canonical spirituality alrnost always uses artefacts of material
cu lture to give exprcssion to its conceptions of Spirit.
Religion and culture
Material and spiritual culwre are closely related , and religion , in various
senses, is a natural expression of their origin in human animals. So there is
reason [Q think that some form of religiosity is hard -wired into the
hum an bra in , and is closely associated with the rise of cultural activity,
and the emergence of cognitive fluidity among hominids. This in turn is
connected with the o ri gin of distinctive mental capacities and opportu-
nities in human evolution.
There could not be culture without freedom from the constraints of
directly adaptive behaviour, without the mcntal skills to relllember,
imagine, plan and create, and without a desire to produce artefacts thar
will express and reco rd for future societies son1ethin g of the in ward ness
of personal experi ence, the sdf-conscious recollection of aftccrive
response and the striving fo r excellence that characterises personal exis-
tence. It seems certai n that culture arises with the devel0p:lllcnt ora sense
Innovation in material and spiritual culture
of rcflexive personal identity, and thus with a decisivc saltation 111 the
development of the human brain.
If is natural for a sense of the significance of the personal to arise
with such a developmcnt. And it is natural for that sense to be extended,
at lcast by some, to embrace the whole of the humanl y experi enced
world. So one can sec how rel igion arises as a natural but nOt uni versal
coro llary of cultural activity. It has its own proper sphere in the attempt
to achieve conscious relationship with transcendent personal powers
(spirits ) in order to gain good and avert evil. It is closely related to
humanist and numinolls forms of cu lturallifc, and it develops by various
paths to the more moralised and rationalised forms of religion that exist
in the world today.
Ir seems that its simplest common origin can be found expressed in
not wholly inaccessible ways in the caves and tombs of Southern Eu rope.
Cano ni cal (revealed ) traditions did not then exist, though the re cou ld
havc been imagistic religion , or forms of 'inspircd' teaching, fi'o lll elite
experients of the spiritual (so mcthing analogous to shamans, perhaps),
that came to form local traditions. A question of great interest to the
historian of religion is whether the cave images suggest some form of
hum anist celebration of human creativity (so-called 'cave art'), o r
whethcr they point to a numinolls aware ness of a spiritual realm, and arc
aids to seeking knowledge of such a rea lm . It is also of great interest to
know how such a rea lm was conceived, and what sort of relationsh ips
humans cou ld have with it. VVe are probably confined to hints and guesses
when dealing with such remote and unchronicled times, but some
guesses can be much more educated t11an others. At that point, the
conceptual theorist can gratefully turn to detailed empi rical studies of
these carly form s of human li fe and cultu re, to sec what more can be
learned abou t the o ri gins and earl y for ms of rel igious life.
REFERENCES
Blake, \V., 1956. Auguries of Innocence, in 17" Pcuguiu Book of EIIglisIJ Verse,
ed. J. Hayward . I brmondsworrh: Penguin, 2443.
EV:1Ils· Prirchard, E., )°65. -nJcurics of Primitillc RcI(lJioll. Oxford: Clan.:ndon
Press.
Fraze r, J., 1890/ 1996. T1JL' Co/dOl Bougb. Harmond~worth: J\.:nguin.
HUl1lc , D. , 1757/ 1993. Nntllrnl History of RcltlJioll , ed. ].C.A. Ga~kin. Oxford:
Oxtord Uni\'c.:r!)iry Prc.:!';s.
268 Keith Ward

Lcwis· Wi lli;lI1lS, ]. D., 2002. 77JC Mind ill tbe Crwe: COmcifHtmCJJ (Hid tbe
Origim of A,-t. London: Thames & Hud son.
MirhcJ1 , S. J" 1996. 711c PrciJistol)' of tbe Mind: A Scm'c/) for tbe Origins of Art,
Religioll flnd Science. London: Thames & Hudson.
Orro, It. , 1799/1959. TIle Idcll of tbe Holy, trans. }. Harvey. Harmondsworth: Index
Pengui n .
Schlc.:icrm:tchcr, F., 1799/ 1988. On Religion , trans. R. Cromer. Cambridge:
Cambridge Univers ity Press.
\Vhirchousc, H., 2004. Modes of Religiosit)'. \>Valnur C reek, CA: Altamira Press.

! Kung peopk J 48 an ato micall y mock rn humans 8, 10,

32,39, 40,66, l OS- II , 135, I
Abebm people 144, 146 172, 190. See also Homo sapicu
Abo ri gines, Austral ia 6 , 67, 68 , 128 Ancesrral Beings 67- 8, 128
Ab ri Blanchard (France ) 22 1 rlllimislll 32, 101 , 154
Abri Castanet (France ) 221 anthropology 32 , 113,24 1,244
Abri Paralld (France ) 220, 221 ,nticr(s) 2, 19,20,52,78, 170, I S6·
abstract imagery 37, 159 Apollo 11 Cave (Namibia) 85
Achculeal1 11 , 40, 64 Arabia 1
adornment 77. See a/so dccor~l.[ion archaeology of religion 33, 39, 104
Af,r (Ethiopia ) 13 104-22 , 112
Ati·ica 1,4,8,30-2,39,40,4 1,45,63-5, archi tectu re 99, 256, 257
69-70, 74-S, 90, 104, 109- 12, li S, 127- 9 , Arcy-sur-Curc (Francc) 58, 203
143, 14S , 15 3, 166, IS 3, 20S , 242 Ardcche (Fran ce) 54, 197,199, 20(
after life 29, 36, 38, 144 Argentina 85
Ai, (Spain ) 202 Aricgc (France ) 196- 8, 202-5
Ainu people 56 Arnhem Land (Australia) 67
Aka people 166 Arrow Rock (USA) 209
Alcorta, C. 3 1- 3, 39 Arsllaga, J. -L. 17
Alebo, L. 159 art, roots of 95- 103
Allain, J. 196 Arunta people 33
Alkn, J. 63 Asi, -1-5 , 8, 19- 20,63,66,69-70
Alpes-Mari tim es 24 82, 88
Altamira (Spain) 2 , 8, 78, 83 , 213 Asturias (Spain ) 195 , 202, 203
altered starc of consciousness 35-6, J 25, 143, Arapllcrca (S pain ) 17-19,65
148, 150-3 atheism 35, 124
Alexcrri (Spai n) 202 Aujoulat, N. 200
Alvard, M.S. 35 Aurignac (France) 2
Amazon ian fon:s r 149 Aurignacian 4- 5, 23, 76, 80- 2, 89
Americas 8, 82, 84 159, 167- 8,204, 21S, 221
Amud ( Israel) 19 aurochs 136, 145, 2 17, 220, 225
vo Index Index

Austr..l li;1 7, 8 , 33 , 63 , 66- 9, 74-5, 82, 84-6, 90, Benlh:lmircs 259 Bo uchud , J. 2.1 7 Castille Leon provi nce (Spai n ) 17-
109 , 222 Ikrckha r Ibm 80 Bouissac, P. 107 cathcdrals 96
Australopithecus 76 Berger, J. 179 Boule, J\l . 50 Cathol icism 99, 261
Ausrri3 79, 80 Bcrhmann , R.D . 190 bovids 4 2 , 108 ,2 18 cats 145
Avcntignan ( Fra nce) 202 Berkowitz, M. 55 bow-wave effect 139 cattlc 89
awls liD Bcrllludcz de Castro , J.- M. 17 Bowler, ) .M . 66 Ca ucas lls 52
Azilian 215 , 225-6 Bcrnifu l ( France ) 202 , 203 Boyd, R. 35, 36 Ca une de I'Arago (France ) 14, 15
Bibikov, S. 170 Boyer, P. 3D , 31 , 33-4, 37- 8 , 44-5 , 123, cave (s) 17, 52- 3,78 , 83 , I 01 , 1 2~
bachelor's bu[[ons 52 Sido n cave (France) 200 128 , 13 1 146-52, 159, 169-70, 179, I
Bac hler, E. 55 Bicsdc , M. 149 Boyle, K. 217, 2 19 , 225 197-200, 202- 9
Bacha Kiro ( Bulgaria ) 57 biracial points 42 brace lets 22 cave art 2 , 3, 6, 8, 22, 29, 30, 56-
Batlier , D. J 88, J 90 Binford , L. 2 19 , 22 0 , 227 brain 10, 24, 25 , 34,37, 39, 43 , 53 , 77, 95 , 84-9, 100, 102 , 169, 195- 6,
Balm, P. 42, 53-4, 57-8, 63, 69, 79, 88 , 141 , biolobry 36, 39 100, 123, 130- 1, 143, 147, 148 , 155 , 213, 214,2 17,223-7, 267.
168, 182 Birdsell, J.B. 219 , 222 245 , 248- 9,266-7 stencils; painting(s); roc k art
Bar-Yoscr, O. 66 Bischoff, ). L. 65 Brasscmpouy ( France ) 79, 8 1, 202 , 204 cave bears 50, 54- 6 , 58- 9 , 109 , 1
Ihrbaza , M. 204 Bishop , D.v.M . 127 Britain 11 2 203, 206- 7
barbed points 110 bison 14, 19 , 83,88, 130- 1, 136, 144-5 , 147, Brittany (France ) 16 Cave of vVirches (Iraly) 56
Barbujani, G. 104 2 17- 18 ,220 Brooks, A.S. 1, 30, 40 , 41 , 63-4, 66,77, 78, cc mctcries 19,52. Sec also burial(s
Barham, L. 63, 64, 110 Bbckfoor Indi:m s 166 104, 107, 127- 9 , 143 C halm ers, D. 123
Barker, G. 89 Blacking, ) . 160 Buisso n, D. 182 , 187, 204 chamois 21 7
baric)! 89 blades 2, 110 Bulgaria 57 Charente ( France ) 200
Barth, F. 124 Blake, E. 104, 263 Burch, E.S. 220 Chase, P.G. 40, 57,107, 108
llarthes, R. 184 Blakesk e, S. 155 Burgund y (Francc) 195 ,203 Chatcl pcrronian cu lture 5, 58 , 218
Ihrton , C. M. 179 Bleck, D.F. 148 burial(s) 4 , 17, 19- 22, 51 - 2, 55, 57,65-6, 69- Cherry, ). 90
basalr 13 Blolllbos ave (South Africa) 1, 3,8, 41 -5, 75 , 70, 107- 8 , 110- 11 , 126, 129, 138- 9 , 144, Childe, G. 29
Basque co umry 20 3, 237, 243 77,88, III , 11 7, 128 , 242 200 ,244 chimpanzees 113 , 255
Basua Cave ( Italv) 56 Blue MOllmains World Heritage ArC3 67 delibc r:u c 3 , 4 I , 53 Chippindalc, C. 67- 9
Ba t.ille, G. 187 boar 52 , 225 Burkc, A. 217, 22 1 choppers 1 1- 12
Bauer, A. 181 Bocksrc in schmicdc (Germany ) 58 butchcry 16, 57 C hristianity 20, 96, 148, 154, 237
bcads 2, 3, 30 , 42-4, 58, 63, 77- 8 , 13oh1111:1.11, r.v. 162 , 166 Bu tzcr, K. 216, 226 247, 249
110- 11 , 128 bone 149 , 204, 207 Bye rs, A.M. 107 Cla rk, G.A. 138
bears 54- 6 , 58, 196-7, 203, 206-7 ani n131 55, 109, 170,2 19 Cla rk , ).D. 30 , 40 , 66
Bcde ilhac (France ) 199, 202 human 14, 130 Callende r, D.E. 237 Clarke, A. 123, 130- 2
Bednarik , R. 63-4, 80 Neanderthal 54, 57 Camo u-Cihi gue (France) 202 clay 22 , 56 , 79, 83, 84, 88, 196, I
Begbie, ) .5. 160, 167 bone artdacts 41 - 2 , 108, 110- 11 , 168-9, 226 Cann, R.L. 104 climate and cognition 2 I 2- 32
Begoucn , R.. 202 carvings 2 , 22 , 38, 58 , 74, 78, 81 , 186- 8 ca nnibalism 14, 16, 54, 65 clothing 22 , 56, 256
beha"ioural modcrniry 30, 4 1 figuri nes 79 Car:llnclli, D. 135 Clones, J. 3,7,29,30,63, 125 , 1
Beirut ( Lebanon ) 56 flun:s 59 Carbonell i ROllra , E. 17 18 7- 8 , 190, 196-7,200, 202
Belgi um 19 , 54 harpoon -+0 Carruthers, r. 123, 12 7 224, 245
bclief7,29,53, 90, 138, 150, 161 , 164, 166-7, pipes 159 ca rvi ng(s) 2, 24- 5, 38, 69 , 74, 78, 8 1, 83, 87, Coa valley ( Po rtu ga l) 86
208 ,2 12 , 249. Sa also rel igion point -+-+ 12- 14, 131 , 244,246 cognition 8, 10,24,38,44-5,97,
Bellwood, P. 89 Boquet-Appel , J. R. 218 Castclmerle va lle)1 ( France ) 221 179,243- 6
Ikntham, J. 258 Borneo 85 casn: ~ys [cm 99 and climate 212- 32
272 Index Index

cognitive cut marks 16, 54, 65 DNA studies 5, 76, 104 ethnici ty 222
abilities 3D, 3 1, 39 , 104- 5, 112 Czech Republic 6, 79 Oobres, IvL -A. 182 , 18 7 ethnography 33 , 148 , 150, 183
fluidity 32 , 123, 126-31 , 243,248-9, 255,266 Dolnl Vcstonice (Moravia) 79, 84, 2 13, 222 ethology 113
revolution 109 d 'Aquil i, E. 155 domestication 16, 88- 9 Erxebcrri (France ) 202
coins 208- 9 d'Errico, F. 3, 6,29 , 42-3,58,81, 105,107- 11, Dommt.: ( France ) 202 Eup hrates river 24
Coles, J.M. 55 159 , 168 , 172 Donald , M. 7, 30, 4 1, 77, 95-7,103, 107, 130 , Eurasia 31 , 179, 183
colonialism 155 Dal11asio , A. 245 24 1, 243-4 Eurocenrrism 75
Combe Grellal (France) 54 Dams, L. 159 , 169, 170 Dordognc (France ) 1, 2, 4 , 19, 21 , 50, 75, 101 , Europe 3- 8,19, 29 , 30, 32 , 41 , 51
Com bier, J. 200 dan ce 96,123,126, 162-5,169,172 169, 202- 3,218- 19 63-4, 67- 70, 74- 6,79- 8 1,86,
Conard, N. J. 69, 160 Daniel , G . 75 Dowsol1 , T. 30, 39, 105 , 145,147, 208 118, 129, J35, 138-9,143- 6,
Confucianism 261 , 264 Dansgaard , W. 2 15 Drache nloch cave (Switze rland ) 55 197, 205 , 2 12- 16, 221- 2, 22,
Conkey, IVI. 3,7, 29, 179 , 180, 182 , 186-7, Daral11ulan , Creation Being 67 dreams 141 261,267
238- 9 , 242 Darkinjung elders 68 Drcamtime 67-9, 128 Evan s- Pritchard , E. 254
conscioll s n~ss 10, 11 3, 140 , 237,240 ,245 , Dart, R. 76 Duday, H . 197 evolutionary psychology 34, 125
247-8, 258 Darug elders 68 Duport, L. 200 exchange 35 , 4 ] , 45 , 70, 100, 114,
:lltcrcd state of 35- 6 , 125 , 143, 148 , 150- 3 Darwin, C. 50, 75 DurtlJldn/15 expe ri me ntal arc haeology ] 13
Constable, G. 52- 6 Dauvo is, M. 159, 170 Durkheim, E. 32- 3, 106, 253
Constantin!.: 154 David, N. 6, 7, 125, 135,222,245 , 254 Dynamic figures 67 Fairbanks, R.G. 214
cooking 17, 54 Davidson, I. 42, 241-4, 251 Dyson - Hudson, R. 222 fallow deer 14, 56, 57
Coon , C.S. 56 Davies, 'vV. 215 , 225 farm in g 7
COffe Zt- (France) 19, 22 Davis, 'vV. 185 eagle 169 fecundi ty 23
Casquer (France) 198 , 203 , 213 Day, M. 132 Eagle 's Reach (Australia ) 67, 68 Fejej (Ethiopia) 12, 13
COllrt:lud , P. 197 Deacon, T. 40, 244, 245 Eco, U. 184 Feldhofe r cave (Ge rman y) 50
crania 10 , 16, 66 decoration 8, 10 , 22 , 24, 57, 59, 63 , 81 , 107, Edelman , G. 142-4 fem urs 14, 51 , 55- 6, 58, ]09
Creation Bein gs 67 116, 170, 223 , 242 Edgar, B. 53 fe rtility 20, 179, 189
creative explosion 3, 6, 8,74-5,78- 9 , 88- 90 dee r 14, 19, 20, 52 , 56- 7,2 17- 18 , 220, 225 Egyptian hieroglyphs 24 Ferugl io, V. 188, 200
creativity 35- 6, 67, 74, 90, 100,242- 3, 249, deAcshing 65 Ehringsdorf (Germany ) 53, 54 fetishism 35
258, 26 1- 2,267 Dcflcur, A. 54 El Kowm (Syria ) 15 fibulae 14
C remadcs, IvL 187 deities 162,237. Sec also gods Enard , W. 127 figuration 7, 79, 81- 3, 86
cremation 66, 69 deliberate burial 3, 4 1, 53 engagement 180, 190 fig urines 6, 7, 23, 79, 80- 2, 86, 1 ~
C resswell C rags ( Bri tain ) 213 Ddpcch, F. 217, 219 , 225 Engi s ( Belgium ) 54 finger tracings 197
Crimea ( Ukraine ) 53, 57 Delson , E. 53 engraving(s) 8, 24, 29 , 42 , 44, 108, Ill , 117, Finistere (France ) 16
ero-Magnan (s) 41 , 50 , 76 de Lumley, H. 2, 3, 10, 12 , 13, 65- 6, 69, 76 124, 169, 196, 198, 200, 226. See also fire 3, 16, 17, 66, 76
Croatia 51 , 54-5 Demars, P.Y. 218, 220, 22] , 223 carvin g(s) fish/ fishing 36, 42, lID, 220
Cross, I. 166 Dennett, D. 132 Enlcne ( France) 149, 199 , 201-4 Hakes 12, 13, 77
Csordas, T . 187, 190 Des:ma people 149 Enlightenme nt 98 , 102,26 1 Aint cortex 58
Cueva Mayor (Spai n) 17 design 42, 63,1 14, 169,187, 256 Enloe, J. 22 1 Hood 208
Cueva Mo rin (Spain ) 57 de Sonnevillc-Bordes, D. 2 12, 2 18, 221 , 225- 6 epilepsy 141 flowers 19, 52 , 53
cultural DeVore, I. 220, 222 epistemology of music 162 Hutes 58- 9 , 109, 168- 9
compkxity 35- 6 Diamond, ). 242 Erbcrua ( France ) 202 Folcy, R. 40, 104, 127
pra xis 180 Dibble, H.L. 40, 107 Espagnac (France) 202 Fontanet (France ) 196, 202- 5
selectio n 34 disease 35, 44 ete rn al yourh 20 footpri nts 197
Cussac Cave (France) 200 Divj!; babe cave (Slovenia ) 58, 59 , 109 Ethi opia 10- 13,40,66 foramen magnulll 53 , 54
274 Index Index

'-:orgc, A. 144 goats 53 , 89 Hallsa peop k' 161 Housky, R.A. 225
Forste r, P. 1, 76 G6bckl i Tepe (Turkey) 90 Hame -Garonne (Fran ce) 202 Hove rs, E. I 10
Forrier, A. -j\l. 18 7 god s 62 , 6S , 132 , 20S, 212 , 253 , 264-5 Hautes- Pyrenees 202 , 207 Hublin,J.-).135
fossils 22, 40, 50, 70 Golding, W. 183 Ha vil.lI1d , \'V.A. 61 Hu ghen, K. 2 14
fo xes 58 Gona ( Ethiopia ) 10, II , 12 Hawkes, T. 184, 185 hum anism 262
FOXP2 gene 12 7 Gonzalez, J.J .A. 190 Hayden , B. 21 4 , 220 human revolution I , 8 , 74-8 , 88, 9
France 1, 2,6, 8, 14-1 7, 2 1- 5, 5 1,54,55- 7,65 , Goody, J. 124 headdresses 22 H umc , D. 253
75- 9, 8 1- 3, 85- 9 , 138,190, 195 , 202- 5, Go rd o n, B. 217, 221 headhunters 54 hUllleri 14,55- 6, 196, 203, 206- 7
208 , 2 12- 19, 222- 6, 237, 243 Gosden , C. 190 healing practices 35 Hungary 16, 58
Franco -C:lI1rabria(n ) 2- 3, 7-8, 75 , 78- 9 , 82- 90, GOllk , P. 126 hearths 16, 17, 22 1 hunter-gathe rers I , 34, 88, 105, 11
100- 2, 2 12- 14, 223, 225 G raburn, N. 180 Hefner, P. 248 126, 129, 139, 148,166, 190,
Fra ncon ia 55 grape h~l acinrh s 52 Hdskog, K. 188 222, 224
Frazer, J. 105 , 106 , 253 grave(s) 19 , 20 , 52 , 53 Hdvenston , P.A. 141 hUllting 16, 56, 220, 221
French Natio nal Mu seum of Natural History 50 goods 29, 41 , 66, 107, 125 , 139, 144. See n/so Hellshi lwood , C. 1, 3, 40- 3 , 63,74 , 77, 107 , H untley, B. 216
Fritz, C. 182 , 187 buri al (s) 111 , 128 , 160, 180,242 Hutch ins, E. 132
fune rals 53 Gravertian 6, 23 , 75 , 79- S2 , 87, 101 , 167, 195 , Herzfeld ,I" 1. 184 Hu),gc, D. 159
fun erary gifts 19 200, 204, 222 hieroglyphs 24 hypnmis 34, 35, 36
Futurists 99 Greenfidd , S. 143 Higgs, E.5. 55
Gregerse n, N. 245 Hinduism 99 ibex 20,217
Gabora , L. 29 , 35 , 36, 39 Grimald i (fran ce) 213 Hohle Fcls (Germany) 23 , 69 Ice Age 2, 123- 5, 130- 1, 183,2 1
Gagarino ( Russia) 213 grindstones 110 Hohlensteill -Stadcl (Gcrman y) 22- 3 , 69 , 80, ichnology 197
Gamble, C. 29- 30, 50- 3, 57- 9, 79, 138, 169, Grotta Gu ittari ( Italy ) 53 13 1, 213 iconography 6 1- 73
179 , 180, 182- 3, 190, 222- 3 Groue C hau vct (France ) 8, 78, 83 , 13 1, 188 , Holloway, R. 39 icons 30
Garcia, M . 197 196-7, 199 , 200, 203, 206, 213 hollyhocks 52 ideograms 24
Garcia-Ri vera , A.R. 237 Grotte de Renne (France ) 58 Holmes, R. 62 Jdrijca valley (Slo\'cnia ) 58
Ga rgas C:lVC (France ) 197- 8,2 02 ,204,207 Grom.: des Cheva ux (France) 202 Holocene 6- 7, 79 , 84-5, 88, 129 ima ge ry 34, 37, 62-3, 68- 9,10 1,
Garget[, It. H. 5 1, 108, 125 , 138 Grotte du Moulin ( Fra nce ) 202 homini sation 10 , 14 , 17 145-6,150- 3,159,184,188,
Garrod, D. 81 Grone du Pape (France ) 202 H omo eream 3, 64, 70, 76, 8 1 239-47
Gccrrz, C. 33 , 106, 180, 18 1, 183 , 186 Griin , R. 66 Homo cIlJaste,. 31 , 70 , 76 incest 114, 254
Gcisscnklostc rl c (Germany) 159 , 168, 2 13 Guthrie, S. 127 Homo Imbilis 65 , 76 In dia 63, 64
Gd l, A. 180 Homo bcidclbulJcmis 17, 18 , 3 1, 53, 65 Ingman, 1\1. 39, 104 , 127, 129
gender rclati o ns 155 Hadar ( Ethiopia) II , 12 HOlll o be/wei 127 inkling 36, 245
genes 5, 37, 39 Haddo n, A.C. 29, 33 Homo nCfllldel·tbalcmis. Sec Neanderthal(s) innovarion 6 , 8, 29, 35, 40, 43-4,
Genoa ( Italy) 56 haematite 63 , 69 Howosnpi em 1- 5, 10 , 22 , 29- 32 , 37, 39 , 40, 53 , 243, 253- 68
gcoiob,}' 2 13 haftin g 110 69 ,74-8, 8 1, 126- 7, 129 , 130, 135-40 , Insoll , T. 29 , 30, 32- 5 , 37
geometric patterns 29 Hahn, ] . 63 , 69, 159 143-4, 148, 152-5,168 , 237, 240, 243-4, Iraq5 1, 52
Germany 6, 23, 50, 53, 55, 58, 76, 80, 159 Haif.'l ( Israel ) 52 249,254. Sec nlso anatomically modern Isbill 99, 162 , 266
ghosts 128 hallucinations 32, 14 1, 145, 147- 8 , lSI humans Israel 19,2 0,57- 8,80, III
Gibson , K. 40 Hamer, D. 37 Hormann, K. 55 Isruritz (France ) 168 , 202
gift giving 35 hand stenci ls 85, 204, 207 hornbknd 15 Ital), 6, 56, 75
Gilgalllcs h 258 handa xcs II , 13- 15, 18,31 , 64-7,76 horn cores 53 I\'er~cn, ) . 2 16

gi raffes 148 harpoo m 40 h or~c~ 14, 57,69, 130 , 136,144-5,185,186- 7, ivory 2, 22, 58 , 74 , 78- 9, 8 1, 136
Glory, A. 159, 170 hauntin g 36, 54, 237 217- 18,220 170, 18 1
276 Inde x Index

Jackson, L.J. 220 Lacombe, S. 182 Levy- Bruhl, L. 1 J 3 Maya L68

Jacobs, Z. 40, 41 La Fe rrassic (France ) 19- 21 , 51-2 , 57,218 Lewin , R. :!37 i\'lbmi people 166
Japan 7, 56, 79, 83 Lahr, M. 40 , 104, 127 Lewis-Williams, D. 6 , 7, 29, 30 , 35, 39,42,84, McAllcstcr, D.P. 166
Jarvik, lv1. E. 145 L.1 i, CS.L. 127 105 , 125, 135, 141 - 2, 144, L45, 147, 150, McB rearty, S. I , 30 , 40, 4 1, 63-4, 66
jawbones 14, 52 L'lkc Constance 55 152, 181 , 18 7- 8, 190, 208- 9 , 2 L2 , 223-4, L04 , L0 7, 12 7-9, 143
Jt:hs, D. 105 La. Madeleine ( France ) 22 1 245 , 255 JvlcCle non, J. 35 , 36
Jelinek, J. 55 Landes ( France ) 202 life afte r death 21 , 138 McDermott, F. 66
jewellery 10, 22 , 24 Iangu:lge(s) 2 , 10, 29, 31 , 36- 7 , 42-3,62 , 96, limonite 63 , 69 mcdiaeval141, 168,261
Jochim , M. 180, 214 104-5 , 107 , 11 3, 126- 31,138 , 142-3 , Lindly, J.M. 30 Mellars, P. 1-3 , 6,29, 30, 41,50- 1, 5:
Johanson, D. 53 153 , 160, 18 7, 222 , 237, 240, 242- 5, 256, lion -man figurine 23 , 131 75- 9,104,125, 135, 139,214, :
Johnson , G.A. 224 258 , 266 lithic technology 40, 74, 76 225- 6,241
Jomon period 7, 79, 83 bpI's 56 lithophones 169, 170 memory 36, 66, 77, 95 , 97- 8, 142 ,
Jones , it.A. 32 , 33, 53 La Quina (France ) 51, 57, 58 Lock, A. 107 Menez Drcg:1I1 (France ) 16
Judai sm 99, 162 , 266 La Roche-Corard ( Fr:lncc) 58 Lock, C. 30 , 31 , 181 , 188 Merveilles Valley ( France) 24, 25
Ju ng, K. 254 Lascaux cave (France ) 2, 8, 78, 150- 1, 196, 199 , Loire river 58, 212 Mesolithic 112 , 225
202- 3, 2 13 Lommci, A. 105 metaphysical anguish 19, 21
Kada Gon3 (Ethio pia ) 10 L...'l Souquettc ( France) 221 Lorblanchet, M. 58 , 70, 204 metapodials 16
Kaiko festival 162 L...'ltc Glacial Maximum 6 Loubens ( France) 202 metatarsal 14
Kalash people 208 L'ltcr Stone Age 30, 4 1, 110 LSA. See L'lter Stone Age .\-kyrals (France ) 202
Katanda (\Vest Afri ca) 40 L'lugeric Haute ( France ) 220 Lubbock, Si r John 35 ,\ ic zin ( Ukraine ) 170
K.wur, B. 159 L.111ssd (France ) 83 , 87, 2 L3, 221 MezmaiskaY:l Cave (Russia) 52
Kcbara ( Israel ) 52 L.1Vilic, H . 2 18, 221 Magdalcnian 85 , 88 , 101 , 167- 9 , 17 1, 186, 195, microliths 110
Keeley , L. 222 , 224 Lawson, G. 108, 109, 168, 170 202 , 204, 215 , 225- 6 Ivliddle Awash 66
Kelly, R. 219 , 220, 222 , 224 Leach, E. 13 1 magic 56, 67, L62 , L79, 189, 200, 222 , 253 Middle Stone Age 1, 29,30 ,32,40-::
Kenya 11 Leake)" L. 76 maladaptive traits 34, 39 110- 11 , 115
Kiik Koba (Ukraine) 53 Lebanon 56, 57 Ma lthusian demographic mcc hanisms 218 Mil:rs (France ) 202, 204
Kirby, S. 127 LeBlanc, SA 2 19,222,223 lll ammoth s 22, 79, 160 , 170 ,2 17 migratio n 70, 2 17, 2 19
Kirkpatrick , L. 37 Lc Cheval (France ) 203 mand ibles 16 mimesis 96
Kbsies (SOllth Africa ) 40 Lee, R.B . 220, 222 manganese 57, 63-4, 69 Mindel/Riss Interglacia l 53
Klein , R.H. 30, 51 , 104 , 108 Lcibig 's law 2 19 ma nuports 64, 70 mining llO
K1i.iver, H . 145 Le Mousticr (France ) 5 1, 57 Marcamps ( France ) 169 Mithen , S. 7,29, 3 1-4,37, 39,44,
Kob)', F. E. 55 Lc Pigconnicr (France) 202 , 203 J\iareall, C.\V. 40, 41, 107 125- 30, 190,214,225- 6,241, :
Konso (Edliopia ) II Le Placard (France ) 169 , 200 Marillac (France) 54 248, 255,263
Kostcnki (Ru ssia) 79, 213 , 222 Le Porrel ( France) 83 , 196, 202 , 203 marinc shell beads 42 mobiliary art 30, 74, 8 1, 182, 186
Krapina (Croatia ) 5 1, 54 Lc Resc:lu Clastres ( France ) 196, 197 Maring people 162 , 163 Momana (USA ) 209
Krings, M. 135 Lcroi -Gourhan, A. 184, 196, 212, 2 16, 21 7 Marqllct, J.c. 58, 70 Mo nte Circeo (Italy) 53
Kurdisran ( Iraq ) 19 Les Eyzil:s (Fr:lnce) 1,2,3,5 , 190 Illarriage 96 Momespan (France ) 196 , 202-4
Kurten, B. 183 Les Fiell x (France ) 202 , 204 Marx, K. 253 MOIHesq ui cu-Avantcs (France ) 202
Lcsp ugl1e (France ) 79, 82, 2 13 M.as d 'Azi l (France) 85, 169 , 199 Mo nti gnac (France ) 202
L'Aldene (France ) 196 Lessa, W.A. 6 1 Massif Centra l (Fra nce ) 2 15, 217 mo ral imuition 38, 45
L...'lbastide (France ) 196, 199,202-4 Les Trois Frcn:s ( France ) 149, 198,202,204 materi31ity 179- 94 Mor3vi3 79, 84
L...'l Ch3pcllc-aux-Saints (France ) 19, 20, 22, 50, Le"aIH 66, 88, 90 Matisse, H . 99 M. orcaLl, G. 99
51,57 LCvi -$tr.H.'iS, C. 11 3- 16 Mauss, M . JI 4 M.o rley, I. 7, 159
278 Ind ex Index

Morocco 80 Nob le, W. 42 , 243, 244 parasitosis 17 psychopolllps 142

mOll flons 14 North Africa 84, 108 p:lrietal art 10, 22-4, 43, 63 , 100- 2 psychOtropic 141 , 142 , 150
j\ loula -Gucrcy (France ) 54 North America 166 Pavlov (Czech Republic) 79, 222 Pygmies 166
j\loul1r Bcgo (France ) 24, 25 No rth American Indians 56 Pearce, D. 30, 35, 36, 42 Pyrenees 14, 168 , 186, 195 , 2 1. 3-1
/,vlount Carmel ( Israel) 52 No rway 188 pearls 209 caves 202 , 204
Iv (oustl:fia n 4, 5,19 , 2 1, 52,55,59 , notched bones 57 Pee h· Merle (France) 196, 198
108- 10, 2 19 Nowell, A. 81 , 108 Pcch de l'A zc ( France) 57 , 58 , 108 Qafzc h (Israel) 19 , 20,52 , 57, 66,
Movius, H.L. 221 Peirce, C.S. 184 qua rtz 12- 14,70
M:SA. Sec t' vliddk SWill: Age O 'Conn ell , J.F. 63 Pciiamellcra Alta (Spain ) 202 quartzite 18
mrDNA 104 Oakley, K. 64 pendants 59 , 78, 139 Que rcy (France ) 202
M.tinzel, S. 159 ochre 42-4,56- 7, 63- 6 , 69 ,77, 111 , 128 , Penningro n, R. 2 19 QUllcitra ( Israd ) 58
mu sic 7, 37,96,98-9, 126-7, 159-72,257, 170, 183 perfor:ned bones 58
259- 60, 266 Olduvai Gorge ( East Africa ) 76 Perigord (France) 202, 21 7, 2 18 r:ldii 14
musical instrumenrs 59 , 108 , 159, 167- 8 oral traditions 113 Peters, C. 107 R.1machandran, V.S. 155
M:uslim 99 origina lity 6 , 100, 257 Pe re rsho hle (Germany) 55 Ramble, C. 37, 128
myths 17, 25 , 45, 62 , 65 , 67, 96, 99 , 101 , 184, orname lUs 29, 37, 41 - 3, 58, 107-8, 111 , 11 4 , Pete rson , N. 222 Rappaport, R. 29, 33, 34,62, 152 ,
237, 240 139 , 242. Sec also adornment; deco ration; Perrirt, P.B. 52 , 54, 66 164, 185 , 186, 190,24 1
jewellery Perraglia, M. 64 rarche[ effect 35
Nadaouiych (Syri:1 ) 15 Ornolac-Ussat-Ics -Bains (France) 202 pcrroglyp hs 188 ranks 170
Nah r Ibrahim ( Lebanon ) 56, 57 osteoarthritis 51 Pfeifler, J. 3, 53 , 55, 74, 179 I~ u se, V. 155
Namibia 85 Orte, Marcel 58 phal.mges 14, 16, 57,58 Read, DW. 2 19, 222, 223
Nnssnrius kraltSsinllllS 42, III Otto, Rudolf 263 Pi ckering, T. R. 65 rcbir[h 2 1
nationalism 100, 155 'Out of Africa' hypothesis 5, 39 , 70, 75, 104, picmgraphic writing 24 reciprocity 34, 35
Nazarcch 19 , 20, 52 11 7 pigments 56, 63, 107- 8,110, 115 , 11 7, 182. red deer 14,2 17- 18,220, 225
Ncandu v;"tlley (Germany ) 50, 76 out-of-body ex periences 35 , 36 Sec also painting(s) R~gourdou cave (France) 19 , 55

Ncandcrthal (s) 4-7, 19,2 1- 2, 29,41,64,66, Pi ke -T:l Y, A. 2 17,22 1 Reichcl -Dolm awff, G. 149
70,76, 105 , 108- 12, 11 5,118, 125- 7, Pacific 7) 82 Pinker, S. 37, 155 reindecr 14, 19,58, 145, 170, 183
129, 135-40, 144-5 , 152- 5, 219 painting(s) 6, 8, 24, 29, 37- 8, 74, 79 , 84, 85, Pipt3deni3 149 217- 21 , 224-6
symboli c behaviour 50- 60 110, 117, 123-4, 129- 3 1, 196, 198,200, Plains Indians 166 relics 29, 132
Ncar East 19,52, 109- 12 , 129 , 237 209,237,243-4 , 246 , 254-7, 259. Sec nlso Pleistocene 2, 6, 40, 63, 65- 6,74-5 ,78- 9, 82 , religion 2-4, 7, 8, 21,2+-5,30-9,
necklaces 22 cave art; rock art 84, 195 6 1-73, 95- 103, 104-22, 123-
Ncolithil.: 1, 2 , 88 , 129 Pais Vasco (Spain ) 202 pollen 20, 52 , 53, 215 145- 6, 153- 5, 160, 162, 17 1,
Ncrja caVl: (Spain ) 169 Pakistan 208 Porruga l 86, 138 190,224,240, 241,246-8,2:
Nettl , B. 166 I)a laeo li thie 1,45,55,67,8 1,84-5, 104, pre - Ne3nderth:lls 19 Renfrew, C. 6, 40, 74-5, 79, 89- 9!
neurology 155 160-76 , 184- 90 , 196, 200, 205, 227, Pre- Potte ry Neolithic B 89 117, 183
Newberg, A. 155 237-47,25 7 Prclllark, D. 113 Renfrew, J. 6
New Soulh \Vales (Australia ) 67 J\liddle 5, 52, 57, 76, 108 prestige items 223 rcpctirion 11 7, 125 ,255
Niaux (France ) 196, 198 Upper 2-8, 29- 32, 50, 56, 7-1-9, 82- 3, 86, Preucci, R. lSI Repolusthohlc (Germany ) 58
Nice ( France ) 16, 17,56 88,90, 100, 101,110, 123-5,129- 32, priests 142 representation 7,22,3 1, 100, 102 , ~
Nicem: Cou ncil 154 135-6,14 1- 50, 152-5, 159,167- 8, Proctor, R.N. 236 resurrection 20 I
Nigeria 161 179-83, 195,202,208,212-19,220- 6 1'1'010111 II cave (Ukr:line) 57 Rcznikoff, I. 159, 170
Nile Val h:y 24 Papua New Guinea 144, 162 prophets 142 rhinoceros 2 17
Noaill ian industry 222 p.lranormal 32 ProlO -JOl11on culture 7 rhyolite 12
280 Index Index

ribs 16 Sh3ckleton, N .). 215 Sperber, D. 3 1, 45 , 182 Tan -Tan O\ llol"Occo ) 80

Richerso n, P. 35, 36 sh311l<mism 29-49, 105 , 114- 15 , 142 , 148- 9 , Spiess, A.E . 217, 220 , 221 tJ.phonomy 43 , 113
Richn:r, D. 159 190 ,224,267 spi rits 35 , 38, 44, 56, 62 , 114, 149,208, 209 , T3ta (Hung3ry) 58
Riel-Sa lvato re, J. 138 Shanidar (Iraq ) 19 , 20,5 1,52 253,265,267 TattcrsJ.ll, Ian 240 , 241 ) 244
ritual (s) 2-4, 7, 8 , 16, 19, 29 ,32 , 35,44,56, Shanks, M. 155 spiritual culture 253- 68 r3ttooing 110
61-2 , 65-8, 99 , 101 - 2 , 113 , 124-5 , 132 , Sharpe, K. 199 spirituality 2- 8, 90, 137-8, 152 , I SS, 212 , 262 , Taut3v,,] (France ) 14, 15
148 , 150-3 , 185 , 190 , 199 ,209 , 224, sheep 89 264- 6 Taylor, T. 180
246-7, 253 , 255 , 263 ,265 shell (s) 22 , 182, 209 , 223 origins of 29-49 teeth 22 , 51 , 58, 149 , 217, 255
and music 159- 76. Sec a/so religion be3ds 42-4, 63 , I l l, 128 Spy (Belgium ) 19 temple 90 , 255
Rock, A. 54, 143 shellfi sh 42 stalacti tes 55, 169 Tende (France ) 24 , 25
rock art 3, 6, 67, 69, 84, 86, 88 , 181 , 188 , Shennan, S. 129 , 152 , 223 , 224 stJ.lagmites 55, 56, 169 T e.rrJ. Amara (Fr::mce ) 16, 17, 56
206,2 09. See a/so cave art; painting(s) Shipman , P. 70 stJ. tucs 22, 69, 132, 254 terracotta sc ul pture 7
Rock of Gibraltar 54 shrines 96 Steinheim (Germany) 53 territoriality 222
Roma nticism 26 1 Siberia 6, 63 , 220 stc lae 90 Tes hik Tash (Central Asi3 ) 20, 53
Rose man , M.126 Siberian mountain goat 53 Sterkfonrci n (Sollth Afi"ica ) 64, 65 ThJ.ckc r, P.T. 220
Rosen feld , A. 67, 212 , 223 Siegel, R.K. 145 Still Bay (South Africa) 40, 41 therianthropes 67- 9
Rothko , M. 99 Sima de los Huesos (Spain ) 17- 19 Stone Age 3D, 32,40,42 ,76 , 101 , 108 Thi ault, M.-H. 186
ROllault , G. 99 Simonnct, R. 197 stone arteflCts 2, 38, 55, 58, 64, 77, 138- 9 , Thomas, E.M . .1 83
Rouffignac (France ) 198 , 199 sink-hole 17, 18 145,226 Th orne, A. 66
Sioux 166 Stringer, C. 1,50-3 , 57-9,66,76, 138 t hree-stage model 41
Saintc-EuJalic (Fran ce) 202 , 204 Skhiil (Israel ) 52 ,66, 129 Styx 208 tibiac 14
Sanchez-Goili, M.F. 215 skinnin g 16 subsistence 16, 36, 41 , 44, 2.17, 225 tick shells 42 , 43
s:1 ll ctua ry 90, 208 skulls 14, 50- 6 , 170, 196,255 SuchmJ.n, L. 182 Tigri s rive r 24
Sauvct, G. 62 , 184 sleep 37, 143 , 196 Sume riJ. 24 Tilley, C. 155
Savage -Rulll b:1ugh, E.S. 113 Slovenia 58 , 109 sllperchJ.pci 31 , 45 Tirt h3nkaras 266
savannah 254 Smith , P. 222 Sll pcnlJ.tural 30, 32, 34, 38 , 44,45, 61,68,69, Tiro Bustillo (Sp3in ) 199
sch izoph renia 141 social 123-34, 138 , 148-9 , .1. 54- 5, 163, 166, tobacco 209
Sc hl cic rmachcr, F. 263, 265 bdnvi o ur 30, 76 171,208-9,2 12,224,255,262,265 Tomasello, M . 35
Schmidt, K. 90 co mplexity 29 sWJ.n 58 , 159 Tononi, G. 142, 143
Schrag, C. 236 socialization 142 Swiss Alps 55 T osel lo , G. 182 , 187
Scothern, P.M.T. 1 59, 168-72 Soffer, O. 222, 238 , 239 SwirzeriJ.nd 55 totemi sm 33, 35, 6 1, 105 ,223
scriptures 132 Solecki, R. 52, 56, 57 symbolic Towner, W.S. 238
sculpture 6 , 22 , 70, 74, 79 , 80 , 244 Sollas, W. 105 , 106 bcluviour, NCJ.ndcrthai 50- 60 trachyte pebble 11
sC3sonality studics 217, 22 1 Solutrean 167, 169 ,200, 222 thought 10-26, 41, 76, 127-8, 140 tran ce 39 , 68 , 149 , 167
sedentism 79,88- 90,221 Sosis, R. 31- 3, 39 symbo li sm 105 , 108 , 11 3- 14, 116, 145 , .1 65- 6 , Trcmlett, G. 66
seers 36, 142, 146, 151-2 South Africa 3, 29 , 41 , 63- 5, 84 , 111 , 208 , 242 172,2 23 , 241 -4,2 59 Trinkaus, E. 51 , 126
se lf-awareness 4-5,7-8,64, 142, 165 , 236- 8, SOllth Omo (Ethiopia ) 12 , 13 origins of 29-49 T roubat (Fr3IlCe ) 202, 204
240,243 , 245 , 247- 8,262- 3, 267. Sec also South Ru ss ian plain 222 symm etry 14 Tu c d 'Audouben (France ) 196, 202,
consciollsness Spain 2 , 6, 8, 17- 19, 57, 65 , 75 , 78, 83 , 138 , Syria 15 tundra 216, 2 17, 220
seJf-regubrion 97 195,202 , 205 , 212- 16,243 Turino , T. 166
scmiotics 113 , 115 , 180- 1, 184, 188 spear(s) 17, lI O Taborin, Y. 182, 223 Turk , 1. 159
se nsOly deprivation 141 ,15 0 th rowers 8 1, 85-6 Tabun (Israel ) 19 ,52 , 66, III Turkana ( Ken ya) II
se ttlemcnts 199 , 221 ,222, 224 specularite 69 Ta~on, P. 3,6,7, 63,67- 9,84 Turkey 90, 129
282 Index

Tylor, E.B. 106, 11 3 Ward , K. 3, 8

Tzcdakis, p,e. 216 Weber, M. 124
Wel sch, \'V. 236
Ucko, P. 67, 212 , 223 wheat 89
Ukraine 6, 79 , 170 whistl es 59, 159
Ulm (Germany) 23 Whi te , T.D. 30, 39 , 66, 127, 179 , 180, 182 ,
Upper H erro hOlllinids 66 187, 189, 221
Uz bekistan 53 Whitehouse, H. 123- 5, 131 , 263
Whitley, D. 208
V:lf- rnashc, Lord of the Animals 149 Wiessner, P. 223
Vakncia (Sp:lin ) 205 Willendorf (Au'tri, ) 79 , 80,2 13
Vallon -Pant -d'Arc (France ) 203 Wilson, D.S. 33,34
Vall Andel, T. 2 15, 2 16, 225 Wiradjeri e ld ers 68
Vandcrmcc rsch , B. 66 Wlodarczyk, A. 62, 184
Van Gelder, L. 199 Wo bst, H .M. 185, 222
Vall Huyssrccn , W. 3, 8, 235,239,240,246,247 Wollcmi National 1)ark 67
vegetation 2 15- 17, 220, 225 wolves 58
Vclden (German y) 55 woody horseta il 52
Venu s figurin es 6, 79- 87, 131 Wray, A. 12 7
Venus o f LalisscI 83 writi ng 24, 58, 77, 102 , 130
ve rtebrae 16 , 58 Wuketirs , F. 247
Verreszollos (Hungary ) 16 Wlirm gbciation 56
VC!"[lIt, J. 57, 58 , 63 , 69 , 79 Wurz , S. 40
Vt::ternica cave (Croatia ) 55
Vezcrc (Fr:1I1ce ) 219 , 221 Xam San J 48
vi ha 149
Villa , P. 42 , 108 Y chromosome 104
Vilbvcrdc Bo nilla , V. 205 Yellen, J.E . 40
Vogelhe rd (G.::rmany ) 22 , 2 13 Yonne 203
Vogt , E.Z . 6 1
Volp Caves (France ) 202 Zagros M.ollnrains 5 1
Zambia 63
IV,dlcy, L. 108 Z ilh 50 , J. 58 , 105