Module 3

A flint flake from the middle Paleolithic of Crimea was likely engraved symbolically by a skilled
Neanderthal hand.
The many stone artifacts at the site are associated with Neanderthal remains and date to around
35000 years ago.
This engraved flake would join a growing list of signs that Neanderthals engaged in symbolic
activities, along with evidence of intentional burial, personal ornaments, and other decorated
objects.

Eagle talons are regarded as the first elements used to make jewelery by Neanderthals, a practice
that spread around Southern Europe about 120000 to 40000 years ago.
Found the evidence of the ornamental uses of eagle talons in the Iberian Peninsula.
The artifact is the most modern piece of its kind found from the Neanderthal period, and the first
found in the Iberian Peninsula.
“the last necklace made by the Neanderthals” “Neanderthals used eagle talons as symbolic
elements, probably. As necklace pendants, from the beginnings of the mid palaeolithic”
The piece is composed of bone remains from a Spanish Imperial Eagle that lived more than
39000 years ago.
The findings come from Grotta dei Moscerini, picturesque cave that sits just 10 feet above a
beach in what is today the latium region of central Italy.

The great age of this beautiful art object tentatively put at 40000-45000 years, corresponding
with the Early Upper paleolithic age, makes it oldest representation of an animal found in
Siberia, North Asia and arguably even in the world, meaning that the Denisovans, who occupied
the cave at this time-in the absence of any modern human activity being found there.
The art object is quite small, being just 44mm long, 8mm thick and 11mm high
It is thought to represent a cave lion

Tiny finger bone that would afterwards be sequenced to reveal that it belonged not to a
Neanderthal or anatomical modern human, but to previously unknown hominin species that
would come to be called the Denisovans after their initial place of discovery
The first musical instrument in the form of whistle or flute, the first arm jewelry in the form of a
green chloritolite bracelet, the earliest stone microblade production, and arguably even the
earliest known domestication and riding of horses

Another importance in discovery of this mammoth tusk art object is its similarity in style to a
large number of mammoth ivory art objects found at the 24000-year-old site of Mal’ta n southern
central Siberia
They include animal figurines, representation of females either naked or dressed in fur garments,
and a number of carved swan pendants. They bear the same artistic style as the lion figurine from
the Denisova Coave
The piece was covered front and back with recognizable human faces and hands, along with
zigzag lines and other mysterious details. Recognizably human head, with its mouth open in an
“o”. the statue was crafted from a single larchwood log 11600 years ago, making it one of the
world’s oldest examples of monumental art. Both monuments represent a leap beyond the
naturalistic images of the ice age. We have to conclude hunter-gatherers had complex ritual and
expression of ideas. Rituals doesn’t start with farming, but with hunter-gatherers

Ancient humans started etching lines and hashtag patterns onto red rocks in a south African cave,
sophisticated mind. But a new study, finds that these markings and others like them lack key
characteristics of symbols, instead, they may have been more for decoration or enjoyment.
If the markings were truly symbolic-if line, for instance, represented the horizon, or a series of
wavy lines represented the ocean-then the symbols would have to be distinguishable from one
another, they also would become more distinct from each other over time.
An engraved piece of orche and tehe oldest reported example of rock painting. Evidence
suggests that the area may have been critical to the survival. Of the human species.
Contains extensive aeolianties and cemented forshore deposits.

Found in 2018 during excavations at the Sulawesi cave site of Leang Bulu Bettue.
The front part of the back and abdomen are shown using simple and deeply etched lines. The
anoa is endemic to Sulawesi and likely provided a source of meat,leather, horn and bone to its
first peoples.
The oldest image that almost certainly portrays the sun is the Nebra sky disk found in Germany
and dated to 1600BCE.

The artists has created an image of something from the natural world. The sun-burst was painted
over with red pigment similar to that used to paint the walls of Leang Buu Bettue.

Sulawesi already claims the oldest figurative rock art in the world, with a minium age of 44000
years.
Paleolithic hunter gatherers set up seasonal camps in what is now the neighborhood of
Renancourt in the southwest section of the city and lived there for a few weeks at the end of each
summer. They made projectile points, knives, scrapers, and jewelry. Began to carve small female
figurines, Venus of Renancourt.

Module 4

Upper Paleolithic humans may have hunted cave lions for their pelts, perhaps contributing to
their extinction. The Eurasian cave lion, likely among the largest lion species ever to have lived,
became extinct around 14000 years ago. Most bones showed signs of having been modified by
humans using stone tools, with a specialized technique similar to that used by modern hunters
when skinning prey to keep the claws attached to the fur
The animal symbols represent star constellations in the night sky, and are used to represent dates
and marks events such as comet strikes, analysis suggests.
Humans kept track of time using knowledge of how the position of the stars slowly changes over
thousands of years. the findings suggest that ancient people understood an effect caused by the
gradual shift of Earth’s rotational axis.

All sites used the same method of date-keeping based on sophisticated astronomy. Clarified
earlier findings from a study of stone carving at one of these sites-Gobekli Tepe in modern-day
Turkey-which is interpreted as a memorial to a devastating comet strike around 11000BC.
These findings support a theory of multiple comet impacts over the course of human
development, and will probably revolutionise how prehistoric populations are seen

Depicts a prehistoric hunting scene could be the world’s oldest figurative artwork dating back
nearly 44000 years  wide painting features wild animals being chased by half human hunters
wielding what appear to be spears and ropes

In the latest dated scene, the animals appear to be wild pigs and small buffalo, while the hunters
are depicted in reddish-brown colours with human bodies and the heads of animals including
birds and reptiles suggest humans in the region were able to imagine things that did not exist
in the world
The scene may be regarded not only as the earliest dated figurative art in the world nut also as
the oldest evidence for the communication of a narrative in palaeolithic art
Identification of several figurative paintings, including a bison, an ibex and two possible
anthropomorphic figures, confirming the Palaeolithic age of the artworks
An excavation made in the ground below these paintings led to the discovery of a number of
Palaeolithic age remains; a flint tool, an orche crayon and several fragments of charcoal

Conduct U-series dating when trying to find out the age of artistic expressions in caves 
process uses the two elements uranium and thorium in the underlying and overlapping layers of
calcite in the paint itself.
In order to reconstruct the timeline of the history of cave art, uses data from three measuring
systems: uranium-thorium testing, carbon-14 testing and a second mineralogical study of the
sample before dating
Found evidence that suggests stone-age etching found at two sites in south Africa were created
with aesthetic intention and that they evolved over time.
Human brain became more sophisticated, allowing humans to express themselves in more
tangible form through etchings.

The mighty horse reigns supreme over all other animals. Usually larger than all the others, this
powerful animal will often feature above lions, rhinos, mammoths, bison, and bears.
While horses and bison together dominate the record, making up roughly half the animals
depicted, the former appears to have a special status.
While most animals are drawn oriented to the left, horses are the only species that is
predominantly oriented to the right.
The preeminent role of horse is exemplified by strong and salient achievements and the artists
were very attentive to this point.
Rock art is linked to mythical stories, and therefore horses might have been some sort of
mythical status
Estimated 70 drawings were found on ledges 300m underground in the Atxurra cave in the
northern Basque region the Champions League of cave art.
The engravings and paintings feature horses, buffalo, goats, and deer dating back 12500-
14500years ago

Visual culture- and the associated forms of symbolic communication, are regarded by
palaeoanthropologists as perhaps the defining characteristics of the behaviour of homo sapiens.
The first clue to their provenance came from the ancient hand marks which predate the earliest
animal depictions by a considerable period. The second clue came from the widespread inclusion
of natural cave features-such as ledges and cracks-as parts of animal depictions the final clue
relates to the environment in which upper paleolithic hunter-gatherers along with other predators,
were stalking the large herbivores-such as bison, deer and horses
Its better to see an animal when its not there to mistake a rock for a bear than not see it. Cues are
a cognitive adaptations that promote survival. In dangerous conditions, the human visual system
becomes increasingly aroused and is even more easily triggered into accepting the slightest cue
as an animal.
When individuals are conditioned to see particular objects faces, say- they are more likely to see
them in ambiguous patterns. Upper palaeolithic hunters conditioned themselves due to the need
to detect animals, but this effect was reinforced by the suggestive features of the caves.
Hunters entering the caves with an overactive visual system will have regularly mistaken the
natural cave features for animals. the cave walls also simulated the outdoor environment, where
hunters regularly had to be able to spot their prey in camouflage

The dating of a negative hand stencil and a geometric mark from the Monte Castillo cave art
complex in Spain dating to a minimum of 64000 years ago and almost certainly made by
Neanderthals
A subset of cave paintings found in Europe depict hands with missing fingers or parts of fingers.
The mysterious hand images are found in caves in Spain and France with most of the paintings
dating to around 22000 to 27000 years ago. Images were made by dipping a hand in paint and
pressing it against the cave wall  someone placed a hand on the wall and then blew paint
around it, creating a negative image surrounded by a spattering of a paint
Found that the most-common reasons for cutting off one’s own fingers were as a sacrifice or as a
mark of mourning.

These figures. Are known as therianthropes and are found in many ancient cultures from Greek
centaurs to Anubis, the dog-headed Egyptian god of death. Therion meaning wild animal or beast
and Anthropos meaning human being.
In the painting, six of them charge at pigs and an anoa, a midget buffalo endemic to Sulawesi, a
starfish-shaped island in eastern Indonesia.
Ritualistic finger amputation during the Upper Paleolithic explains the number of missing fingers
in depictions from that time.
Finger amputation rituals could take many forms- some early people might have done it as part
of religious ceremony or as way to mourn the loss of a loved one. Others may have had it done
to them as part of punishment ritual.