Reading an interesting article on Neanderthal cave art, one of NickFitz's links today:
2018-02-22 How we discovered that Neanderthals could make art
and was trying to work out what the following painting represented:
Fairly obviously the dots represent a herd of bison or similar, moving in a long narrow formation.
The kink half-way down the herd is presumably the result of some diversion caused by the hunters, to crowd and confuse the herd in the middle so they slow down.
The "ladder" which the article refers to is just a more symbolic representation of the herd, showing three "zones": the square containing the rear of an animal represents the back of the herd, and the lowest box, containing an animal's front denotes the front of the herd.
The strange figure on the right of the ladder is half-way down the herd, and I reckon is supposed to represent a hunter or group of them waving firebrands to spook the herd into veering sideways (i.e. the kink in the top diagram).
Sound plausible?
2018-02-22 How we discovered that Neanderthals could make art
and was trying to work out what the following painting represented:
Fairly obviously the dots represent a herd of bison or similar, moving in a long narrow formation.
The kink half-way down the herd is presumably the result of some diversion caused by the hunters, to crowd and confuse the herd in the middle so they slow down.
The "ladder" which the article refers to is just a more symbolic representation of the herd, showing three "zones": the square containing the rear of an animal represents the back of the herd, and the lowest box, containing an animal's front denotes the front of the herd.
The strange figure on the right of the ladder is half-way down the herd, and I reckon is supposed to represent a hunter or group of them waving firebrands to spook the herd into veering sideways (i.e. the kink in the top diagram).
Sound plausible?
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