Ҫatalhöyük stands on a boundary between the wild and the domestic and all the archaeological categories these invoke – we’re not going to go there here! The following remarks concern spiritual worlds and the cosmological content of art forms found there. Reconstruction of the east and west mounds at Çatalhöyük (Çatalhöyük Research Project, 2018) In […]
Denisova Cave (Аю-Таш – Bear’s Rock)
Denisova Cave is indigenously named ‘Bear’s Rock’ after a local bear spirit. Other caves in the region, and elsewhere in Siberia, are similarly named. Given that hunting and shamanism have remained relatively unchanged in Siberia since the Palaeolithic, this nomenclature could be older than it might otherwise appear. I visited Denisova Cave in early May […]
Zoos and Zodiacs: The Lascaux Shaft Scene
The Lascaux Shaft scene is the most enigmatic painting of Lascaux and, arguably, of all known Upper Palaeolithic art. Its monochrome figures occupy a wall at the bottom of a 17-foot pit at the back of the Apse section of the cavern complex. In terms of artistry, its black oxide prospect offers no challenge to […]
Stone Age Stellarium
I recently co-authored a paper with Martin Sweatman from the School of Engineering, University of Edinburgh, titled: Decoding European Palaeolithic art: Extremely ancient knowledge of precession of the equinoxes. It is currently under peer-review but can be downloaded here: https://arxiv.org/abs/1806.00046 and here: https://scirate.com/arxiv/1806.00046 The background assumption is that civilisations developed through hunter-gather rituals tied to […]
