Prior to this discovery, archaeologists had interpreted features such as a headdress and necklace on a stela as representing a female form, while the inclusion of weaponry such as swords would be interpreted as male “warrior” stelae.
But this latest discovery, including both “male” and “female” elements, challenges these assumptions.
This led the archaeology team to consider that the social roles depicted by these carvings were more fluid than previously thought, and not restricted to a specific gender.
The topographical features of the cave walls could also have inspired the artists’ imagination. Cave dwellers may have experienced pareidolia, the psychological phenomenon of seeing unintentional forms in nature, like seeing shapes in clouds. If a bulge of rock looks a little like a horse’s head, the artist might imagine the complete form, filling in the rest of the details.
For example, one newly discovered horse image measures around 460 x 300mm and is painted in red using variably spaced dots. It depicts the head with the corner of the mouth, an eye, an ear, and the beginning of the cervico-dorsal line. The figure makes use of natural features of the cave wall, with cracks in the rock incorporated into the outlines of the head and chest. The cervical-dorsal line adapts to a concave area of the wall.
I guess previously scientists were looking at the art like how you or I might look at a horse drawn on a piece of paper, but some of the art was more like going up to a funny rock sort of shaped like a horse, and adding onto it/altering it in order to show others how much like a horse (or whatever) the funny looking rock is.
Which kind of crossing between artistic mediums, from 2D painting to something more like sculpture.
Anyway, this is cool. I didn’t really consider that someone might do that with their art before reading this article.
I’ve visited several caves with Neolithic art in France and the way they used natural cave forms to accentuate the art was always called out. Holding a flickering torch at various angles would make the animals appear to move and dance.
Archaeologist Lutfi Yondri from the Bureau of Archaeology [id] in Bandung estimated that the constructions at Gunung Padang may have been built sometime between the 2nd and 5th centuries CE, thus in the Indonesian late prehistoric period, whereas Harry Truman Simanjuntak suggested a later date in historical times between the 6th and 8th centuries CE.[9] Pottery fragments found at the site were dated by the Bureau of Archaeology in the range 45 BCE – 22 CE.[10]
Sorry to repeat here, but I am quite suspect too, especially with the journal it is in. I’d expect it to be in something either big or more hyperspecific, like Geoarchaeology. I debated about posting because I think you reported the other, but I am gonna keep it up this time (and I wish I could pin your comment! a cheeky edit title will have to do). I do not have time to dive deeper into the paper tonight, but I want to do that later when my brain isn’t mush, so I think this will also be another reminder for me! ;) It is also good to show people examples of bad science and why which is what this wiki entry does. I want to look at what is actually going on with this thing.
Thanks for remindjng me of this series! I don’t have an archeology background but did study some history and it’s interesting (and unfortunate) how similar the fight between actual academic work and more popular pseudo histories is between the fields.
And not one picture of the said knifes in the article. When I see this kind of articles I just want to be able to slap the writer for not putting any photos of the discovery.
They mimic the colors of the two monks. The red ones have almost devilish wings. The queen is depicted in blue. I’m sure there’s some symbolic message about the artist calling one of the clerics a devil.
Both monks seem to be staring at her ghost nipple 🧐
The researchers put the increase in violence in the 5th and 4th millennia BCE down to the agglomeration of humans in the first, still poorly organized, cities. The rate of violence only reduced significantly once legal systems, a centrally controlled army, and religious institutions (for example, religious festivals) developed.
this seems to be the origins of the Tower of Babel story to me.. in the Late Bronze Age people still told stories about a time long before (3000 years prior), when people had tried to settle down in those poorly organized, agglomeration cities mentioned in the article.. they still told stories about the chaos of cities without laws/religion and no common language..
Reminds me of how things like flood myths might have actually come from times of great natural disasters that got passed down in stories.
I’ve also always wondered if stories about elves, dwarves, etc. are ancient, tattered memories of prehistoric times when homo sapiens was not the only hominid walking the earth.
We overlapped with Neanderthals, Denisovans, Homo floresiensis, etc. (And interbred. nationalgeographic.com/…/enigmatic-human-relative… ) So there was a time when anatomically modern humans walked the earth when other almost-human-but-not species still lived.
And it’s always seemed to me the variety of almost-humans in mythology from around the world might be in some cases an ancient memory of that.
in general i think we undervalue the ability of pre-literate humans to keep memories alive for truly inconceivable stretches of time.. especially when they are really important, like when entire cities tear themselves apart with anarchy and no doubt every known disease as a result.. the drama of it can't be overstated on the minds of the people who lived it.. they had only recently been kicked out of Eden, which was also very real in their minds.. those people knew all the Gods had turned their backs on them, because they lived the first real large scale human suffering..
Imagine living in a pod in a city crammed togther with a bunch of annoying stinky mfs and you are constantly bloated because you are eating a shitty diet that is mostly grain with no space to escape. I would also bonk some noggins.
In case, like me you had no idea what the title meant.
A volunteer seaweed removal program involving citizen scientists has seen a dramatic improvement of up to 600% coral regrowth off the coast of Magnetic Island.
phys.org
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