Look at Pech Merle, Font-de-Gaume and Rouffignac in the south of France, do not forget their Spanish colleagues and enjoy the wonderful examples of fine art.Out of the darkness are the herds of horses, mammoths, giant bulls, rhinos, lions ... Many animals are depicted in bright colors, anatomically accurate and with knowledge of the prospects that speaks to the great skill of the ancient artists."We have not invented anything new," - he said in 1940 Pablo Picasso after visiting the cave of Lascaux.
painting on cave walls Rouffignac 13 thousand. Years, Lascaux and Chauvet neighboring store even older examples: it about 30 thousand. Years.They say that hunter-gatherers were able to show the world a very complex way.
paintings are accompanied by mysterious signs, and it is not surprising that a number of researchers a hypothesis that is not mere squiggles and handprints.Some gathered in groups, others appear on one or two, while others are mixed with pictures of animals.You can distinguish between triangles, squares, circles, semi-circles, open corners, crosses and groups of points.There are more complex: a hand with crooked fingers (so-called negative hands), rows of parallel lines (finger fluted), icons of trees (penniforms) and huts (tectiforms) and others. In total, over the millennia reused 26 characters.
Genevieve von Petsinger from the University of Victoria (Canada) believes that many of these signs have arisen as a result of simplification of realistic images.For example, the horse with the time reduced to an undulating line of his back, which became eventually designate an animal.
But symbolism, which became the main style of the later art was neither the only result, nor the purpose of such simplifications.Ms. von Petsinger and colleagues cataloged signs have been found in more than 200 caves and other sites of ancient man in France and Italy.The result is striking: the group of the same characters found in different caves.It turns out that those marks are not merely abstract doodle, but a code, a kind of primitive writing.
To say that writing did not emerge in the agricultural society for four millennia before our era, and among the Cro-Magnons 30 thousand. Years ago, it is too early.Hardly we are talking about language in our modern sense.
But what can they mean?Researchers struck by a set of five characters, occurring most often: «^ II III X II».He was found not only on the walls of caves, but also on a necklace of teeth of deer, which belonged to a young woman who lived in Saint-Germain-de-la-Rivière, just north of Bordeaux (France) to 15.5 thousand. Years ago.Three tooth labeled: «II ^», «III» and «X II».
By the time the deer in France were carried out is not, therefore, experts suggested that the necklace brought from Spain.But then the question arises: the characters were carved on the necklace before or after the decoration came to France?Whereas before, it can be assumed that different groups of Cro-Magnon understood the symbolism of each other.
Carried religious meaning of the characters or some other, in any case, it was important information.
Next - if it is indeed written, when and where it come from?30 thousand. Years ago in Europe?Maybe its beginnings existed long before the arrival of modern humans on the continent?The memory of their historical homeland - Africa?
Some anthropologists (eg, Richard Klein of Stanford University, Nicholas Conard of Tubingen University) believe that modern behavior emerged in humans about 35 thousand. Years ago, for the emergence of complex symbols, a sudden blossoming of realistic art, the beginning of the production of advanced tools,and musical instruments, boats, etc. - all occurred at this time.Perhaps the role played by the exchange of genes with Neanderthals, who initiated drastic changes in the DNA of our ancestors that have affected the structure of the brain.
Others (including Alison Brooks of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History and Peter Mitchell of Oxford University) argue that people reach their full intellectual development long before they left Africa.Among recent discoveries in South Africa - a tiny flint, which may hint at the first arrow, and beautifully crafted pieces of ocher, indicating the appearance of works of art and jewelry of 70-90 thousand. Years ago.Hypothesis Cro-Magnon Cultural Revolution, Mr. Mitchell has since described as Eurocentric nonsense.
Indeed, many crosses, circles, angles, and other marks that have been found in caves in France and Spain, are found in Africa, with relate to an earlier time.For example, the opening angle can be seen in South Africa's Blombos Cave, where people lived about 75 thousand. Years ago.Perhaps the signs were cut not only in stone and bone, but also in wood and leather, have long decayed.
In addition, the paint was preserved in the caves only by the respective terms, and it is widely used in reality, we can only guess.
Dmitry Tselikov
Articles Source: science.compulenta.ru
