Over the first week of June in 2023, major world-wide media, such as CNN, The Wall Street Journal, ABC News, Discover Magazine, among others covered a press release tied to three pre-peer reviewed papers. The Wall Street Journal headline read “New Homo Naledi Cave Discoveries Upend What We Know About Being Human.” A big splash was inevitable.
By Bernie Taylor | Bernie’s Blog
Social: Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Academia and ResearchGate
Published – September 2023 TORTOISE Addition Update
BioRxiv.org printed the three pre-peer releases papers by the highly distinguished author-scholars American-born University of Witwatersrand paleoanthropologist Dr. Lee Berger, Princeton University anthropologist Dr. Augustin Fuentes and University of Wisconsin-Madison anthropologist Dr. John Hawks, among others. Both Dr. Berger and Dr. Fuentes are also National Geographic Explorers. National Geographic was a major and long-term funder of the project.
These pre-peer reviewed papers and following interviews by the authors gave the impression that the long-ago extinct archaic human Homo naledi (241,000-335,000 years ago) in South Africa buried their dead and engraved art on the walls of their sacred cave. The media covered a range of hopeful, uncertain and dissenting opinions. The bioRxiv.org papers were followed by two papers for consideration in the online journal eLife that were not approved by the peer-reviewers, as notified to the public in mid-July. In eLife’s summary assessment we learned that “the study is incomplete, and the evidence presented does not support the claims about the anthropogenic nature, age, and author of the engravings.”
The reader may be coming to the conclusion that all of this drama could be the lead up to a movie. There may be some truth in such a notion. A Netflix documentary episode of the Uknown, titled “Cave of Bones,” based on the Rising Star Cave proposed Homo naledi research and staring Dr. Berger, was released on July 17th of 2023.
Netflix Unkown Cave of Bones is an emotionally charged documentary, with major credit to the sensitive sharing of death and dying among monkeys, humans and Homo naledi by Dr. Fuentes. This is not a misplaced adventure of Curious George. The teary-eyed Homo naledi parent giving an apparent tool to a deceased child is an emotional high point. Some may need tissues. Unknown Cave of Bones may not be suitable for young audiences. The daring cavers and production team should also take a bow or two.
A big Netflix Unknown Cave of Bones moment was filmed in July of 2022 when Dr. Berger first sees engravings on a wall during his first descent into the inner cave after dropping a few pounds. His team had crawled and walked by these engravings during their excavations going back to 2013. Be sure to have a re-look at the images in this blog post after seeing the Netflix documentary. You will see Unknown Cave of Bones in an entirely different light.
The title of the Netflix Unknown “Cave of Bones” episode is similar to Dr. Berger’s and Dr. Hawk’s August 8th, 2023, release book Cave of Bones: A True Story of Discovery, Adventure, and Human Origins, published by National Geographic. People are using #caveofbones to call out both on social media. This blog uses “Rising Star Cave” and “Cave of Bones” interchangeably as everyone else appears to be doing.
This researcher has no ill will towards any of the authors, their team members or sponsoring authorizations. They conducted years of incredible work on the excavation and analysis of Homo naledi fossils. This blog entry solely provides an alternative perspective on the engravings that may be of value to all parties. The bioRxiv.org pre-peer reviewed release of the Rising Star engravings has been of great value to this researcher. Dr. Berger’s commitment to open access is greatly appreciated. The Wall Street Journal’s “New Homo Naledi Cave Discoveries Upend What We Know About Being Human” relating to the engravings will turn out to be true. Just not the truth that the Cave of Bones research team had anticipated.
This researcher has no opinion on any proposed funerary arrangements for Homo naledi or other hominids. An alternative perspective of the Rising Star Cave engravings will, however, be presented in this three-part blog series. Photos of what the authors describe as the Rising Star Panel A engraving are pictured above and below.
Rising Star Panel A-Extension engraving that reaches up a column. This image is shown without an explanation in the Netflix’s Unknown “Cave of Bones” episode. Image source: “Figure 18” from Berger, Lee R. et al. 2023. 241,000 to 335,000 … bioRxiv.
The Rising Star team also released an image of the Panel A that extends up the wall and is riddled with engraved lines, as pictured in the Panel A-Extension” above. An interpretation of the Rising Star Panel A was not provided in the papers or the Netflix Unknown “Cave of Bones” episode. The team stated in their bioRxiv engraving abstract, “here we present the first known example of abstract patterns and shapes engraved within the Dinaledi subsystem of the Rising Star Cave in South Africa.”
There are other engraved surfaces in the Rising Star cave, including Panel B pictured above. We can view both deeply engraved and natural surfaces that may interplay with each other. There was no interpretation of this panel in the bioRxiv papers or Netflix Unknown Cave of Bones episode. This Rising Star Panel B will become important as we move compare the Rising Star panels in this blog post.
Before moving into the analysis of the Rising Star engravings, this researcher feels it important to note how Dr. Berger has been relying on his attribution of the parietal (wall) artifacts and other aspects of the Dinaledi Chamber in the cave to Homo naledi. The paleoanthropologist has drawn a timeline in his recent papers and interviews that ends with the fossilization of the last Homo naledi bones and begins with the arrival of his Cave of Bones team members. But, in his 2017 book Almost Human: The Astonishing Tale of Homo naledi and the Discovery That Changed Our Human Story and in a New Scientist 2020 interview on YouTube, both years before the engravings were noticed by Dr. Berger, he had a different position. In the New Scientist interview, the paleoanthropologist was quoted as saying, “someone had been in that chamber, and stepped on this material, and I didn’t know how recently.” That person, or people, will be explored in this blog post.
An Iberian Connection?
The announcement of the newly identified engravings became of greater interest to this researcher, as apparently unbeknownst to the paleoanthropologist authors of the Rising Star Cave papers, the characters and organization of the panels complement previous work on the Gallery of Discs in the El Castillo Cave, Cantabria Spain and the Gorham Etching from Gorham’s Cave in Gibraltar. Both Iberian panels are pictured below.
These Iberian panels were created between 34,000 to 36,000 years ago by Aurignacian culture modern humans, also known as Early European modern humans (EEMH), and more popularly called “Cro-Magnons,” as described in the literature, this researcher’s book Before Orion (2017), and numerous conference presentations uploaded to the Academic Presentations page of Before Orion.
The original 2014 PNAS (Vol 111:No. 37) paper for the Gorham Cave dated the Gorham Etching at 39,000 years ago, based on the team’s overly generous interpretation of sediments on the cave floor to find a could only be Neanderthal fit. This could only be Neanderthal dating has been moved to 55,000 years as new evidence emerged for modern humans at Grotte Mandrin in France as early as 54,000 years ago. Thus, placing the Gorham Etching soundly as the work of modern man. The Rising Star team gives the Gorham Etching Neanderthal authorship at 60,000 years ago in Netflix Unknown Cave of Bones. This proposition is without any archaeological evidence.
The authors of the Rising Star papers and in Netflix Unknown Cave of Bones did recognize similarities between the so-called “hashtag” in their Panel A with those on the Gorham Etching. Yet, they used the potential relationship to establish the Rising Star Panel A as intentional abstract art for Homo naledi rather than of modern human authorship. The cleaned off Gorham Etching image above shows more detail than the dirt-covered image printed by the authors of the Rising Star papers, shown in Netflix Unknown Cave of Bones, or published by other researchers and in the media.
Bears
What first caught this researcher’s eye on the Rising Star Panel A engraving was an upright bear (Ursidae) at the top of the panel that is either standing on two legs or climbing. The ears are admittedly off for a bear, as this researcher has illustrated them.
The head of another bear in profile was recognized on the bottom of the panel shortly afterwards. This bear’s head in profile can be seen at minute 1:14:57 in Netflix Unknown Cave of Bones. These bears and other depicted animals to follow do not fit into the hypothesis of “abstract patterns and shapes engraved,” as proposed by the Cave of Bones team in their BioRxiv paper.
The position of this bear with head in profile suggests that the animal is on all four legs although we cannot see those legs on this image of the panel. This bear is engraved with lines that portray the natural flow of the fur, lifted ear, and a determined look by the animal. This bear might be described as mangy, with all due respect to the animal and the artist who projected this condition. This researcher outlined many of those lines to portray that characterization. We might easily qualify this bear in profile as a high level of art.
The Rising Star Panel A upright bear is somewhat similar to the so-called “Lion-man of Hohlenstein-Stadel” above. This prehistoric ivory sculpture discovered in a German cave, dates to between 35,000 and 41,000 years, and was given the German name, Löwenmensch, meaning “lion-person.” The face of the Lion-man of Hohlenstein-Stadel isn’t flat enough to be a lion. Lions generally don’t stand tall as depicted with the Lion-man of Hohlenstein-Stadel either. Hence, the commonly accepted therianthrope. That is a mix of a human being and another animal. The Rising Star Panel A upright bear with unusual ears may be such a therianthrope as well. We may learn more about this bear’s features when the Cave of Bones team cleans off the panel.
The Rising Star Panel B artist also depicted a bear although this one is climbing. The neck is stretched up so as to see over something. What the bear is looking for is undetermined by this researcher at the moment. There appears to be something round in the bear’s mouth, perhaps an egg, and part of the narrative. Note how the artist used natural features on the panel and then added lines to bring out the bear.
Before going any further with the animals on the Rising Star panels, we must recognize that there is no evidence of bears in South Africa during the time of Homo naledi or to the present. There were Atlas bears in western North Africa that we have evidence of in art from ancient times. Bears much further south are a question mark. The bears on these two Rising Star panels are of a different place and perhaps another time. Our Cave of Bones artist had traveled a long distance to see bears.
The two Rising Star Panel A bears connect with the style and theme of the Gorham Etching above (rotated 180 degrees from the previous image) as all of these animals appear to be composed in separate times and spaces. There are four groupings of bears on the Gorham Etching. A mother bear on all fours at “b” is protecting at least two cubs with her strong right arm. The bears at “c” are climbing.
The Gallery of Discs also has a mother bear which is looking up at her two climbing cubs. This is common behavior among bears. Whereby, the mother bear moves her cubs up a tree for safety while she protects them from a lower position. When the juvenile bears are ready to be on their own the mother bear sends them up a tree and walks away. The nature of these two Iberian compositions and how they relate to the Rising Star Panel A will be presented in a following blog post. Note that bears are currently extinct on the African continent but were recorded in North Africa during ancient times.
Equus
The most commonly depicted animals in European Ice Age art are in the horse family (Equidae), such that is also represented on the Rising Sun Panel A-Extension, as depicted above. This equine of an unknown breed to this researcher has a lifted right ear, right eye, muzzle with open mouth, full right cheek, sloping neck to back and forward breast. The depicted equine appears to be brought forth from natural features in the rock face. The left ear is lost behind the rock face. This researcher doesn’t know how this engraving was achieved but recognizes that any mistakes could not be easily corrected.
There is a second equid, most likely a foal, in the image. Thereby, indicating that the larger animal is mostly likely a mare. The narrow and relatively elongated head of this foal lays over the upper right head with an ear pushing up against the same of the larger equid. The back of the foal runs parallel to the outlined mare. Due to the size differences of these two animals, they are reasonably depicted as being bedded down. This touching scene suggests late spring to summer.
What is most interesting about the muzzle shape of this equine is that it does not appear to be the same as any of the known European Ice Age cave depictions. Yet, the shape of the foal’s muzzle is to scale. One possibility is that the artist was working on a pre-set canvas where he could take away material but not add on. Other possibilities are that the artist had not seen a European equine and had encountered other breeds that were different than the European varieties. A zebra could hypothetically be such an example, but this animal doesn’t have the muzzle of a zebra either. Still, another possibility is that this depicted equine was not meant to directly represent an actual animal but rather portrays the impression of a horse from other source material.
This depicted equine on Rising Star Panel A-Extension can be added to our now growing list of animals that our Cave of Bones artist did not see in South Africa. We will learn more about the who and when as we continue through this blog post.
We also find the horse on the Gallery of Discs at the El Castillo Cave where the animal appears to be leaping. The red disks give this horse a speckled appearance. Based on the stocky body and upright mane, this equine can be taxonomically identified as the now rare and endangered Przewalski’s horse (Equus przewalskii).
On the face of the Gorham Etching, the artist founded a mare’s form between the deeply engraved lines on the panel. The forelegs, head and neck were the significant add-ons. The Rising Sun Panel A-Extension, the Gorham Etching and the Gallery of Discs artists depicted the equine looking to the viewer’s right. This orientation will become significant in the following blogs.
For most of the last century, there was a common belief that the Ice Age artists depicted animals related to hunting and that the art was tied to magic. This belief was dispelled when the number of animal bones retrieved in caves didn’t match up to the those depicted on cave walls. The horse was the most obvious discrepancy with the bone-to-depiction counts and opened the doors for other cave art hypotheses.
Giraffes
There are other common animals depicted on the two Iberian panels that also emerge on the Rising Star Panel A, such as the giraffes (Giraffa) pictured above. We find the head of a juvenile giraffe in the raised section of rock to the viewer’s far left. The calf’s long muzzle with a line crossing the feature can be seen pointed upwards and the ears in the opposite direction. This line separates the mouth from the upper section of the muzzle. The mother giraffe’s head appears to be oversized, turned back towards her rear. Her head size may be proportionate to the juvenile, indicating we are viewing a newborn calf. That is something to celebrate! The body of the juvenile may be hidden under the mother. We can see the mother’s giraffe’s muzzle, right eye and a horn or ear above it. The mother’s muzzle is flattened on a surface. We are looking at bedded down giraffes that may be curled up on their sides.
This concept leads us to the giraffes in Rising Star Panel B pictured above, which are bedded down in the same fashion. Both horns and ears are visible on these depicted giraffes. We can again distinguish the long muzzle with the line crossing the feature for the juvenile giraffe. The myriad of natural and human created lines within the neck of the mother giraffe portrays the animal’s natural camouflage appearance.
What may be most clever about the mother giraffe’s depiction is that the artist used some of the same lines as the climbing bear. The oblong circle around the bear’s right eye is the muzzle of the juvenile giraffe. There is a broken stretch of rock that serves as the under head for both the bear and mother giraffe. The inner long line of the neck for the mother giraffe is the bear’s outer back.
The mother and juvenile pairs of giraffes being commonly depicted as bedded down on both Rising Star Panel A and Panel B as well as all of them being drawn in emotionally sensitive forms, indicate that this animal had symbolic significance to the artists beyond hunting. This topic will be returned to in following blogs. These two sets of giraffes are the oldest known depictions of this animal in Africa.
These Rising Star giraffes were not the first to be encountered in Upper Paleolithic cave art. A Maasai giraffe (Giraffa tippelskirchi) had been identified in 2015, based on the shape of the head, as depicted on the Gallery of Discs panel. The Gallery of Discs is not solely an African panel. Many of the depicted animals are unique to the Iberian Peninsula. That Maasai giraffe, as pictured above, was depicted with the calf whose head is bent around her neck in a camouflaged composition. An unanswered question remained until the Rising Star Panel A and Panel B images surfaced was if the Gallery of Discs Maasai giraffe had been viewed in the animal’s current range or if this subspecies had lived further north in Africa tens of thousands of years ago when the Iberian cave art was made.
The Gorham Etching also pictures mother and juvenile giraffes in a similar arrangement. The subspecies origin of these giraffes pictured below is uncertain. Giraffes were not present in Europe during the making of the Gallery of Discs or Gorham Etching, thereby indicating that the artists or their sources had been to Africa. This Iberia to Africa connection was the initial significant interpretation of the Gallery of Discs and Gorham Etching by this researcher and the continued portrayal may come to be for the Rising Star Panel A and B engravings as well.
Marine Animals
The Rising Star Panel A panel also mimics marine animals that overlap with heads facing in the opposite directions on both the Gorham Etching and the Gallery of Discs. The Rising Star Panel A whale has many characteristics of a sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) with the pecked area representing the ventral pleats. The Rising Star paper authors used this pecked out area to argue that the panel was not in its natural geological state. In the opposite direction of the Rising Star Panel A whale, and between the same engraved lines, there is a shark that has the characteristics of a great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias).
There is also sperm whale with an open mouth depicted on Rising Star Panel B, as pictured above. The currently available image of Rising Star Panel B does not allow for us to see if there is a shark or another marine animal on the opposite end of whale. Still, we can determine the same relational position between the sperm whale and the giraffes as they are on Rising Star Panel A. One would turn Rising Star Panel B 90 degrees counterclockwise to match with Rising Star Panel A.
The Gorham Etching whale appears to be a sperm whale. The marine animal between the same lines as the whale on the Gorham Etching is a flying fish (Cheilopogon heterurus). The difference is that the so-called Gorham Etching “hashtag” is upside down relative to the Rising Star Panel A. This inverse relationship will be explained in a following blog post.
Whereas the Gallery of Discs pictures a humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) that overlaps with a bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) above. The directional consistency of the whales and other marine animals on these four panels is not by chance. The artists were working off of a common visual map.
The Elephants in the Room
Another significant animal pictured on all three panels are elephants which are clearly African Loxodonta, as depicted with flat heads. Any subspecies of African elephant is unclear to this researcher. The Rising Star Panel A has at least two elephants. One larger animal standing behind the other. There may be another larger elephant behind them that this researcher cannot clearly visualize from this perspective in the image. The two identifiable elephants follow a theme we are seeing on the Rising Star Panel A of a larger animal, presumably the mother, with her juvenile.
We can find a similarly oriented depiction of the mother and juvenile elephants on the Rising Star Panel B. We can see a raised ear of the juvenile elephant whose back appears to be hidden under the neck of the mother. The Cave of Bones artist is projecting a common narrative on to two panels in the Dinaledi Chamber.
The Gorham Etching has a series of three elephants that stand behind one another, with the largest two tusked animals in the background and the smallest without tusks closest to the viewer. Note that the orientation of the Gorham Etching and Rising Star Panel A elephants and giraffes are at the same relative positions to the deeply etched lines on both panels.
The Gallery of Discs has at least three elephants that are pictured drinking, raising a trunk in distress and swimming. All utilizing the same ear and trunk. Two are pictured below. These are all remarkable compositions that display the talents of the Ice Age artists.
The Time of Birds
Another significant animal on the Rising Star Panel A is a juvenile bird lifting its head from an egg or nest. While this species of bird is not currently identified by this researcher, the stage of development suggests a South African warm period during the late spring or early summer. Thus, the juvenile bird gives a time factored or seasonality to this section of the Rising Star Panel A.
There is another bird, perhaps of the same species, but certainly more mature. This bird appears to be standing. There is a brown tint that is slightly darker than the surrounding area and the small round left eye is evident. The beak is indicative of an omnivore. Together with the length of the head the bird looks goose-like. Is this bird extinct, no longer in South Africa or just not easily recognizable by this researcher? The stage of this bird in its life history may also be established, thus giving us a time of year.
The Gallery of Discs similarly features a fledging golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) that stands on the shoulder of the teacher, as pictured above. The time of year for the Gallery of Discs golden eagle is mid to late June on the Iberian Peninsula.
The Face in the Mirror
The most important character to most viewers may be an apparent wide-eyed human with a high bridged nose and open mouth pictured above who is looking on the Rising Star Panel A from below the elephants and behind the head of the bear in profile. The character is best viewed at minute 1:14:57 in Netflix Unknown Cave of Bones or in the marked section of Rising Star Panel A above.
Is this depicted being Homo naledi? The evidence from the Cave of Bones team suggests otherwise. According to Dr. Hawks starting at minute 28:30 in Netflix Unknown Cave of Bones, “They [Homo naledi] have no projecting nose, right, their nose is pretty flat against their face, very flat, really likes an ape’s nose. Their teeth [are] very much like ours, but in a jaw that is sticking forward. And, a brow ridge that covers both of their eyes…” The being depicted on the Rising Star Panel-A has a large projecting nose and a contoured face. He is Homo sapiens or at least most of our DNA that designates us as modern humans.
A curious aspect of this Rising Star Panel A human character is that his lips are slightly pursed, and he appears to be blowing his breadth across the panel. This character may be mythical, perhaps representative of the wind, or a spiritual leader who has some power spread through his breadth.
Finding the face of at least Aurignacian in this South African Upper Paleolithic cave art should not come to a surprise. We find faces, typically of an older and younger male pair, in both the Gorham Etching and the Gallery of Discs, as pictured above. The relationship between these teacher and apprentice characters is described on many of my conference videos that can be found on my Academic Presentations page.
There is also an apparently pregnant woman with braided red hair on the Gallery of Discs who can also be geographically and mythologically identified. She is disclosed in my American Association of Geographers 2023 conference presentation “Mapping Hercules: A Geographic Teaching Tool.”
The Gorham Etching also has a bald and bearded man with a projecting nose looking towards the viewer’s right. Joined and opposite facing is another character, referred to as “Man X”, with a large extended tongue and of unknown origin. The bearded individual is clearly Homo sapiens and would be indistinguishable on any European football stadium. The who or what of “Man X” is uncertain.
A Savanna of Animals
There are still more animals on the Rising Star Panel A, such as the honey badger (Mellivora capensis), also known as a ratel, pictured above. The mother is carrying a “cub” in her mouth. Hence, the depicted pinch-look. The honey badger appears to have been born to fight, with strong claws that are extremely long on the forelimbs, as pictured by the Rising Star artist. This mammal is currently found in Africa, Southwest Asia, and the Indian subcontinent. Had the honey badger been present in Upper Paleolithic Europe is unknown to this researcher. This animal has not been identified on the Gorham Etching or the Gallery of Discs.
There is a hare (genus Lepus) depicted above on Rising Star Panel A. The long and thin ears suggest a hare rather than a European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus). The artist found sensitivity in the hare’s closed right eye and the body turned to the animal’s left. What may be most extraordinary about this hare is how the body overlaps with the head of the bear in profile and the ear is built within the head of the hatching bird. This is genius by any measure of the imagination.
The above unidentified animal on Rising Star Panel B has pig-like features with short legs and snout. We can see contracting shades between the lighter heads of the mother giraffe and bear above with the darker pig body. Please contact me if you can give more details about this animal and if there is a juvenile in the scene.
A Leopard tortoise (Stigmohelys pardalis) can be found in the head of the mother giraffe on Rising Star Panel B. The thick outstretched head of the tortoise is to the viewers left and its shell covers the front of the mother giraffe’s head. The rear of the tortoise shell butts up against the under muzzle of the juvenile giraffe. Features of the mother giraffe’s muzzle become the shapes on the tortoise’s armor. There appears to be an egg-shaped object (not illustrated) dropping from the rear of the tortoise. This same egg appears in the mouth of the climbing bear. Their narrative may be intertwined.
On Rising Star Panel B are the head and upper body of a reptile. The darker form of the reptile is in clear contrast to the lighter background. Is the reptile formed with some sort of pigment? The artist left us with hints of its species in the scales. The lower body to tail is not clear which would possibly determine what species of reptile is depicted.
There are hints of other animals and beings as well. A right paw (not illustrated) of an unknown animal can be found at 5 o’clock on the Rising Star Panel A-Extension. A large arachnid (not illustrated) appears to be crawling in the area of the bird on Rising Star Panel A. Can you see the spider? It’s most easily visible in the polarized Rising Star Panel A image.
Most of the outlined Rising Star Panel A animals in this blog post are labeled on the original bioRxiv.org images below with a description key. The non-polarized and polarized versions were helpful to draw out some of the engraved lines.
The Gallery of Discs and the Gorham Etching also picture more animals than are described in this blog entry. Many are illustrated and described in videos on the Academic Presentations page of Before Orion and in Before Orion (2017).
An Iberian Replica
We have identified a series of animals that appear on the Rising Star Panel A, Gorham Etching and the Gallery of Discs. Are these depicted animals those that the Ice Age artists had seen in their regional environments or is there a pattern that connects them? The answer for the Gallery of Discs will be addressed in the next blog post.
Above we can view a comparison between the Rising Star Panel A and the Gorham Etching. The muzzles of the equines, heads and trunks of the elephants, heads of the giraffes and lower backs of three of them, heads of the bears on all fours, and the intersection lines between the whales and the other marine animals, are all in the same locations relative to each other. Note that the whales are in reverse of each other, but still within the same lines. The artists clearly had a cultural connection with each other.
Rethinking the Narrative
We now return to the original proposition by the authors of the bioRxiv.org papers that the Rising Star engraving were from the hand of Homo naledi based on the Cave of Bones research team not having knowledge of Homo sapiens in the cave. Remember that Dr. Berger’s position has shifted his position on anyone but Homo naledi and his Cave of Bones research team being in the cave since his 2020 New Scientist interview, whereby the paleoanthropologist was quoted as saying, “someone had been in that chamber, and stepped on this material, and I didn’t know how recently.” The outstanding question before this blog had been of the who and when.
The case, based on the evidence before the reader of this blog post, is for the who and when to have been Aurignacian culture modern humans visiting the Rising Star Cave in the general time period of the Gallery of Discs and Gorham Etching some 34,000 to 36,000 years ago. There is a modern human depicted on at least one of the Rising Star Cave panels. The noted two Iberian panels also display unique artistic styles and portrayals of characters that are a few grades higher than similar to the Rising Star Panel A. More commonalities will be presented in following blog posts.
Further supporting evidence for Iberian-African exchanges come from “Hofmeyr Skull” in South Africa dated to 36,000 years ago. The dating of this Homo sapiens skull went to press in 2007 with a sub-Saharan narrative supporting the prevailing “Out of Africa” theory. This researcher has no argument with an “Out of Africa” theory, but this dating 36,000 years ago is no longer relevant as earlier Homo sapiens artifacts in Europe predate the “Hofmeyr Skull” by almost 20,000 years. Any “Out of Africa” narratives must have been much earlier in time. What the “Hofmeyr Skull” and the Rising Star engravings demonstrate is that there were long distance continental exchanges after Homo sapiens first ventured “Out of Africa.”
One might ask which came first among the four Iberian and South African panels discussed in this blog. “First” and “earliest” appear to be important in the world views of many people and certainly media headlines. This question of precedence is difficult to determine. All three caves discussed in this blog have panels that contain structural elements and unique geographical animal characters of the others. The most likely solution is that there were observations of these structural elements and animals before any of the three panels were created. Thus, making them a replica of what was viewed through the eyes of the beholders in the natural world. Any earlier dating of these four panels would only demonstrate that the art was engraved or painted earlier and not a source of the other three. This concept will be more thoroughly explored in the next blog entry.
We may begin to reconsider the questions of the single or multi-generational range of Aurignacian culture modern humans and if such distances can be reflected in populations of peoples who have come and gone without a DNA trail. We are only left with their art to scratch our heads over. Similarly, many have pondered if the earliest Indonesian cave art that is dated within a few thousand years of the oldest Iberian cave art are of the same origin point. In any case, based on the similarities between the four panels discussed in this blog post, “out of Africa” may soon become an obsolete term that is replaced with migration or trading routes.
Message in a Cave
As a final message on this blog post, which may truly be a message from the Ice Age artists, the initial analysis by the authors of the Rising Star Cave papers and their team members was apparently missing something in their approach to the engravings. What appears to not have been accounted for is the ability to recognize characters embedded and overlapping on such Ice Age panels and that such abilities vary across the population.
Psychologists have a standardized Embedded Figures Test, also known as the “EFT”, which would easily qualify any researcher’s “local processing bias” and enable the team to be more efficient examiners of such images. The EFT concept is explained in the below two-minute video The Art of Being Different, exploring how neurodiversity plays a role in such engravings. Rock art researchers, and those in similar areas of multi-dimensional image study, may consider actively recruiting neurodiverse people who have such high embedded figures recognition abilities so as to better see the trees through the forest. Reviewers of such papers should be chosen with the same consideration. Temple Grandin’s 2022 book Visual Thinking: The Hidden Gifts of People Who Think in Pictures, Patterns, and Abstractions, published through Riverhead Books, is a solid work on learning to better understand such differences in people. “Neurodiversity” would appropriately be the word of the day.
Bernie’s Blog “Rising Star Cave Engravings” – Part II: The Terrestrial Plane
One more blog entry on the Rising Star panels coming soon, as follows…
Bernie’s Blog “Rising Star Cave Engravings” – Part III: The Sky World
A preview of the “The Sky World” concept for the Rising Star panels can be seen with Iberian caves in short videos, such as The Great Bear, as well as longer presentations, including the American Anthro/Anthropology of Consciousness talk Altered States in Ice Age Art?, American Association of Geographers 2023 Annual Meeting Mapping Hercules – A Geographic Teaching Tool, UISPP 2021 Congress Sacred Mountains in the Paleolithic, European Society for Astronomy in Culture (SEAC) 2021 Upper Paleolithic Constellations, The 2022 Arts in Society Conference Living Mountains in Iberian Cave Art and other videos posted to the Before Orion site. PDFs for all of these conference presentations can be downloaded from Bernie Taylor’s Academia.edu page.
Bernie Taylor is the author of Before Orion: Finding the Face of the Hero (2017). He regularly presents his work at scientific conferences and is interviewed on podcast channels.
Explore more examinations of Ice Age cave art and other provocative posts from Bernie’s Blog.
