Origins of Parietal Art: Evidence from the Archaeological Record

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The interpretation of drawings and engravings rely on our unique ability to internally process visual information and identify recognizable patterns. This same ability processes imaginary patterns, such as animals and faces of people in geological formations, clouds, and stars. The phenomenon of identifying imaginary patterns, referred to as “pareidolia,” is apparently innate to humans and logically should have preceded our earliest parietal art. In this study, Upper Paleolithic parietal images from caves on the Iberian Peninsula were examined for natural irregularities on the walls that may have been utilized in the construction of the depictions. These images were also compared with prominent geological formations observed outside of caves in the region. The findings demonstrate that Upper Paleolithic cave artists in northern Iberian Peninsula found pareidolia in geological formations inside and outside of caves and projected those visualizations as parietal art.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 35540.0