The shift from non-figurative (geometric designs) to figurative art (animals, mostly)—and what propelled it—is one of the big enduring puzzles of cave art.
We discuss a couple accounts of this shift, including
@izzywisher.bsky.social's intriguing suggestion that pareidolia offered a bridge.
Highly recommend reading @fusaroli.eurosky.social detailed thread on the paper: bsky.app/profile/fusa...
Our new preprint (osf.io/preprints/ps...) was the first study that Kristian, Murillo, and I cooked up in eSYMb’s early days. We scribbled on Kristian’s whiteboard for hours, figuring out how we could get people to “decorate” or “communicate” using MSA engravings -very much feeling his absence today.
You can tsk tsk at the extreme cases and say 'that isn't me'. But it's meaningless unless you are analysing your everyday interactions with people - conversations, expectations - and recognising how misogyny is hard-baked into them. Because women can see it even if you can't.
Exploring a cave by firelight, it's easy to "see things" in the walls. Bulges and cracks become bison or deer. Could pareidolia have inspired some of our earliest figurative art?
Just one of the topics discussed in our latest episode, w/ @izzywisher.bsky.social!
Listen: disi.org/illuminating...
A tour of all things cave art! In which we discuss...
- hand stencils and their missing fingers
- the nonfigurative-to-figurative transition
- archaeology's "sensory turn"
- the puzzling preponderance of animals over humans
- the power of pareidolia
- palimpsests
- children's drawing stages
etc.!
New episode!! 🎙️🎉
A chat w/ @izzywisher.bsky.social about Paleolithic art.
The questions surrounding cave art are old: Who made it? What did it mean to them? But with new methods and frameworks, scholars are starting to see these enigmatic works in a new light.
Listen: disi.org/illuminating...
Ooft, I’m really not sure what the oldest deep cave access by H. sapiens is, but I’m not sure if there are many examples older than Bruniquel…
I recommended Kindred at the end ☺️
I’m on the @manymindspod.bsky.social podcast! We covered a lot in this one - from Herzog’s Cave of Forgotten Dreams, missing fingers in hand-stencils to children drawing in caves. If you’re (somehow) not tired of hearing me talk about cave art, give it a listen! open.spotify.com/episode/2pVl...
@roopekaaronen.net has offered to make gifs of some rondelles, I just need to standardised the images!
Spinning tops are so cool! One of the (v. exciting) things we discussed is whether some Magdalenian rondelles could have been spinning tops… the form and designs certainly fall within the range of known tops! Does the worldwide use of spinning tops suggest deep time origins? 🌀
📷: Cattelain 2012
New paper. Recording the female experience of UK archaeology 1990-2010. Anne Teather and I document how an industry EDI agenda evolved in the 1990s and was dismantled, uncovering the ramifications of that for women archaeologists over the next decade.
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
#openaccess✅
Incredibly exciting news! I excavated at Barnham for a couple of seasons and the focus was always on trying to find the “smoking gun” for controlled fire use (despite finding many burnt flints) - amazing that the team has now (finally) got what they’ve been hoping for! 🔥
Mikroskopische Nahaufnahme einer körnigen Steinoberfläche mit blauen Pigmentflecken; ein weißes Rechteck markiert einen zentralen Bereich mit dichterer Pigmentstruktur.
Im Stadtmuseum Mühlheim (Offenbach/M.) ist derzeit "Europas ältester Farbtopf" zu sehen; mit neuen Einblicken in d. Ursprünge von #Kunst & Kreativität hat eine Studie von @au.dk & #RGK_DAI die früheste bekannte Verwendung #blauen #Pigments in Europa identifiziert:
🏺 www.dainst.org/newsroom/nos...
Cover of the December 2025 issue of Antiquity, featuring a photogrammetric image of an ancient quarry, with evidence for the quarrying of stone and a partially complete humanoid statue lying on its back.
Our December issue is out now! Featuring great #archaeology such as:
🔵 The oldest blue mineral pigment use in Europe
⛰️ Mesoamerican mountain monuments and water worship
🐚 Playing the shell trumpets of Neolithic Catalonia
& much more! 🏺
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
New open access publication: Moving to Stay in (a Woman’s) Place: Was Patrilocality the Dominant Mode of Postmarital Residence across Later European Prehistory? Current Anthropology.
Thanks to Wenner Gren for funding the workshop it emerged from!
www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...
I’m running a course on gender in prehistory next semester and this has been added straight to the reading list! 😍
Say hi to the York folks from me! Hope the event goes fantastic too!
A lecture slide showing a world map of Europe with a picture of a handaxe in the top left, and a man holding a handaxe in the bottom right.
Ser et super interessant foredrag af @felixthehauskat.bsky.social og Mikkel Schierup i aften (og lærer en masse dansk ordforråd for palæolitikum samtidig!)
Close-up image of a sandstone surface with flecks of blue on it.
#FindsFriday Researchers found traces of blue pigment on this 13,000-year-old artefact from Mühlheim-Dietesheim, Germany. It questions the idea that Palaeolithic artists only used red or black, painting a picture of a more vibrant Ice Age world than previously imagined.
🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...
Thanks for sharing! 😊
Höhlenbilder aus der Altsteinzeit sind immer nur Variationen von Rot und Schwarz. Aber anders als bisher angenommen bedeutet das nicht, dass die Menschen blaue Farbe gar nicht nutzten. #palaeolithic @izzywisher.bsky.social www.nzz.ch/wissenschaft...
RIP #JaneGoodall - one of the modern pioneers of profound interconnections between people, animals and ecosystems. Her life was lived through science, compassion and tireless advocacy for the multiple values of nature - leaving a legacy that will endure for people and planet.
Heartbreaking news, I remember being deeply inspired by her work as an undergrad. Truly a pioneer who no doubt inspired many generations of women.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c9...
Wonderful video by @antiquity.ac.uk summarising our research!
Close-up image of a stone with traces of blue pigment on its surface.
NEW Archaeologists find the earliest evidence for blue pigment use in Europe, dating back ~13,000 years and questioning the long-held belief that Palaeolithic artists only used red or black.
Strap in for a colourful #AntiquityThread 1/10 🧵
🏺 #Archaeology
Amazing, I hadn't seen this one!
