[RoosterRedux]

Animal-headed humans appear in earliest art

21 November 2001

By LEIGH DAYTON

Paintings of mythical animal-human hybrids are among the oldest surviving art ever produced. New research suggests that minotaurs, satyrs, the werewolves beloved of Hollywood and even Egypt’s animal-headed gods are latecomers to the art scene compared with the “therianthropes” carved by the earliest artists on bone and painted on stone.

“They go back to the dawn of humanity, to the first fully modern people,” claims rock art expert Paul Taçon of the Australian Museum in Sydney.

He has found that in Australia and South Africa there are dozens of animal-headed people in rock paintings and carvings more than 10,000 years old. Some may be far older. The oldest was an androgynous feline-headed statuette from Germany, thought to be around 32,000 years old.

Together with Christopher Chippindale at Cambridge University’s Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Taçon conducted the first rigorous worldwide survey of prehistoric therianthrope images. They surveyed nearly 5000 examples of rock art, most from northern Australia, Europe and South Africa.

Read more: newscientist.com

[Fresh Wind]

To me, the most fascinating aspect of our research is that humanity's oldest cave art is at least 44,000 years old and it already has all the key components relating to modern cognition, [like] hand stencils, figurative art, storytelling, therianthropes and religious thinking"

I wonder what academics would have to say 44,000 years from now if they happened to discover an ancient wall covered with spray-can graffiti?"

[mewzilla]

From 2017...

Successful publishing consortium buys New Scientist

[Track9]

Don’t tell the muzzis, they’re sure to start defacing them.

[exDemMom]

So furries are not only *not* a passing fad, they have been around for tens of thousands of years, even predating writing.

Amazing.

[central_va]

The first art critic in history.

...about 2 million years ago.

[Sirius Lee]

4 dudes fighting over 1 chick.

[tbw2]

I’m already seeing questions on various forums “Does this prove ancient people could shapeshift into animals? Doesn’t this prove old pagan magic is real?”

[trisham]

While it is fascinating, for the most part, it’s a guessing game.

[minnesota_bound]

One day or has it already happened....?
A toy doll and pacemaker and dentures will be found in a cave.