Prehistoric Hand Stencils In Spanish Caves Not Randomly Placed, Say Researchers

Popular Archaeology ^ | Sunday, April 17, 2016 | editors

[SunkenCiv]

Prehistoric cave occupants paid attention to cave wall morphology and touch when creating hand stencils.

Human occupants of two caves in Northern Spain put some thought into where they placed their hand stencils on cave walls as much as 37,000 years ago, during Palaeolithic times. The topography and physical characteristics of the walls in the low light conditions of the caves seem to have mattered to them, suggest a team of researchers...

What they found was a pattern that indicated selection or attention to certain types of natural cave wall features for placement of the stencils. "In total 80% of observable stencils at La Garma and 74% at El Castillo have some kind of association, either with fissures or undulations on the caves' surfaces," state the researchers in the study report. "Some stencils seem to have been 'fitted' to subtle topographic features in the wall, and some were positioned on bosses in the wall in such a manner that they appear to be 'gripping' the wall in a similar way that explorers use their hands to steady themselves when navigating the caves," ...

Moreover, under the low-light conditions of the caves, the authors suggest that the stencils were created using a significant reliance on touch and close-up scrutiny of the surface, in addition to overall visual facility.

Interestingly, the few hand stencils that were created in what would have been difficult or uncomfortable positions for the artists were clearly placed in association with certain types of natural features, such as atop a stalactite, associated with a crack, or ergonomically fitted to a concave surface with the fingers 'gripping' a boss.

The researchers also determined that more than one individual was making similar decisions about the placement of the stencils, indicating common or shared choices among a group of individuals.

[TXnMA]

LOL! And they even drew the Pillars of Hercules at the Strait of Gibraltar!

Not sure how they managed to disconnect the upper Nile from the Nile, proper, though...

All in all, still amazing -- for a "flat world" map -- drawn over a milennium ago...

Where did you find it?

[null and void]

That is really interesting, thanks for the post! East is at the top.

Of course! Everyone knows the proper way to "orient" a map is to put the Holy Land, which is, after all, "the Orient" at the top.

You wouldn't put where God himself touched the earth anywhere else would you???

[SunkenCiv]

I think these caves were just an elementary school classroom for the paleolithic kids — and around late November, they had to trace their hands like this. They just didn’t have Thanksgiving yet, or turkeys.

[gleeaikin]

Hiberia is near Mesopotamia and Babilonia. On the other hand Hibernia, and Brittannia with Lundona are in the lower left hand corner. There are many places correctly near one another but other seriously out of place. Europe is seriously undersized out of position relative to Turkey The map would make more sense to modern eyes if it were rotated 90 degrees to put Ireland and Briton in the upper left hand corner. Is this a complete work, or someone’s attempt to reassemble fragments? Who created this?

[SunkenCiv]

Turning it 90 degrees clockwise (n at the top) makes it look, well, okay by the standards of when it was made, apart from putting Hiberia and Campagna up against Mesopotamia. OTOH, the names may just have been similar and their use for those areas fell out of fashion. In the classical world, the Erythraean Sea was the Indian Ocean, plus its inlets like the Persian Gulf and Red Sea — but there was a small Aegean Island called Erythraea at the same time.