/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.18791214]

Books exploring the paleolithic aesthetic?

[Anonymous No.18791501]

>>18791214
start with chauvet cave

[Anonymous No.18791520]

not necessarily paleolithic but neolithic

Tell El-Hesi: The Site and the Expedition

[Anonymous No.18791530]

Start with Bataille's The Cradle of Humanity

[Anonymous No.18791532]

Extremely based topic, anon. Sadly I am an uneducated plebian and have no recommendations. I hope this thread takes off, though.

[Anonymous No.18791586]

>>18791214
The Neanderthal Parallax by Robert J. Sawyer if you're into corny Star Trek-tier sci-fi and the prospect of fucking a neanderthal.

[Anonymous No.18791592]

Bump

[Anonymous No.18791694]

>>18791214
The Celestial Hunter, Roberto Calasso.

[Anonymous No.18791717]

>>18791214
I have a theory that the people who created these paintings experienced life as a sort of waking dreamworld and this is what they were trying to replicate in their art.

A few things
1. They painted only in caves, and they went as deep into the cave as possible, which would sometimes be a mile or two down. This was to ensure there would be zero natural light or other intrusion from the outside. A perfectly blank 3D canvas, as it were.
2. For light they had open flames, which produced a flickering effect on the cave walls. They deliberately chose parts of the cave that already had the vague shape of the animal they wanted to paint, to give it a 3D effect.
3. When illuminated by the flickering light, the paintings appeared to dance. They frequently created several paintings of the same animal overlayed on top of itself. This has been proven to create a sense of movement in the paintings as the light flickered back and forth between them. Now I've seen a lot of archeologists interpreting these moving pictures as some kind of proto-cinema, but I believe this is the wrong take.
4. They were not trying to emulate motion, but the fleeting and flickering mental images that appear in our dreams, and our mind's eye. When illuminated by fire, the cave becomes a three dimensional dream drawn out from the mind into 3D space. The paint used is predominantly red, black, yellow, and brown, literally the same colors we see when we close our eyes in the presence of a warm light, like that of a fire. I don't think these people distinguished between the world of sleep and the world of wakefulness. When they closed their eyes, they must have somehow seen this as a way of entering the dreamworld. This is what they were trying to do with the cave paintings i.e. bridge the gap between the conscious and unconscious world. Why? The transition to behaviorally modern humanity was the conscious awakening of man, who previously experienced the world as an animal. For them it must have been like coming out of a long coma, but with no recollection of what happened or who they were before.
5. Besides the paintings of animals, the other most common form we see is the human hand. If you have ever used a VR headset, then you know how strange a feeling it is when you raise your hand in front of your face with the headset on and you can't see your hand even though you know your eyes are open. I think it's a similar effect happening here. Paleolithic man used red ochre to imprint a dreamlike hand to reassure himself of his conscious existence, almost like when we pinch ourselves to see if we're dreaming.
6. Why the paintings of animals, and the ubiquitous Venus figurines? I think here is a cult of the womb. The cave also acts as a spiritual womb in which the spirits of animals that have been hunted are remade and rebirth. At this time there is no individuality in humans yet, hence the very few depictions of humans, and the lack of facial features on the Venus figurines.

[Anonymous No.18791760]

>>18791717
Based effort post, anon.

[Anonymous No.18791765]

>>18791760
Its something I've been thinking about for a while, and I intend to write an essay on it, but that's the first time I've written anything on it yet.

[Anonymous No.18791768]

>>18791717
Bbaaassseedd.
U could write a thesis on this.

[Anonymous No.18791771]

>>18791717
Very interesting ideas.

[Anonymous No.18791786]

>>18791717
Really interesting take. Thanks for sharing anon.

[Anonymous No.18791826]

One of the best non-fiction books I read last year was "Ice Age and the Bear Cult: Interpreting prehistoric art" by Phillip C Grote, very speculative theories, but that just comes with the subject. A lot of fun though. "Cave Art" by Bruno David is excellent too, much more methodical and covers more sites than your standard Lascaux and Chauvet, has some great stuff on the Aboriginal Australian tradition of rock art.

[Anonymous No.18791831]

>>18791214

[Anonymous No.18791983]

Today op was not a faggot

[Anonymous No.18792793]

The other day I went to a dark site and the first thing I thought of after finally seeing the Milky Way in full glory was of cave paintings, the colors are really similar in my opinion. In most photos this isn’t very apparent, most people fuck up the color balance and contrast trying to get a “cleaner look”.

[Anonymous No.18792801]

Not sure if this is a genuine request or a shitpost but I personally enjoyed this book on the topic

[Anonymous No.18792816]

>>18791717
>I have a theory that the people who created these paintings experienced life as a sort of waking dreamworld
http://libgen.gs/item/index.php?md5=8A25010AB954D9497C464C9C6B4563EF

"The Shamanic Paradigm in Cave Art
The shamanic context of the cave art associated with this transition is attested to in a number of key features. The shamanic paradigm provides a parsimonious explanation of what are the central features of Upper Paleolithic parietal art. Among the prominent nonsymbolic representations are those resembling entoptic phenomena associated with autogenous images occurring during altered states of consciousness (ASC). Although there certainly are depictions other than those related to ASC, there are numerous features that do reflect the encounter with ASC.
These caves with paintings sites had numerous shamanic aspects in their features (e.g, see Clottes and Lewis-Williams for pictures). Winkelman (2002a) discusses prominent shamanic features of these images as representing different aspects of shamanic practice, including soul flight, visionary experiences, death/dream states, human-animal identities, and animal powers. Significant human depictions include “bird-men,” symbolizing the features of the shaman’s soul flight. The “wounded man” themes may represent the shamanic death and rebirth. Cave sites themselves have a variety of shamanic functions in altering consciousness in their darkness and isolation, as well as in physically representing the lower world. The harrowing and difficult experiences of entering the caves and passageways, combined with the remote location of representations in some of the most inaccessible areas of the caves, suggest their relationships to shamanic experiences. Some sites have evidence of percussion instruments and bird bone flutes, and areas with primarily heel marks (as opposed to full foot imprints), suggesting ritual dances.
Humans are rarely depicted, but are prominently represented as combining human and animal features (see cover art), often the human torso with an animal head. These composite creatures have been called “anthropozoomorphs, therianthropes, or sorcerers” (Clottes and Lewis-Williams, 46). The most impressive human representations include the famed Sorcerer of Les Trois-Fre´res and similar figures combining human and animal elements, and often placed in a significant position. This combination of human and animal features has no convincing explanation apart from shamanism, where it reflects the shaman’s role as master of the animals, with both animal spirit allies and the belief in the shamans’ ability to transform into an animal."

[Anonymous No.18792946]

>>18792793

[Anonymous No.18793030]

>>18791214
Bataille
Leroi-Gourhan

[Anonymous No.18793183]

>>18791214
Can someone tell me why the chauvet cave paintings are so advanced compared to other Paleolithic cave art?

[Anonymous No.18793249]

>>18793183
It is the superior French intellect

[Anonymous No.18793263]

>>18791530
Base and potlatchpilled

[Anonymous No.18794712]

Found this earlier this week.

[Anonymous No.18794718]

>>18794712
https://www.openculture.com/2021/01/algerian-cave-paintings-suggest-humans-did-magic-mushrooms-9000-years-ago.html

[Anonymous No.18796073]

>>18791530
bump this ol' boi

[Anonymous No.18796083]

>>18796073
Bump

[Anonymous No.18796167]

bump

[Anonymous No.18796501]

>>18791717
any books to reccomend?

[Anonymous No.18797054]

good thread

[Anonymous No.18797257]

>>18791717
You're onto something.

http://www.sofiatopia.org/maat/hidden_chamber01.htm

>Light and darkness are the physical underpinning of the cave mysteries. The cave is a protected mediating area were the human and the archetypes of nature touch. Its heart is an uterus, a place of new birth. The tunnel is a crawl or passage-way between stages & stations of life and the otherworld (the beforelife and the afterlife), the path of the seed to the ovary. In the natural darkness of the sanctum, events such as the death of a hunter could be relived and the causes combatted in a symbolical, allegorical way. Initiations could happen. The womb was the temple of the great goddess, she who enfolds nature as a whole.