Dating back 37,000 years, oldest cave art discovered at Abri Castanet: yep, it's *advertiser censored*

[wfgodot]

Possibly NSFW if you're working around cave dwellers.

Oldest *advertiser censored* in history? Earliest ever limestone carvings dating back 37,000
years believed to depict female private parts (if you have a vivid imagination) (Daily Mail)

Anthropologists working in the south of France believe they have discovered the oldest example of cave art on a 1.5 metric ton block limestone.

The carvings date back to 37,000 years ago in the areas of Abri Castanet and Abri Blanchard - both sites where some of the earliest examples of mankind living in the European continent have been discovered.

Those of a weak disposition look away now, as one painting, showing a circle with an attachment, is believed to depict a lady's sexual organs.
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from livescience.com:

The oldest rock art ever found in Europe reveals an interest in the female form — and the type of décor that the first Europeans preferred for their living spaces.

The new discovery, uncovered at a site called Abri Castanet in France, consists mainly of circular carvings most likely meant to represent the vulva.
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"It's quotidian art, it's everyday art," study researcher Randall White, an anthropologist at New York University, told LiveScience. "It's over their heads as they're doing everyday, banal sorts of things."
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much more, with pictures, at links above and below

Female Genitalia Carvings Are Europe's Oldest Rock Art

 

[Melly53]

Not quite sure how they came to believe that it was a picture of a woman's vulva. Is that what it really is or was that conclusion influence by someone's mind in the present day?

 

[wfgodot]

Not quite sure how they came to believe that it was a picture of a woman's vulva. Is that what it really is or was that conclusion influence by someone's mind in the present day?

It's based on precedent:

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The clearest observable engraving is believed to be that of a woman’s vulva. Such images appear regularly in prehistoric cave art as symbols of fertility.
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http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/v...ings-is-revealed-after-37-000-years-1-2294488

 

[Nova]

I'm generalizing wildly here, but a lot of ancient peoples believed in the concept of sympathetic magic, i.e., a mystical connection between a word or an image and the thing it represents.

If you want to make sure migrating buffalo return to your hunting territory, draw pictures of buffalos on the cave wall to summon them.

If you want your wife/family/clan to be fertile, draw pictures of pregnant females or female genitalia. (I'm not sure when humans figured out the role of males in reproduction, but I suspect they knew where babies come from at an early time. I think there's a later shift toward representations of phalluses.)

We continue such practices today when we invoke God at the beginning of a church service by chanting his name or when New Agers use creative visualization to picture things they want to acquire.

So, no, I don't think it's a case that anthropologists have dirty minds or that ancient peoples were addicted to *advertiser censored*. Rather cave dwellers were manipulating the world around them by using the magic of representation.

 

[Quiche]

Of course women detailia was depicted, lol (my very own werd!), why not? Just look at how often the male counterpart was scribbled, carved, and molded...it's all over the place, it's practically graffiti. :crazy:

 

[Kat]

I had in my mind two teenage cavemen snickering when they drew that. Sorry.

 

[Cypros]

These vulva drawings are relatively common in the Dordogne region, but this is the earliest. The earliest known "Venus" figurine with the genitalia clearly defined is from the same time period. Fertility and reproduction would have been very important to Paleolithic humans.

Venus of Hohle Fels - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This was in a period when the natural assets of women were highly respected and valued.

 

[Trident]

I'm generalizing wildly here, but a lot of ancient peoples believed in the concept of sympathetic magic, i.e., a mystical connection between a word or an image and the thing it represents.

If you want to make sure migrating buffalo return to your hunting territory, draw pictures of buffalos on the cave wall to summon them.

If you want your wife/family/clan to be fertile, draw pictures of pregnant females or female genitalia. (I'm not sure when humans figured out the role of males in reproduction, but I suspect they knew where babies come from at an early time. I think there's a later shift toward representations of phalluses.)

We continue such practices today when we invoke God at the beginning of a church service by chanting his name or when New Agers use creative visualization to picture things they want to acquire.

So, no, I don't think it's a case that anthropologists have dirty minds or that ancient peoples were addicted to *advertiser censored*. Rather cave dwellers were manipulating the world around them by using the magic of representation.

Although I AM a firm believer in sympathetic magic I tend to believe some anthropoligists might have dirty minds, or are misled by their own fantasies. Methinks a LOT of "interpretations" are based on that, while many other are based on the limitations of their own minds and/or knowledge, which has been encased in concrete for whatever reasons. Fear of bucking the establishment? Fear of realizing "primitive" man may not have been as primitive as the establishment wants them to be? Fear of the unknown, and more fear to admit it?

Ah, don't get me started.

 

[ScubaTwinn]

I had in my mind two teenage cavemen snickering when they drew that. Sorry.

Please don't apologize! You gave me the laugh I needed this morning.
:floorlaugh:

 

[Hopeful One]

Fascinating!! I don't see female genitalia either but I guess that's why I'm sitting here and not on some anthropological dig or something.

 

[Nova]

Although I AM a firm believer in sympathetic magic I tend to believe some anthropoligists might have dirty minds, or are misled by their own fantasies. Methinks a LOT of "interpretations" are based on that, while many other are based on the limitations of their own minds and/or knowledge, which has been encased in concrete for whatever reasons. Fear of bucking the establishment? Fear of realizing "primitive" man may not have been as primitive as the establishment wants them to be? Fear of the unknown, and more fear to admit it?

Ah, don't get me started.

I'm sorry, but without specific examples, I don't know what you are saying. Anthropologists are human beings, so I assume that as a group, they have the full range of human traits.

But the concept of the "primitive" has been out of fashion in the field for decades, so I don't understand why you accuse anthropologists of condescending to the cultures they study.