What is it about?
Describes the evolutionary precursors prevalent in the visual brain that were crucial to the survival of early humans and shows how they were expressed in the depiction of animals in rock art in Upper Paleolithic Europe and other parts of the world.
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Why is it important?
Recent finds in Eastern Asia, Australia, and China of early rock art show remarkable similarities with those of Upper Paleolithic Europe. Such similarities can potentially be explained by the importance of detecting particular salient contours of animals that promoted survival in challenging situations and were inculcated in the visual brain. This interposition, along with the ongoing "hunter's eye", acted to bias preference for those features in rock art.
Perspectives
This paper was instigated by the growing numbers of animals depicted in early rock art that display a surprising similarity despite the diverse locations throughout the world where cross contact has been ruled out.
Derek Hodgson
University of York
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: The Visual Brain, Perception, and Depiction of Animals in Rock Art, Journal of Archaeology, January 2013, Hindawi Publishing Corporation,
DOI: 10.1155/2013/342801.
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