Recent additions, changes and updates to Don's Maps
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Recent additions, changes and updates to Don's Maps
I have completed my page on the history of the Earth from the beginning of the earth to the end of the dinosaurs, and a selection of the animals and plants from the Precambrian to the Cretaceous. I am now working on a page on Gӧbekli Tepe. Göbekli Tepe was built by hunter-gatherers from the Pre-Pottery Neolithic period (around 9 600 - 8 200 BC), a significant discovery showing that these early people did not just settle agricultural communities, but were capable of complex monumental architecture for social and ritual purposes. Archaeological evidence suggests nomadic groups gathered to construct the large, T-shaped pillars and enclosures using stone tools, challenging the idea that complex societies only arose after farming.
Photo: Me in Paris, on top of the Musée de l'Homme.
Index of caves and rock shelters with wall paintings and engravings
Last updated Wednesday 08 February 2023
Les Combarelles in the Dordogne, with more than 600 images on its walls, most of them engraved, is considered to be one of the major sanctuaries of Magdalenian culture. This extraordinary site was discovered in 1901. Beyond the entrance of the cave two galleries diverge. The largest one, now open to the public, is a narrow and winding passage, following a zig zag pattern for more than 240 metres. The animals represented are finely engraved. A diverse fauna is represented, including horses, reindeer, ibex, mammoths, rhinoceros, bears, lions and a few bisons and aurochs. A very important paper on the representations of humans at les Combarelles has been added.
Dots and lines are the most ubiquitous abstract symbols in Palaeolithic art, whether on the walls of caves or on suitable pieces of bone and ivory. Many researchers have noted the occurrence of these symbols, and their occurrence particularly in relation to representations of animals. Here I have put together some of the best examples. The evidence presented here shows that where the evidence exists and the data is sufficient, there is no correlation between the Taxon and the number of dots or lines. For example, horses have numbers of dots and lines which are spread across the range of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7, and Aurochs (early cattle) have numbers of dots and lines which include 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, and 18 or more.