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Hardwired
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PeterH
PeterH
1180 posts

Re: Figurative v abstract
Mar 10, 2006, 09:55
Thanks for that interesting list. Yes, I knew that similar rock art was found in parts of Spain and I didn't mean to suggest that it was unique to Britain. What does seem to be unique here is the absence of contemporary figurative carvings - apart from the feet of the Pool Farm cist and in that park in Liverpool(?)

I'm now thinking more about the tactile angle - the hand grease marks on Long Meg and the whole idea of repetitive tracing.. Seriously - what kind of hypnotic altered perception type state might someone slip into if they stared long enough at the patterns as they repetitively travelled the paths with fingers tips? Perhaps they would just get very sore fingers, but that oil on Long Meg didn't accumulate over just a decade or so. It is there as a tangible fact - we can be certain that people have often and over a long period, traced the incised paths with their hands or fingers. People must have been tracing those spirals for a very long time....how long? If so there, why not elsewhere? Is there any evidence of such grease marks elsewhere - has anyone looked?

Heck! why am I suggesting ritual use? This supposition should not be dismissed out of hand.. There is nothing nutty about it and it would conform to the hard wiring theories put forward about Palaeolithic and much more recent rock paintings in "The Mind in the Cave" In that book, much is written about rock paintings being made that conform to the surface shape of rock walls and the hand prints etc seen as attempts to reach through the rock surface into the underworld. Suppose our rock artists were doing the same thing?
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