Critical evaluation of in situ analyses for the characterisation of red pigments in rock paintings: A case study from El Castillo, Spain.

Paint technology, namely paint preparation and application procedures, is an important aspect of painting traditions. With the expansion of archaeometric studies and in situ non-destructive analytical methods, a renewal of technological studies is being observed in rock art. In situ analyses have several limitations that are widely discussed in the literature, however. It is not yet clear whether they provide accurate information on paint technology, except under certain conditions. Here, we evaluated digital microscopic and pXRF in situ analyses for the characterisation of a large set of red and yellow paintings from the El Castillo cave, Cantabria, Spain. We have set experiments and used statistical methods to identify differences between paint components and determine factors impacting pXRF measurements. We found that the compositional heterogeneity of the paintings' environment, especially variations in secondary deposits, was responsible for most of the differences observed between the pXRF signals recorded on the paintings. We concluded that the El Castillo cave environment is not suitable for non-destructive technological studies, but that more favourable contexts might exist. Following previous works and our own results, we advocate a combination of both in situ and laboratory invasive analyses for the study of paint composition and paint technology. Our research protocol, based on the comparison of rock paintings, their substrate, experimental paintings and Fe-normalisation of the signals can improve the reliability of pXRF results. We also propose to include more systematic characterisation of rock wall heterogeneity and the use of microscopic analyses in non-destructive approaches.

Looking at the Camp: Paleolithic Depiction of a Hunter-Gatherer Campsite.

Landscapes and features of the everyday world were scarcely represented in Paleolithic art, especially those features associated with the human landscape (huts and campsites). On the contrary, other figurative motifs (especially animals) and signs, traditionally linked to the magic or religious conceptions of these hunter-gatherer societies, are the predominant themes of Upper Paleolithic art. This paper seeks to present an engraved schist slab recently found in the Molí del Salt site (North-eastern Iberia) and dated at the end of the Upper Paleolithic, ca. 13,800 years ago. This slab displays seven semicircular motifs that may be interpreted as the representation of dome-shaped huts. The analysis of individual motifs and the composition, as well as the ethnographic and archeological contextualization, suggests that this engraving is a naturalistic depiction of a hunter-gatherer campsite. Campsites can be considered the first human landscape, the first area of land whose visible features were entirely constructed by humans. Given the social meaning of campsites in hunter-gatherer life-styles, this engraving may be considered one of the first representations of the domestic and social space of a human group.

The chronology of hand stencils in European Palaeolithic rock art: implications of new U-series results from El Castillo Cave (Cantabria, Spain).

The hand stencils of European Paleolithic art tend to be considered of pre-Magdalenian age and scholars have generally assigned them to the Gravettian period. At El Castillo Cave, application of U-series dating to calcite accretions has established a minimum age of 37,290 years for underlying red hand stencils, implying execution in the earlier part of the Aurignacian if not beforehand. Together with the series of red disks, one of which has a minimum age of 40,800 years, these motifs lie at the base of the El Castillo parietal stratigraphy. The similarity in technique and colour support the notion that both kinds of artistic manifestations are synchronic and define an initial, non-figurative phase of European cave art. However, available data indicate that hand stencils continued to be painted subsequently. Currently, the youngest, reliably dated examples fall in the Late Gravettian, approximately 27,000 years ago.

Phallic decoration in paleolithic art: genital scarification, piercing and tattoos.

PURPOSE: The primitive anthropological meaning of genital ornamentation is not clearly defined and the origin of penile intervention for decorative purposes is lost in time. Corporeal decoration was practiced in the Upper Paleolithic period. We discuss the existing evidence on the practice of phallic piercing, scarring and tattooing in prehistory. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We studied the archaeological and artistic evidence regarding explicit genital male representations in portable art made in Europe approximately 38,000 to 11,000 years ago with special emphasis on decorations suggesting genital ornamentation. RESULTS: Archaeological evidence that has survived to our day includes 42 phallic pieces, of which 30 (71.4%) show intentional marks to a different extent with a probable decorative purpose. Of these ornamental elements 18 (60%) were recovered from the upper Magdalenian period (11,000 to 12,700 years ago) in France and Spain, and 23 (76.7%) belong to the category of perforated batons. Decorations show lines (70% of objects), plaques (26.7%), dots/holes (23.3%) or even human/animal forms (13.3%). These designs most probably represent skin scarification, cutting, piercing and tattooing. Notably there are some technical similarities between the motifs represented and some designs present in symbolic cave wall art. This evidence may show the anthropological origin of current male genital piercing and tattooing. CONCLUSIONS: European Paleolithic art shows decoration explicitly represented in a high proportion of portable art objects with a phallic form that have survived to our day. Decorative rituals of male genital tattooing, piercing and scarification may have been practiced during Paleolithic times.

Male genital representation in paleolithic art: erection and circumcision before history.

OBJECTIVES: To report on the likely existing evidence about the practice of circumcision in prehistory, or at least a culture of foreskin retraction, and also the meaning of erection in Paleolithic minds. The origin of the ritual of circumcision has been lost in time. Similarly, the primitive anthropologic meaning of erection is undefined. METHODS: We studied the archeologic and artistic evidence regarding human representations performed during the Upper Paleolithic period, 38,000 to 11,000 years BCE, in Europe, with a focus on genital male representations in portable and rock art. RESULTS: Drawings, engravings, and sculptures displaying humans are relatively scarce, and <100 examples of male genitals are specifically represented. Some depict a circumcised penis and other represent urologic disorders such as phimosis, paraphimosis, discharge, priapism, or a scrotal mass. In addition, a small number of phalluses carved in horn, bone, or stone, with varying morphology, has survived to the present and also reveals a sustained cult for male erection and foreskin retraction not limited to a particular topographical territory. The very few noncoital human or humanoid figures with marked erection appear in a context of serious danger or death. Therefore, erection could be understood as a phenomenon related to the shamanic transit between life and death. CONCLUSIONS: The erection in Paleolithic art is explicitly represented in almost all the figures defined as unequivocally male that have survived to the present and in many objects of portable art. Circumcision and/or foreskin retraction of the penis are present in most of the works.

[The meaning of erection, genitality, and other representations of urologic topics in the paleolithic imaginary]. / El significado de la erección, la genitalidad y otras representaciones de indole urológico en el imaginario paleolítico.

The history of urology starts with written documents making express reference to procedures, practices and descriptions of morbid processes related with the male genitourinary tract. Oddly, the most recent prehistoric period, the superior Paleolithic (from approximately 40.000 years to 12.000 years ago; the longest period since our species entered the history of humanity) also has graphic documents expressing how the human being understood the physiologic phenomena and how he observed the pathologic processes of this organism. The representations with genitality expressions enable us to understand the meaning of erection from the Paleolithic perspective, and even the possible existence of a culture based on preputial retraction or rituals of circumcision. Several urologic disorders such us phimosis, paraphimosis, discharge, priapism, and even scrotal mass appear represented at that time and constitute the first sign of knowledge of what can be called primitive urologic knowledge.

El significado de la erección, la genitalidad y otras representaciones de índole urológico en el imaginario paleolítico / The meaning of erection, genitality, and other representations of urologic topics in the paleolithic imaginary

La Historia de la Urología comienza con documentos escritos que hacen referencia expresa a procedimientos, prácticas y descripciones de procesos mórbidos relacionados con el aparato urinario y genital masculino. Curiosamente, durante la época prehistórica más reciente, el Paleolítico superior (desde hace aproximadamente 40.000 a 12.000 años; la época más larga desde que nuestra especie entra en escena en la historia de la humanidad) tiene también documentos gráficos que expresan cómo el hombre entendía los fenómenos fisiológicos y cómo observaba los procesos patológicos de su organismo. Las representaciones con genitalidad expresa permiten inferir el significado de la erección desde la mentalidad paleolítica, e incluso la posible existencia de una cultura de retracción prepucial o de ritos de circuncisión. Patologías de índice urológico como la fimosis, la parafimosis, la supuración, el priapismo e incluso masa escrotal, aparecen representadas en dicha época y constituyen los primeros indicios de lo que podemos denominar un saber urológico primitivo

The history of urology starts with written documents making express reference to procedures, practices and descriptions of morbid processes related with the male genitourinary tract. Oddly, the most recent prehistoric period, the superior Paleolithic (from approximately 40.000 years to 12.000 years ago; the longest period since our species entered the history of humanity) also has graphic documents expressing how the human being understood the physiologic phenomena and how he observed the pathologic processes of this organism. The representations with genitality expressions enable us to understand the meaning of erection from the Paleolithic perspective, and even the possible existence of a culture based on preputial retraction or rituals of circumcision. Several urologic disorders such us phimosis, paraphimosis, discharge, priapism, and even scrotal mass appear represented at that time and constitute the first sign of knowledge of what can be called primitive urologic knowledge