Our aim in this module is firstly to develop a good knowledge of what is present and, secondly, an appreciation of the difficulties of interpreting objects and images that in many ways seem so similar to contemporary objects. The presence of ‘artworks’ has been recognized as a significant feature of the Upper Palaeolithic since the mid 19th century, whilst the existence of cave paintings and engravings dating to the Upper Palaeolithic was first acknowledged in the early 20th century. These artefacts and images have come to be seen as the evidence for human symbol activity: the communication of meanings between groups and individuals on the basis of mutually comprehensible and possibly abstract ‘images’ in situations of co-presence and possibly co-absence. An understanding of these objects and markings is therefore central to the study of human cognitive and social evolution.
Despite the long history of research in this field, there remain real research challenges in recording what is present, understanding how it was made, determining the makers of the imagery, and above all interpreting what it might have meant to Palaeolithic human populations. Recent scientific work in dating, paint analysis and the identification of elements of animal behaviour and human form has transformed what we can learn form these images and markings.
The module begins with the discovery of the art, looks at recent developments in dating and recording, and then explores a variety of issues in interpretation. An underlying theme is to look at each of these elements, through three overlapping narratives; the story of the practice of art recording; the story of artistic interpretation; and the story of the interpretation of meaning.