Friday, March 14, 2025

Cave Paintings Track Mating And Birthing Cycles Of Prey

A study from 2023, that has come to my attention, convincingly argues that symbolic marking in cave painting of animals made by European hunter-gatherers track the number of lunar months after the start of their year, that the animals the markings are associated with have their mating season and birthing season. The paper is:

Bacon et al., "An Upper Palaeolithic Proto-writing System and Phenological Calendar" (2023) DOI: 10.1017/S0959774322000415

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