Some examples for deciphering
"The art of reading pictures"
was named an article by Franco Maria Ricci in his magazine.
This art is highly developed for Renaissance and medieval images. We are also very good at reading depictions from antiquity or ancient Egypt. We know the meaning of many symbols and of the arrangement of figures, their posture and gestures.
Now I would like to show you a few examples of how to read Ice Age cave art.
The word "read" indicates that we are dealing with pictorial writing.
The images on the cave walls represent the world view of Ice Age people, gained from observing the environment and celestial events.
Just as ducks and mice in modern comics relive the everyday adventures of humans, so horses, bison, lions, aurochs and mammoths relive the annual events in the sky and in nature in cave comics.
CHAUVET
This "Panel of the Horses" from Chauvet cave replica shows us the beginning of the world.
Photo: Panneau-des-chevaux © Patrick Aventurier ---Grotte Chauvet 2
Creation starts in the niche on the right, from where the animals run to the left.
First of all, the moon was brought into the world, in shape of a black aurochs, i.e. the new moon. It appears three times, three being the number of the moon (3 phases of the moon).
Since it was created first, it has already run furthest to the left.
Next, the sun came into the world as a horse, also in black at the moment of creation. The sun horse appears four times, because 4 is the number of the sun (4 solstice points, the corners
of the world).
That seems to be it, nothing else is coming.
The rhinos are also moon animals and represent the different phases of the moon.
On the right part of the photo you can see part of the "Niche of the Lions".
At the end of this niche, water runs out of the wall when it rains. It contains dissolved red ochre, which settles on the ground. The shape of the niche, the water and the red colour
have given people the impression of a vagina from which amniotic fluid and menstrual blood flow. It is the vagina of Mother Earth, and here she gives birth to the moon and sun as aurochs and horse. Mother Earth is depicted
as a lioness. The aurochs and horse run out of the niche to the left, out of the earth. The lioness remains behind. This being of the beginning and the end is the earth and lives in the earth.
LASCAUX
Horse between two cattle, from the Bulls Hall; replica of the Lascaux cave
Photo: Don Hitchcock, www.donsmaps.com
The Bull Chamber and its axial extension depict the celestial events of an entire year.
The central representation in the Bulls Chamber shows the evening summer solstice at the beginning of July. At this time, the setting sun shone (and still shines) on the cave entrance and perhaps into the Bulls Chamber. (The dates commonly used today, 21 June and 21 December, are not derived from observations of the solstices, but from measurements of the sun's highest and lowest positions.)
The sun horse is at its highest point in the sky, higher than the white full moon cattle, which are at their lowest point in summer.
The red bison on the right and the black and red cattle in the axial extension each represent a new moon. So four months pass until the winter solstice at the bottom right. This is represented by the twin horses. The second horse is not only turned horizontally, but also vertically. This led to the old name "falling horse".
Where the cave visitor has to turn around, the sun also turns around. It is mid-December, the evening winter solstice.
The cave painters depicted the winter solstice several times. This demonstrates us the significance of this event for Ice Age people.
The last depiction on the left wall shows the twin horses. The first depiction on the right wall repeats the origin myth: at the winter solstice, the moon appears first, as a bison, then the sun horse.
Then follows an emblematic drawing that continued to be used for tens of thousands of years: two ibexes facing each other as a sign of the winter solstice, with the year between them.
The dark ibex on the left represents the past months of the descending sun, the light ibex on the right the coming months of the ascending sun. The new sun emerges from the light ibex at the top.
The sun horses and moon cattle then continue running along the wall, back into the Bulls Hall.
