New suggests that Ice Age cave art was partly influenced by pareidolia, a phenomenon where humans see meaningful shapes in random patterns. Focusing on caverns in Northern Spain, the study discovered that many images integrated natural functions of the cave walls, suggesting that artists were influenced by both pareidolia and their creativity. The Paleolithic artist that made this depiction followed the natural shape of the cavern wall and traced cracks to produce the image. The Palaeolithic artist traced the natural cracks in the cave wall when painting the head, horns, and back leg of the animal. Top image: Upper Palaeolithic illustration of the partial summary of a horse that utilizes the natural edge of the cave wall to represent the back and head of the horse.
New recommends that Ice Age cave art was partly affected by pareidolia, a phenomenon where people see meaningful shapes in random patterns. Focusing on caves in Northern Spain, the study discovered that numerous images incorporated natural features of the cavern walls, suggesting that artists were affected by both pareidolia and their creativity. The research study likewise explored the function of lighting conditions and advances our understanding of the experiences and influences of Upper Palaeolithic artists. (Artists concept).
Recent research shows that Ice Age cave art, dating back as far as 40,000 years, might have been partially influenced by a visual psychological phenomenon still experienced by humans today.
The research study team, led by Dr. Izzy Wisher, then a Ph.D. student at Durham Universitys Department of Archaeology, checked the theory that cave artists may have experienced pareidolia– a psychological phenomenon where individuals see meaningful types in random patterns, such as seeing faces in clouds.
Investigating Pareidolia in Cave Art.
They investigated whether pareidolia might have affected the artists who painted depictions of animals in the Las Monedas and La Pasiega caves, in Northern Spain.
If so, then the majority of illustrations would be expected to be representations of animals that included functions of the cavern walls within them and take reasonably simple forms (pareidolic images tend to be simple and do not have detail).
Leading image: Upper Palaeolithic drawing of a bison in vertical orientation, which uses the edge of the cavern wall surface area to represent the back. Bottom image: The same bison drawing under the simulated VR light conditions. Credit: Izzy Wisher, thanks to the Gobierno de Cantabria.
Research Implications and findings.
Their research study, released in the Cambridge Archaeological Journal, found that pareidolia could be responsible for the production of some cavern images, suggesting that the cavern artists were experiencing the exact same mental impacts on understanding when viewing the natural functions of cave walls that humans still experience today.
While the scientists discovered proof that pareidolia played a part in the production of some cavern images, their research study also discovered the cavern painters were affected by their own experiences and imagination.
A Paleolithic painting of a hind (female deer) from the cavern of La Pasiega. The Paleolithic artist that made this representation followed the natural shape of the cavern wall and traced fractures to produce the image. Credit: Izzy Wisher, thanks to the Gobierno de Cantabria.
Dr Izzy Wisher, now based at Aarhus University, Denmark, said: “It is interesting to see that cavern artists in the Upper Palaeolithic era were likewise experiencing pareidolia, similar to a number of us do today, which this affected their art.
” Much like a contemporary artist might take inspiration from a standard form or shape, like a crack in a product or a spot of paint on a canvas, and construct their art around this, we can see that cavern artists operated in similar methods.
” However, whilst our research study showed that pareidolia did have some impact on the cavern artists, this was not constantly the case, offering us remarkable insight into the work of these early painters. ” It seems to us that their art may have become part of a creative discussion with the cave walls, where they both took motivation from what they saw in the cracks and shapes of the cave wall, but likewise utilized their own imagination.”.
A Palaeolithic painting of an aurochs from the cave of La Pasiega. The Palaeolithic artist traced the natural cracks in the cave wall when painting the head, horns, and back leg of the animal. Credit: Izzy Wisher, thanks to the Gobierno de Cantabria.
Analytical Analysis of Cave Art.
The research found that as many as 71 percent of images studied in the Las Monedas caves, and 55 percent in the La Pasiega caves, revealed a strong relationship to the natural features of the cavern wall, suggesting pareidolia may have been a partial impact on the artists.
Examples included where the curved edges of the cave wall were used to represent the backs of animals such as wild horses, or where natural fractures were utilized as bisons horns.
Top image: Upper Palaeolithic illustration of the partial summary of a horse that utilizes the natural edge of the cavern wall to represent the back and head of the horse. Bottom image: The very same horse drawing under the simulated VR light conditions. Credit: Izzy Wisher, courtesy of the Gobierno de Cantabria.
The study likewise discovered that of those illustrations with a strong relationship to natural functions on the cave wall, the majority (80 percent in Las Monedas and 83 percent in La Pasiega) did not have additional details such as eyes or hair, which correlates with the simplified nature of images influenced by pareidolia.
Examining the Role of Lighting Conditions.
The research group, which consisted of Professor Paul Pettitt, Department of Archaeology, and Professor Robert Kentridge, Department of Psychology, both Durham University, also investigated whether lighting conditions in the caverns at the time the art work was produced may have added to the prospective impact of pareidolia.
A Palaeolithic painting of a horse from the cavern of La Pasiega, where the artist utilized a natural fracture to represent the head and ear of the horse. Credit: Izzy Wisher, courtesy of the Gobierno de Cantabria.
To do this Dr Wisher utilized a virtual truth gaming software application called Unity to model the cave walls and reproduce the source of lights used by the cave artists, which would have consisted of flickering firelight produced by small torches or lamps, to comprehend the visual effects across the cave wall.
The outcomes showed that low and unstable lighting conditions did not have a strong correlation to cave art that utilizes natural features.
Conclusions and Implications for Visual Paleopsychology.
Dr. Wisher argues that this, paired with the conclusion that the impact of pareidolia appeared in some, however not all, of the artwork, recommends that cave artists might also have actually been actively searching for shapes that reminded them of animals within the caves to incorporate into their illustrations, as part of a nuanced discussion in between the artists personal imagination and the kinds seen in the cave walls.
Whilst the theory that pareidolia may have influenced cave artists has actually long been discussed, the team believes their research study provides the first organized screening of this theory, and is the first to make use of simulated lighting conditions in virtual truth to accomplish this.
It offers further detail in the understanding of the experiences, desires, imagination, and influences of Upper Palaeolithic cavern artists and how cave art might have been made. It also advances Durham Universitys research into visual palaeopsychology..
Pareidolia might have first progressed to assist human beings avert predators by providing an increased sense of visual analysis for prospective threats, such as assisting people see predators hiding behind bushes. It is a basic part of the human visual system, and was most likely triggered within dark cavern environments..
Recommendation: “Conversations with Caves: The Role of Pareidolia in the Upper Palaeolithic Figurative Art of Las Monedas and La Pasiega (Cantabria, Spain)” by Izzy Wisher, Paul Pettitt and Robert Kentridge, 21 September 2023, Cambridge Archaeological Journal.DOI: 10.1017/ S0959774323000288.