The visual brain and the early depiction of animals in Europe and Southeast Asia

Abstract

The recent discovery that iconic depictions in caves on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi are more ancient than those from Upper Palaeolithic Europe raises questions as to when such images first arose and why the graphic outcomes from the two locations are so similar. In this paper, we show that these questions can be addressed by exploiting the extensive research carried out over the recent past on the psychology of perception and the neuroscience of the visual brain that allows the proper place of iconic depictions in understanding cognitive evolution to be determined.

Keywords:

• Animal depictions
• world rock art
• visual brain
• hunter-gatherers

Notes

1 Examples illustrating the use of outlines to depict animals in rock art throughout the world can be found in Hodgson (2013b), available online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2013/342801.

2 For example, cilchid fishes in Lake Malawi, Tanzania, show a striking similarity to cichlids in Lake Tanganyika, although the former are more closely related to cilchids in the same lake than to cichlids in Lake Tanganyika. Thus, developmental bias and natural selection work together in that development is ‘guided’ along certain routes set by the presiding environmental constraints (Brakefield 2006).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Derek Hodgson

Derek Hodgson has published many articles on Palaeolithic art, cognitive archaeology, and the origins of depiction in academic books and journals, and has organized and participated as an invited speaker at conferences on these subjects throughout the world. He has been particularly prominent in demonstrating how neuroscience can provide new insights into understanding visual culture and recently contributed to the Lucy to Language project.

Benjamin Watson

Ben Watson is an archaeologist and independent researcher based in Melbourne, Australia. He specializes in cognitive palaeoart studies, with a particular interest in the relationship between the human brain, visual perception and widespread stylistic patterning in hunter-gatherer rock art.