![Sample our Humanities journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5939/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Humanities.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
In this paper, we present a novel hypothesis as to what led humans in the Upper Paleolithic to penetrate and decorate deep, dark caves. Many of the depictions in these caves are located in halls or narrow passages deep in the interior, navigable only with artificial light. We simulated the effect of torches on oxygen concentrations in structures similar to Paleolithic decorated caves and showed that the oxygen quickly decreased to levels known to induce a state of hypoxia. Hypoxia increases the release of dopamine in the brain, resulting in hallucinations and out-of-body experiences. We discuss the significance of caves in indigenous world views and contend that entering these deep, dark environments was a conscious choice, motivated by an understanding of the transformative nature of an underground, oxygen-depleted space. The cave environment was conceived as both a liminal space and an ontological arena, allowing early humans to maintain their connectedness with the cosmos. It was not the decoration that rendered the caves significant; rather, the significance of the chosen caves was the reason for their decoration.
Acknowledgments
The authors are grateful to Prof. Saiz-Jimenes, Prof. Jaubert, and Dr. Plassard for their kind permission to use some of the photos and diagrams displayed in this paper. We thank Prof. A. Belfer-Cohen, Prof. R. Dunn, and Ruth Schuster for their useful remarks on an earlier version of this paper, to Sharon Kessler for skillfully editing this manuscript, and to Itamar Ben-Ezra for creating the cave images.
This research received no specific grant from any funding agency, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.
The author(s) declare that they have no competing interests in publishing this article.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Yafit Kedar
Yafit Kedar is a PhD candidate at the Department of Archaeology and Near Eastern Studies, Tel-Aviv University, Israel. She received her M.A. at Tel-Aviv University in 2018. Her research focuses on understanding the implications of smoke dispersal and air circulation on humans at Paleolithic caves and rockshelters. Yafit is engaged in Paleolithic stone tool analysis at the laboratory of Prehistory research at Tel-Aviv University since 2017.
Gil Kedar received his PhD in Electrical Engineering from the Technion, Israel, in 2017. He is leading research teams in the industry in various fields.
Ran Barkai (PhD, 2000, Tel-Aviv University) is Professor at the Department of Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Cultures, Tel Aviv University. He codirects excavations at the Middle Pleistocene site of Qesem Cave and has published extensively on different aspects of Paleolithic and Neolithic technology, subsistence, cosmology, and lifeways.