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Lower Palaeolithic Rock Art of India and Its Global Context

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Lower Palaeolithic Rock Art of India and Its Global Context BEDNARIK 1 LOWER PALAEOLITHIC ROCK ART OF INDIA AND ITS GLOBAL CONTEXT ROBERT G. BEDNARIK Introduction PALAEOART OF THE WORLD’S LOWER Palaeoart of the Lower Palaeolithic period seems PALAEOLITHIC to have been found for well over 150 years but it Beads and pendants has remained largely ignored, misinterpreted or at It is well known that the existence of Palaeolithic least controversial. This paper summarizes the cur- culture was first demonstrated by Jacques Boucher rently available credible evidence of symbolic or de Crèvecœur de Perthes (1788–1868). But it was non-utilitarian behaviour from the Lower Palaeo- soon forgotten that with the ‘handaxes’ and animal lithic. Material evidence of this kind is defined as remains he excavated at St Acheul in France, he ‘palaeoart’; whether or not this constitutes art in the also found a large number of fossilized sponge modern accepted usage of that term is irrelevant. fragments with central perforations (supposedly The primary issue is that this material is crucial in Coscinopora globularis), which may or may not be considering the cognitive and intellectual status of manuports. Rigollot considered them to have been the period’s hominins. The relevant evidence can used as beads (Prestwich 1859: 52), while Prestwich readily be divided into a few groups: small perfo- himself, who also found some specimens, remained rated objects that may have been used as beads or undecided but did note that some of the holes ap- pendants, petroglyphs, indications of pigment use, peared to have been enlarged artificially. Because figurines, engravings on portable objects, and un- the pieces found no further attention, they had modified objects that are thought to have been car- been forgotten by the time Smith (1894: 272–76) ex- ried around because of some outstanding property cavated about 200 identical items from an (manuports). Acheulian site at Bedford, England. These were of Palaeoart finds of this earliest time of symbol precisely the same species and also showed artifi- use are still exceedingly rare globally, and among cial enlargement of the natural orifice. Smith was those reported, some are of doubtful status or have certain that these specimens were used as beads, fairly been rejected. The evidence presented here which in view of the identical French finds from the has been culled from a much greater corpus of re- same period is indeed likely. Keeley (1980: 164) ex- ported finds. It consists of specimens that constitute amined some of the English sample and confirmed either convincing evidence of symbolism, or that that there is no doubt that their perforations were provide such compelling aspects that they deserve modified. In 2004 I examined 325 specimens col- to be seriously considered in this context. I have lected at French and English Acheulian sites before examined many of the crucial specimens myself the early 20th century, finding that they had all and their listing here indicates that I accept their been incorrectly identified, being actually Po- authenticity after careful analysis. In the cases rosphaera globularis fossils. Among them were nu- where reasonable reservations are appropriate I merous examples with enlarged or completed tun- will try to present these fairly. In the first part of nels and with extensive wear from having been this paper I will review the current relevant evi- used as beads on a string (Bednarik 2005). Goren- dence on a global basis, in the second part the state Inbar et al. (1991) recovered similar disc-like and of knowledge concerning the palaeoart beginnings perforated fossil casts from an Acheulian site, Ge- in India will be considered, where the earliest cur- sher Ya’aqov in Israel, although these are crinoid rently known rock art of the world occurs. segments (Millericrinus sp.) and no evidence of modification was noted. BEDNARIK 2 What renders the possibility that these finds glyphs relating to Middle Palaeolithic traditions were used as beads particularly plausible is the dis- are very common, in fact they are more common covery of clearly made disc beads from a Late than Upper Palaeolithic rock art (Bednarik 1995: Acheulian site in Libya, El Greifa (Ziegert 1995; 628). The number of petroglyphs credibly attrib- Bednarik 1997a). According to Th/U dating and uted to the Lower Palaeolithic period remains rela- other evidence, these ostrich eggshell beads are tively small, but it must be remembered that nearly about 200 ka (thousand years) old, and replication all examples refer to discoveries of the last decade. experiments have shown that their manufacture The first rock art ascribed to the Acheulian are involved a complex procedure. Originally, only the eleven petroglyphs in Auditorium Cave, Bhim- three damaged specimens were found, but more betka complex, Madhya Pradesh, India (Bednarik have become available since. 1993a, 1994a). Nine cupules (cup marks) occur on a There can be no doubt about the authenticity of large vertical boulder face above ground level, two pendants from the Repolust Cave in Styria, while a tenth cupule and a meandering groove Austria (Bednarik 1992, 1997a). Their perforations clearly associated with it were found in an excava- are clearly anthropic, but since their discovery tion, covered by the uppermost part of substantial (Mottl 1951) they have attracted almost no atten- Late Acheulian occupation deposits. Another In- tion. A drilled wolf incisor (Figure 1) and flaked dian quartzite cave, Daraki-Chattan, contains two bone point were recovered together with a large vertical panels densely covered by 498 cupules lithic assemblage variously describes as Levalloi- (Kumar 1996) and has recently been safely dated to sian, Tayacian and Clactonian, probably a late a Lower Palaeolithic chopping tool horizon (Bed- Lower Palaeolithic industry. It was found well be- narik et al. 2005). Both sites will be considered in low an Aurignacian level, separated from it by sub- the second part of this paper. stantial clastic deposits of stadial periods. No reli- While some Indian sites thus present the cur- able dating is available from the site, but according rently oldest known rock art in the world, there are to the regionally well-known palaeontology, espe- also four African finds that need to be considered cially the phylogeny of the bears, the occupation here. First, there is the phonolite cobble Leakey seems to be in the order of 300 ka old. (1971: 269, Pl. 17) reported from Floor FLK North 1 in Bed 1, Olduvai Gorge. The 10.5-cm specimen is artificially grooved and pecked, bearing what ap- pears to be one cupule on each side. Perhaps its Plio-Pleistocene antiquity precludes interpretation as a palaeoart object, perhaps it was utilitarian. Nevertheless, the possibility that these pecked de- pressions are particularly early cupules should not be discounted a priori. A second find in that general region is a grind- stone of the Fauresmith industry bearing a partly pecked grid pattern. It was reported by Laidler (1933) from Blind River Mouth in East London, South Africa. The Fauresmith, characterized by Figure 1. Wolf incisor from Repolust Cave, Austria, per- small well-made handaxes, is a Late Acheulian in- forated at its root, Lower Palaeolithic. dustry in the interior of southern Africa, and Peter Beaumont (pers. comm.) thinks the assemblage ex- Petroglyphs cavated with this object is in the order 400 ka old. Whereas many (though not all) of the bead-like In 2001, Beaumont discovered a series of very finds might invite alternative explanations or could early cupule sites in the Korannaberg region of the be explained away as unusual coincidences, this southern Kalahari. Like very early Indian cupules, uncertainty does not apply to petroglyphs whose they occur on a particularly hard quartzite, so hard anthropic origin has been demonstrated. Petro- that most of the stone implements found at the sites BEDNARIK 3 were made from it. These artefacts belong generally around 400 ka they do represent the earliest evi- to the MSA (c. 120 ka old), the Fauresmith (c. 400 dence of applied pigment that we currently have ka) and the Acheulian (older still). Beaumont’s find (Bednarik 2001b, 2003). has yet to be investigated in detail, and in the con- All these finds are isolated instances, whereas text of very early rock art it certainly deserves fur- the more recent Middle Stone Age has long yielded ther attention. major quantities of iron pigments in southern Af- Finally, a Nubian sandstone slab, c. 60 cm long, rica, including quite extensive mining evidence bears a distinct grinding hollow of about 10 cm, (Stapleton and Hewitt 1928; Beaumont and Boshier around which seven very small cupules (c. 1 cm 1972; Beaumont 1973; Miller et al. 1999; Grün and diameter) are arranged. Found with red and yellow Beaumont 2001; Henshilwood et al. 2001, 2002), ochre lumps, this object was excavated on Sai Is- However, recently the quantity of such material land, Sudan, and is of the Lower Sangoan, c. from the Lower Stone Age of sub-Saharan Africa 200,000 years old (Van Peer et al. 2003). has been increased significantly, and with it the evidence of use in the form of striation facets. This Pigment use includes more than seventy red ochre pieces, over 5 Petroglyphs of the Lower Palaeolithic may still kg in weight, from site GnJh-15 in the Kapthurin be comparatively rare phenomena, but evidence of Formation, Kenya, >285,000 years old (McBrearty the use of iron oxides and hydroxides, presumably 2001: 92). More than 306 pieces of specularite, as colouring matter, has long been demonstrated haematite, limonite, ochrous sandstone and man- from many sites in the Old World. Finds of haema- ganese dioxide have been excavated at Twin Riv- tite and similar minerals that bear striation use- ers, Zambia, dated to between 270 and 170 ka BP marks are known from several occupation sites of (Barham 2002).
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