Indian Pleistocene rock art in a global context

• Autores: Robert G. Bednarik
• Localización: Préhistoire, art et sociétés: bulletin de la Société Préhistorique de l'Ariège, ISSN 1954-5045, Nº. 65-66, 2010-2011 (Ejemplar dedicado a: L'art pléistocène dans le monde), págs. 150-151
• Idioma: francés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • The incredibly early petroglyphs reported from central Indian quartzite caves immediately raise the issue of the compatibility of this information with our knowledge from the rest of the world. It is demonstrated that, with the exception of the presumably greater antiquity of the Indian finds, they are fully consistent with what five continents have yielded. The Indian sites offer numerous cupules and a very few linear grooves; the oldest forms of rock art from Africa, Europe, Australia and the Americas comprise precisely the same forms of petroglyphs, and even the subsequent traditions are almost identical. This is demonstrated with the earliest known examples of rock art from those continents, and is partly attributed to the taphonomy of rock art. Rock paintings, similarly, are limited to regions where deep limestone caves were used by Pleistocene hominins, evidence for which is so far only available from two continents. Even the earliest known indications of portable palaeoart from India are entirely consistent with other continents.