AR81. 1 October 2004.
Copyright © 2004 by Kevin Sharpe and Leslie Van Gelder. All rights reserved.
Accepted for Presentation at the Third Annual Hawaii International Conference on Arts and Humanities, Sheraton Waikiki Hotel, Honolulu, Hawaii, 13-16 January 2005.

Title of Submission. What’s Written on the Walls? The Use of Story, Science, and Methodology in Untangling Lines in French Prehistoric Cave Art.

Topic Area of Submission. Archaeology, art history, religion.

Presentation Format. Workshop.

Names of Authors. Kevin Sharpe and Leslie Van Gelder.

Departments and Affiliations. (KS) Graduate College, Union Institute and University, Cincinnati, Ohio; Harris Manchester College, Oxford University, Oxford, United Kingdom. (LVG) Graduate Faculty, Walden University. Minneapolis, Minnesota; Co-Director, Oxford Institute for Science and Spirit, Oxford, United Kingdom.

Mailing Address. 10 Shirelake Close, Oxford, United Kingdom OX1 1SN.

Email Address. ksharpe@ksharpe.com.

Phone Numbers. 011 44 1865 249 906; 1 201 768 8961.

Fax Number. 1 201 586 0340.

ABSTRACT.

This 90 minute workshop is divided into three main sections. In the first part the presenters will share the findings of their archaeological research into prehistoric finger flutings (lines stroked with fingers on soft surfaces). Finger flutings make up over 80% of all cave art in France, yet they are largely unstudied; the paradigms of rock art research do not include them in their studies because they are not recognizable animal or other forms. The presenters will first show examples of 20-27,000 year old finger flutings from their research in Rouffignac and Gargas caves. They will then discuss the ways in which their methodological approach has allowed for new study of the people who created rock art including information about age, gender, and body size. They will also discuss the ways in which finger flutings and severines (lines made on walls of caves with both fingers and tools) may represent the earliest known forms of writing.

In the second section of the workshop, participants will be encouraged to engage in a hands on element using clay to experiment in aspects of the presenters’ research methodologies concerning the kinds of marks humans make.

In the final section of the workshop, the presenters will discuss the three main meta-narratives of French archaeological research based on the work of Abbé Breuil, André Leroi-Gouhran, and the contemporary work of Jean Clottes and David Lewis Willians. Each of the paradigms will be examined for the impact it has had on the research into rock art and the ways in which contemporary culture has interpreted prehistory.