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4 - Producing Cave Art

from Part II - Symbolic Behaviours

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 April 2020

Rudolf Botha
Affiliation:
University of Stellenbosch, South Africa
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Summary

Chapter 4 elucidates various inferences about Neanderthal language drawn from so-called cave art attributed to Neanderthals. Skeletally, these inferences look as follows, arrows depicting inferential steps: The markings M1,…,Mn are found on the walls of the Iberian caves C1,…,Cn → These markings represent art made by Neanderthal occupants of the caves → This art had a symbolic function for these Neanderthals → These Neanderthals had language. The markings include a hashtag engraving, red disks and hand stencils, a red ladder-shaped sign and red painted mineral deposits. Serious concerns have been expressed about the soundness of these inferences. Two are fundamental. First, the empirical grounding of some are suspect: the dating of the markings is claimed to be inaccurate. This means that some markings may have been made by a modern human rather than a Neanderthal. Second, it has been pointed out, the meanings of the markings are a mystery. This implies that it is unwarranted to infer that these markings were symbols. They could have had a non-symbolic function, which would make the third inferential step ungrounded. Chapter 4 discusses these and other doubts at length.

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Chapter
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Neanderthal Language
Demystifying the Linguistic Powers of our Extinct Cousins
, pp. 69 - 82
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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  • Producing Cave Art
  • Rudolf Botha, University of Stellenbosch, South Africa
  • Book: Neanderthal Language
  • Online publication: 26 April 2020
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108868167.006
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  • Producing Cave Art
  • Rudolf Botha, University of Stellenbosch, South Africa
  • Book: Neanderthal Language
  • Online publication: 26 April 2020
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108868167.006
Available formats
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Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Producing Cave Art
  • Rudolf Botha, University of Stellenbosch, South Africa
  • Book: Neanderthal Language
  • Online publication: 26 April 2020
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108868167.006
Available formats
×