The issue of ‘knowability’ in relation to the origins and distribution of the language families of the world is addressed, and recent advances in historical linguistics and molecular genetics reviewed. While the much-debated problem of the validity of the concept of the language ‘macrofamily’ cannot yet be resolved, it is argued that a time depth for the origins of language families greater than the conventional received figure of c. 6000 years may in some cases be appropriate, allowing the possibility of a correlation between language dispersals and demographic processes following the end of the Pleistocene period. The effects of these processes may still be visible in the linguistic ‘spread zones’, here seen as often the result of farming dispersals, contrasting with the linguistic ‘mosaic zones’ whose early origins may sometimes go back to initial colonization episodes during the late Pleistocene period. If further work in historical linguistics as well as in archaeology and molecular genetics upholds these correlations a ‘new synthesis’, whose outlines may already be discerned, is likely to emerge. This would have important consequences for prehistoric archaeology, and would be of interest also to historical linguists and molecular geneticists. If, however, the proposed recognition of such patterning proves illusory the prospects for ‘knowability’ appear to be less favourable.

For more than a hundred years the three colossal limestone figures from Coptos have challenged anyone wishing to write on the development of culture and society in early Egypt. Beginning from a fuller documentation of the three, a reconstruction of their original context is proposed, namely, an array of standing stones, a type of sacred structure of which a growing number of examples are known in the region. A study of the signs carved on their sides answers recent speculations that they record the names of early kings. Both the colossi and the system of symbols to which the signs belong represent a culture which, in consequence of a thoroughgoing ancient process of redefinition, was subsequently overlaid by the significantly different culture of Pharaonic Egypt.

The McDonald Institute and this journal have adopted as their logo a three-legged symbol, with wings on each heel, known in Graeco-Roman antiquity as the triskeles. The purpose of this article is to explore the meaning of the iconography of this emblem, and to investigate how and why it came to symbolize the islands of both Man and Sicily. It is suggested that the Isle of Man adopted the triskeles in 1266 when the control of the island passed from the Norse kings to Alexander III of Scotland; a possible connection with Sicily is tentatively explored. The Man triskeles is clothed in leg armour, however, and has spurs, not wings, on the ankles. In Sicily the triskeles is first attested in the seventh century BC and was gradually elaborated from the later fourth century BC onwards, first with the addition of wings to the feet, then with the use of a Medusa head at the centre, and finally with the adjunct of three barley ears to symbolize the agricultural fertility of the island. Widely adopted also on coinage in Athens and Asia Minor from the sixth century BC, the triskeles was probably in origin a sun symbol like the swastika.

This article suggests that the rare motif on Breton menhirs often interpreted as an axe (of ‘Mané Rutual’ type) or an axe-plough, could be the representation of a whale, and that if so, this might be a mythic creature. The character of myth and narrative is considered. It is mooted that Late Mesolithic people or their immediate descendants could have been responsible for the erection of such menhirs. The juxtaposition of the suggested whale motif with versions of animals with curved horns on the broken menhir of La Table des Marchand and Gavrinis raises the possibility of alternative or competing myths and creation stories. Other representations of natural creatures in the Mesolithic and Neolithic in Europe are briefly noted, and the possible importance of myth in the Mesolithic–Neolithic transition of northwest Europe is discussed.

The Dynamic figures are a distinctive component in the earlier rock-art of western Arnhem Land, north Australia. They include therianthropic (hybrid human–animal) images. Recent vision experience ethnographically known in the region, and the wider pattern of Altered States of Consciousness (ASC) in hunter-gatherer societies, are consistent with elements of the Dynamics. One key feature is the use of dots and dashes in the Dynamic images, explicable as a depiction of some intangible power, of a character comparable with that in the ‘clever men's knowledge’ of modern Arnhem Land. Tropical Australia thereby is added to the number of regions where a visionary element is identified in rock-art; the specific circumstances in Arnhem Land, permitting the use together of formal and of informed methods, provide unusually strong evidence.

The ancient Maya and other Mesoamerican peoples showed an intense interest in invoking the senses, especially hearing, sight, and smell. The senses were flagged by graphic devices of synaesthetic or cross-sensory intent; writing and speech scrolls triggered sound, sightlines the acts and consequences of seeing, and flowery ornament indicated both scent and soul essence. As conceived anciently, the senses were projective and procreative, involving the notion of unity and shared essence in material and incorporeal realms. Among the Maya, spaces could be injected with moral and hierarchical valuation through visual fields known as y-ichnal. The inner mind extended to encompass outer worlds, in strong parallel to concepts of monism. From such evidence arises the possibility of reconstructing the phenomenology of ancient Mesoamericans.

The cairns at Balnuaran of Clava show a structural relationship to the annual cycle, most clearly in their alignment on Midwinter sunset. The stones used in their construction fall into simple colour classes: ‘red’, ‘white’ and ‘black’. All three, but especially the black, appear to show selective arrangement in the cairns. A preliminary study of the relationships between the position of coloured stones and certain solar alignments, using both direct opposition and shadow casting, indicates that choice of colour may have been a significant factor in the positioning of stones within the monuments. Moreover the three colours seem to show a consistent pattern of meaning across a wide spectrum of cultures, which may imply a universal psychological factor in their symbolic use.

The significance to the modern world of Mesopotamian celestial divination and astronomy cannot be overstated. The names and the ‘ominous’ values assigned to the heavenly bodies by the Mesopotamians underlie Western astrology, and have also influenced Indian astrology. Many of the key features in the astronomy of Hipparchus and Ptolemy, which later passed into the astronomy of the medieval world, were borrowed from the astronomers of Babylon and Uruk. The zodiac, the Metonic cycle, horoscopy, and a variety of astrological techniques are all first attested in Mesopotamia. The same goes for units, notably those divisions of space and time which are now used throughout the world (such as 60 minutes in an hour and 360° in a circle) which can be traced back to cuneiform antecedents.

The interest in the study of the body that is emerging in European archaeologies has not yet penetrated Americanist approaches to prehistoric iconography. Nevertheless, American materials provide an excellent data base with which to work. This article employs the complex human representational imagery of the Moche (Peruvian North Coast, c.AD 100–800) to explore how the body was situated within the context of ritual sacrifice. Employing both the Foucauldian concept of the disciplined body and the work of Mary Douglas, two forms of bodily representation are discussed: the naked male prisoner and the spread-eagled female sacrifice. These bodies are defined iconographically not only by their sex, but also by their qualities of anonymity or individuality. While the sacrificed female represents an individual who is notable because of who she is (i.e. who she embodies), the male prisoners represent an undifferentiated and anonymous group. These two examples suggest that the body can be read as an individual symbolic field (the female body) and, alternatively, can serve as an undifferentiated forum (the bodies of prisoners) for sacrificial discourse. Despite these differences in representation, both forms of the body present potentially liminal sites within the context of sacrificial ritual. This liminality is essential for the discursive re-ordering of the body politic to occur.

This article addresses the nature of the evidence for symbolling behaviour among hominids living in the Near East during the Middle and Upper Pleistocene. Traditionally, Palaeolithic art and symbolling have been synonymous with the Upper Palaeolithic of Europe. The Berekhat Ram figurine, a piece of volcanic material from a Lower Palaeolithic site in Israel, described as purposely modified to produce human features, challenges the view of a late emergence of symbolic behaviour. The anthropogenic nature of these modifications, however, is controversial. We address this problem through an examination of volcanic material from the Berekhat Ram site and from other sources, and by experimentally reproducing the modifications observed on the figurine. We also analyze this material and the figurine itself through optical and SEM microscopy. Our conclusion is that this object was purposely modified by hominids.

With comments from Ofer Bar-Yosef, Angela E. Close, João Zilhão, Steven Mithen, Thomas Wynn, and Alexander Marshack followed by a reply from the authors.

Les Chamanes de la Préhistoire: Transe et Magie dans les Grottes Ornées, by Jean Clottes & David Lewis-Williams, 1996. Paris: Éditions Seuil; ISBN 2-02-028902-4 hardback 249FF, 110 pp., 114 colour ills.

The Shamans of Prehistory: Trance and Magic in the Painted Caves, by Jean Clottes & David Lewis-Williams, 1996. New York (NY): Harry N. Abrams; ISBN 0-8109-4182-1 hardback, US$49.50, 120 pp., 116 colour ills.

Jean Clottes and David Lewis-Williams' recent book Les Chamanes de la Préhistoire builds on a body of rock art research which has come to dominate the field, marginalizing interest in other cultural themes such as totemism and records of everyday foraging. Shamanism and totemism are, however, two of the most pervasive indigenous theories of being to have been discussed in the anthropological literature. The word totem comes from the Ojibwa, a native North American people, while the word shaman comes from the Tungus of central Siberia. Their use cross-culturally to refer to types of religion (i.e. shamanism and totemism), is an artefact of anthropology. Shamanism can be applied to customs that are inferred to have arisen independently in different parts of the world; customs in a single circum-arctic culture area; or scattered survivals from an allegedly original human condition. The cross-cultural validity of shamanism has been considered by Eliade, Lewis, Hultkrantz and Vitebsky. Shamanism refers to the use of spirits as guardians and helpers of individuals, contacted through trance. The validity of totemism as a cross-culturally-valid category has been vigorously debated in anthropology. It is generally agreed to refer to the use of animals or plants as emblems or guardians of social groups celebrated in ritual. The rationale of totemism is that each group is identified with a different species; the significance of each species derives from its place in the cognitive structure. Group A is kangaroo because it is not emu or python. While Durkheim interpreted totemism as the original human religion, Lévi-Strauss persuasively argued that totemism is a product of human cognition, which has developed independently in North America, Australia and Africa.

Many ancient city sites display a remarkable regularity in their plan which has led to considerable debate on the symbolism and intentionality which may lie behind these arrangements. Grid plan cities of the Greek and Roman world were discussed by Haverfield almost a century ago, but it was above all the cities of South and East Asia analyzed by Wheatley in his influential Pivot of the Four Quarters (1971) which has given new emphasis to the potential of meaning and significance. Such planned cities necessarily incorporate an essential tension between praxis — the practical day-to-day needs of the urban community — and idealism, the desire to impose on those practical concerns a city-plan which expresses a symbolic or cosmological image. Contemporary texts, where they exist, may help towards an answer, but the physicality of the city plan itself provides the crucial ground for argument as to whether symbolic or ideological imperatives governed the actual outcome. Cities may be conceptualized in ideal terms without ever taking on the physical attributes of any ideal form. The contributors to this Viewpoint approach the issue from a diversity of standpoints and with reference to different geographical areas. Were cities built as images? Did powerful belief systems combined with strong centralized control give rise to cities where the moat represented the encircling sea and the raised cathedral the mountain-dwelling of the gods? Or are such readings more the product of Western analysis and wishful thinking than the original intentions of their builders? The discussion here is opened by an architectural historian, who places city-planning firmly within the Western intellectual tradition, and considers it in particular as a product of Greek geometry. A series of regional specialists then take up the baton and assess the evidence for symbolic city planning in Egypt, the Roman world, South and Southeast Asia, and Mesoamerica. How far did cities of the Classical world conform to ideas set out by Aristotle and Vitruvius? Were the regulations of the Artashastra really adopted as a practical guide for city lay-out in South Asia? The balance of evidence — of what may have been intended, against what was actually laid out on the ground — provides fertile ground for a stimulating diversity of opinions.