The Mind in the Cave
This month we jumped into the way back machine to take a look at some ancient history, making this weeks book of the week The Mind in the Cave by David Lewis-Williams….although his Amazon authors page lists him as J. David Lewis-Williams.
The Mind in the Cave is looking at who, or rather, what type of culture, created the cave art found in the paleolithic caves, primarily at Lascaux France, but there have been such caves found in Spain and other European countries. And it’s a good question. I mean, the obvious answer is Homo sapiens created the art. I think there are very few people who would disagree with that, given the comparative sophistication of the art work.
And it is interesting, his layout. But I have some problems with some of his conclusions, some of which is definitely not the author’s fault…but we’ll circle back to that in a bit.
So he starts with three Time-bytes. The first one is the Volp caves in France, between 13,000 and 14,000 years ago. And clearly this one is wholly imaginary, since we have no idea exactly when paleolithic humans first began creating this artwork or even necessarily what motivated them, although Lewis-Williams certainly attempts to answer that question.
His second time-byte is 1660 AD in Place Niaux Cave, Ariege, France. In 1660, this cave was visited by Ruben de la Vialle. We don’t know this because he left any kind of detailed record of the wonders found therein. We know this because he presumably saw the art, assumed his own contemporaries had created it, and literally signed his name to the wall…literally carving his name and the date into the wall. In 1660 this was a well-known local tourist attraction. It seems that defacing the local tourist attractions for your own hubris is not only NOT uniquely American, but has always existed. There’s literal graffiti in Hagia Sophia saying Halfdan was here. Also, Rome has very old graffiti along those same lines. I get that American’s get a lot of shit for being inconsiderate asshats when visiting other countries historic sites, certainly not helped, although justifiably mocked with the Tourons of Yellowstone page. All I’m saying is, this is not JUST American. We came by this honestly…by way of our European ancestors.
Time byte 3 is 1994 which addresses the discovery of Place Chauvert Cave in Ardeche France by three French spelunkers who were specifically looking for paleolithic art.
These three vignettes create a riveting opening scenario, which the book…kind of fails to deliver on. Sorry, I really wanted to like this book, but it slowly devolves into a post modernistic spiel of words, words, words, which ultimately say a whole lot of nothing.
Now, having said that, it’s not ALL nothing, and Lewis-Williams makes some pretty compelling arguments for a shamanistic society having created the cave art, using parallels with the Bushmen of the Kalahari, correctly known as the San, and Native American artwork and practices. And I am completely fine accepting the concept of shamanistic cultures in paleolithic Europe. I think most people who are not stuck in a social justice hellhole of white people bad and white people who are “shamans” are culturally appropriating the concept from native tribes, would accept the concept of shamanism in ancient Europe, given the shamanism simply means “A spiritual practice that involves a practitioner interacting with the spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. “ And still exists in modern Europe by way of the Saami tribes of Norway/Sweden.
But it is very academically written, which makes for some very very dry reading. He does spend some time trying to debunk other theories of the cave art, including art for arts sake, art for magic purposes, and social construction. Which, I’m not gonna lie…with all the reading I’ve done over the last few years, when “social construct” and “diversity” entered the chat…my eyes rolled hard. And when he mentioned Karl Marx and Michel Foucalt…I almost threw the book in irritation. And this is here he loses me and it IS his fault, is claiming that the creation of art through shamanistic practices led to social division of an otherwise perfect, Marxian communist society. He claims that this social division is not necessarily bad, but fails to provide any examples of why he thinks it would be good, meaning “politics have entered the chat.” And it became a mental slog to finish reading what I at that point dismissed as ideologically driven post-modernistic, drivel.
Now, I don’t believe it was art for art sake, but shamanism and magic are not necessarily mutually exclusive. And frankly, Brian Muraresku in the Immortality Key and even Terence McKenna in Food of the Gods made stronger arguments for altered states of consciousness having moved humanity forward. However…that was not necessarily Lewis-Williams argument. He wasn’t claiming that altered states of consciousness moved humanity forward, only that it created a social class different from other homo sapiens back in the day, and this led to division that COULD HAVE created the artwork in the caves. Which arguments he contradicts himself with specifically when he discusses the artwork at Lascaux France. Namely the large 18 foot long bull in the Hall of Bulls, which he says must have been a community project. So…did the artwork divide or unite the community?
Now, the things that are NOT his fault are the conclusions he draws regarding the Neanderthal. He specifically cites the Neanderthal were already in Europe when homo sapiens moved north from Africa, which is historical fact. Like, this is well known, I don’t think any paleolithic historians would dispute that. There have not been any Neanderthal remains found outside of Europe. But he specifically cites that the neanderthal were made extinct by the homo sapiens basically outbreeding them as a result of homo sapiens being genetically superior, and there was no cross breeding as while the homo sapiens and neanderthals were physically similar, the biological differences were too severe—any interbreeding would have resulted in genetically sterile offspring, kind of like crossbreeding Zebras and Donkeys creates the sterile Zonkey, or Tigers and Lions creating the sterile Liger. The reason this is not Lewis-Williams fault is that this book was written in 2002. And it wasn’t until May 2010 that science had progressed enough to include genome mapping that definitively showed that basically EVERYONE with European ancestry has between 1% and 4% Neanderthal DNA. Which means not only did homo sapiens mate with Neanderthals…they did so extensively.
I mean consider this. About 8% of Chinese males share common genetic traits with Genghis Kahn, who died in 1227 CE, so 800 years ago and there still 8% DNA floating around. Neanderthals went extinct about 40,000 years ago, so for 4% of their DNA to be floating around modern human genomes means that they were crossbreeding so extensively it was practically a tribal one for one swap. Basically, homo sapiens came up from Africa, saw there were people already in Europe, and decided to make love not war.
He also believed that Neanderthal could not have created artwork because they did not have the capacity to vocalize their dreams the way homo-sapiens could, and that has also since been disproven, as of 2021 when new studies suggest they absolutely could vocalize in a speech like pattern.
So again, I don’t fault him for hypothesis that have since been disproven with more research. But with THAT information, and taken in addition to his belief that it was a dream like state of shamans that lead to the creation of the cave artwork, I am not at all sure that homo sapiens DID create all the artwork in the caves. Most tellingly, the handprints. See, some of these prints were made by tracing around the outside of the hand, like making turkey art. OTHERS are made by painting over the hand, creating a negative print. This would be done by holding paint in your mouth and spraying it over the hand. Some of these prints are VERY small, leading archaeologists to assume that women and children were involved. And perhaps they were. Or perhaps, some of those handprints were made by Neanderthals, who were much shorter and smaller than homo sapiens.
Other arts that no one seems to know the answer to are the finger flutings…basically, someone at one point ran their fingers through the soft clay walls, leaving dragging marks in the clay. I kind of thought it was someone keeping their hand on the wall while working their way back to the deeper parts of the cave, until I looked at the Google images. And I’ll admit I’m stumped too. Except…if the more sophisticated art was made by homo sapiens, then perhaps the more simplistic art of the finger flutings and handprints were made by Neanderthal?
I don’t know and honestly, it is extremely unlikely ANYONE will EVER know. Unless or until Elon Musk or future billionaires turn their attention to time travel, it will always be a mystery.
I do think that a shamanistic society is highly likely as an explanation for some of the art. But with history going back 40,000 years, I categorically reject his idea that the creation of the artwork led to social division and the creation of a class system. That is ALSO something we will not know. At least not without the help of Elon Musk. Modern politics have no place in the study of ancient history, which is why I ripped Johana Katrin Fridriksdottir when I reviewed her book Valkyrie: The Women of the Viking World back in 2021.
