David Lewis-Williams
SCRATCHING THE SURFACE
Stepping-Stones: A Journey Through the Ice Age Caves of the Dordogne
By Christine Desdemaines-Hugon (Yale University Press 222pp £22.50)
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Some 15,000 years ago, in what is now the Dordogne region of France, someone - man or woman, we don't know - crawled hundreds of metres through a dark underground passage no more than one metre high. Then he or she scratched a few lines on a bulge of rock. Suddenly, the rock was transformed: an image of a horse appeared. No one else could witness the appearance of the animal: only one person at a time could fit into the confined space. Then he or she retreated back down the passage to the world of light.
A few kilometres away a different scene was enacted. In a large subterranean chamber a number of people gathered to mix paint and to erect scaffolding. Then, with broad sweeps and different colours, they created a procession of horses, aurochs, deer and, hidden amongst them, a solitary bear.
The diversity of Upper Palaeolithic imagery is staggering. The period and its efflorescence of art lasted from about 35,000 to 10,000 years ago. Today we are still able to appreciate these ancient accomplishments because a number of the embellished caves in France and Spain, miraculously preserved, are open to the public. That is true of those that are easy of access; others that entail crawling, squeezing and sometimes subterranean wading are, understandably, closed. But enough are open to permit us all to marvel at what is one of the greatest triumphs - and mysteries - of humanity.
For her fascinating book, Christine Desdemaines-Hugon has selected five Dordogne caves that readers can visit with the assistance of guides. They are Font de Gaume, Combarelles, Rouffignac, Cap Blanc and Bernifal (Lascaux II, the reproduction of the most famous cave, could have received more attention). They are all conveniently clustered around the small town of Les Eyzies.
A trained scholar of prehistoric anthropology, Desdemaines-Hugon has interspersed her five cardinal chapters on selected caves with accounts of how the art came to be recognised at the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth; the much-debated process of evolution that led to Homo sapiens; and the beautifully decorated pieces of portable art, a field to which she herself has made a notable contribution. Taking each of the caves in turn, she describes their sometimes controversial discovery before moving on to the actual images. This is perhaps the most problematic part of the book. Image after image is heavy going. Without illustrations (the book has too few) they are difficult for readers to imagine. Should we, we ask ourselves, remember each description and try to match the descriptions with the images when we visit the caves? In the caves, it is too dark to read the book.
More serious is an absence of maps. The topography of the caves varies greatly. Combarelles, for instance, is a narrow tunnel; it doubles back on itself a number of times. Rouffignac, on the other hand, is a set of branching passages large enough to accommodate a small electric train to convey visitors to the images; in this amazing cave the art starts 700 metres from the entrance and extends over a distance of two kilometres. Once inside a cave, it is difficult for visitors to keep their bearings.
Having walked far underground (or taken the Rouffignac train), how does one respond to, say, a stunning image of an Ice Age woolly rhinoceros, made by someone like ourselves but who actually saw it so many millennia ago? The art can be overwhelming: for the most part, visitors are silent. Desdemaines-Hugon writes of humility. Absorbing the sheer beauty and the closeness of so many ancient images to what we think of as 'modern art', she feels a sense of meekness and comfort emanating from the painted and engraved animals and indeed from the caves themselves. But she also speaks of the 'unfathomable mystery' of the imagery.
This is really the nub of the matter. Who can contemplate these animals, geometric 'signs' and, occasionally, human forms from the past without wondering why Upper Palaeolithic people penetrated so deep underground, often coaxing animals out of the convoluted rock walls with a few deft strokes? Desdemaines-Hugon says that she decided not to mention by name the many scholars who have tackled this problem; but because the motivation that lay behind the making of the art will inevitably be in the forefront of most visitors' minds, it would have been helpful for her to have outlined the current debate on this difficult issue. By and large there are two points of view. One group of researchers sticks firmly to the we-shall-never-know position. The other allows that we shall never know everything (for instance, the myths that people probably told about the painted animals), but insists that we can know at least something about the art. There seems to be little doubt that the underground 'pilgrimages' must have taken place in what the people conceived as a 'spirit' realm inhabited by creatures that, with appropriate skill and sensitivity to a mystical world deep in their own minds, they could cause to appear on the rock face.
Stepping-Stones is well titled. It provides a sound starting point for those interested in the great mystery of Upper Palaeolithic art, whether from an artistic, anthropological, archaeological, psychological or philosophical perspective. It is sensitive and personal in the best possible way. It is also an enticing book. Readers will not be satisfied with the author's descriptions of the images and the few illustrations that the book contains. They will want to go to the caves and confront the mystery for themselves. For them, Christine Desdemaines-Hugon appends a succinct guide to many sites and museums in France.
David Lewis-Williams is Professor Emeritus and Senior Mentor at the Rock Art Research Institute, University of the Witwatersand, Johannesburg. His latest book is 'Conceiving God: The Cognitive Origin and Evolution of Religion' (Thames and Hudson).