Animation and Graphic Narration in the Aurignacian

Abstract

What was the purpose of the images conceived and produced by prehistoric groups? Our research into the animation of these images leads us to propose a new method of analysis that shows their primary function to be narrative. The identification of mechanisms for graphic narration can help to decipher the exact content conveyed by these messages beginning as early as the Aurignacian. The main images from two parietal art caves from this period, Chauvet-Pont d’Arc and Baume Latrone in the South of France, provide a remarkable example of the different animation processes and sequencing underlying these first Aurignacian stories.