Pleistocene Prelude: The Implications of the Way Things are Drawn by Ice Age Draftsmen in Europe

Abstract

Late Pleistocene images on cave walls depict things in ways that we can unscramble using the visual perception procedures we use for interpreting reality. They probably also symbolize things in ways that require the significance of the signifier to be explained but as this means little information about symbolic forms can be explicit, communication cannot be by symbols. The nature of non-symbolic late Pleistocene visual communication is explored. It is concluded that the images in a cave are designed to depict the behavior of animals in a specific area and though magic or religious symbolism may also have been imposed its intention inevitably remains uncertain.