Parietal Art

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CONTENTS

• What is Parietal Art?
• Parietal versus Mobiliary Art
• Parietal versus Rock Art
• Where is Parietal Art Found?
• When was Parietal Art Made?
• How is it Dated?
• Main Types of Parietal Art
• Types of Images
• Interpretation
• References

What is Parietal Art?

In Stone Age culture, the term 'parietal art' means art created on the walls or ceilings of caves. More commonly known as cave art, it comes from the Latin word parietalis, meaning 'relating to walls'.

The most common forms of parietal art are cave paintings, engravings and relief sculptures.

Obvious examples are the famous bison ceiling at Altamira Cave in northern Spain, and the Drinking Reindeer at Les Combarelles, in the French Dordogne.

Parietal versus Mobiliary Art

Parietal artworks are part of the fabric of the cave and cannot be moved. An example is the exquisite engraving known as the Drinking Reindeer at Les Combarelles.

In contrast, a work of art like an ivory carving, a decorated piece of bone, or a venus figurine, is referred to as 'mobiliary art', because it is moveable (portable).

A famous example of mobiliary art is the antler carving, known as the Swimming Reindeer, which was found at Montastruc rock shelter in southwest France.

Parietal versus Rock Art

What's the difference between parietal and rock art? Answer: rock art is a wider category which also includes images created on natural rock surfaces in the open air.

However, parietal artworks are only found in caves or rock shelters.

Related Terms

• What are Petroglyphs?
• What are Pictographs?

Where is Parietal Art Found?

Stone Age cave art has been discovered in Africa, the Middle East, India, China, Siberia, SE Asia, Australia and the Americas, the main body of this type of prehistoric art has been found in the 350 or so paleolithic caves of southwestern France and northern Spain, and forms what is known as Franco-Cantabrian cave art.

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In general, decorated caves were not inhabited. Instead, archaeologists believe they were used as sanctuaries or venues for religious or ceremonial activities.

When was Parietal Art Made?

Most parietal artworks were created during the era of Upper Paleolithic art, which spanned roughly 30,000 years, between 40,000 and 10,000 BC. The Upper Paleolithic is commonly divided into four stylistic periods:

• Aurignacian: 40,000-30,000 BC
• Gravettian: 30,000-20,000 BC
• Solutrean: 20,000-15,000 BC
• Magdalenian: 15,000-10,000 BC

How is it Dated?

Cave paintings and engravings are dated in one of four ways:

• Direct Dating
  In this method, regular or AMS radiocarbon dates are obtained from tiny fragments of charcoal or other organic pigments taken from the painting or drawing itself. The cave of Pech Merle in the French Lot, is one of a select number of caves with directly dated parietal art.
• Indirect Dating
  Here, radiocarbon dates are obtained from any datable material associated with the artwork, which is found embedded in a layer of deposits within the cave. A typical example is where part of a decorated ceiling or wall has collapsed onto the floor of the cave and becomes embedded in a layer which also includes charcoal remains from fireplaces. See, for instance, the excavations at Abri Castanet and Abri Cellier in the Dordogne. Indirect dating may also rely on the presence of certain stone tools, which themselves are associated with certain specific periods,
• Flowstone Dating
  As dripping water flows down or across the stone surface of a limestone cave, it may leave behind a film of calcite. When this film of calcite covers a painting, it seals it off from any interference. Uranium-thorium dating methods are able to date this calcite, thus providing a minimum age for the artwork. Parietal art at Maltravieso Cave and Ardales Cave has been dated by Uranium-thorium methods.
• Stylistic Dating
  When using this method, researchers compare the style of the parietal images (and/or the practical techniques used) with others which have already been firmly dated. This is the least reliable method, and only works well when the comparison artworks have been directly dated.

Main Types of Parietal Art

This type of paleolithic art includes:

• Cave Painting
  This includes black paintings - charcoal drawings or pictures made with manganese pigments - such as those at Chauvet Cave and Niaux Cave in southern France. It also includes multi-coloured paintings like those at Lascaux Cave in the Dordogne, typically created using ochre pigments of red, yellow, brown and purple.
• Hand stencils (negative prints), are another popular form of Stone Age cave art. These markings are found at 23 decorated caves in France - or 15.7 percent of the total. Handprints (positive prints) are present in 10 caves - or about 6.5 percent of the total.
• Rock Engravings
  These can be finely or deeply incised, and may be accentuated with paint. Famous petroglyphs include: the Drinking Reindeer at Les Combarelles, as well as the two famous Sorcerers at Trois Frères Cave and Gabillou Cave, in France. Some of the finest painted engravings are in Font-de-Gaume Cave in the Dordogne and Atxurra Cave in the Basque region.


• Prehistoric sculpture
  This includes single works like the Bison at Tuc D'Audoubert Cave, or long friezes of animal reliefs, like those at Cap Blanc in southwest France.


• Abstract Signs
  A ubiquitous form of Upper Paleolithic art, found in almost every single cave of the period, is the abstract sign or symbol. The most common motifs are lines and dots, but there are several more complex signs, such as Spanish tectiforms and aviforms (Placard-type signs). Sites with large numbers of abstract symbols include: La Pasiega Cave (Cantabria), La Pileta Cave and Nerja Cave (Málaga).

Types of Images

Parietal art is dominated by animals. Almost all figurative pictures on cave walls are representations of animals.

To begin with, during the Aurignacian era, they featured numerous 'dangerous animals' (lions, bears, rhinoceroses, mammoths).

Later, during the Gravettian, Solutrean and Magdalenian eras, artists focused almost entirely on game animals, such as bison, horses, reindeer, ibex and red deer.

Famous panels of animals can be seen at Chauvet in the Ardèche - see Chauvet Cave paintings and layout - and Ekain Cave in the Basque region.

Humans also appear but only in a tiny percentage of caves. Also, they often take the form of anthropomorphs, like the Sorcerer at Trois Frères Cave.

Another unique humanoid image in parietal art is the Bird Man in the Shaft at Lascaux - see Lascaux cave paintings and layout.

For more about the type of paints used by cave artists during the Paleolithic era, see Stone Age Colour Palette.

Interpretation

Interpreting cave art twenty thousand years after the event, is fraught with difficulty. We have almost no idea of the cultural context of these pictographs and petroglyphs, or their association with the ceremonies held in the caves.

At present, the main theories revolve around shamanic or supernatural activities - due partly to the prevalence of the 'Sorcerer' motif at Trois Frères, Gabillou and elsewhere, and partly to the almost sacred role played by animals in human survival at the time.

That said, there is no general consensus among archaeologists and anthropologists as to the exact meaning of parietal art.

While some experts see it as evidence of shamanism or an attempt to contact the spirit world, others believe it to be linked to fertility or hunting ceremonies.

Then again, some experts point to possible connections with altered states of consciousness, while others focus on the connection between the art and the archaeoacoustics of the cave. For more, see: Meaning of Cave Art.

For more about the chronology of cave painting, see: Prehistoric Art Timeline (from 540,000 BC).

References

(1) "Cave Art" Jean Clottes. (2008) Phaidon. ISBN 978-0-7148-5723-7.
(2) "La chronologie de l’art pariétal à l’heure actuelle." González JJA, and Behrmann RdB. 2007. C14 et style: L'Anthropologie 111(4):435-466.
(3) "Thinking about 'style' in the 'post-stylistic era': reconstructing the stylistic context of Chauvet." Moro Abadía O, and Morales MRG. 2007. Oxford Journal of Archaeology 26(2):109-125.
(4) "U-Series Dating of Paleolithic Art in 11 Caves in Spain". Pike, A. W. G. et al. (14 June 2012). Science. 336 (6087): 1409–1413.
(5) "A Question of Style: reconsidering the stylistic approach to dating Palaeolithic parietal art in France." von Petzinger G, and Nowell A. 2011. Antiquity 85(330):1165-1183.