Scientists have discovered a hidden pattern in 16,000-year-old cave paintings

The authors of the study emphasise that they have not yet managed to decipher the meaning of this system. However, statistical analysis has, for the first time, convincingly shown that Palaeolithic art was not a chaotic collection of drawings, but a carefully organised visual composition.

Details

The study was conducted by archaeologist Iñaki Inchaurbe from the University of the Basque Country (EHU). He analysed around 500 images created 16,000–14,000 years ago in nine caves in northern Spain.

To do this, the researcher used network analysis and multidimensional statistical methods. This approach made it possible not merely to describe the drawings, but to quantitatively test whether there were stable connections between them.

The results showed that bison, horses and goats most often occupy the central position in the compositions, whilst the other animals are arranged around them, fulfilling specific compositional roles.

The orientation of the figures proved to be no less interesting. In most cases, bison are depicted facing left, whilst horses face right. Only in a few compositions is the opposite arrangement found, and even this follows the overall pattern.

According to the author of the study, if the images had been created at random, such patterns would not have recurred so consistently across several caves at once.

Not language, but structure

The researchers do not claim to have deciphered the ‘message’ of the ancient artists.

The data obtained merely point to the existence of a distinctive visual grammar — rules for organising images that resemble the syntax of a language. Just as words in a sentence are arranged according to certain rules, so too did the animal figures likely occupy strictly defined positions within the composition.

What exactly these rules meant to people of the Late Palaeolithic is not yet known to scientists.

The study also provided an opportunity to test an old hypothesis. As far back as the mid-20th century, some researchers suggested that most animals were depicted facing left because the artists were predominantly right-handed. However, the new study shows that this theory does not explain the observed pattern: horses, on the contrary, are statistically more often depicted facing right.

Why this is important

The study demonstrates that Late Palaeolithic art was considerably more complex than simply depicting animals on cave walls.

The new methodology enables us to search for hidden patterns in ancient symbolic systems using modern mathematical methods. In future, this approach could be used not only to study rock art, but also to analyse ancient scripts and other as yet undeciphered symbolic systems.

The authors emphasise, however, that their work does not explain the meaning of the drawings. It merely demonstrates that behind them lay a well-thought-out organisational system that was important to people living around 16,000 years ago.

Source

The study was published in the *Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory*.

Title: Mapping the Symbolic Structure of Palaeolithic Rock Art Using Co-occurrence Network Analysis.