Homo Artisticus: Birth of Art
by Ignatius Caloggero

Reference page: Echoes: Reflections from the past, resonances in the present

Abstract

When was art really born? Or rather, when did man begin to express himself in ways that today we define artistic? In this article, part of the series “Echoes: Reflections from the Past, Resonances in the Present”, I explore a fascinating question: is Homo Artisticus a relatively recent phenomenon or does its roots lie much further back than we imagine?

Archaeological discoveries suggest that the first artistic manifestations could date back to half a million years ago, but if we broaden the definition of "art" to know-how (technical), then we may have to rewrite the history of art, pushing the origins of human creative expression back further two million years ago. How thin is the line between technical skill and art? And when did intentionality transform simple manual skill into something deeper?

Find out on this journey to the origins of art, through archaeology, anthropology and surprising revelations.

Homo Artisticus: Birth of Art

When was art born, or rather, when were those manifestations born that would later be considered artistic manifestations?

Giving an answer is not easy, also considering the fact that the concept of art itself has evolved over time starting from a meaning of "know-how" (téchne), passing from the concept of "beautiful" and arriving at the concept that considers art as, intuition, an activity of the spirit.

An answer that not everyone would agree with is:

art is born with man's ability to manipulate objects

so it was born with the “know-how”. This probably happened between two and three million years ago, when the Australopithecines, even before the arrival of Homo habilis, had begun to walk upright and were able to chip stones. This is confirmed by the discovery of stone tools dated between 2,6 and 2,4 million years old in Ethiopian sites such as Kada Gona and Kada Hadar, near the Awash valley.” (this aspect was discussed in the article “In search of Australopithecus Siculus")

Therefore, a first answer to our question would be: the first evidence of artistic expressions dates back to over two million years ago with the first tools worked by the first hominids.

Chipped stones.

A second answer could be linked to the concept of spirituality and therefore to that of religiosity.

art was born with the first religious feelings

It is probably in the Paleolithic that thehomo erectus begins to appropriate psychic manifestations that justify him even being called Homo ReligiosusThe first funeral rites were born and figurative art, thus religious life is born and with it theHomo Artisticus. (this aspect has been discussed in the article “Homo Religiosus: the origins of religious sentiment")

Perhaps, starting from the Lower Paleolithic, man's ability to acquire a new cognitive process, "the process of symbolization", developed, whereby objects are not only merely functional tools but become symbolic or substitutive tools.

In parallel with the birth of religious feeling, the ability to represent in a graphic way probably also arose in man (rock art) and three-dimensional (furniture art) some aspects of the reality that surrounds him or that he would like to see come true. It is conceivable that the art that was born in the Paleolithic is not the art of "beauty" but the art of "functional" because it is more motivated by aesthetic needs than by the hope of having a magical impact, through propitiatory rites, on everyday reality.

In this sense, we should perhaps place the use of some caves rich in wall figures that were probably used as religious sanctuaries in which religious rituals were officiated, for example to encourage hunting or to try to neutralise adverse natural events.

Testimonies of the First Parietal Art

Rock art is manifested through engravings or paintings performed on the internal walls of natural caves, the objects engraved or drawn on the walls often refer to magical rituals and are mainly made up of animals (bison, bulls, horses, mammoths, fish) and rarely by human figures.

The Blombos Cave

​ Blombos Cave, located on the southern coast of South Africa, is the archaeological site where, in 2018, a stone fragment about 4 cm long was discovered, on which nine thin red intersecting lines were engraved, made with a piece of red ochre. This drawing, dated to about 73.000 years ago, is considered one of the oldest known abstract representations attributed to modern humans, who would have intentionally applied the red ochre pigment to the stone using an ochre crayon (Nature, 12 September 2018)^[1].

Source: https://it.euronews.com/2018/09/13/sudafrica-trovato-in-una-grotta-il-disegno-umano-piu-antico-di-sempre

Inscribed bowl (Blombos Cave)

Source: https://deepsurfing.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/blombos.jpg

However, not all scholars agree that the drawings were created by man, and debate remains open regarding their meaning and intentionality.

The rock art, universally recognized as such, the oldest discovered so far, is that of the prehistoric caves of Grotte di The Pasiega, in Spain, where in February 2018 cave paintings from 65.000 years ago were found, at least 20.000 years before the arrival of Sapiens from Africa in Europe and are the work of Neanderthals, proving that art was born even before Homo Sapiens^[2]. In the caves of La Pasiega, 291 drawings of animals have been found.

Cave paintings in the caves of La Pasiega, Spain (circa 63.000 BC)

From the Network:

Cueva La Pasiega – Cantabria – España

The rock art previously considered to be the oldest prior to the 2018 discovery was that of the prehistoric caves of Maros karst on the island of Sulawesi (Indonesia) described in a study published in Nature (October 2014) and dating back to around 40 thousand years ago^[3]. 

Prehistoric Caves of Maros Island, Indonesia (Source: Web)

Maros Island, Indonesia – detail (Photo: Web)

From the network:

Indonesia Discovers the Oldest Paintings of Humanity

Testimonies of the First Mobiliar Art

Prehistoric female figurines, often called “Paleolithic Venuses,” represent some of the oldest known manifestations of mobile art. Among these, the Venus of Tan-Tan (Morocco) and the Venus of Berekhat Ram (Israel) are among the oldest ever discovered, although their anthropic origin is a matter of debate among scholars.

Venus of Tan-Tan (Morocco)

Morocco: Venus of Tan-Tan, in quartzite (500.000 – 300.000 years ago)^[4]

The Venus of Tan-Tan is a quartzite statuette, about 6 cm high, with a humanoid shape without a well-defined head. Traces of pigment, probably red ochre, have been detected on its surface.

The figurine has been dated between 500.000 and 300.000 years ago, which would place it among the earliest representations of the human figure. However, the Venus of Tan-Tan has not found scholars in agreement on whether it is actually man-made, hypothesizing that the artifact was created by natural geological processes. The horizontal grooves on both sides of the object appear to be formed partly naturally and partly artificially (by percussion). The object also contains traces of pigment that would appear to be red ochre.

Venus of Berekhat Ram (Israel)

Venus of Berekhat Ram, in tuff (280.000 – 250.000 years ago)

Israel Museum, Jerusalem^[5]

A pebble about 35 mm long and made of red tuff and dated between 280.000 and 250.000 years ago, was found found in Berekhat Ram in the Golan Heights. The pebble appears to depict a female human figure.

Some scholars believe that the shape of the stone is the result of natural processes rather than intentional human work, other scholars are inclined to confirm the anthropic origin of the pebble.

Below is a very brief summary of the different opinions:

• Andrew Pelcin, A. (1994): A Geological Explanation for the Berekhat Ram Figurine. In: Current Anthropology, 35(5), pp. 674–675.

Andrew Pelcin proposes a geological explanation for the stone's shape, suggesting that it may be the result of natural processes rather than deliberate human crafting

• Naama Goren Inbar (1986): A figurine from the Acheulian site of Berekhat Ram. In: Mi'Tekufat Ha'Even, 19, pp. 7–12.

In this study, archaeologist Naama Goren-Inbar describes the discovery of the Venus of Berekhat Ram and discusses possible anthropogenic modifications to the stone.

• Alexander Marshall (1997): The Berekhat Ram figurine: a late Acheulian carving from the Middle East. In: Antiquity, 71(272), pp. 327–337.
  Alexander Marshack, through microscopic analysis, supports the hypothesis that the stone was intentionally modified by hominids to represent a female figure.
• Francesco d'Errico & April Nowell (2000): A new look at the Berekhat Ram figurine: implications for the origins of symbolism. In: Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 10(1), pp. 123–167.

Francesco d'Errico and April Nowell confirm the anthropic nature of the modifications on the stone, but express caution in identifying it as a representation of a female figure, suggesting that it could have a different symbolic meaning.

In conclusion, while the Venus of Berekhat Ram and the Venus of Tan-Tan may represent some of the earliest forms of mobile art, their anthropogenic origin remains a matter of debate. Other figurines, such as the Venus of Hohle Fels, offer clearer evidence of human artistic expression in the Upper Paleolithic.

Venere High Fels (Germany)

Venus of Hohle Fels, ivory (35.000-40.000 years ago)

La Venus of Hohle Fels is a mammoth ivory figurine discovered in 2008 in the Hohle Fels cave, near Schelklingen, Germany. Dating back to about 35.000-40.000 years ago, it is considered the oldest known representation of the female human body.

The statuette, about 6 cm tall, has accentuated feminine features, such as pronounced breasts and hips, typical of the so-called “Paleolithic Venuses”. The lack of facial details and the presence of a ring in place of the head suggest that it could have been worn as a pendant.^[6]

In a future article I will delve deeper into the topic of parietal and furniture art in the Paleolithic and Mesolithic.

1. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0514-3 ↑

2. http://science.sciencemag.org/content/359/6378/852 and also the article in Repubblica: http://www.repubblica.it/scienze/2018/02/22/news/l_arte_piu_antica_e_dei_neandertal-189483683/ ↑

3. http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v514/n7521/full/nature13422.html ↑

4. https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venere_di_Tan-Tan#/media/File:Venus_of_Tan-Tan.jpg Image licensed under Creative Commons Attribution License ↑

5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Venus_of_Berekhat_Ram_imj.jpg Image licensed under Creative Commons Attribution License ↑

6. Conard, N. J. (2009). “A female figurine from the basal Aurignacian of Hohle Fels Cave in southwestern Germany.” Nature, 459 (7244), 248-252. / Cook, J. (2013). Ice Age Art: the Arrival of the Modern Mind. London: British Museum Press ↑

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