MP Gallery - Markings, Signs, Graphemes; c) cuevamorinmeanlf1ev2

Middle Paleolithic symbol making continues the Early Paleolithic tradition of making meanders and undulating lines. Middle Paleolithic examples include:

• Koonalda Cave, Nullarbor Plain, Australia, C14 c. >20,000 BP, with lowest artifact level 29,400+11,600/-4,600 BP (compare dating of Allen's Cave, Nullarbor, C1418,000 but OSL 39,000±3,100 BP); digital fluting and meanders; this is the oldest Australian marking style, called 'pre-Panaramittee'; New Guinea II, Snowy River, 21,000 BP;
• Cueva Morin, Spain; Level 17, Mousterian, "macaroni' meander engravings on 11 bones, some natural vascular grooves amplified and extended by deliberate engraving, V-shaped grooves, with other natural causes ruled out; one bone has widely spaced parallel sets of meanders; another, is totally covered with macaroni meanders (Freeman 1978; the last instance disputed by Marshack 1991 and D'Errico and Villa 1997).

The object from Cueva Morin is shown below. It is disputed by Marshack (1991) and D'Errico & Villa (1997) as the product of vascular grooves. On the other hand, this piece might be a curated nature-fact; it has overall shape of a mammoth.

Top: Photo © Leslie G. Freeman. Freeman, L. G. 1978. Mousterian worked bone from Cueva Morin (Santander, Spain): A preliminary description. In Leslie G. Freeman (ed.), Views of the Past: Essays in old world prehistory and palaeoanthropology. The Hague: Mouton. Plate 1: Macaroni-marked bone.

Bottom: Drawing (after © Echegaray, J. G. & Freeman, L. G. 1971. Cueva Morin. Excavaciones 1966-1968. Santander: Publications del Patronato de la Cuevas Prehistoricas sde la Provincia de Santander, n. 6.) and macrophoto (after © Marshack, A. 1991. A reply to Davidson on Mania & Mania. Rock Art Research 8, 47-58) in © D'Errico, F and P. Villa. 1997. Holes and grooves: the contribution of microscopy and taphonomy to the problem of art origins. Journal of Human Evolution 33,1:1-31; Figure 2.