The Painting and the Tree: Symbolism in the Upper Palaeolithic. A Tribute to a Great Basque Scholar

Abstract

In this paper I explore the variation in symbolic value of Upper Palaeolithic art in Western Europe. Drawing inspiration from Jesus Altuna's demonstration of the complex relationship between animal frequencies in art and in animal bones, I summarise several of my studies based on analysis of the art and animal bones from Parpalló in Valencia. I show that the relationship between art and bones is more complex and varies regionally across western Europe. At Parpalló the relationship varied through time, and the major change in relationship corresponds with a change in the pattern of importance of plaquettes across the same region, and seems to suggest that the major change corresponds to the change archaeologists recognise between the Solutrean and Magdalenian industries. This suggests that the stone industry changes may really correspond to change in more comprehensive aspects of culture.