Ancient Rock Paintings on the Nile

[Minimalist]

We actually had a discussion on this at Archaeologica a while back. It seemed odd that the cave paintings in Western Europe were seemingly without precedent in North Africa. These are not precedents, though...they are ancestors!

http://www.archaeologydaily.com/news/201...umans.html

A Canadian archeologist is being credited nearly 50 years after the fact with discovering a prehistoric petroglyph site in southern Egypt that is now being described as a "Lascaux on the Nile" because of its similarity in age and style to France's world famous, cave-wall gallery of Stone Age cattle, deer and horses.
Prehistoric petroglyph site in southern Egypt discovered by Canadian archeologist Philip Smith in a 1962-63 expedition.
The inscribed Egyptian images of extinct wild oxen, hippopotami, fish, gazelle and other animals - now firmly dated to a time in the late Pleistocene era at least 15,000 years ago - are being hailed as the oldest rock art in North Africa and as a pivotal discovery in the evolution of artistic behaviour by ancient humans.

15,000 year old images in Africa v 25-35,000 years at Altamira. Maybe the Neanderthals gave HSS the artistic gene and took it back to Africa to renovate the "motherland?"

[Justtristo]

15,000 year old images in Africa v 25-35,000 years at Altamira. Maybe the Neanderthals gave HSS the artistic gene and took it back to Africa to renovate the "motherland?"

There is rock art in Australia that has been estimated to be up to 40,000 years old.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2010-05-31/me...old/847564

[Jaysyn]

15,000 year old images in Africa v 25-35,000 years at Altamira. Maybe the Neanderthals gave HSS the artistic gene and took it back to Africa to renovate the "motherland?"

There is rock art in Australia that has been estimated to be up to 40,000 years old.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2010-05-31/me...old/847564

Obviously, Satan put that there to mislead us.

[Minimalist]

The photo provided of the Nile art




is a lot closer to what we see in Lascaux cave



than Australian petroglyphs



It was the stylistic connection which caught my eye.

However, if you look closely at the Australian glyph above you'll see a depiction of a man shooting an arrow at a deer ( or something ). We don't get that in the European cave art. Although many scholars have held that there was some sort of "hunting magic" at work in the French/Spanish caves what we see are depictions of the animals - not the hunters.

Curious.

[Anomalocaris]

Does the Australian glyph depict a man shooting an arrow from horseback? Is that a wheel? Are there native horses in Australia??? I don't think that's an Australian glyph dating to 40,000 years ago. Perhaps an American Indian glyph from 18-19th century?

Vague stylist similarity is to be expected if both sides makes some attempts at realism, uses more or less the same tools, and see broadly similar animals.

[Minimalist]

It came up in a search for "Australian petroglyphs" but I agree that it isn't 40,000 years old.

Again, I was going more for the stylistic similarities between the European and Egyptian art.

[The Grand Nudger]

(just noticed that the hunters seem to be targeting everything but the tiny fawn. Game management ftw)