11/9/2009 11:01:00 PM
'Hardwired' to create rock doodles; professor
says ancient art was 'an instinct'
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Bruce Colbert/The Daily Courier
Dr. Ekkehart Malotki points to a rock art depiction of "two deers
kissing" at the Deer Valley Rock Art Center Saturday. |
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PRESCOTT - Images pecked in stone hundreds to thousands of years ago could be for religious reasons, to mark territories or simple doodles such as those still made today by children and adults.
That is according to Dr. Ekkehart Malotki, a preeminent researcher into the history of rock art.
"Creating art is a distinct piece of our biological make-up," he told about 50 people Saturday during his lecture at Deer Valley Rock Art Center. "It is an instinct."
Malotki, a professor emeritus of languages at Northern Arizona University, said no one would ever know the true meaning of images pecked or painted on stone pallets because the artists are dead and did not leave a record or "Rosetta Stone" to decipher the images' meanings.
The oldest known rock art is a 300,000-year-old panel of small chipped cups, called cupules, found in India. He believes that the images of animals and people evolved from early artists' doodles.
"The non-iconic abstract images preceded the representational (humans and animals) imagery," he said. "The nice images are what people focus on, but I like the non-iconic art."
Malotki has scoured Arizona and around the globe studying and documenting rock art. His recent book, "The Rock Art of Arizona: Art for Life's Sake," contains several photographs of rock art in Yavapai County.
He believes that the ancient artists did not peck or paint images for decoration, but rather as a "hardwired" need to create art as a survival technique, or a type of spiritual offering, "to increase their odds of survival."
"That is why I used the subtitle, 'Art for Life's Sake,' because the act of making the image was more important to them than the final result," he said.
Malotki has teamed with evolutionary psychologist Ellen Dissanayake to study a theory that the reason images found in Arizona are identical to those found in the Sahara and elsewhere is because humans have a core of biologically universal images they are born with.
Malotki lists 15 "human universals," called phosphenes, found in rock art around the world. Some include circles, zigzags, spirals, dots (cupules) and boxes and rows of lines. "They are the same doodles children draw in school and adults draw while talking on the telephone," he said. However, with the advent of cell phones and text messages sent while people walk or drive, he fears the art of doodling could one day disappear.
"His theory really appeals to me," said Philip DiSilvestro, 26, a collector of tribal art. "I like the expression of spirituality and the fact we are 'hardwired' to create."
Not all scientists agree with Malotki and Dissanayake's ideas of iconic rock art evolving from instinctual doodling. He said that is because some people's minds are trapped in a state of pareidolia.
Pareidolia is the tendency for people to see images they are familiar with in something that is random or disorganized. For example, seeing faces in clouds or a man on the moon.
Nancy Bodmer, a volunteer at the rock art center, said when she first started studying non-iconic rock art that she could see only images she was familiar with.
"I'm originally from the Northeast, and I was looking at this image in the Agua Fria National Monument and all I could see was a sailboat with a broken mast," she said. "I was seeing a pre-set image I had in my mind."
To learn more about Malotki or to view his photo gallery of rock art from around the world, visit oak.ucc.nau.edu/malotki/.
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Posted: Friday, November 20, 2009
Article comment by:
Gary David
Doodles?
http://www.theorionzone.com/homolovi.htm
These petroglyphs are, in fact, a star map and solstice marker I found near Winslow, Arizona. Comments welcome. islandhillsbooks@msn.com
Posted: Sunday, November 15, 2009
Article comment by:
Keith Ranville
Re: A theory on the ancient spiral inscription in stone: A stick goes in that hole in the stone next to the ancient glyph, and it marks in alignment of shadow from the sun to the circular points of the ancient glyph?
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_udPz9IqHu6U/Sv8zzDBjhCI/AAAAAAAAAzI/-wQ5jVZmyNs/s1600/spiral-21-bc-c-keith-clock.jpg
Posted: Thursday, November 12, 2009
Article comment by:
krell
It is a survival characteristic to see the familiar in any patern - the earliest part of the brain no doubt evolved needing this - the ability to recognize danger, food, shelter. The step to draw elements that make up these familiar forms happend most likely by accident, scraping the soil or some such , and resulted in a pleasnt reaction and curiosity. I think these baisc forms are recognizable to us all from nature, that which makes us think and that which makes us observe, brought to expression.
Posted: Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Article comment by:
No name provided
Gosh, did any of you get anything out of the story besides griping about your personal preference about the use of a plural noun? This guy has put our county's landscape and nature jewels on the map.
Posted: Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Article comment by:
No name provided
Wow...you people are bored.
Posted: Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Article comment by:
Cheeky
To Tongue-in-cheek: It has always been "legal" to use certain words, whether proper or not. It would have made more sense if you had commented on the improper use of grammar. Now, I appreciate sarcastic humor as much as the next person; however, according to Webster's Dictionary, both 'deer' and 'deers' are proper plural forms of deer. The same holds true with 'fish' or 'fishes' as acceptable plural forms of fish. You are correct on sheep, though, so hopefully that will make you feel better about yourself.
Posted: Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Article comment by:
Cactuses
There are people who know the meanings. One of the purposes is for highway markers, to tell the traveler what is ahead, what to avoid, where water can be found and a map.
Posted: Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Article comment by:
DA
Tongue: Don't forget mooses and mouses!
Posted: Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Article comment by:
Tongue-in-cheek
two "deers" kissing. Are we legally saying "deers" now-a-days? Where have I been all this time? Now what will we say when we see "sheeps" and "fishs" kissing.
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