Language is possible without writing.
The first communication was art! Carved, scratched, sculpted, and painted in caves, on cliffs, and inscribed on bones, stones and shells. Art forms were used as oracles, shamanic rituals, and even star maps.
Taurus the Bull was prolifically painted on cave walls such as Chauvet and Lascaux caves in France, and Altamira in Spain. Totem symbols of a successful hunt or more? Egyptian tombs and Cretian art showed many bull paintings. Why?
Parade of Stars
Frank Edge, an astronomer, "saw" beyond the animal paintings and figures noting that the "dots" on the art work actually represented star maps of the sky at that time! Lascaux Cave's Hall of Bulls (15,000 B.C.) features the dominant bull (Taurus) plus Pleiades, Orion and Gemini, Leo and Virgo for a star parade of our current Zodiac and a few others all around the horizon of the cave in a circular shape.
Altamira in Spain (15,500 B.C) displays an entire painted star map sky as you look up to view it! It is the picture of the Summer Solstice sky in that era: a sun path, a spiritual journey through time.
Later in Egypt 4-6000 years ago, Taurus the Bull, was also pictographed into a round head (sun) and horns above his head (crescent moon). This symbol for Taurus ("Taw-ruse") is his Zodiac emblem. The globe with horns definitely connotes a bull's head! The head and horns may have gradually evolved into the letter A. The alphabet came along about 3,500 years ago. Egyptian tombs and murals from Crete showed many bull paintings, symbols of strength painted during the Taurian Age.
Zodiac Window
Chartres Cathedral in France, 700 years ago, sports the Zodiac glowing in the 12th century glass. There is Taurus again, shining pink, in his glass prism! He stares at us with a haughty gaze. A Zodiac appears in a Cathedral?
Paint It Forward
I love to experiment with cave painting! Imagining myself as a cave artist, I have fun playing with color and texture.
My best inspirations come from Chauvet Cave in southern France. "African" animals roamed freely there 40,000 years ago. There are many big cats painted there including The Lion Panel, showing 74 racing lionesses. Joining in on the walls are the ever popular bulls, dynamic horses, and more.
Many animals are close up heads and shoulders showing realistic expressions, emotions, and three dimensional muscular structure instead of stick figure pictographs. Bold sure strokes carve out the story boards. Painting skills are way ahead of their time. Chauvez paintings date 30,500 years before Egyptian Tomb art! Master Artists taught children secrets of painting! Is there a Cheetah painted in Chauvet Cave?
It was also in Chauvet that the first "domestic" dog paw print was found on the cave floor along with his four year old child companion's print as they ran and played together. The wild wolf print (top of sketch) is longer in shape than the dog's rounder paw print.
Are we rewinding back into a picture world? We love our endless photos, files, and images, "visions unlimited." How great is this?
The Painted WOR(L)D!
This is the One Hundredth post on Out of the Blue!
Related Posts:
Already Done (June 2012), Running With Horses (Mar 2012), The Great Harvest (Oct 2011), The Little Chessie That Could, fun with hieroglyphs and Starstruck (Sept 2011), By An Unfaltering Trust (July 2011), What Kind of Animal Are You? (Jan 2011)
Resources:
Cave Art
Chauvet Caves, Southern France
www.donsmaps.com/chauvetcave.html scroll down a bit to the "Leopard" who really has Cheetah's round spots and slender body type.
http://www.science.org/ Blog comments by Giles Tosello, an artist and scholar of prehistory, believes one of the artists may have been a young woman. To paraphrase: The fluid feminine lines and details of closeup views suggest strong emotional impact. The artist hid in the grass and observed the predators then painted the scenes from memory to speak a silent painted story.
Lascaux, Dardogne, France discovered in 1940, Zodiac Star Map and Altamira, Spain Full Sky Star Map. Ancient Star Pictures article by Laura Lee.
Simcha Jacobovici, award winning investigative journalist, The Naked Archaeologist TV program and http://www.youtube.com/ excerpts and full episodes. Previews, Who Invented the Alphabet, True Blue and The Return of the Hillazon (Tekhelet, sacred blue color)
Ancient Writings and Practices
Write You Own Egyptian Hieroglyphs by Angela McDonald. Scholarly fun for all ages.
The Complete I Ching, the Definitive Translation by Taoist Master Alfred Huang. I Ching symbols were originally carved on oracle bones. Discover deep meanings behind the symbols.
T'ai Chi Ch'uan and I Ching, A Choreography of Body and Mind by Da Liu. How does Tai Chi practice connect with ancient symbols?
http://imaginehealing.info/ Imagination is another dimension in healing with Joel P. Bowman, Ph.D., and Debra Basham, Executive Wellness Consultant, CHTP, NLP, HTt, RMT.
http://dbasham.blogspot.com/
Retreat is latest post on Yellow Brick Road, Your Path to Heart and Health
dahlis.roy@gmail.com Request free illustrated E-book, Silver Butterfly Create A Vision, the story behind Out of the Blue. Paintings and Prints are available.
Images
Crazy Horse oil painting cave style by Dahlis Roy flanked by Chinese classical writing done by a friend and natural wood
Wolf (top) and Dog print ink sketch by Dahlis
Leopard Shell, gift from Susanne, plus Time torn from a magazine. Collage photo by Dahlis
