Rock art predates language; our ability to name, classify, describe, and communicate with others. Aside from the figurative, the symbols found therein – asterisks, dots, half-circles, lines, claviforms, crosshatches, spirals, triangles, et al – may prefigure the graphic systems used to develop the written word, enabling information to pass from one generation to the next.

Speaking about the rock art of Europe, for example, Genevieve von Petzinger (2015) makes the astounding observation that only thirty-two signs have been discovered throughout the entire continent over a 30,000 year period. The implication is that such marks were not random, but represent a complex system of communication, the meaning and purpose of which is subject to ongoing debate. What did these marks mean, and who was their intended audience?

One might be tempted to think that our ancestors were trying to tell us something, in the manner, say, of those tasked with developing future-proof warning labels for nuclear waste deposits (Piesing 2020) or those who sent messages into outerspace on Voyager I and II (Schalansky 2021, 23). We cannot say for sure. What we do know is that the emergence of rock art – or more broadly, marks and engravings on rock – signals a pivotal moment in the history of our species, running hand-in-hand with the realisation that one thing can be used to represent another.

Cormac McCarthy (2017) describes this eureka moment as central to everything that we do, ‘from using colored pebbles for the trading of goats to art and language and on to using symbolic marks to represent pieces of the world too small to see.’ It is the bedrock of all the world’s beliefs and religions, the backbone of commerce, and, according to Yuval Noah Harari (2014), the only thing that truly distinguishes homo sapiens from other species, enabling large numbers of strangers to ‘cooperate successfully, through believing in common myths.’

Such myths abound in the paintings of old, be it in the depictions of jaguars in the Chiribiquete mountains of Colombia (which date back some 20,000 years); the association between the gods and rain that one finds in the rock art of Mexico (Mendiola Galván 2022); or the goddess Mari in the Basque territory of Spain (Garate 2017, 172). Although subject to romanticisation, such myths also enabled like-minded strangers to function in unison, towards a common goal, suggesting that the rock art of old has much to teach us about the construction of the modern nation state and our capacity to organise and act. In this way, the study of rock art provides crucial insights, not only into the world of our ancestors, but our present and future, lending credence to Judith Schalansky’s observation that

The Earth itself is, as we know, a heap of rubble from a past future, and humanity the thrown-together, bickering community of heirs to a numinous yesteryear that needs to be constantly appropriated and recast, rejected and destroyed, ignored and suppressed so that, contrary to popular belief, it is not the future but the past that represents the true field of opportunity (2021, 18–19).

That most rock art dates back some 70 – 30,000 years, to a period in which our species ‘witnessed the invention of boats, oil lamps, bows and arrows and needles,’ as well as ‘religion, commerce and social stratification’ (Harari 2014), should tell us something about its significance on the global stage. With every new epoch comes a new layer, a new skin or sediment, to the point where the Earth has become wholly consumed by human activity (Colomina & Wigley 2016, 12). It goes without saying that the scale of urbanisation, agriculture, industrialisation, etc. would not have been possible without language or a system, such as rock art, around which ideas could be expressed, preserved, bettered.

Taking as its base the understanding that ‘archeology has always been about design’ – a form of ‘reverse engineering’ that highlights ‘the sedimented ways’ in which we reinvent ourselves (Colomina 2016, 11) – this exhibition traces the continued legacy of rock art in its varied manifestations today, unpacking the similarities and differences that emerged over time in different parts of the world, whilst pointing to the possibility of a shared origin.

It asks where we would be, were it not for the first person(s) who left their mark on a rock in the Blombos cave some 70,000 years back? How different might our sense of self be, were it not for the individual who decided to leave their handprint on the wall of the Chauvet-Pontd’Arc cave in southern France; a gesture which seems to foreshadow the thumb-print as the surest mark of individuality?

Would we be in the current predicament that we’re in, were it not for these early surface incisions? And how might we conceive of such symbols in light of our current data-driven age? Will future generations be equally baffled by the various data storage systems used today – ‘strange aluminium boxes whose contents, owing to rapid advances in platforms and programming languages’ may come to resemble nought but ‘meaningless code’ (Schalansky 2021, 24)? What will they make of our road signs, logos, branded clothes, and social media accounts?

REFERENCES

Colomina, B. and Wigley, M. 2016. Are we human? Notes on an archaeology of design. Lars Müller Publishers.

Mendiola Galván, F. 2022. “Rock art in Puebla, Mexico. Ancient internal and external relations.” Centro INAH Puebla.

Garate, D. 2018. ”New Insights into the Study of Paleolithic Rock Art: Dismantling the’Basque Country Void’”. Journal of

Anthropological Research (Summer),168–200.

Harari, Y.H. 2014. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind. London and New York: Random House.

McCarthy, C. 2017. “The Kekulé Problem: Where did language come from?” Nautilus (17 April). Available at:

https://nautil.us/the-kekul-problem-6082/

Piesing, M. 2020. “How to build a nuclear warning for 10,000 years time.” BBC (3 August). Available at: https://

www.bbc.com/future/article/20200731-how-to-build-anuclear-warning-for-10000-years-time

Schalansky, J. 2021/2018. An Inventory of Losses. Translated by Jackie Smith. London: MacLehose Press.

Von Petzinger, G. 2015. “Why are these 32 symbols found in caves all over Europe | Genevieve von Petzinger.”

YouTube (18 Dec). Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJnEQCMA5Sg.