Thursday, 28 June 2012

outlines of grandeur

Laurence Whistler was invited to design for Wedgwood in 1955, but only two of his designs were adopted for production. This series, called 'Outlines of Grandeur', was one of the two. The series illustrates British architecture through six periods of history. Each design shows Whistler's background as a glass engraver and uses line effects to create strikingly different designs. This plate features Britain's most famous prehistoric remains, the Stonehenge megalith in Wiltshire. This plate was made in 1955-6. This example has suffered some damage.

Tuesday, 26 June 2012

Abri Castanet Vulva

We report here on the 2007 discovery, in perfect archaeological context, of part of the engraved and ocre-stained undersurface of the collapsed rockshelter ceiling from Abri Castanet, Dordogne, France. The decorated surface of the 1.5-t roof-collapse block was in direct contact with the exposed archaeological surface onto which it fell. Because there was no sedimentation between the engraved surface and the archaeological layer upon which it collapsed, it is clear that the Early Aurignacian occupants of the shelter were the authors of the ceiling imagery. This discovery contributes an important dimension to our understanding of the earliest graphic representation in southwestern France, almost all of which was discovered before modern methods of archaeological excavation and analysis. Comparison of the dates for the Castanet ceiling and those directly obtained from the Chauvet paintings reveal that the “vulvar” representations from southwestern France are as old or older than the very different wall images from Chauvet.

new scientist seals

Cave paintings in Malaga, Spain, could be the oldest yet found – and the first to have been created by Neanderthals.

Looking oddly akin to the DNA double helix, the images in fact depict the seals that the locals would have eaten, says José Luis Sanchidrián at the University of Cordoba, Spain. They have "no parallel in Palaeolithic art", he adds. His team say that charcoal remains found beside six of the paintings – preserved in Spain's Nerja caves – have been radiocarbon dated to between 43,500 and 42,300 years old.

That suggests the paintings may be substantially older than the 30,000-year-old Chauvet cave paintings in south-east France, thought to be the earliest example of Palaeolithic cave art.

The next step is to date the paint pigments. If they are confirmed as being of similar age, this raises the real possibility that the paintings were the handiwork of Neanderthals – an "academic bombshell", says Sanchidrián, because all other cave paintings are thought to have been produced by modern humans.

Neanderthals are in the frame for the paintings since they are thought to have remained in the south and west of the Iberian peninsula until approximately 37,000 years ago – 5000 years after they had been replaced or assimilated by modern humans elsewhere in their European heartland.

Until recently, Neanderthals were thought to have been incapable of creating artistic works. That picture is changing thanks to the discovery of a number of decorated stone and shell objects – although no permanent cave art has previously been attributed to our extinct cousins.

Saturday, 23 June 2012

casts / photographs / fearful fidelity / dreadful agony

Delusion & Dream in Jensen's Gradiva 1907
an attempt had been made to cast the body of a woman discovered in the House of the Faun in 1830. The woman's foot seems to have been greatly admired... ma la forma del suo piede e del suo calzare attiro la nostra attenzione / Fiorelli /Dwyer/ Sculpture &Archaeology/ 57