Art in the Age of Dreams, Pt 2

Also in this series:
Art In the Age of Dreams, Pt 1
Art In the Age of Dreams, Pt 3

Imagine a world without electricity, the security of four walls, a ceiling and floor with which one can shut out the world. Imagine food scarcity, ill health, predators large and small, no guaranteed comforts or distractions, cold stone for a mattress. Imagine the tremendous uncertainty about day-to-day survival, the relentless darkness of the night sky. Imagine the subconscious longing for relief. Then imagine the powers of concentration and consciousness one must summon, finely tuned to the subtleties of light and shadow, temperature, smell, sound and pattern. Imagine an instinctual awareness that exists at one moment in three dimensions and splits a second later into more, perhaps into viewing the landscape remotely, or telepathically linking to animal, plant, and spirit.

For the first time, in the midst of this world, an early hominid encounters a man made object; a cup shape depression banged into stone. How astonishing it must have been! What does making a mark signify? Clues exist in the creation of man’s oldest surviving art form: cupules.

Cupules are cup-shaped, man-made hollows created in rock surfaces. They are created by pounding the rock surface with a heavy cobble known as a hammerstone. A relatively shallow cupule may take several thousand blows to reach the required depth. These abstract markings were made throughout the Stone Age by hominids on every continent except Antarctica, but we still know almost nothing about who made them and why.

Both the Daraki-Chattan rock shelter and Auditorium Cave at Bhimbetka in India have cupules dating from 200,000 to 700,000 BC, which makes cupules formation incredibly ancient. Australian archaeologist Robert G. Bednarik, arguably the world’s leading authority on this form of Paleolithic art, maintains they are clear signs of artistic expression.

Even now, our primary awareness is that of “beingness.” Without beingness, no thoughts, no dreams, no identity, no drives, no memory can exist. In my estimation, cupules indicate that first expression of identity, the realization we also exist outside of total immersion in Nature. The cupule says to one and all, “I AM”; I am aware that I am, not only as a participant in nature but also as its witness. Self-consciousness has become a partner to evolution.

We take consciousness for granted today, but in those ancient eras, a cupule would stand out as a marker, drawing the attention of others experiencing similar awareness. One could argue the first work of art was also political, a symbol heralding the onset of social organization. When evaluating today’s artistic efforts, can anything claim to reach this level of importance to humanity?

We have no way of knowing what other art forms of this antiquity could have been this old, as only cupules have survived. For the purposes of speculation, we will consider the likelihood cupules represent hominoids first art form. As such, can they be considered an expression of self-awareness intended to communicate one’s ‘beingness’ to the world at large?

It is almost incomprehensible to imagine the first cupules made by man to be 700,000 years old. Recent research suggests this was the work of Home erectus, just before humanity split into two species, Homo sapiens and Neanderthal. However, when you consider the oldest tools discovered to date, on the shores of Lake Turkana in Kenya are 3.3 million years old, (predating all early humans of Homo genus), conceivably cupule making could extend much farther back in time.

According to the Encyclopedia of Prehistoric Art,

The claims of longevity regarding the Bhimbetka petroglyphs have been solidly validated by archaeological evidence from Daraki-Chattan, establishing their minimum age at several hundred millennia BCE. According to Robert G. Bednarik, there is no reasonable doubt that some or all of the petroglyphs at the Auditorium cave, were created by people of a Lower Palaeolithic tool culture characterized by hand choppers, like those belonging to the African Oldowan culture, and therefore pre-dating the Acheulian, which began in India around 1.6 million BCE. He makes the point, however, that there is not at present sufficient scientific research into the earliest reaches of the Lower Paleolithic era in India (2,000,000 – 1,000,000 BCE) to determine the precise antiquity of these extraordinary finds. Even so, the Bhimbetka cupules are easily the most ancient Asian art ever found.

“According to one study,” writes Lenny Fraser in an article for The Lewiston Tribune, “a single cupule in hard rock takes up to 8,000 whacks with a harder substance and six to eight hours to duplicate.” The labor necessary to make a cupule, notwithstanding the fact they are often found in perilous locations, would indicate the cupule is a very important statement. Not a lot of slack in those perilous times for making art. It stands to reason these designs carried very important symbolic meaning. So important they likely represented not only the origin of art but also the beginning of something more: the sacred.

What could banging a cup into a rock surface have to do with the sacred? Imagine these early humans becoming aware of their own identity as separate from their surroundings. For eons their basic function was to survive and procreate in a terrifyingly hostile environment. Whatever identity emerged was likely subservient to their group or clan. At some point their consciousness became aware of individual identity. Leaders emerged and individuals with selective skill sets that made them stand out from the rest. This newly discovered “beingness” gave birth to self-expression. Time, especially life span and seasonal change brought a sense of mortality to individual existence. I can imagine this growing consciousness also demanded articulation, leading to ceremony and leaving marks on the landscape.

Stones were the most permanent, visible aspect of Nature in the primordial world. Stone also provided shelter and tools. Eventually fire making emerged from napping flint and obsidian into weapons. Reverence for stone cannot be underestimated. How better to penetrate the mystery of stone than to carve into it? Each blow of the cupule, a supplication. The finished cup, sized to accommodate a balled fist, “plugging in” for power. Captured rain would provide an elixir for drinking. One’s mark, left for future generations, an inverted expression of future tombstones? Explanations of this sort would explain why cupules are found on every continent man inhabited. Could cupule making have become man’s first religion?

∞

As farfetched as these ideas may seem, in 2006 I attended a Native American ceremony on the shores of Machias Bay, Maine, that gave rise to my speculations here. The occasion was the transfer back into Passamaquoddy tribe of a sacred petroglyph site dating back possibly 10,000 years. ‘Picture Rock’ is the largest concentration of rock carvings along the entire east coast of America. There are so many that, even with the extremely low 9-10 ft. tides, they continue being visible into the water.

Commemorating the event received wide publicity in the Native American world. Among those seeing photos of the petroglyphs was Onaubinisay (Walks Above the Ground), Elder Jim Dumont, an Ojibway-Anishinabe shaman of the Marten Clan and a fifth degree Midewiwin spiritual leader for the Three Fires Midewiwin Lodge and Chief of the Eastern Doorway, in central Canada.

Dr. Dumont arrived in Maine with other Ojibway-Anishinabe elders to commemorate the return of the site and celebrate their common heritage. Dr. Dumont immediately recognized some of the petroglyphs recounted a migration story going back to pre-colonial times. His distant ancestors had left Maine for the upper Midwest, following dark visions of the European arrival. The Ojibway elders had recorded on birchbark the same migrational history as appeared on the Maine petroglyphs, but this knowledge had been lost to the Passamaquoddy of 2006. In the course of the event, Dr. Dumont revealed much more about this sacred petroglyph site.

On the shore are two very large turtle-back rocks that extend far into the bay. One stone is covered in petroglyphs and the other has none. Dr. Dumont explained the tribes making pilgrimage were paying homage to the great spirit that resided within the bare rock. On the adjoining stone were carved glyphs that signified specific supplications. The ceremony Dr. Dumont performed to honor this ancient ceremonial pilgrimage and the spirit in the stone. I can attest it was deeply moving. More than one attendee said the ceremony released a powerful energy from the rocks that was visually noticeable on their surface.

Experiences like these led to investigating the electromagnetic and psychic aspects of rock art, all be it in an artistic manner. In essence, I was drawn to exploring the interaction between man and rock, via tools. Whatever drive connected mankind to stone, be it pragmatic, emotional or deeply subconscious, the result was the birth of art.

Continue reading: Art In the Age of Dreams, Pt 3