Language and art From paleolithic art to writing

Language and art: From paleolithic art to writing Four lectures 12 th Early Fall School of Semiotics “Semiotics of Genre” September 10 20, 2006 Sozopol (Bulgaria) Wolfgang Wildgen, Bremen (Germany) 1

First lecture The cognitive presuppositions of art and writing 1. 1 Periods of hominid evolution leading to art and language 1. 2 The evolution of the neo cortex as predisposition for art and language 1. 3 From animal motion to animal sign behavior 1. 4 Instrumentality in higher mammals and man 2

Possible evolutionary steps leading to cave art Cave art H. sapiens, language Homo erectus, stone tools Australopithecus, upright Primates like gorillas, orang-utans and chimpanzees 10 million y. 7 million y. 2 million y. 400. 000 y. 40. 000 3

Evolution of the brain HSS Calculated brain size (in g) in relation to the evolutionary time scale in millions of years. AF=Australopethecus Africanus, AB= Australopethecus Boisei, HH= Homo habilis, HE= Homo erectus, HSP=Homo sapiens praeneanderthaliensis, HSN= Homo sapiens neanderthaliensis, HSS= Homo sapiens 4

Overlapping of brain sizes (cf. Martin, 1998: 51) 5

Changes in the geometry of the crane Comparison of the cavities used for articulation: a newborn child (adapted size), b: Chimpanzee, c: Neanderthal man (Chapelle- aux-Saints ), d: adult man 6

Maturation of the brain and overall growth of the body Curves of growth for humans and chimpanzees (the age scale of chimpanzees has ben adapted to the age scale of chimpanzees) (taken from Lenneberg) Vertical scales: Weight of the body /the brain Horizontal scales: relative age in years with relevant phases 7

Evolution of cerebral areas and blood flow while words are seen or heard Evolutionary comparison of the brains of : Rats, cats, apes and humans Measured energy transport in the visual and the acoustic 8 mode of language

Instrumentality in higher mammals and man l l l The use of instruments and the goal oriented adaptation (manufacturing) of tools can be observed in many orders of animals: ants (insects), birds, and mammals all use simple instruments. In some cases, this allows them to access difficult areas of their body (elephants) or to reach under surfaces. Chimpanzees shape twigs to facilitate “fishing” for termites in termite hills. The use of instruments may be inborn and even the evolution of limbs may be connected to instrumental functions, i. e. , limbs are “shaped” evolutionarily to adapt for specific instrumental functions. Thus, primate and human hands take over functions originally located in the head (mouth) for attack, defense, preparation of food, for mastication, etc. Our gestured language, facial expressions, art practices and vocal language presuppose a kind of “instrumental” evolution of the human (and hominid) hand face. 9

The evolution of tool use The development of tool use and tool making implies learning, social imitation or even teaching. Tembrok (1977: 186 f) distinguishes six levels: l ad hoc tool using l purposeful tool using l tool modifying for immediate purpose l tool modifying for future eventuality l ad hoc tool making l cultural tool making The last stage, “cultural tool making”, can only be observed in primates and in man. l 10

Human tool use in the Paleolithic Lithic technologies. Left: reconstruction of the technique; right: products of the Levallois technique 11

The Design of Lithic Instruments The industry had to consider the following factors: l Form and quality of a stone found (this includes a geographic knowledge of places, where they may be found). l Splitting of the stone and isolation of the kernel. l Separation of sharp blades from the kernel. l Use of instruments for choking stone on one side and use of stone instruments for the manufacturing of other instruments (bone and wood). 12

„Chopper“ of the Olduwai. culture East Africa 13

Handaxe in the early Paleolithic (above) Abbévillien Biface (Le Stade) Le Champs de Mars (below) Middle Acheuléen (Saint Acheul) (cf. Weiner, 1972: 130) Abbévillien= 600. 000 350. 000, second glacial period; Acheuléen= 350. 000 100. 000; third glacial period 14

(left) Moustérien; until 40. 000, fourth glacial period; Charente (middle), La Quina (right) , La Quina (all in the Mousterian period) 15

Blades from the Solutrean Blades from the Magdale nean 16

Second lecture The beginning of graphical art and the first steps in its evolution 2. 1 General lines of the evolution of art in the Paleolithic • The engravings on tools • Paleolithic sculptures • Paleolithic cave paintings 2. 2 Moving forms in the classical cave paintings (Chauvet, Lascaux and Altamira) 17

Stages of glaciations (measured by isotopes of oxygen) Interglacial (5 e) Early glacial/temperate (5 d-a) ky BP Lithic technologies (Neanderthals, recent man) Stylistic periods of cave art in France (recent man) 128 - Core/chopping 118 tool From tool use to cave art 118 -75 Flake, core/chopping tool Early glacial, glacial (4, 3) 75 -32 Handaxes, scrapers Full glacial (2) 32 -13 Blades Perigordian (ca. 34 ky 19 ky) Aurignacian (33 ky- 18 ky) Late glacial (1) 13 -10 Microlithic elements Solutrean (18 ky – 16 ky) Magdalenian (16 ky – 10 ky) Current interglacial 10 -0 Periods in ky = 1000 y. 18

He beginning of graphical art l The beginning of graphical arts can be dated by the first appearance of concentrated color pigments in the context of hominid dwellings. Barham (2001) reports that in south central Africa pieces of iron hematite (often called ochre) and specularite were recovered from an archeological site near Twin Rivers, in Zambia. They had been brought to the site, processed and rubbed against surfaces. One can infer that these materials were used to color objects, bodies or surfaces. The use of such pigments establishes a continuity, which reaches from the archeological sites mentioned (i. e. , from 270. 000 y. BP) to contemporary hunter gathers in the Kalahari. The first engravings on stone were also found in Africa and can be dated to 70. 000 y. BP. One can conclude that archaic Homo sapiens used colors to paint (e. g. , their bodies, objects, and/or large surfaces). 19

Rock-engravings and color use l l l Rock engravings and later plastic art in stone may be understood as the origin of representational art. As this line also leads to the invention abstract (motivated by cultural memory) signs and finally to writing, the modern cultures of fine arts and literature have their origin in Paleolithic symbol techniques. Color was originally used for body painting, later in the context of funeral practices, and finally in the art of caves (after 40. 000 BP) 20

Drawings on portable art Bone of a mammoth with ornaments from Mezin (Ucrainia) The engraved bone in the possession of a person and the engraving on it may be used as a prototype (or a model of imitation) which orients further perception of similar objects. It is also an object of value (it can be given, stolen, inherited or buried with the owner). Becoming an object of value marks the point of transition to ritual and magical objects. 21

Varieties of Venus Figures in Western and Eastern Europe. A: Willendorf; B: Lespuge; C: Grimaldi; D: Dolné Vêstonice, ; E, F und L: Kostienki; G: Khotylevo; H und J: Avdevo; I und K: Gargarino The dominance of female statuettes and female symbols (“vulvas”) was interpreted as the consequence of a more “gendered” society in the Upper Paleolithic. Eventually a more egalitarian society was replaced by a society with social differentiation and a divergence between female and male roles From: Sanchidrián, 2001: 12 22

Abstract representations of human bodies Males and females Russia 23

Paleolithic cave paintings l l Cave paintings occur mainly in an area north and west of the Pyrenees: mainly in Périgord, Toulouse (France) and Cantabrica (Spain). Probably the area was a very early economic “Kulturbund” (network of civilizations) in Europe. The herds of reindeer (as in northern Finland today) defined the relevant ecological dynamics. They probably came to the plains in winter and returned to higher grounds in the Pyrenees, the Cantabrica Mountains or the Massif Central in France in summer. The populations of Cro Magnon men followed the herds and thus met other populations in southern France and northern Spain. Other forms of Paleolithic art show an extension of this cultural region to Switzerland, Italy, Southern Germany and Eastern Europe. 24

Magdalenean caves in France 25

26 Magdalenean caves in Central and Eastern Europe. Maps from Sacchi, 2003: 14 f.

The syntax of cave paintings (narrative or hierarchical) The field of depicted animals on the ceiling of the cave in Altamira (Northern Spain). Main features: • Natural shape of a herd • Filling of a given surface with a quasi regular structure order • Question: is the sequence a narrative one or is the order rather hierarchical? 27

Drawing techniques and body motion Monochrome drawing of a horse (Peña de Candamo) 28

l l Patterns of locomotion are not only relevant for the content of pictures but also for their production. Beltran et al (1998: 72) have shown that painters in the cave of Altamira stood with their left arm on the cave wall and traced along it to get a long curved line; i. e. , they used their (left) arm and hand as a mold for lines. In a similar way the natural motion of the arm with fixed body was the basis for larger curved lines, e. g. , the shoulder and back of a bison, i. e. , the human limbs were used as instruments in a ritualized act of painting. The drawing of a bison can thus be decomposed into a series of natural motion patterns, which begin at the head and end at the hind legs (variants of this technique are common). The surface can be further structured by lines which separate light and dark parts, or by areas with different color or texture and further details can be added. In this context it is worthwhile to note that certain body parts of animals receive special attention: the hair of a bison or its eye and nose (in Altamira), the heads of horses (e. g. , a sequence of four heads with necks in cave Chauvet) and of lions (e. g. , the sketched or elaborated heads and necks in cave 29

Polychrome pictures of moving animals in the Cave Chauvet (France) Battle between two rhinozeros The oldest cave with high level painting yet known is the cave Chauvet in the valley of the Ardèche (confluent of the Rhône north of Orange). Different periods of visitation are dated between 31 and 23. 000 y. and thus belong to the Aurignacian. Picture taken from: Chauvet (1997: 64 f. ). 30

A group of chasing lions; Cave Chauvet. Picture taken from: Chauvet (1997: 64 f. ). 31

A bison which turns ist head in attack; Taken from Chauvet, 1997 32

Details of horses Taken from Chauvet, 1997 33

l l The cultural achievement of Paleolithic art presupposes a rather general grid of meanings on the level of values in a probably multilingual society of hunters. It would be exceptional if the existence of a large scale system of values for exchange had not produced a collective system of meanings. The diversity of conventional signs (cf. Leroi Gourhan, 1992: 137 140) shows a range of distribution corresponding in size to actual dialect areas and suggests that the populations living in the Franco Cantabric area had many different subcultures. Nevertheless these “dialects” formed an assembly on the level of basic semantics and pragmatics used in cultural contacts, rituals, in the oral tradition of myths and the practice of rituals. They formed probably one of the largest preliterate symbolic civilizations before the introduction of writing. 34

Third lecture The evolution of art in the Mesolithic 3. 1 From iconic schemata to abstract signs 3. 2 The representation of humans in a social context 3. 3 The disappearance of the Sahara civilizations 35

l l Paleolithic paintings contain many signs, which cannot be interpreted as pictures or figures. The transition between iconic signs and abstract signs (symbols) occurs first with very frequent contents. Two human body parts appear regularly in the paintings and engravings: The human hand. The female vulva. In the case of the hand the most concrete picture is created either by pressing the (left) hand on the wall and painting the contours (or by spraying chewed color with the mouth) or by painting the hand with color and pressing it against the wall. The picture is really the trace of the hand (it indicates the act of touching the wall with the hand). Other tokens abstract the shape of the human hand to a line (a band) with three, four, five branches 36

First signs of abstraction Styled Represen tations of hands Cave Santian (Spain)). 37

l The relation of hands to their body is metonymical (pars pro toto), i. e. , one can guess the whole if one has the necessary knowledge, which is easy in the case of the hand. In some cases, the hands are deformed (e. g. , have only four fingers); they could therefore be the personal signature of a painter; some authors even guessed an underlying gestured language. 38

Methonymic abstraction Sketch of a deer’s head Contours of a deer’s head Giant deer 39

Many other pictures cannot be linked with specific contents, from which they are derived. Leroi Gourhan (1992: chapter IX) made an inventory of the Franco Cantabric signs and distinguished three major classes: l small signs (e. g. , sticks and ramified forms), l full signs; e. g. , triangles, squares, rectangles (tecti forms), key shapes (clavi forms), and l punctuated signs. Leroi Gourhan comes to the conclusion that all these signs have only a very indirect association with the animals represented in the paintings. They are a supplementary code. This is very clear in Lascaux, where signs and pictures are systematically combined into one gestalt and have corresponding sizes (cf. ibidem: 337). 40

l Combination (and separation) of pictorial and abstract signs in the Paleolithic period. l (cf. J. Jelinek, 1975, 433) The abstract sign is of the tectiform type 41

l l The small signs could be derived by “disjunction”, i. e. , certain figural features from pictures are isolated, cut off. The general tendency is one of geometrical abstraction. Small pictures as in portable art could have triggered the abstraction. The conventionalized miniature signs were later added to full scale pictures in the cave paintings. This is the same process as the one observed in the evolution of early writing systems, e. g. , in Egypt. Leroi Gourhan associates these signs with the male sex (as phallic symbols). Full signs are associated with the female sex. Either they are derived from the form of the vulva, or from a female profile (without head and feet). 42

l l The signs called “tecti forms” or rectangular (cf. ibidem: 208 f. ) look like huts or shelters and could refer secondarily to the domain of females (In a matrilineal society, daughters inherit the house and objects in the house and these are associated with the female sex). Figure 17 shows some examples from Leroi Gourhan (1992: 319). The punctuated signs can be related to a basic technique of painting and engraving, i. e. , to aligned points, which produce a curve or two rows of them, which fill a surface. It is thus a discrete variant in the representation of lines and surfaces. There is some evidence that counting or representing mathematical structures may underlie these signs 43

A list of abstract symbols Tectiform symbols 1 16; 1 10 Dordogne ( Les Eyzies) 11 16: Northern Spain (Altamira, Castillo, u. a. ) 17 23: isolated signs 44

The transition to the Mesolithic (after the last ice-age and after the Magdalenean 17. 00 to 11. 000) In the period between 12. 000 and 7. 000 y. BP, i. e. , just before or after the rise of agriculture, a wealth of engravings is found in which humans occupy the central place. The arrow had been invented and chasing (probably also warfare) had been sophisticated. The individual huntsman or the group of hunters and the animal (sometimes the enemy) are the major topics. The scenes are very dynamic as they show people and animals running, attacking, fleeing. In many cases, there is a basic relation, e. g. , a huntsman shoots at an attacking ibex, four huntsmen with a leader, or a battle between two groups, etc. We could say a relation or a valence schema is realized in the painting. 45

Art of the Levante (Spain) ca. 9 8 000 BP 46

Transition to the Meso- und Neolithic Northern Sahara (Kargur Talh) (Neolithic 4 5. Thou. B. C. ) The Franco Cantabric had parallels in northern Africa; the style resembles the rock engravings in the Sahara Atlas and the oasis Fezzan (south of Tripoli). Between 7 and 6. 000 y. BP cultures based on cattle breeding reached this area from Sudan. They continued the same realistic style (mainly with contours engraved in the rock) but with different contents. 47

The disappearance of the Sahara civilizations The transition between Mesolithic and Neolithic civilizations may have its origin in the area north of the Sahara, which was an ideal zone for hunting and later for cattle breeding. A huge amount of rock engraving has been discovered in this area. Probably this civilization which was in contact with first cattle breeding civilizations in the Sudan immigrated to Egypt and the near East, when the climate became hot and the water supplies were dramatically reduced. 48

Distribution of rock -engravings in Northern Africa Transition between an iconic engraving and an ideogram The neolithic cultures of the Sahara had not only cattle breeding, they also demonstrate the domestification of sheep, horse and (later) dromedary. Taken from: Striedter, 1983: 258 (map) and 11 (pictures) 49

Rock-engravings in the Alps as a reminiscence of a cultural stage preceding the modern writing systems l l l The rock engraving in Neolithic Europe will continue these traditions and there are even current populations in Australia and south Africa who still practice rock engraving with a similar function (one may even consider modern graffiti as a contemporary use with the same expressive function). The European Alps are a zone where these traditions were conserved (e. g. in Trentino and Val Camonica). As some pictures resemble popular games, one may even assume an origin of visual plays like chess and others in the graphical tradition of rock engravings. 50

The distribution of menhirs with pictures in the province Trentino The Menhir of Algund Museum of Meran (Ebers/Wollenik 1982: 47) 51

Selection of typical items in Capo di Ponte (prov. Brescia) (Ebers/Woll enik 1982: 98 f) These rock-engravings belong already to the Neolithic period and continued until the Bronze age. An archeological sensation was the discovery of the Ötzi-man in the Alps who lived 6000 y BP 52

Type of figure found in rockengravings in the Alps Such geometrical patterns were probably also the starting point for the invention of many rulegoverned games using graphical schemata. If de Saussure was inspired by chess as a metaphor of language as a rule governed system, he should rather have referred to the Mesolithic / Neolithic evolution of symbolic games than to the much older system of language. 53

Fourth lecture The evolution of writing 4. 1 Developments after the Neolithic revolution 4. 2 Some aspect of the Egyptian writing system and the transition to alphabets 54

l l As the Nilotic cultures melted into the civilization of early Egypt, there was possibly a continuity (in the Mesolithic period) between Paleolithic art in Northern Africa and early writing systems (e. g. , in Egypt and Mesopatamia). The hieroglyphic characters are pictorial (although schematized) and sequential, i. e. , they are at the level of semi symbolic signs in the hierarchy. As soon as signs for a word with one consonant were used as signs for this consonant, a consonantal alphabet could be created. It remains controversial if Mesolithic sign systems really contributed to the evolution of writing. Coulmas (1989: 17) enumerates three characteristics of writing: 1. It consists of artificial graphical marks on a durable surface; 2. its purpose is to communicate something; 3. this purpose is achieved by virtue of the marks’ conventional relation to language. 55

From object-language to writing l l Between 8000 BC and 3000 BC very simple „object languages“, where small scale sculptures represent their objects, existged. Later two dimensional contours represented the object signs included in a jar. They finally lead to the first systems which may truly be called writing systems. These presuppose the political and economic organization of the first empires and cities. Cf. Schmandt Besserat (1978: 82) 56

Transition to writing (the last 10. 000 years): Object signs Original functions: • Representation of objects for the purpose of bookkeeping (a sign stands for an object in the economic world) • Creation of a representational universe of discourse (where the buying, selling, transfer. , loss etc. of objects is represented). • Calculation (origin of mathematics) 57

l l The abstraction process from pictures to writing symbols corresponds to a general mnemonic principle. This is also valid for messages in an object language employed by Yoruba tribes and in Australian messenger sticks. The message is coded for the messenger, who “reads” it when he arrives after a long journey. This guarantees that he does not forget important contents, but it presupposes that he knows the message. This means that the written message can only be “read” accurately if the reader has a knowledge of its contents independently from the “written” document (cf. Friedrich, 1960: 17). Full fledged writing systems presuppose a writing industry, i. e. , the frequent production and usage of writing in proper contexts. The Paleolithic stone industries established the context for the manufacturing of functionally optimal artifacts (weapons, tools), the Mesolithic and Neolithic picture and symbol industries established the necessary context for writing systems 58

l l The communicative/functional usage of writing was systematically developed in Mesopotamia, which became a melting pot of many cultures and concentrated large populations into one organized political system. The paths for the exchange of goods, values, and ideas became complex and difficult to control. The civilizations of Mesopotamia (and the “golden crescent”) took their new shape between 11 and 8. 000 y. BP. The first “token” systems, called “object languages” by Schmandt Besserat (1978), appeared ca. during this area and were not dramatically changed for almost five millennia. Only in the Bronze Age, between 7, 500 y. BP and 5, 100 y. BP, did the number of tokens increase and their shape differentiate and finally give rise to Sumerian writing (ca. 5. 000 y. BP; cf. also Friedrich, 1966: 42 f. ). The context was not religious but economic. The storage, transport and control of goods motivated a system of bookkeeping. A closed jar contained a number of symbolic objects, which stood for the goods sent to a destination. On the jar, a list of the symbolic objects in the jar was marked. The next slide shows the state of the system in the intermediate period of the Bronze age (before Sumerian writing arrived). 59

Early objectsymbols (choice from a field of 12 categories) 60

l l If we look closer at the symbolic objects in the table given by Schmandt Besserat (1978: 87 f. ) we notice the geometrical and abstract character of the signs: spheres, discs, pyramids, cones, tetrahedrons, biconoids, and ovoid are the basic shapes. On these bases, other abstract geometrical shapes are marked (in a lower dimension): holes, lines in/on the sphere, disk, etc. The Sumerian pictograms later flatten the symbolic objects to two dimensional shapes. The direction of writing was first rather accidental, later an organization into vertical columns came up with the order of columns from left to right and inside the columns from top to bottom. Finally the whole arrangement was rotated by 90 o; the first column on the left became the first line on the top. In the same move the symbols were rotated by 90 o. 61

Writing industries in Egypt The scribe and his instruments. A wood cut 4700 years old The scribe of the pharao, Hesire, has: On his shoulder a plate „ ink-cake“, 1. A container in wood for the brush, 2. A container with water to make the brush wet (taken from: Claiborne, 1976: 93) 62

Hieroglyph of life from the grave of Tutanchamun (3450 years old) INSCRIPTION IN THE MIDDLE: Neb = hieroglyph for basket Kheper (hieroglyph for the Skarabäus) Re = hieroglyph for the Sun Together they compose the proper name of the possessor: Nebkheperure The three strokes below the Skarabäus stand for the vowel „u“ (taken from: Claiborne, 1975: 107) 63

Hieroglyphs in Egypt Signs for nouns /concrete contents Signs for verbs /processes 64

As a word stood for a whole family of words with the same root, determina tives were used to distinguish different word forms. As only consonantal patterns were mapped into written symbols, the written forms were still ambiguous. There were two major methods of disambiguation: l By a kind of “punctuation” the vowels could be marked. The method of punctuation was adopted by many civilizations and languages in the Near East (still observable today in Arabic and Hebrew). l Special symbols for vowels were inserted into the sequence of consonantal symbols. This method was first adopted by the Phoenician and later by the Greek, Latin and Cyrillic alphabets. For this purpose signs of consonants not used could be reinterpreted. 65

Further developments in Egypt Hieroglyphs: First simplifications in the 3 rd millennium B. C. Hieratic : Latest text 3 rd century AD Demotic: Latest text: 476 AD Friedrich, 1966: 195 66

Diffusion of the writing-systems between 1600 BC. (yellow) and alphabets 450 BC. (green) 67

The evolution of the Greek alphabet from the Phoenician Friedrich, 1966: 275 Partial list 68

A rough summary of the evolution of writing Paleolithic period 36. -12. 000 BP Mesolithic period 12. 000 - …. . BP (the end depends on the region) Neolithic period 10. 000 -5. 000 BP (before the rise of the classical “high” cultures) Cultures in Mesopotamia and Egypt 5. 000 -1500 BP (latest text 476 AD) Phoenician – Greek, Roman … cultures 2. 500 to modernity Abstract Rock Cuneiform symbols esides engravings and engravings, b writing realistic pictures paintings in the object languages hieroglyphs Levante and Atlas Alphabet writing systems Realistic pictures dominate Dominance of systems based on the phonological motivation of writing Abstract signs Beginning increase and writing form a huge industries lexicon of Complex systems of writing evolve; which imply also a phonological analysis 69

Ideographic systems Different solutions for the design of writing systems were in conflict and in Europe and western Asia the ideographic systems disappeared and the alphabetic principle expanded into all directions. Only in China did the ideographic writing system survive. It had found its very abstract shape already in the old bone engravings (1 400 1 200 B. C. ). The basic economy of these systems has, in spite of its ideographic character, structural similarities with the alphabetic systems. In Japan and Korea mixed systems were created. In Japan phonetic syllables are designed by writing symbols and completed by Chinese ideograms. 70

l l l The ideogram can be decomposed into more elementary strokes (ca. 20). Thus the number of elementary signs corresponds roughly to the number of signs in an alphabet (22 to 30). At the next level of complexity one can distinguish 24 different radicals. Thus the sign for sun (see above) consists of four strokes. The complete signs are fitted to an imaginary square. Similar tendencies can be observed in Hebraic quadratic letters, Roman capital letters and the “Antiqua” introduced in the Renaissance. 71

Chinese signs for words and their original pictorial form Child Tree Door Arrow Heart Word Rain Dog Snail Hand Richness Field 72

Conclusions l l l There is a line which leads continuously from artifact industries already presupposing the semantics and pragmatics of a natural language to art, writing and mathematics. The basic principles which organize these levels of semiotic evolution should be formulated in a common language. Such a scientific language must have geometrical and combinatorial powers. 73

Bibliography (selected) l l l Barham, Lawrence S. (2002). Systematic Pigment Use in the Middle Pleistocene of South Central Africa. Current Anthropology, 43 (1), 181 190. Bax, Marcel, Barend van Heusden and Wolfgang Wildgen (eds. ), 2004. Semiotic Evolu tion and the Dynamics of Culture. Lang, Bern. Chauvet, Jean Marie, Eliette Brunel Deschamps, Christian Hillaire (1995). La grotte Chauvet à Vallon Pont d’Arc. Paris: Seuil. Coulmas, Florian (1992). The Writing Systems of the World. Oxford : Blackwell Daniel, Hal (1989). The Vestibular System and Language Acquisition. In Wind et alii (1989: 257 271). Földes Papp, Karoly (1984). Vom Felsbild zum Alphabet. Die Geschichte der Schrift von ihren frühesten Vorstufen bis zur modernen lateinischen Schreibschrift. Stuttgart: Belser. Foley, William (1997). Anthropological Linguistics. An Introduction. London: Blackwell. 74

l l l l Friedrich, Johannes (1966). Geschichte der Schrift. Unter besonderer Berücksichtigung ihrer geistigen Entwicklung. Heidelberg: Carl Winter. Gamble, Clive (1986). The Palaeolithic Settlement of Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge U. P. Gamble, Clive (1999). The Palaeolithic Societies of Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge U. P. . Gibson, Kathleen R. & Tim Ingold (Eds. ) (1993). Tools, Language and Cognition in Human Evolution. Cambridge: Cambridge U. P. Jelinek, Jan (1975). Das große Bilderlexikon des Menschen in der Vorzeit. Bertelsmann: Munich. Lenneberg, Eric H. (1967). Biological Foundations of Language (with appendices by Noam Chomsky & Otto Marx). New York: Wiley Leroi Gourhan, André (1992). L’art pariétal. Langage de la préhistoire. Grenoble: Jerôme Million. Martin, Alex (1998). Organization of Semantic Knowledge and the Origin of Words in the Brain. In Jablonski & Aiello (1998: 69 87). Rhotert, Hans (1956). Die Kunst der Altsteinzeit. In Weigert (1956: 9 52 75

l l l l Sacchi, Dominque (2003) Le Magdalénien. Apogée de l’art quaternaire. La maison des roches, Paris. Sanchidrian, José Luis (2001). Manual de arte preistorico. Barcelona: Ariel. Schmandt Besserat, Denise (1978). The Earliest Precursor of Writing. Scientific American, June 1978 (reprinted in Wang, 1982 (chap. 10): 81 89). Striedter, Karl Heinz (1983) Felsbilder Nordafrikas and der Sahara. Steiner: Wiesbaden. Tembrok, Günter (1977). Grundlagen des Tierverhaltens. Braunschweig: Vieweg. Weigert, Hans (Ed. ) (1956). Kleine Kunstgeschichte der Vorzeit und der Naturvölker. Stuttgart: Kohlhammer. Weiner, J. S. (1972). Entstehungsgeschichte des Menschen. Lausanne: Editions Rencontre 76

l l l Wenke, Robert J. (1999). Patterns in Prehistory. Humankind’s first Three Million Years. Oxford: Oxford U. P. Wildgen, Wolfgang (2001). The Paleolithic Origins of Art, its Dynamic and Topological Aspects, and the Transition to Writing, in M. Bax, B. van Heusden & W. Wildgen (Eds. ), Semiotic Evolution and the Dynamics of Culture. , Bern: Lang. Wildgen, Wolfgang, 2004. The Evolution of Human Languages. Scenarios, Principles, and Cultural Dynamics. Series: Advances in Consciousness Research, Benjamins, Amsterdam. Wildgen, Wolfgang, 2005. Le problème du continu/discontinu dans la sémiotique de René Thom et l’évolution des langues. in: Cahiers de Praxématique 42 : 121. 143. Wildgen, Wolfgang, 2006. The Semiotic Hypercycle and the Run Away Process of Linguistic (Symbolic) Evolution. Contribution to the: Cradle of Language Conference, Stellenbosch, South Africa, 7 – 10 Nov 2006. 77