A quick sketch

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Rhiannon R
Rhiannon Sep 14, 2012 16:20:36
Replying to bladup

I think you're being too hasty. I think the carvers would have (possibly) had a more close relationship with time than us because they'd have necessarily have had to be aware of cyclical changes with the seasons - it'd have affected where they could find their food and what food they could eat. And imagine how darkness would curtail your goings-about when you couldn't flick a light switch on.

So if they were carving the symbols / shapes over an extended period of time, that might make a lot of sense, connecting one cycle to another. Maybe if you were nomadic, only passing a particular outcrop once every year, then you would indeed add to it (casually or in some important ritual) every year, to mark that you'd been there. Or whatever.

Does that not sound feasible?

N nigelswift
nigelswift Sep 14, 2012 16:32:40
Replying to Rhiannon

"Maybe if you were nomadic, only passing a particular outcrop once every year, then you would indeed add to it (casually or in some important ritual) every year, to mark that you'd been there. Or whatever."

Thats my bet too (although these rockarty types have thought of and discussed that one at great length no doubt so nothing anyone says can come as a surprise to them.) I'd only add the "important ritual" might have been the letting into the earth of the spirit of one of their number who had passed away during their recent journey.....

B bladup
bladup Sep 14, 2012 16:34:06
Replying to Rhiannon

Rhiannon wrote:
I think you're being too hasty. I think the carvers would have (possibly) had a more close relationship with time than us because they'd have necessarily have had to be aware of cyclical changes with the seasons - it'd have affected where they could find their food and what food they could eat. And imagine how darkness would curtail your goings-about when you couldn't flick a light switch on.

So if they were carving the symbols / shapes over an extended period of time, that might make a lot of sense, connecting one cycle to another. Maybe if you were nomadic, only passing a particular outcrop once every year, then you would indeed add to it (casually or in some important ritual) every year, to mark that you'd been there. Or whatever.

Does that not sound feasible?

There life span was so short, they would have been to busy living day to day, that's the beauty of what i'm saying, the regional maps WOULD/COULD help them day to day, if the landscapes are still natural i can still use them [the panels], this knowledge comes from within me, it's not from books, people were still moving around a little bit more in these landscapes than a lot of you seem to think, not everyone started farming, in the same way we're not all farmers now.

T tiompan
tiompan Sep 14, 2012 16:50:24
Replying to Rhiannon

Rhiannon wrote:
So if they were carving the symbols / shapes over an extended period of time, that might make a lot of sense, connecting one cycle to another. Maybe if you were nomadic, only passing a particular outcrop once every year, then you would indeed add to it (casually or in some important ritual) every year, to mark that you'd been there. Or whatever.

Does that not sound feasible?

Of course it does , just not very romantic .

You mentioned , obliquely , Benny Shanon . A good experienced writer on Ayahuasca , hallucination and realting to this thread , noesis .It has been a fascination a long time and not usually broached in this forum .I agree with Shanon findings , and have seen the same results time and again . No matter how positively life transforming and beneficial some drug induced experiences may be they can result in the experiencer feeling they now know something that is beyond the experience of their peers .This noesis leads to a stronger ego and a belief that their visions are a glimpse into a reality denied to their own and thus everyone else's everyday consciousness .Whilst Shanon accepts the postive effects of A . he denies that it leads to any real knowledge other than of ourselves. Most of us soon learn to avoid that trap it was more common a few decades ago but it's still there . You might believe that you can communicate with animals whilst tripping (or pissed for that matter) or play like a god but you didn't the recordings prove that . Some still fall for it though . "Get out of it and you'll see " , fine , but try the other insight methods too .

T thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Sep 14, 2012 19:28:47
Replying to Rhiannon

Rhiannon wrote:
I think you're being too hasty. I think the carvers would have (possibly) had a more close relationship with time than us because they'd have necessarily have had to be aware of cyclical changes with the seasons ....
Yes, I think that too - not necessarily in the context of rock art specifically, but prehistoric worldview generally. Time as cyclical rather than linear.

The other big point in favour of that idea is that nothing really changed much for hundreds of years at a time. There might be the odd upheaval, terrible storms, bad crops, a nice new swirly pot decoration style, etc, but in general terms progress was incredibly slow, incremenetal and not even necessarily visible in a lifetime, more of a generational pace of development. The rapid exchange of ideas and concepts we take for granted was just not happening, and year after year was mainly marked by the passing of the seasons alone.