Is there patterning in the location and subject matter of Upper Paleolithic representations?
Until recently, researchers thought that portable art objects were situated in living sites, either at the mouths of caves or in rock shelters; but almost never deep underground. However, excavations by Bégouën and Clottes (1981, 1984-85) have now uncovered several hundred fist-sized, engraved stone plaques from deep underground (many of them from as deep as 550 meters from the entrance) in the cave of Enlène in the French Pyrenees.
Both object and cave art of the European Late Upper Paleolithic are highly patterned (Leroi-Gourhan 1967). For example, decoration is simple and schematic on objects with short use-lives such as spear points. On objects expected to last, decoration is painstaking and realistic. It also appears that different animals were considered appropriate in different contexts. Bison, for example, are often found on stone plaquettes and cave walls, but are nearly absent on other media. Horses dominate representations on pierced antler batons. Certain combinations of images repeat themselves on pierced antler objects; phallus/fish and horse/reindeer being the most common. The horse/bison combination never exists, even though this is the most common combination on cave walls. Reindeer, the most frequent prey animal, is most commonly seen on engraved limestone slabs, but is rarely painted. Leroi-Gourhan takes this patterning to reflect a complex body of conceptions operating within the context of a well developed oral tradition; in simpler terms, a rich body of shared knowledge, belief, myth, and story. It is difficult to disagree.
The best known search for spatial patterning in the art led Leroi-Gourhan to examine about 50 of the painted caves in France and Spain (Leroi-Gourhan 1967). A similar but independent search was conducted simultaneously by Annette Laming (1962). The goal in both cases was to determine whether the painted caves were structured with respect to the distribution and location of different animals and signs. Were representations in the different caves organized in similar ways? Both Leroi-Gourhan and Laming arrived at the same conclusion: that the distribution of animals and signs in the caves was not random. Certain animals/signs were consistently associated with other animals/ signs. Horses were almost always associated with bison, this combination being found mainly in the central areas; carnivores and humans were almost always pictured in the far reaches of caves. Although there are certainly disagreements over the specifics and statistical significance of Leroi-Gourhan's results, most specialists today accept his argument that the caves were organized according to some preconceived plan.
