Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-jr42d Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T03:53:45.547Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Taï Plaque and Calendrical Notation in the Upper Palaeolithic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 December 2008

Alexander Marshack
Alexander Marshack
Affiliation:
Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, 11 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Analysis of the Taï plaque, the most complex Upper Palaeolithic composition, has revealed evidence of the problem-solving and visual cueing strategies involved in the accumulation of the marks. The composition consists of a boustrophedon sequence of short horizontal containing lines or sections, each of which carries irregular subsets of marks. The analysis proceeded in stages over a period of twenty years, initially with use of a microscope, but did not involve cross-sectional analysis or counting. The theoretical assumption guiding the analysis was that notations represent a cognitive form of visual problem-solving and structuring. A test of the sequence of containing lines and their subsets of marks suggested the notation on the Taï plaque was a non-arithmetic form of lunar/solar observational recording. The analysis, if validated, carries profound implications for our understanding of Upper Palaeolithic culture, and cultural features of the indigenous European population in the periods that followed.

Type
Articles
Information
Cambridge Archaeological Journal , Volume 1 , Issue 1 , April 1991 , pp. 25 - 61
Copyright
Copyright © The McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research 1991

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Brochier, L.-E. and Brochier, J.-L., 1973. L'art mobilier de deux nouveaux gisements magdaléniens à Saint-Nazaire-en-Royans (Drôme). Etudes Préhistoriques 4, 1–12Google Scholar
Davis, W., 1986. The origins of image making. Current Anthropology 27(3), 193–215CrossRefGoogle Scholar
D'Errico, F., 1989. Paleolithic lunar calendars a case of wishful thinking? Current Anthropology 30(1), 117–18CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marshack, A., 1969. Polesini, a re-examination of the engraved Upper Palaeolithic mobiliary materials of Italy by a new methodology. Rivista di Scienze Preistoriche 24(2), 219–81Google Scholar
Marshack, A., 1970a. Notation dans les Gravures du Paléolithiaue Supérieur. Mémoires de l'lnstitut de Préhistoire de l'Université de Bordeaux, 8Google Scholar
Marshack, A., 1970b. Le bâton de commandement de Montgaudier (Charente): réexamen au microscope et interprétation nouvelle. L'Anthropologie 74 (5–6) 321–52Google Scholar
Marshack, A., 1972a. The Roots of Civilization. New York: McGraw Hill; London: Thames & HudsonGoogle Scholar
Marshack, A., 1972b. Upper Palaeolithic notation and symbol. Science 178, 817–32CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marshack, A., 1973. Analyse préliminaire d'une gravure à système de notation de la grotte du Taï (Drôme). Etudes Préhistoriques 4, 13–16Google Scholar
Marshack, A., 1974. The Chamula calendar board: an internal and comparative analysis, in Mesoamerican Archaeology: New Approaches, ed. Hammond, N.. Austin: University of Texas Press, 255–70Google Scholar
Marshack, A., 1975. An Olmec mosaic: internal analysis reveals prehistoric arithmetic, possibly calendric contents, in Archaeoastronomy in Pre-Columbian America, ed. Aveni, A.F.. Austin: University of Texas Press, 341–77Google Scholar
Marshack, A., 1977. The meander as a system: the analysis and recognition of iconographic units in Upper Palaeolithic compositions, in Form in Indigenous Art: Schematization in the Art of Aboriginal Australia and Prehistoric Europe, ed. Ucko, P.J.. London: Duckworth; New Jersey: Humanities Press, 286–317Google Scholar
Marshack, A., 1979. Upper Palaeolithic symbol systems of the Russian Plain: cognitive and comparative analysis of complex ritual marking. Current Anthropology 20(2), 271–311. Also discussion and reply to Boroneant and Frolov, CA 20(3), 604–8CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marshack, A., 1983a. Nineteenth century Siberian and American Indian calendar sticks. Paper presented at the First International Conference on Ethnoastronomy, Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
Marshack, A., 1983b. European Upper Palaeolithic-Mesolithic symbolic continuity: a cognitive-comparative study of ritual marking, in Valcamonica Symposium III: Les Expressions Intellectuelles de l'Homme Préhistorique. Capo di Ponte, 111–19Google Scholar
Marshack, A., 1985a. Hierarchical Evolution of the Human Capacity: The Palaeolithic Evidence. Fifty-fourth James Arthur Lecture on The Evolution of the Human Brain', 1984. New York: American Museum of Natural HistoryGoogle Scholar
Marshack, A., 1985b. A lunar-solar calendar stick from North America. American Antiquity 50(1), 27–51CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marshack, A., 1985c. Theoretical concepts that lead to new analytical methods, modes of inquiry and classes of data. Rock Art Research 2(2), 95–111Google Scholar
Marshack, A., 1988. North American Indian calendar sticks: the evidence for a widely distributed tradition, in World Archaeoastronomy, ed. Aveni, A.F.. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 308–24Google Scholar
Marshack, A., 1989. Theory and methodology in the study of the Upper Palaeolithic signs. Rock Art Research 6, 17– 53Google Scholar
Marshack, A., 1990. L'évolution et la transformation du décor du début de l'Aurignacien au Magdalénien Final, in L'Art des Objets au Paléolithique 2: Les voies de la recherche, ed. Clottes, J.. Paris: Picard, 139–62Google Scholar
Orlova, E.P., 1966. The calendars of the peoples of North Siberia and the Far East. Sibirski Arkheologieskii Sbornik 2, 297–321 (in Russian)Google Scholar