You can’t always be sure you’re sure. That’s our plight because being sure about something drives the deep brain to defend ideas and beliefs. Being unsure is particularly disconcerting when such doubt interferes with long-held notions about a person or a people. So, the discovery by Nicolas Naudinot’s team of archaeologists that people in the Azilian Period were artistically inclined and skilled overthrew the notion that that they weren’t.
Let’s start with the old belief on the simplest level: What does Merriam-Webster say about Azilian?
"Azilian: of or belonging to an early Mesolithic culture found primarily in France and characterized by stone and bone implements of degenerate Magdalenian type and especially by pebbles painted with lines, dots, and geometric figures"*
Let’s follow that with an analogy. Handwriting was once an inseparable part of the American educational system. There were even specific styles. Not so much anymore. Many curricula do not include handwriting instruction. Those who had to practice handwriting under the tutelage of a stern teacher might bemoan that they are among the last to handwrite legibly. They might also warn that in some future generation only a specialist, a handwriting historian expert in the squiggles of the past might be the only person capable of reading a document like The Declaration of Independence. A future generation will become, in at least one sense, devoid of an art form and a skill.
So, for a long time archaeologists believed the people of the Magdelanian Period in France and Spain who made the Lascaux Cave drawings failed to pass on their skill and art to succeeding generations. Then the University of Nice’s Naudinot made his discovery: Engraved stone tablets with—surprise of archaeological surprises—drawings of animal heads not too dissimilar from those of the Magdelanian cave paintings.**
Chance discoveries and treasures purposefully sought often overturn previous notions. The same thing seems to happen in our relationships with others. The deep brain likes stability, but the frontal cortex always has to deal with changes. When we chance upon some information that overthrows previous character assessments, we often struggle for a rational explanation. When a discovery’s new reality seems irrefutable, the deep brain lags behind in acceptance. Maybe what we should do is follow the lead of Naudinot and his team: Go looking for more information.
We might find art, skill, and knowledge we had never known, long overlooked, or even dismissed because of set perceptions locked in the deep brain. Seems that the Azilian people had not forgotten how “to write.” Now archaeologists see the reality that a formerly unsuspected level of sophistication had traveled through time and that the Azilian people were just as capable of symbolic language as their predecessors. All that was needed for this revelation was the discovery of some stone tablets.
Do a little digging. First, look into your deep brain. It is a cave whose recesses hold some notions that conflict with external realities. The paintings on the walls there aren’t the only such artworks. Second, look to find the art, skill, and knowledge you overlooked in the lives of others.
*Merriam-Webster online https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Azilian
** Powell, Eric A., Archaeology, July/August, 2017, Late Paleolithic Masterpieces, p. 20.
Let’s start with the old belief on the simplest level: What does Merriam-Webster say about Azilian?
"Azilian: of or belonging to an early Mesolithic culture found primarily in France and characterized by stone and bone implements of degenerate Magdalenian type and especially by pebbles painted with lines, dots, and geometric figures"*
Let’s follow that with an analogy. Handwriting was once an inseparable part of the American educational system. There were even specific styles. Not so much anymore. Many curricula do not include handwriting instruction. Those who had to practice handwriting under the tutelage of a stern teacher might bemoan that they are among the last to handwrite legibly. They might also warn that in some future generation only a specialist, a handwriting historian expert in the squiggles of the past might be the only person capable of reading a document like The Declaration of Independence. A future generation will become, in at least one sense, devoid of an art form and a skill.
So, for a long time archaeologists believed the people of the Magdelanian Period in France and Spain who made the Lascaux Cave drawings failed to pass on their skill and art to succeeding generations. Then the University of Nice’s Naudinot made his discovery: Engraved stone tablets with—surprise of archaeological surprises—drawings of animal heads not too dissimilar from those of the Magdelanian cave paintings.**
Chance discoveries and treasures purposefully sought often overturn previous notions. The same thing seems to happen in our relationships with others. The deep brain likes stability, but the frontal cortex always has to deal with changes. When we chance upon some information that overthrows previous character assessments, we often struggle for a rational explanation. When a discovery’s new reality seems irrefutable, the deep brain lags behind in acceptance. Maybe what we should do is follow the lead of Naudinot and his team: Go looking for more information.
We might find art, skill, and knowledge we had never known, long overlooked, or even dismissed because of set perceptions locked in the deep brain. Seems that the Azilian people had not forgotten how “to write.” Now archaeologists see the reality that a formerly unsuspected level of sophistication had traveled through time and that the Azilian people were just as capable of symbolic language as their predecessors. All that was needed for this revelation was the discovery of some stone tablets.
Do a little digging. First, look into your deep brain. It is a cave whose recesses hold some notions that conflict with external realities. The paintings on the walls there aren’t the only such artworks. Second, look to find the art, skill, and knowledge you overlooked in the lives of others.
*Merriam-Webster online https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Azilian
** Powell, Eric A., Archaeology, July/August, 2017, Late Paleolithic Masterpieces, p. 20.
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