Cookie Consent by Cookie Consent by TermsFeed
 
Bradshaw Foundation Latest News
Bradshaw Foundation Latest News
Bradshaw Foundation Latest News
Bradshaw Foundation - Latest News
Hand stencils and their missing fingers
Tuesday 04 December 2018

An article by Joe Pinkstone on dailymail.co.uk - Why did so many cave men have missing fingers? - reports on a new study that asks if and why Palaeolithic people amputated their fingers in religious sacrifice.

Cosquer Cave hand stencils cave art paintings France
Cosquer cave, located in the Calanque de Morgiou in Marseille, France, with its entrance now located 37m underwater due to the Holocene sea level rise, has examples of the hand stencils. Image: Jean Clottes

Many examples of cave art feature hand prints of people with amputated fingers. Some of the art shows examples of people with several stumps on a hand. Archaeologists do not all agree and some say it could be caused by frostbite. Prehistoric humans may have cut off their own fingers as part of a gruesome religious ritual.

Cave art discovered from all over the world features hand-prints outlined with ochre and other ancient pigments. These prints are regularly missing parts of fingers and experts believe the widespread absence of the appendages is most likely as a result of religious sacrifice. Scientists say the missing fingers may also be as a result of the harsh environment in prehistoric times.

Archaeologist Mark Collard of Simon Fraser University in Canada reports in New Scientist that finger amputation was a reasonably common behaviour in many regions in the recent past, for the purposes of religious sacrifice.

A database including sites in Africa, Eurasia, Oceania, and the Americas revealed 121 separate societies which exhibited the same behaviour. At Grotte de Gargas in France, there are 231 hand stencils in total that belong to a group of up to 50 people. Almost half (114) of these are missing one or more digits.

Conversely, some scientists have claimed there may be less painful alternatives to explain the plethora of cave art with amputated fingers, such as bending the fingers, whilst others argue that a definitive answer may never be found.

Article continues below
Article continues

Editor's Note:

Cosquer cave, located in the Calanque de Morgiou in Marseille, France, with its entrance now located 37m underwater due to the Holocene sea level rise, has examples of this.

According to Dr. Jean Clottes, the hand stencils with incomplete fingers were realized by bending the fingers. Hand stencils with incomplete fingers had until very recently only been found in very few caves, mostly in the Pyrénées (Gargas, Tibiran, Fuente del Trucho). Now, we know that the phenomenon was far more widely represented than had been thought. The now-established fact that roughly at the same time such hand stencils were being made in sites hundreds of miles apart should deal a death blow to the theory of pathologic mutilations: how likely would it be that human groups living at such distances from one another should independently develop the same crippling diseases and should react in the same way by immortalizing them on the walls of the caves by means of the same techniques?

See more on the Cosquer Cave:
Cosquer Cave

Comment
Rock Art
Rock carvings rediscovered in Central Brazil
by Bradshaw Foundation
Wednesday 20 March 2024
Petition to save Vingen petroglyphs in Norway
by Bradshaw Foundation
Tuesday 13 February 2024
Norway's Vingen petroglyphs at risk
by Bradshaw Foundation
Tuesday 13 February 2024
Cave Painting
Capturing the art of Cosquer
by Bradshaw Foundation
Monday 30 May 2022
Hand Stencils in Chhattisgarh
by Bradshaw Foundation
Wednesday 19 January 2022
New U-series dating of rock art in China
by Bradshaw Foundation
Thursday 06 January 2022
Paleoanthropology
Lee Berger named NGS Explorer in Residence
by Bradshaw Foundation
Tuesday 21 March 2023
New study on Neanderthal hunting and butchery
by Bradshaw Foundation
Tuesday 07 February 2023
Denisovan connection in Laos
by Bradshaw Foundation
Thursday 19 May 2022
Archaeology
Palaeolithic dwelling found in La Garma cave
by Bradshaw Foundation
Monday 04 December 2023
New publication: Cave of Bones
by Bradshaw Foundation
Friday 30 June 2023
Circles of Stone
by Bradshaw Foundation
Thursday 06 April 2023
Anthropology
Early Women Were Hunters
by Bradshaw Foundation
Friday 14 July 2023
BBC's Nature and Us
by Bradshaw Foundation
Monday 22 November 2021
South Pacific Islanders used obsidian for tattoos
by Bradshaw Foundation
Tuesday 12 July 2016
World Heritage
Burrup Peninsula in World Heritage delays
by Bradshaw Foundation
Monday 27 November 2023
Fire damage on Rapa Nui
by Bradshaw Foundation
Friday 07 October 2022
Songlines: Tracking the Seven Sisters
by Bradshaw Foundation
Friday 05 November 2021
Follow the Bradshaw Foundation on social media for news & updates
Follow the Bradshaw Foundation
on social media for news & updates
Follow the Bradshaw Foundation on social media for news & updates
Follow the Bradshaw Foundation
on social media for news & updates
If you have enjoyed visiting this website
please consider adding a link © Bradshaw Foundation
 
 
ROCK ART NETWORK
Rock Art Network Bradshaw Foundation Getty Conservation Institute
ROCK ART
CAVE PAINTINGS
Capturing the art of Cosquer
by Bradshaw Foundation
Monday 30 May 2022
Hand Stencils in Chhattisgarh
by Bradshaw Foundation
Wednesday 19 January 2022
New U-series dating of rock art in China
by Bradshaw Foundation
Thursday 06 January 2022
PALEOANTHROPOLOGY
ARCHAEOLOGY
Palaeolithic dwelling found in La Garma cave
by Bradshaw Foundation
Monday 04 December 2023
New publication: Cave of Bones
by Bradshaw Foundation
Friday 30 June 2023
Circles of Stone
by Bradshaw Foundation
Thursday 06 April 2023
ANTHROPOLOGY
Early Women Were Hunters
by Bradshaw Foundation
Friday 14 July 2023
BBC's Nature and Us
by Bradshaw Foundation
Monday 22 November 2021
South Pacific Islanders used obsidian for tattoos
by Bradshaw Foundation
Tuesday 12 July 2016
WORLD HERITAGE
Burrup Peninsula in World Heritage delays
by Bradshaw Foundation
Monday 27 November 2023
Fire damage on Rapa Nui
by Bradshaw Foundation
Friday 07 October 2022
Songlines: Tracking the Seven Sisters
by Bradshaw Foundation
Friday 05 November 2021
BOOK REVIEWS
Bradshaw Foundation Donate Friends
Support our work & become a
Friend of the Foundation
 
 
 
Bradshaw Foundation YouTube
Bradshaw Foundation iShop Shop Store
Bradshaw Foundation iShop Shop Store
Bradshaw Foundation iShop Shop Store