298
impulses, techniques, and lineages track with a far more primordial genesis than for
many decades had been assumed by scholars. And there is no doubting the paleontological divide that continues to spur heated discussion among evolutionary biologists debating the advent of fire, of meat-eating, of megafaunal extinctions resulting
from human killing and what has become known as the Pleistocene Overkill
Hypothesis.
13
At some point, human cultures did, in fact, pivot upon this central of
all themes: interspecies murder. Within relatively few millennia, such killings would
be turned to ourselves (Fig. 32.3).
February 22, 2018, The Verge, https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/22/17041426/neanderthalscave-painting-spain-uranium-dating, Accessed March 23, 2020. See also, “Ancient Cave Paintings
Clinch the Case for Neandertal Symbolism,” by Kate Wong, Scientific American, February 23,
2018,
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/ancient-cave-paintings-clinch-the-case-forneandertal-symbolism1/, Accessed March 23, 2020.
13 Koch, Paul L.; Barnosky, Anthony D. (2006-01-01). “Late Quaternary Extinctions: State of the
Debate”. Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics. 37 (1): 215–250. doi: https://doi.
org/10.1146/annurev.ecolsys.34.011802.132415
Fig. 32.2 Burgos Complex Wall Paintings, Heretofore Unknown Peoples, with archaeologist
Gustavo Ramirez, Tamaulipas State, Mexico, Ca. 4500 BP. (Photo © M.C.Tobias)
32 Cave Paintings of the Mind
impulses, techniques, and lineages track with a far more primordial genesis than for
many decades had been assumed by scholars. And there is no doubting the paleontological divide that continues to spur heated discussion among evolutionary biologists debating the advent of fire, of meat-eating, of megafaunal extinctions resulting
from human killing and what has become known as the Pleistocene Overkill
Hypothesis.
13
At some point, human cultures did, in fact, pivot upon this central of
all themes: interspecies murder. Within relatively few millennia, such killings would
be turned to ourselves (Fig. 32.3).
February 22, 2018, The Verge, https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/22/17041426/neanderthalscave-painting-spain-uranium-dating, Accessed March 23, 2020. See also, “Ancient Cave Paintings
Clinch the Case for Neandertal Symbolism,” by Kate Wong, Scientific American, February 23,
2018,
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/ancient-cave-paintings-clinch-the-case-forneandertal-symbolism1/, Accessed March 23, 2020.
13 Koch, Paul L.; Barnosky, Anthony D. (2006-01-01). “Late Quaternary Extinctions: State of the
Debate”. Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics. 37 (1): 215–250. doi: https://doi.
org/10.1146/annurev.ecolsys.34.011802.132415
Fig. 32.2 Burgos Complex Wall Paintings, Heretofore Unknown Peoples, with archaeologist
Gustavo Ramirez, Tamaulipas State, Mexico, Ca. 4500 BP. (Photo © M.C.Tobias)
32 Cave Paintings of the Mind