PRESS RELEASE
“Ice Age Man Hunted by the Moon”
(Portland, Oregon) The animal murals on the walls of the caves at Lascaux, France, dating to as far back as 17,000 years ago, have been considered some of the earliest art works of man. Some of the styles are quite imaginative, such as using crevices in the rocks to depict flowing water and subtly controlled shading to enhance muscular forms. With the discovery of the caves in 1940, many modern naturalistic techniques required re-dating. Upon exiting the gallery, Pablo Picasso, was said to have exclaimed, “we have learned nothing.”
The practical use of the art has been a mystery, often explained by magic, rituals and drug-induced trances. Author Bernie Taylor debunks these ideas in his book Biological Time (chapter 5). He argues that the markings accompanying the animals were a form of scientific notation concerning the timing of important events, such as migration and mating. “Knowledge of how large mammals are timed is critical for a successful hunt with primitive equipment,” says Taylor, who is also a big game archery hunter. “You need to know where the animal will be and what state of activity it will be in.”
Taylor utilized previously published data from the scientific literature concerning deer and elk to demonstrate that these animals are timed by solar-lunar cycles of light and darkness. “They group, mate and migrate when they can see at night around the Full Moon and drop their young and shed antlers during the darker nights in certain solar periods of the year,” relates the author.
“Our rhythms would be different if we had to escape from predators and were exposed to natural illumination at night, such as having the light on for 24 consecutive hours during a Full Moon period,” says Taylor. Many of us have experienced these conditions during a summer visit to Alaska where we are up all night with the arctic sun. The author provides examples of indigenous peoples who have ceremonies during the continuous light of the Full Moon and harvest fish and game to the lunar cycle.
The relationship between the animals and art became clear after the author reviewed them from this perspective. He suggests that the markings and animal images in the cave were a calendar and, perhaps, the first writings of man. “13 is a common number with the animals in the caves,” relates the author. “If you add this number to the first Crescent Moon it adds up to the Full Moon.” He points out that the Lascaux symbol for the Full Moon is a square and much like the Chinese pictogram for the moon. “Neither calendars contain circles, which are difficult to scratch on hard surfaces,” says Taylor, who also lived in the Middle Kingdom. “Of the more than 40,000 characters in the Chinese writing system, there are few, if any, circles.”
What is most interesting about the story behind Taylor’s decoding of the images in the caves is that he wasn’t specifically studying them. He was researching how animals time themselves. Upon understanding the implications of solar and lunar timing on animals, he considered that someone must have known about this in the past. This led the author to the archeological literature where the numerical sequences with the images of the large mammals at Lascaux were readily revealed.
Taylor’s find suggests that Ice-age man was an artist and a biologist. His intellectual capacity was much greater than we have envisioned. He even knew things about the natural world that had escaped the notice of modern biologists. The author says, “it appears that Piscasso’s remark about our stunted development of knowledge is not only true for art, but for biology as well.”
Biological Time can be ordered at 1-800-431-1579, or purchased in major bookstores and at www.bookch.com. For more information on the subject see www.BiologicalTime.com.
Biological Time
209 pages
b/w illustrations
hardcover 7x10
$29.95
ISBN 0-9749932-0-4
Available from The Ea Press
For review copies e-mail TheEaPress@Aol.com