Join us as we explore the ways data have been visualized throughout history, from ancient times to the modern era.
Today, we look at cave star charts, which are (hypothetically) rudimentary celestial maps found among Upper Paleolithic cave art! Maps are among the oldest kinds of data visualization, and maps of the stars have played an important role in navigation throughout history, going back… well, as far as we know.
Is this where they got their start?
Several early cave paintings have been identified which seem to depict celestial structures, motions, and events.
Let’s take a look.
Lascaux Caves. #
Located in France, over 600 paintings adorn the walls of the Lascaux Caves. These paintings date back to around 15,000 BCE.
Current hypotheses for interpreting the art point toward the cyclical nature of the art: animals are always depicted in the same order with seasonal attributes, representing the march of time through the seasons.
This perspective is shared by archaeoastronomer Dr. Michael Rappenglueck of the University of Munich, who believes one painting in particular depicts the moon’s 29-day cycle. Additionally, a group of six dots above an aurochs in the ‘Hall of Bulls’ bears a strong resemblance to the Pleiades star cluster, which is visible to the naked eye. Many ancient cultures had myths about the Pleiades, and the arrangement of the dots in Lascaux matches other ancient artwork and maps depicting the cluster. The Pleiades played an important role in the origin of astronomy, and its position in the sky was a reference point for a number of ancient calendars.
Credit: Norbert Aujoulat, Centre National de la Préhistoire. Image source.
Other Caves. #
Rudimentary star charts appear to exist in other European caves, such as La Tête-du-Lion Cave in France and the Cave of El Castillo in Spain. Some of these seem to depict the Pleiades again, and one resembles the Corona Borealis, a prominent constellation that is also a frequent topic of myth.
Criticism. #
Like with tally bones, when interpreting prehistoric art, we must be careful not to project modern ideas onto the people of the ancient world. The patterns in some cave paintings, and in many later artifacts, do appear to line up quite well with the brightest stars or other features of the night sky. It seems the stars, which shift with the seasons, may have been an important part of Upper Paleolithic culture, at least insofar as their movement heralds seasonal changes. However, much of this interpretation is hypothetical, and there’s a lot we simply can’t know for sure.