Later Acheulian Marking Motifs II - Other Sites / j)phosphns

"Table 1: Occurrence of 15 Typical Phosphene Form Groups in 328 Scribblings of One Single Child."

Bednarik (1995: 614) argues that one "consistency in early marking is that all the arrangements are recognizable as phosphene motifs: the convergent-lines motif so widespread in rock arts the world over and the structurally related radial motif are among the 15 phosphene motifs of modern humans [Kellogg, Knoll and Kugler 1965]; so are the sets of parallel lines, the dots [cupules] . . ." Again (Bednarik 1994:176): "the prefigurative art of the world, I have claimed . . . is derived from phosphene motifs, and it therefore consists of arrangements and combinations of a known series of form constants (Bednarik 1984, 1986, 1987)." Similarly Harrod (2003) "Deciphering Early Paleolithic graphemes (EPmrk) suggests that there are apparently eight (8) marking designs so far evident in Later Acheulian sites and that they correspond to eight the 15 basic phosphene form groups identified by Kellogg, Knoll, and Kugler (1965).

Illustration © Kellogg, R, Knoll, M., Kugler, J. (1965). Form-similarity between phosphenes of adults and pre-school children’s scribblings. Nature 208,5015:1129-1130. Table 1. For Bednarik on phosphene motifs in palaeoart see Bednarik, R.G. (1995). Concept-mediated marking in the Lower Paleolithic. Current Anthropology 36,4:605-634; Bednarik, R.G. (1994). Art origins. Anthropos 89:169-180.