Using an unconventional, centuries-old method, researchers have identified animal figures hidden on the walls of a cave in Spain. This technology, called holography, dates back to the early 19th century, but is perhaps best known for its use in the View-Master, a pre-VR viewer beloved by generations of children.
Cave paintings are a well-known and long-standing art medium in Europe. Its history goes back at least 40,000 years. Although archaeologists have studied this ancient art form for more than a century, their focus has typically been on the two-dimensional features of designs, and when recording art, they have relied on sketches, tracing, and photographs.
Recently, 3D recording and display methods have become popular among archaeologists. These methods capture more detail from rock art than 2D art, but they are still typically viewed and studied as 2D images on a computer screen, which is what no How would the creators of art have seen it.
A new study published August 17 in the journal Nature AntiquityIt changes the way archaeologists look at cave paintings, with anthropomorphic depictions of art from La Pacija Cave in north-central Spain.
Rachel AsianAn archaeologist and photographer at the Complutense University of Madrid, and her colleagues have devised a simple way to capture the three-dimensional nature of cave walls and the art on them.
Related: Rock art at Pinwheel Cave in California may depict the hallucinogenic “flower of euphoria.”
Pairs of high-resolution photographs taken at a distance of 2.5 inches (63.5 mm) — the average distance between an adult’s two pupils — can be viewed together, forcing the brain to perceive a 3D image. While the pairs of holograms are best seen with a projector, the hidden hologram can also be spotted with the naked eye, similar to those found in the “magic eye” holographic designs of the 1990s.
More than 700 drawings of animals, symbols, dots, and lines cover the walls of La Pasiga, first discovered in 1911. But through their systematic study using stereoscopic imaging, Asaien and his colleagues uncovered three previously hidden animals: two horses, one bull, and a young bull. Extinct cattle species.
The horses can be easily seen in high-resolution photos that the researchers have posted to Flickr. Digitally enhanced images reveal a horse below the deer in the center, as well as the mane, neck and chest of another horse on the left. This last horse is located so that its head rests in a concave area of the cave wall, while its chest is in a convex area, thus enhancing the animal’s three-dimensionality.
With 3D glasses, or even by moving your eyes slightly, it’s easy to see the undulating character of the cave walls just as someone saw them tens of thousands of years ago.
“In Paleolithic cave art, artists used the natural shapes of caves to create their paintings,” Asaien told Live Science in an email. “The need to preserve this 3D visualization of the caves was one of the reasons I was inspired to use these holograms.” Thanks to the high photographic quality, the images allow researchers to see the art in “real” 3D, not simulated using 3D scanners.
“The technique these authors use is useful for reminding us how technically skilled these artists are and for giving us an insight into the creative process.” April NoelAn archaeologist at the University of Victoria in Canada, who was not involved in the study, told Live Science in an email. Noel said the publication of the holograms meant the general public could come closer to experiencing art as people did in the past, but “you still miss the sound of water droplets, the cool dampness of the air”.
Asaien remains fascinated by the evolution of cave artists’ techniques over time, especially as “these artists began to understand rock as another element of painting.” She plans to incorporate additional methods in the future to fully understand Paleolithic cave art, such as whether ancient artists manipulated and shaped rocks, perhaps through carving, to create three-dimensional shapes.
