Davidson Review of Marshack Roots AA 1993

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ARCHEOLOGY: The Roots of Civilization: TheCognitive Beginnings of Man's First Art,Symbol and Notation. Alexander Marshack.

Article in American Anthropologist December 1993Impact Factor: 1.49 DOI: 10.1525/aa.1993.95.4.02a00350

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The Roots of Civilization: The Cognitive Beginnings of Man's First Art, Symbol and Notationby Alexander MarshackReview by: Iain DavidsonAmerican Anthropologist, New Series, Vol. 95, No. 4 (Dec., 1993), pp. 1027-1028Published by: Wiley on behalf of the American Anthropological AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/683051 .Accessed: 04/07/2013 16:24

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ARCHEOLOGYRCHEOLOGY

search tool that succeeds in transcending thelimits of school, nation, and mother tongue.For example, that part of the bibliography

dealing with archeological methodology con-tains about 300 titles, only 65 percent ofwhich are in French. The other 35 percentare in English (mostly), German, Russian,Spanish, Italian, Swedish, and Portuguese.

For American anthropologists who readFrench, La prihistoire dans le monde hould bea valuable reference work for the entire OldWorld. On the pre-Neolithic prehistory ofEurope, it provides the sort of authoritativesummary of recentwork that probably cannotbe found elsewhere in a single book. Even asthe book ages, its bibliography will remain alasting resource (I still consult my copy ofLeroi-Gourhan's 1965 volume several times ayear, usually to find a reference quickly andeasily).

The Roots of Civilization: The Cognitive Be-ginnings of Man's First Art, Symbol and No-tation. Alexander Marshack. Revised andexpanded edition. New York: Moyer Bell,

1991. 446 pp.

IAIN DAVIDSON

University f New England, Australia

The work of Alexander Marshack is anenigma. Since his earliest publications in ar-cheology (1964) he has consistently askedquestions that challenge archeologists to gobeyond their usual range of concerns. Thisbook is a lightly amended reprint of a work,

originally published in 1972, in which Mar-shack moved from an observation that therewas detail to be observed in the marks onsome bone objects of the European UpperPaleolithic to a description of how thesemight have been a notation of lunar phases,and on to an extended discussion of time-fac-toring in human evolution. The initial workon marked bone objects was closely linked toa monograph on some of the material, pub-lished only in French (Marshack 1970). Theclaim about time-factoring is itself very impor-tant, yet Marshack's work has, until the workof d'Errico (e.g., 1989a, 1989b), not beenafforded the compliment of detailed critiqueby professional archeologists. Not that it hasbeen without criticism. Indeed, in reviewinga book as lightly amended as this, it is difficultto go beyond the often trenchant criticismsof the original reviewers (e.g., King 1973;Rosenfeld 1971). From my own point of view(e.g., Davidson and Noble 1989, 1993; Noble

search tool that succeeds in transcending thelimits of school, nation, and mother tongue.For example, that part of the bibliography

dealing with archeological methodology con-tains about 300 titles, only 65 percent ofwhich are in French. The other 35 percentare in English (mostly), German, Russian,Spanish, Italian, Swedish, and Portuguese.

For American anthropologists who readFrench, La prihistoire dans le monde hould bea valuable reference work for the entire OldWorld. On the pre-Neolithic prehistory ofEurope, it provides the sort of authoritativesummary of recentwork that probably cannotbe found elsewhere in a single book. Even asthe book ages, its bibliography will remain alasting resource (I still consult my copy ofLeroi-Gourhan's 1965 volume several times ayear, usually to find a reference quickly andeasily).

The Roots of Civilization: The Cognitive Be-ginnings of Man's First Art, Symbol and No-tation. Alexander Marshack. Revised andexpanded edition. New York: Moyer Bell,

1991. 446 pp.

IAIN DAVIDSON

University f New England, Australia

The work of Alexander Marshack is anenigma. Since his earliest publications in ar-cheology (1964) he has consistently askedquestions that challenge archeologists to gobeyond their usual range of concerns. Thisbook is a lightly amended reprint of a work,

originally published in 1972, in which Mar-shack moved from an observation that therewas detail to be observed in the marks onsome bone objects of the European UpperPaleolithic to a description of how thesemight have been a notation of lunar phases,and on to an extended discussion of time-fac-toring in human evolution. The initial workon marked bone objects was closely linked toa monograph on some of the material, pub-lished only in French (Marshack 1970). Theclaim about time-factoring is itself very impor-tant, yet Marshack's work has, until the workof d'Errico (e.g., 1989a, 1989b), not beenafforded the compliment of detailed critiqueby professional archeologists. Not that it hasbeen without criticism. Indeed, in reviewinga book as lightly amended as this, it is difficultto go beyond the often trenchant criticismsof the original reviewers (e.g., King 1973;Rosenfeld 1971). From my own point of view(e.g., Davidson and Noble 1989, 1993; Noble

and Davidson 1991, 1993), Marshack's work(e.g., 1976) has been one of the stimuli in thecurrent explosion of interest in language ori-

gins. It is disappointing, therefore, that thediscussion of this issue in this book, though itpoints with unerring insight at many of thekey issues, now seems very firmly anchored inthe concerns of the 1960s and does not reflectthe ferment of excitement that has been gen-erated recently.

The revision of this book might havebeen an opportunity to correct that state ofaffairs, but the opportunity has not beentaken. The book remains a fascinating col-lection of observations presented in a stylereflecting Marshack's earlier career injour-nalism, with copious examples of his ownbrilliant photographs of details of marksupon the surfaces of objects and visuallystriking photographs of whole pieces fromthe late Pleistocene of Europe. For the non-scholarly person, the quirky text is fre-quently exciting (though tending to havetoo much of the detail of Marshack's per-sonal involvement in his quest) and thesumptuous photographs make this work a

continuing delight.What, then, is the problem?The issue, really, is one of analysis. No

one doubts Marshack's fundamental in-sight that there is something to be observedat high magnification in the marks on somebone objects from the Upper Paleolithic ofEurope. What is at issue is whether the storythat he tells can be supported by the obser-vations he makes. Professional archeolo-gists are all familiar with the difficulties of

turningthe observations we make into

dataabout the past. Marshack, to his credit, hasalso spent a lot of time talking with a selec-tion of scholars from other disciplines andreading their works. When such peopleread what he writes they see in there areflection of themselves. And they no doubtassume that Marshack has mastered theproblem of interpreting the archeologicalrecord.

Part of Marshack's argument is that themarks he photographs so well are a nota-tion, and that what is being noted arephases of the moon. I would have hoped ina revision of the book that he would havedealt with the sort of criticism that wasmade when the argument was put in thepast (by such as Rosenfeld, King, and oth-ers). I think that what is needed is to takethe sequences of numbers that Marshack'sobservations provide and analyze them tosee whether there is any patterning in them.

and Davidson 1991, 1993), Marshack's work(e.g., 1976) has been one of the stimuli in thecurrent explosion of interest in language ori-

gins. It is disappointing, therefore, that thediscussion of this issue in this book, though itpoints with unerring insight at many of thekey issues, now seems very firmly anchored inthe concerns of the 1960s and does not reflectthe ferment of excitement that has been gen-erated recently.

The revision of this book might havebeen an opportunity to correct that state ofaffairs, but the opportunity has not beentaken. The book remains a fascinating col-lection of observations presented in a stylereflecting Marshack's earlier career injour-nalism, with copious examples of his ownbrilliant photographs of details of marksupon the surfaces of objects and visuallystriking photographs of whole pieces fromthe late Pleistocene of Europe. For the non-scholarly person, the quirky text is fre-quently exciting (though tending to havetoo much of the detail of Marshack's per-sonal involvement in his quest) and thesumptuous photographs make this work a

continuing delight.What, then, is the problem?The issue, really, is one of analysis. No

one doubts Marshack's fundamental in-sight that there is something to be observedat high magnification in the marks on somebone objects from the Upper Paleolithic ofEurope. What is at issue is whether the storythat he tells can be supported by the obser-vations he makes. Professional archeolo-gists are all familiar with the difficulties of

turningthe observations we make into

dataabout the past. Marshack, to his credit, hasalso spent a lot of time talking with a selec-tion of scholars from other disciplines andreading their works. When such peopleread what he writes they see in there areflection of themselves. And they no doubtassume that Marshack has mastered theproblem of interpreting the archeologicalrecord.

Part of Marshack's argument is that themarks he photographs so well are a nota-tion, and that what is being noted arephases of the moon. I would have hoped ina revision of the book that he would havedealt with the sort of criticism that wasmade when the argument was put in thepast (by such as Rosenfeld, King, and oth-ers). I think that what is needed is to takethe sequences of numbers that Marshack'sobservations provide and analyze them tosee whether there is any patterning in them.

1027027

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AMERICAN NTHROPOLOGISTMERICAN NTHROPOLOGIST

The analysis should not confine itself to thesearch for pattern but might test whetherthere is a case for lunar notation. If you start

at a particular point, is there a likelihoodthat there is a break consistently, and in a waythat is patterned at some point that indicatesa strong link to the lunar phases? Any at-tempt to do this must come to grips with thestatistics of the situation where so many ofthe groupings of marks are in very smallnumbers, together with the wide toleranceMarshack allows for hitting a target phase.I do not think that the sort of patternmatching for individual objects that is Mar-shack's method is suitable for establishingthe case. It may work for objects known tobe calendars (Marshack 1985), but the is-sue of establishing that the prehistoric ob-jects are analogous requires more subtlemethods. I think there is an interestingcontrast with Thom's work on megalithicstone circles, where the observations havebeen subjected to exhaustive statisticalanalysis in the search for pattern.

In short, while there is still much to inter-est general readers in this book, they, and

Marshack, have not been well served by thereprinting. Marshack should have beenasked to do a thorough revision, bringingit up to date and answering the severe criti-cisms the work received in the past. Thatwould have been a very interesting book.

References Cited

Davidson, lain, and William Noble1989 The Archaeology of Perception:

Traces of Depiction and Language. Cur-rent Anthropology 30:125-158.

1993 Tools and Language in Human Evo-lution. In Tools, Language and Cogni-tion in Human Evolution. K. Gibson andT. Ingold, eds. Pp. 363-348. Cambridge:Cambridge University Press

d'Errico, F.1989a Palaeolithic Lunar Calendars: A

Case of Wishful Thinking? Current An-thropology 30:117-119.

1989b Reply to Marshack. Current An-thropology 30:494-500.

King, A. R.1973 Review of The Roots of Civilization

and Notation dans les gravures dupaleolithique upe,rieur. merican Anthro-pologist 75:1897-1900.

Marshack, Alexander1964 Lunar Notation on Upper Paleolithic

Remains. Science 146:743-745.

The analysis should not confine itself to thesearch for pattern but might test whetherthere is a case for lunar notation. If you start

at a particular point, is there a likelihoodthat there is a break consistently, and in a waythat is patterned at some point that indicatesa strong link to the lunar phases? Any at-tempt to do this must come to grips with thestatistics of the situation where so many ofthe groupings of marks are in very smallnumbers, together with the wide toleranceMarshack allows for hitting a target phase.I do not think that the sort of patternmatching for individual objects that is Mar-shack's method is suitable for establishingthe case. It may work for objects known tobe calendars (Marshack 1985), but the is-sue of establishing that the prehistoric ob-jects are analogous requires more subtlemethods. I think there is an interestingcontrast with Thom's work on megalithicstone circles, where the observations havebeen subjected to exhaustive statisticalanalysis in the search for pattern.

In short, while there is still much to inter-est general readers in this book, they, and

Marshack, have not been well served by thereprinting. Marshack should have beenasked to do a thorough revision, bringingit up to date and answering the severe criti-cisms the work received in the past. Thatwould have been a very interesting book.

References Cited

Davidson, lain, and William Noble1989 The Archaeology of Perception:

Traces of Depiction and Language. Cur-rent Anthropology 30:125-158.

1993 Tools and Language in Human Evo-lution. In Tools, Language and Cogni-tion in Human Evolution. K. Gibson andT. Ingold, eds. Pp. 363-348. Cambridge:Cambridge University Press

d'Errico, F.1989a Palaeolithic Lunar Calendars: A

Case of Wishful Thinking? Current An-thropology 30:117-119.

1989b Reply to Marshack. Current An-thropology 30:494-500.

King, A. R.1973 Review of The Roots of Civilization

and Notation dans les gravures dupaleolithique upe,rieur. merican Anthro-pologist 75:1897-1900.

Marshack, Alexander1964 Lunar Notation on Upper Paleolithic

Remains. Science 146:743-745.

1970 Notation dans les gravures dupaleolithique superieur. Publications del'Institut de Prehistoire de l'Universit6

de Bordeaux, Memoire No 8. Bordeaux:Imprimerie Delmas.1972 The Roots of Civilization. NewYork:

McGraw Hill.1976 Some Implications of the Paleolithic

Symbolic Evidence for the Origins ofLanguage. Current Anthropology17:274-282.

1985 A Lunar-Solar Year Calendar Stickfrom North America. American Antiq-uity 50:27-51.

Noble, William, and lain Davidson1991 The Evolutionary Emergence of

Modern Human Behaviour: Languageand Its Archaeology. Man:Journal of theRoyal Anthropological Institute 26:223-253.

1993 Tracing the Emergence of ModernHuman Behaviour: Methodological Pit-falls, and a Theoretical Path. Journal ofAnthropological Research 12.

Rosenfeld, Andree1971 Review of Notation dans les gravures du

paleolithique uperieur. Antiquity 45:317-319.

Space, Time, and Archaeological Land-scapes. Jacqueline Rossignol and LuAnnWandsnider, eds. Interdisciplinary Contri-butions to Archaeology. New York: PlenumPress, 1992. 314 pp.

DAVID B. MADSENState

ArcheologistUtah Division of State History

There has been an increasing effort tosteer archeological research away from theartifact and the site as primary units ofanalysis and toward the larger environ-mental settings in which human popula-tions played out their lives. This volume of12 papers, edited by Jacqueline Rossignoland LuAnn Wandsnider, draws on much ofthat work and attempts to provide a frame-work for regional data recovery and analy-sis. In the past, phrases such as nonsite or

offsite archeology have been used to iden-tify this approach, but here participants use

archeological landscapes to describe thisperspective. They do so explicitly and ex-plain that this embodies the view that thedistribution of archaeological artifacts andfeatures relative to elements of the land-scape ... provide insight into social and

1970 Notation dans les gravures dupaleolithique superieur. Publications del'Institut de Prehistoire de l'Universit6

de Bordeaux, Memoire No 8. Bordeaux:Imprimerie Delmas.1972 The Roots of Civilization. NewYork:

McGraw Hill.1976 Some Implications of the Paleolithic

Symbolic Evidence for the Origins ofLanguage. Current Anthropology17:274-282.

1985 A Lunar-Solar Year Calendar Stickfrom North America. American Antiq-uity 50:27-51.

Noble, William, and lain Davidson1991 The Evolutionary Emergence of

Modern Human Behaviour: Languageand Its Archaeology. Man:Journal of theRoyal Anthropological Institute 26:223-253.

1993 Tracing the Emergence of ModernHuman Behaviour: Methodological Pit-falls, and a Theoretical Path. Journal ofAnthropological Research 12.

Rosenfeld, Andree1971 Review of Notation dans les gravures du

paleolithique uperieur. Antiquity 45:317-319.

Space, Time, and Archaeological Land-scapes. Jacqueline Rossignol and LuAnnWandsnider, eds. Interdisciplinary Contri-butions to Archaeology. New York: PlenumPress, 1992. 314 pp.

DAVID B. MADSENState

ArcheologistUtah Division of State History

There has been an increasing effort tosteer archeological research away from theartifact and the site as primary units ofanalysis and toward the larger environ-mental settings in which human popula-tions played out their lives. This volume of12 papers, edited by Jacqueline Rossignoland LuAnn Wandsnider, draws on much ofthat work and attempts to provide a frame-work for regional data recovery and analy-sis. In the past, phrases such as nonsite or

offsite archeology have been used to iden-tify this approach, but here participants use

archeological landscapes to describe thisperspective. They do so explicitly and ex-plain that this embodies the view that thedistribution of archaeological artifacts andfeatures relative to elements of the land-scape ... provide insight into social and

1028028 [95, 1993]95, 1993]

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Davidson Review of Marshack Roots AA 1993

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