[{"id":459,"title":"Imagery in Rock and Ancient Art Influenced by Pareidolic Response to Environmental Stimuli","sha":"dbd1f96aeb216589b78ecb5a55b50e6e","user_id":null,"state":"published","body":"A Pareidolic Response to Environmental Stimuli occurs when it is triggered by a certain richly textured surface or object . This human trait is a result of a survival mechanism, where the environment is quickly scanned for potential threats. A well known example is seeing animals in clouds. The curious experience has been artistically communicated in modern culture,  on the internet via image sharing of trees resembling people and faces emerging from woodgrain texture. Indigenous cultures name mountain ranges for the people or animals visible in the rock contours. Photography books depict figures perceived in vegetation, and daVinci admitted using it to create scenes. As a human trait, it would have been active, perhaps even more pronounced in the Upper Paleolithic, and in ancient times. Without knowledge of the scientific explanation, a Pareidolic event would have significant impact on ancient people, resulting in an artistic communication of the beings perceived. \r\nEnvironmental triggers and the corresponding art include: \r\nthe moon (man in the moon) - Inca and Haida art\r\nrock surface - cave art (traced directly)\r\ntrees - (Baobab) Australian Aboriginal art\r\ntree limbs and shadows - some stick men\r\nrocks reflected shoreline - Haida\r\nLava - Maori and Hawaiin\r\nDesert vegetation - Hopi","created_at":"2018-05-17T19:56:17.557Z","updated_at":"2018-06-12T16:54:17.892Z","zenodo_id":1250209,"doi":"https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1250209","subject":null,"tags":["cave art","maori art","hopi art","haida art","stick men","inca art","human trait","hawaiian art","pareidolia"],"vote_count":1,"view_count":1,"score":1.1,"deleted":false,"muted":false,"tweeted":true,"attachment_file_name":null,"attachment_content_type":null,"attachment_file_size":null,"attachment_updated_at":null},{"id":490,"title":"Stonehenge A Neolithic Beacon: Design Imitates Star ","sha":"8bb3128e4d0b9feb5d05a254677c18fa","user_id":null,"state":"published","body":"When lit from within with one large fire or multiple fires, and observed from above, the standing stones that comprise Stonehenge split the light rays creating a radiating effect similar in appearance to a star. \r\n( Attachment)\r\nNeolithic People did not know what stars were and may have related to them as fires in the sky. Stonehenge may have been created by the Neolithic to call attention to their existence and position, with their own star shaped fire, big enough to be seen by perceived celestial neighbors. Contemporary civilizations do the same with satellites.\r\n\r\nAdditionally, the ringing of the stones may have also served to catch attention through sound.\r\n\r\nThis explains the size of Stonehenge, gives purpose to the lintels, and accounts for the foreign remains at the site, as a beacon that large would indeed attract curious people from nearby lands. The fires would also provide opportunity to cremate remains and incorporate ritual. The lunar based motifs present in their art support a preoccupation with the sky.\r\n","created_at":"2018-10-05T16:12:43.005Z","updated_at":"2018-10-09T06:00:43.564Z","zenodo_id":1451927,"doi":"https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1451927","subject":null,"tags":["stonehenge","neolithic","beacon","neolithic art","star people","fire","fire ring"],"vote_count":0,"view_count":1,"score":0.1,"deleted":false,"muted":false,"tweeted":true,"attachment_file_name":"Screenshot_20181004-132538.png","attachment_content_type":"image/png","attachment_file_size":401403,"attachment_updated_at":"2018-10-05T16:12:42.943Z"},{"id":673,"title":"Stonehenge: Solstice Opens Path to a Neolithic Afterlife","sha":"9a63eee85a038908a9e8cdd223344eb3","user_id":null,"state":"published","body":"Stonehenge was a massive effort for a calendar when the climate supports year round crops. Cups and Rings stones found throughout the UK were more likely the working calendars. They marked the field indicating when/where/what crop to harvest, using astronomical references thought to be the primary purpose of Stonehenge.\r\n\r\nAdditional religious motivation supports calendar, cremation + place of healing theories. Absence of god imagery points to directly communing with deities.\r\n\r\nNewgrange Kerbstone (Ireland, tomb, 300 yrs earlier) imagery similar to shape of Stonehenge and moon. Also:\r\n\r\nMotifs resembling two constellations in eastern winter sky:\r\nTriskele - Winter Triangle\r\n3 consecutive spirals  - Orion's belt\r\nCorrelation between death/winter, in keeping with agrarian culture.\r\n\r\nNewgrange exterior Kerbstone, left side, roughly translated: \r\nHere these seeds (the dead) moved from earthly fields, crossed the bridge (path) to new fields in the sky (triangles + moon/horseshoe arc) Right side: (represents afterlife activity)\r\n\r\nSolstice perhaps when \"path\" opens, Orion's belt indicates route. Stonehenge built to represent moon. Bluestones should glow with cool light (moon fire) when heated.\r\n\r\nStonehenge should be lit when Orion rises in the east, fire around every bluestone, a signal for the ancestors to receive the newly dead about to cross over.\r\n","created_at":"2020-02-08T22:05:43.997Z","updated_at":"2020-02-09T06:00:38.396Z","zenodo_id":3660066,"doi":"https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3660066","subject":null,"tags":["stonehenge","constellations","moon","bluestone","orionsbelt","neolithicart","tomb","newgrange","kerbstone","cupsandrings","triskele"],"vote_count":0,"view_count":1,"score":0.1,"deleted":false,"muted":false,"tweeted":false,"attachment_file_name":"Screenshot_20200208-135241_2.png","attachment_content_type":"image/png","attachment_file_size":2270339,"attachment_updated_at":"2020-02-08T22:05:43.979Z"},{"id":709,"title":"Origins of Paganism Depicted: Newgrange Kerbstone Symbols Explain Propagation Afterlife Theory of Neolithic Britons","sha":"65151eb6740e59d340799f139e103541","user_id":null,"state":"published","body":"Seeds were paramount to the first farmers of the British Isles.The symbols on the Newgrange Kerbstone K52, a Neolithic tomb in Ireland, reveal how important they were. The same symbol is used for seeds and the dead within the tomb: small holes dug into the stone. These holes represent simply how a seed is planted. Through metaphor, their art tells the story of who those seeds would grow to be, and how far the crops would spread.\r\n\r\nNewgrange Kerbstone K52 Interpretation:\r\n\r\n\"Here are those who leave us, as seeds harvested after seasons in these fields. They leave this place (this star), crossing over the path at Solstice to begin new seasons in their new places (stars) seen in the night skies. WE ARE LIKE SEEDS BURIED, and will live on, flourishing and multiplying in the new places forever.\"\r\n\r\n(Diagram attached)\r\n\r\nThe dead are buried like seeds planted: Longbarrow burial (in rows) and Henge burials (planted mounds). These crops too, begin their new season at Solstice.\r\n\r\nWithout contemporary knowledge of the solar system, they could only understand stars by comparing them to something familiar. Stars would have  looked like thousands of distant fires to them. They were evidence of life.\r\n","created_at":"2020-02-15T17:09:11.893Z","updated_at":"2020-02-16T06:00:31.925Z","zenodo_id":3668794,"doi":"https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3668794","subject":null,"tags":["newgrange","neolithic art","symbol","burial","henge","longbarrow","tomb","stonehenge","megalithic art","passage tomb","monument","kerbstone k52","pagan","afterlife","no deities"],"vote_count":0,"view_count":1,"score":0.1,"deleted":false,"muted":true,"tweeted":false,"attachment_file_name":"Screenshot_20200215-095647_2.png","attachment_content_type":"image/png","attachment_file_size":1376184,"attachment_updated_at":"2020-02-15T17:09:11.853Z"},{"id":712,"title":"Cups And Rings Stones: Representations Of Clan Structure","sha":"3edd8493d6bcbc06f84e292435b9d638","user_id":null,"state":"published","body":"Fertility was so valued by the first farmers that a seed became the symbol for a human life. Neolithic Britons may have believed life's purpose was connected to proliferation, both here and beyond, in the stars.\r\n\r\nThe symbols on the Cups and Ring Stones found throughout the UK, appear to be derived from the stars. Although similar in appearance to constellations, they most likely represent a family unit, or clan.\r\n\r\nThe art suggests that clans were polygamous and celebrated proliferation rather than specific lineages.\r\n\r\nA \"cup\" represents a seed/person/star. The rings may relate to the number of children born to the woman represented. When a child was born, a ring was carved around the mother cup and a new child cup marked nearby. When the child matured and gave birth, their cup received a ring, and another cup carved nearby.\r\n\r\nIn this way, ringed cups represent mothers and how many children they birthed, while ringless cups represent men, childless women and children.\r\n\r\nA trough, or a strike through the rings may represent the death of the mother. Where the line joins another cup, death during childbirth. Deeper, additional meaning of the trough is related to its directionality.\r\n\r\nDiagram Attached\r\n","created_at":"2020-03-04T20:42:05.139Z","updated_at":"2020-09-25T06:01:12.406Z","zenodo_id":4049037,"doi":"https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4049037","subject":null,"tags":["neolithic art","cups and rings stones","fertility beliefs","ritual","rock art","clan","neolithic british isles","pre christianity","polygamous societies","pagan","constellations","first farmers","seeds"],"vote_count":0,"view_count":1,"score":0.1,"deleted":false,"muted":false,"tweeted":true,"attachment_file_name":"Screenshot_20200304-131828_2.png","attachment_content_type":"image/png","attachment_file_size":2649778,"attachment_updated_at":"2020-03-04T20:42:05.099Z"}]