During the Upper Paleolithic, Ice Age peoples in Europe and Australia used their fingers to trace figurative and non-figurative images in soft sediments that lined the walls and ceilings of the limestone caves they encountered. The resulting images, while fragile, are preserved in at least 70 caves with the oldest dating to approximately 36,000 years ago. During the first 100 years of the study of Paleolithic cave imagery, these finger flutings were largely ignored. Though they make up a larger percentage of cave art than any other form, they are enigmatic and not always visually appealing. In 1912, Henri Breuil famously referred to them as “traits parasites” (parasite lines) and deleted them from his re-drawings of cave images, believing they detracted from the figurative art. Flutings have been interpreted alternately as doodling, serpent or water images, the residue of surface preparation for making, and evidence of the moment when a shaman touches the “skin” of the otherworld. In this paper, we argue that there are three reasons why finger flutings have taken on greater significance in the study of Pleistocene visual cultures. First, theories concerning the meaning and relevance of finger flutings were developed without supporting evidence as no methodology existed by which to study flutings until the beginning of the twenty-first century. Second, there has been a broadening of the definition of “art” in a Paleolithic context to include categories of materials, including finger flutings, which would traditionally have been excluded from consideration. Third, there has been a concomitant shift from a focus on the final product—“the artwork” to an exploration of the embodied process of manufacturing the imagery—the “work” of art. Finger flutings carry with them physical evidence of this process. Finally, by presenting a detailed study of finger flutings at Gargas Cave (France), we consider what is gained by including finger flutings in the study of Paleolithic art and what this “archaeology of intimacy” can tell us about the lived lives of Ice Age peoples.

中文翻译：

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纠缠：手指笛子在旧石器时代上等民族生活研究中的作用

在上旧石器时代，欧洲和澳大利亚的冰河时代的人们用手指在柔软的沉积物中追踪比喻性图像和非比喻性图像，这些沉积物排列在他们遇到的石灰岩洞穴的墙壁和天花板上。生成的图像虽然脆弱，但仍保存在至少70个洞穴中，最古老的洞穴可追溯到大约36,000年前。在旧石器时代洞穴图像研究的前100年中，这些手指纹路在很大程度上被忽略了。尽管它们在洞穴艺术品中所占的比例比任何其他形式都大，但它们是谜团，并不总是具有视觉吸引力。1912年，亨利·布劳伊（Henri Breuil）著名地将它们称为“特质寄生虫”（parasite lines），并从他对洞穴图像的重新绘制中删除了它们，并认为它们偏离了形象艺术。凹槽被交替地解释为涂鸦，蛇或水的图像，准备进行表面准备的残留物，以及萨满巫师接触异世界“皮肤”的瞬间的证据。在本文中，我们认为手指凹槽在更新世视觉文化的研究中具有更大的意义的三个原因。首先，有关指笛演奏的意义和相关性的理论是在没有支持证据的情况下发展起来的，因为直到二十一世纪初，一直没有研究笛演奏的方法。第二，旧石器时代对“艺术”的定义已经扩大，以包括材料类别，包括指槽，传统上是不予考虑的。第三，随之而来的是从关注最终产品（“艺术品”）到探索制造图像的具体过程（艺术品）的转变。手指凹槽会带出该过程的物理证据。最后，通过对法国Gargas Cave的手指笛演奏进行详细研究，我们考虑将手指笛演奏纳入旧石器时代艺术的成果，以及这种“亲密考古学”可以告诉我们有关冰河时代的现实生活的信息人们。