WOMEN AND GIRLS AS UPPER PALAEOLITHIC CAVE ‘ARTISTS’: DECIPHERING THE SEXES OF FINGER FLUTERS IN ROUFFIGNAC CAVE

Authors:
Publisher website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Summary: Popular and scholarly literature usually assumes that prehistoric artists were adult men. We show in other publications that young children from the Palaeolithic fluted in Rouffignac Cave, France, and hence the incorrectness at least here of the usual assumption. Our research also shows that females as well as males fluted in Rouffignac. Our methods for demonstrating this are forensic based on physiological research of relative finger lengths of males and females. We examine the profiles of the flutings of seven individuals and show that two are probably male whereas the remaining five are probably female. This type of study leading to where we identify individuals can produce responses to social questions about the fluters both as a group and as individuals.

This publication has 16 references indexed in Scilit: