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Half Circle Signs

Prehistoric ring-shaped markings
Upper Paleolithic cave art

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Prehistoric Half-Circle Signs
A Paleolithic half-circle shape. Image by Cave Signs Design. (CC BY-SA 4.0)

What is a Half-Circle Sign?

In paleolithic art, a "half-circle sign" is a geometric semi-circular pictograph, rather like the mouth of a 'smiley'. Archaeolgists sometimes refer to it as an incomplete vulva.

According to prehistorian Genevieve von Petzinger, the half-circle is one of just 32 abstract signs used in prehistoric art during the Upper Paleolithic, between 40,000 and 10,000 BC.

How Prevalent are Half-Circles?

This symbol is not an uncommon feature of French cave art, being present at 28 sites - or about 18 percent of the total.

Equally popular signs include: Circles (18.9%), Flabelliforms (18.3%), Crosshatch patterns (17.6%) and Cupule Signs ((15.6%).

[Source: "Making the Abstract Concrete: The Place of Geometric Signs in French Upper Paleolithic Parietal Art." (2005) Genevieve von Petzinger.]

Dating

This sign type is one of a small number which are consistently in use throughout the entire era of Upper Paleolithic art.

It is present in two sites (Chauvet and Baume-Latrone) during the Aurignacian (40,000-30,000 BC); three sites (Pech Merle, Cosquer and Cougnac) in the Gravettian (30,000-20,000 BC); five sites in the Solutrean (20,000-15,000 BC), and some eighteen sites in the Magdalenian (15,000-10,000 BC).

Geographical Distribution

Half-circle shapes are found in most areas except northern France, although the main groupings are located in southwest France and along the French Pyrenees. This suggests that any further expansion is likely to be southwards across the border into Spain.

For more details about decorated caves in France and Spain, see: Franco-Cantabrian Cave Art.

During the Aurignacian, the sign appears in the Ardèche and the Gard.

In the Solutrean, it is found in a small group of sites in the Ardèche, one in the Lot and another in the Pyrénées.

The remaining 18 or so sites date to the Magdalenian period, during which the sign maintains its presence in the Pyrénées, while forming a large cluster in the Dordogne/Lot region. But it disappears completely from the Ardèche.

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Which Caves Contain Half-Circles?

According to Petzinger, this sign type is present in the following paleolithic caves in France:

Meaning

Stone Age signs, like half-circles, were introduced in the middle of the last ice age, more than 30,000 years ago.

Since then, no firm evidence has come to light that explains why they were created, or what they meant. Nor do we understand their placement or location in the caves.

They may be a primitive type of writing, or created under the influence of drugs or shamanism.

They may be motivated by local conditions or circumstances. A half-circle in the Ardèche, for instance, may mean something completely different to a half-circle in the Dordogne.

Faced with such a void in our understanding, some archaeologists doubt whether anything meaningful can be said about these signs at all. In their view, the interpretation of paleolithic art (whether figurative or non-figurative) is mere speculation, and to pretend otherwise is an illusion.

See also our article on the Purpose and Meaning of Cave Art.

Related Articles

For more information about ideomorphs in ice age caves, see the following articles:

References

(1) "Journey Through the Ice Age." P.G. Bahn, J. Vertut. (1997). Berkley: University of California Press, 1st edition. ISBN-13: 978-0520213067.
(2) "Cave Art" Jean Clottes. (2008) Phaidon. ISBN 978-0-7148-5723-7.

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