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The Taï Plaque and Calendrical Notation in the Upper Palaeolithic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 December 2008

Alexander Marshack
Alexander Marshack
Affiliation:
Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, 11 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.
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Abstract

Analysis of the Taï plaque, the most complex Upper Palaeolithic composition, has revealed evidence of the problem-solving and visual cueing strategies involved in the accumulation of the marks. The composition consists of a boustrophedon sequence of short horizontal containing lines or sections, each of which carries irregular subsets of marks. The analysis proceeded in stages over a period of twenty years, initially with use of a microscope, but did not involve cross-sectional analysis or counting. The theoretical assumption guiding the analysis was that notations represent a cognitive form of visual problem-solving and structuring. A test of the sequence of containing lines and their subsets of marks suggested the notation on the Taï plaque was a non-arithmetic form of lunar/solar observational recording. The analysis, if validated, carries profound implications for our understanding of Upper Palaeolithic culture, and cultural features of the indigenous European population in the periods that followed.

Type
Articles
Information
Cambridge Archaeological Journal , Volume 1 , Issue 1 , April 1991 , pp. 25 - 61
Copyright
Copyright © The McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research 1991

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