Pareidolia and Cave Art: Integrating Interdisciplinary Approaches to Understand the Cognitive Mechanisms Behind the Emergence of Palaeolithic Art

Abstract: Pareidolia – the phenomenon of seeing random patterns as meaningful forms, like faces in clouds – appears to be a universal feature of our visual system. The ability to resolve ambiguous visual stimuli in this way likely had evolutionary advantages, allowing our ancient ancestors to quickly identify hidden predators and react against the perceived danger. It has previously been conceptually suggested that this phenomenon may have been one of the mechanisms that was activated in the encompassing darkness of caves, and in turn influenced art making in these environments (e.g., Hodgson 2008). But to what extent is pareidolia responsible for this early form of art? And how might we test hypotheses related to the influence of pareidolia or other cognitive mechanisms in Palaeolithic art making? This talk evaluates the particular role pareidolia may have had in art making by using interdisciplinary approaches and cutting-edge digital techniques, such as virtual reality. The results of this novel approach are presented for three cave art sites: Las Monedas, La Pasiega and El Castillo. Integrating perspectives and methodologies from different disciplines to generate deeper insights into aspects of Palaeolithic art also has vast implications for future directions of the field, pushing the boundaries of our knowledge beyond the limitations of fragmentary archaeological remains.