The Markings Of Man And Gods

Ancient Imprints Of Hands And The Rise Of Feet

- Sophie Ibbotson and Max Lovell-Hoare

Like a tribe of children armed with poster paints, early man made his mark on his surroundings by pressing his dye-covered hands and feet to the walls and the floor, by scratching or drawing around their shape and making impressions in the sand and soft clay. The vast majority of such images have washed and worn away with time, but every now and then, an archaeologist makes a chance discovery, unearthing this simplest form of human expression that has endured from time immemorial. The Lene Hara caves in Timor-Leste, first excavated in the early 1960s, contain what are perhaps the oldest hand stencils in the world. Human inhabitation of the caves began some 35,000 years ago, and their ancient inhabitants were unusually creative: Not only did they make beads and fish hooks from shell, but they carved images of themselves into the rock and painted boats, animals and stencils of their hands with a distinctive red ochre pigment.

The inhabitants of Lene Hara were not the only ancient peoples to use their hands and feet in their art, however. On the island of Borneo, archaeologists have discovered charcoal handprints some 12,000 years old. The handprints number as many as 1,500, spread between 30 different caves, and there is evidence the artists thought carefully about the appearance of their design: Their handprints are decorated with dots, dashes and other patterns, and some hands are linked to others with long, curving lines.