Subjectivity and the recording of palaeolithic cave art

This chapter aims to review some of the changes in approach which have taken place in the study of palaeolithic parietal art over the past twenty years. In so doing, it highlights the nature of straegies involved in such studies, and uses the Spanish decorated cave of Hornos de la Peña as its primary example. The review reveals a general lack of precision in much work on parietal art, stemming from indecision about the nature of any "art system of communication" which may have been involved. In this context, therefore, it may not be surprising to find much interpretation still concerned with species identification on the one hand and with distributions of motifs in the caves on the other. It concludes by emphasizing the intimate relationship between the investigator's own preconceptions and the research methodology adopted.