Isobel Wisher
Datos Biográficos
| ID | 369552 |
|---|---|
| NOMBRE | Isobel Wisher |
| NOMBRES | Isobel |
| APELLIDO | Wisher |
| FIRMA | WISHER I |
| AFILIACIONES | Aarhus University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-8869-3478 |
| VERIFICADO | Sí |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 12 |
| TOTAL DE CITAS | 8 |
| OBRAS COMO AUTOR | 12 |
| OBRAS COMO EDITOR | 0 |
| PRIMER AÑO DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2023 |
| AÑO MÁS RECIENTE DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2026 |
| ÍNDICE H | 2 |
Marks and Meanings
Symbolic behavior is a unique and defining capability of our species. The emergence and subsequent evolution of this behavior—particularly with regard to visual culture—has been a topic that has historically attracted a breadth of different disciplinary perspectives, from archaeology and anthropology to linguistics, cognitive science, and psychology. Each discipline provides unique insights into the early evidence, mechanisms, processes, social r…
The evolution of symbolic artefacts
Revisiting Creswell Crags
The engraved parietal art of Creswell Crags, discovered in 2003, remains the only example of Palaeolithic cave art in the U.K. and represents the northernmost signature of Upper Palaeolithic artistic behaviour. Despite its unique nature and significant advances in digital techniques used to evaluate parietal art, it has received limited academic attention in the past two decades since its discovery. We utilized a suite of digital modelling techni…
The earliest evidence of blue pigment use in Europe
Blue pigments are absent in Palaeolithic art. This has been ascribed to a lack of naturally occurring blue pigments or low visual salience of these hues. Using a suite of archaeometric approaches, the authors identify traces of azurite on a concave stone artefact from the Final Palaeolithic site of Mühlheim-Dietesheim, Germany. This represents the earliest use of blue pigment in Europe. The scarcity of blue in Palaeolithic art, along with later p…
Dialogues Across Time? Conceptualising the Temporal Relationships of Palimpsests in the Upper Palaeolithic Cave Art of El Castillo (Cantabria, Spain)
Cave sites were frequently reused throughout the Upper Palaeolithic, with many sites within south-western Europe having deep chronologies of activity. The repeated engagement with the same caves, or spaces within caves, is evident in superimpositions of cave art depictions within these sites. Whilst these palimpsests in Upper Palaeolithic cave art have been extensively studied with regard to understanding the relative chronology of art within a p…
The Ties That Bind
Integral to the fabric of human technology, knots have shaped survival strategies since their first invention. As the ties that bind, their evolution and diversity have afforded human cultural change and expression. This study examines knotting traditions over time and space. We analyse a sample of 338 knots from 86 ethnographically or archaeologically documented societies over 12 millennia. Utilizing a novel approach that combines knot theory wi…
Children as playful artists
Children's agential behaviours in the archaeological record have often been overlooked. Despite efforts to centre children in the past through 'an archaeology of childhood', there remains a fundamental challenge of rigorously distinguishing children's behaviours from those of adults. In Upper Palaeolithic art, this has been addressed through the analysis of anatomical measurements of traces produced by hands and figures, demonstrating that childr…
The evolution of symbolic artefacts
Despite the indisputable significance of human symbolic cognition and behavior, we still lack a detailed understanding of the mechanisms by which such capacities evolved during the Paleolithic. An important source of evidence is constituted by archaeological findings of intentional markings left on rock and bone surfaces, but these are often opaque with respect to their original meaning and function. Here we present experimental work that systema…
Conversations with Caves
The influence of pareidolia has often been anecdotally observed in examples of Upper Palaeolithic cave art, where topographic features of cave walls were incorporated into images. As part of a wider investigation into the visual psychology of the earliest known art, we explored three hypotheses relating to pareidolia in cases of Late Upper Palaeolithic art in Las Monedas and La Pasiega Caves (Cantabria, Spain). Deploying current research methods …
A global cross-cultural analysis of string figures reveals evidence of deep transmission and innovation
Few cultural practices beyond language are as widespread as string figure games. Their global distribution and potential to yield insights into cultural transmission and cognition have long been noted. Yet, it remains unknown how or when this behavior originated and to what extent shared motifs are signals of repeated innovations or deep cultural transmission. Here, we combined a global cross-cultural inventory of string figures with a novel meth…
Illuminating palaeolithic art using virtual reality
Approaches to Palaeolithic art have increasingly shifted beyond the traditional focus on engraved or depicted forms in isolation, to appreciating the sensorial experience of art making as integral to shaping the form of depictions and the meaning imbued within them. This kind of research appreciates an array of factors pertinent to how the art may have been understood or experienced by people during the Palaeolithic, including placement, lighting…
Beyond the image
Symbolic cognition-the ability to produce and use symbols, including (but not limited to) linguistic symbols-has often been considered a hallmark of human achievement. Given its importance, symbolic cognition has been a major topic of interest in many academic disciplines including anthropology, archeology, and the cognitive sciences.1-6 Paleolithic rock art holds vast potential for understanding the early roots of symbolically mediated behavior.…
Conversations with Caves
The influence of pareidolia has often been anecdotally observed in examples of Upper Palaeolithic cave art, where topographic features of cave walls were incorporated into images. As part of a wider investigation into the visual psychology of the earliest known art, we explored three hypotheses relating to pareidolia in cases of Late Upper Palaeolithic art in Las Monedas and La Pasiega Caves (Cantabria, Spain). Deploying current research methods …
Illuminating palaeolithic art using virtual reality
Approaches to Palaeolithic art have increasingly shifted beyond the traditional focus on engraved or depicted forms in isolation, to appreciating the sensorial experience of art making as integral to shaping the form of depictions and the meaning imbued within them. This kind of research appreciates an array of factors pertinent to how the art may have been understood or experienced by people during the Palaeolithic, including placement, lighting…
Children as playful artists
Children's agential behaviours in the archaeological record have often been overlooked. Despite efforts to centre children in the past through 'an archaeology of childhood', there remains a fundamental challenge of rigorously distinguishing children's behaviours from those of adults. In Upper Palaeolithic art, this has been addressed through the analysis of anatomical measurements of traces produced by hands and figures, demonstrating that childr…
A global cross-cultural analysis of string figures reveals evidence of deep transmission and innovation
Few cultural practices beyond language are as widespread as string figure games. Their global distribution and potential to yield insights into cultural transmission and cognition have long been noted. Yet, it remains unknown how or when this behavior originated and to what extent shared motifs are signals of repeated innovations or deep cultural transmission. Here, we combined a global cross-cultural inventory of string figures with a novel meth…
Beyond the image
Symbolic cognition-the ability to produce and use symbols, including (but not limited to) linguistic symbols-has often been considered a hallmark of human achievement. Given its importance, symbolic cognition has been a major topic of interest in many academic disciplines including anthropology, archeology, and the cognitive sciences.1-6 Paleolithic rock art holds vast potential for understanding the early roots of symbolically mediated behavior.…
Illuminating palaeolithic art using virtual reality
Approaches to Palaeolithic art have increasingly shifted beyond the traditional focus on engraved or depicted forms in isolation, to appreciating the sensorial experience of art making as integral to shaping the form of depictions and the meaning imbued within them. This kind of research appreciates an array of factors pertinent to how the art may have been understood or experienced by people during the Palaeolithic, including placement, lighting…
Beyond the image
Symbolic cognition-the ability to produce and use symbols, including (but not limited to) linguistic symbols-has often been considered a hallmark of human achievement. Given its importance, symbolic cognition has been a major topic of interest in many academic disciplines including anthropology, archeology, and the cognitive sciences.1-6 Paleolithic rock art holds vast potential for understanding the early roots of symbolically mediated behavior.…
The evolution of symbolic artefacts
Despite the indisputable significance of human symbolic cognition and behavior, we still lack a detailed understanding of the mechanisms by which such capacities evolved during the Paleolithic. An important source of evidence is constituted by archaeological findings of intentional markings left on rock and bone surfaces, but these are often opaque with respect to their original meaning and function. Here we present experimental work that systema…
Conversations with Caves
The influence of pareidolia has often been anecdotally observed in examples of Upper Palaeolithic cave art, where topographic features of cave walls were incorporated into images. As part of a wider investigation into the visual psychology of the earliest known art, we explored three hypotheses relating to pareidolia in cases of Late Upper Palaeolithic art in Las Monedas and La Pasiega Caves (Cantabria, Spain). Deploying current research methods …
A global cross-cultural analysis of string figures reveals evidence of deep transmission and innovation
Few cultural practices beyond language are as widespread as string figure games. Their global distribution and potential to yield insights into cultural transmission and cognition have long been noted. Yet, it remains unknown how or when this behavior originated and to what extent shared motifs are signals of repeated innovations or deep cultural transmission. Here, we combined a global cross-cultural inventory of string figures with a novel meth…
The earliest evidence of blue pigment use in Europe
Blue pigments are absent in Palaeolithic art. This has been ascribed to a lack of naturally occurring blue pigments or low visual salience of these hues. Using a suite of archaeometric approaches, the authors identify traces of azurite on a concave stone artefact from the Final Palaeolithic site of Mühlheim-Dietesheim, Germany. This represents the earliest use of blue pigment in Europe. The scarcity of blue in Palaeolithic art, along with later p…
Dialogues Across Time? Conceptualising the Temporal Relationships of Palimpsests in the Upper Palaeolithic Cave Art of El Castillo (Cantabria, Spain)
Cave sites were frequently reused throughout the Upper Palaeolithic, with many sites within south-western Europe having deep chronologies of activity. The repeated engagement with the same caves, or spaces within caves, is evident in superimpositions of cave art depictions within these sites. Whilst these palimpsests in Upper Palaeolithic cave art have been extensively studied with regard to understanding the relative chronology of art within a p…
The Ties That Bind
Integral to the fabric of human technology, knots have shaped survival strategies since their first invention. As the ties that bind, their evolution and diversity have afforded human cultural change and expression. This study examines knotting traditions over time and space. We analyse a sample of 338 knots from 86 ethnographically or archaeologically documented societies over 12 millennia. Utilizing a novel approach that combines knot theory wi…
Children as playful artists
Children's agential behaviours in the archaeological record have often been overlooked. Despite efforts to centre children in the past through 'an archaeology of childhood', there remains a fundamental challenge of rigorously distinguishing children's behaviours from those of adults. In Upper Palaeolithic art, this has been addressed through the analysis of anatomical measurements of traces produced by hands and figures, demonstrating that childr…
Marks and Meanings
Symbolic behavior is a unique and defining capability of our species. The emergence and subsequent evolution of this behavior—particularly with regard to visual culture—has been a topic that has historically attracted a breadth of different disciplinary perspectives, from archaeology and anthropology to linguistics, cognitive science, and psychology. Each discipline provides unique insights into the early evidence, mechanisms, processes, social r…
The evolution of symbolic artefacts
Revisiting Creswell Crags
The engraved parietal art of Creswell Crags, discovered in 2003, remains the only example of Palaeolithic cave art in the U.K. and represents the northernmost signature of Upper Palaeolithic artistic behaviour. Despite its unique nature and significant advances in digital techniques used to evaluate parietal art, it has received limited academic attention in the past two decades since its discovery. We utilized a suite of digital modelling techni…
Archaeology (6 obras) · Archaeology and Rock Art Studies (6 obras) · History (6 obras) · Art (5 obras) · Language and cultural evolution (4 obras) · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology (4 obras) · Rock art (4 obras) · 3D Surveying and Cultural Heritage (3 obras) · Aesthetic Perception and Analysis (3 obras) · Aesthetics (3 obras)