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> The authors claim that modern 15th century people already knew the "pre-historic" narrative about rocks being axes. You're mistaken, the article does not say
by mcpackieh 3y ago
> The authors claim that modern 15th century people already knew the "pre-historic" narrative about rocks being axes.
You're mistaken, the article does not say that 15th century people knew the rock was a hand axe. The article claims (correctly I think) that the painting depicts a hand axe but doesn't say the painter intended to depict an axe. The painter would have understood the rock to be a thunderstone and painted it accurately enough that today we can see that it was actually a handaxe.
- NHQ 3y agoYou are wrong. Maybe you did not read the paper which the article is reporting. From the paper abstract: "Identifying a fifteenth-century painting of a handaxe does not change what we know about Acheulean individuals, but it does push back the evidence for when handaxes became a prominent part of the ‘modern’ social and cultural world." Indicating they think the painter and his contemporary society had a "culture" of appreciation for the objects as axes.