Rock Art Research

A stalactite emerges from the darkness, its surface encircled by a pattern of perfectly framed,  breath-sprayed disks. Each red mark curves with the form, drawing the eye and inviting touch. This article examines such embodied markings in Palaeolithic caves—non-figurative traces created through direct bodily engagement—as biographical expressions of sensory perception. Focusing on case studies from El Castillo and Ardales (Spain) and Pech Merle (France), it explores how these markings extended aspects of identity into the cave surface. Drawing on relational theories of personhood, the article argues that once detached from the body, handprints, stencils, finger dots, sprayed surfaces and other marks could act as durable traces of presence, contributing to caves as sites of memory, interaction, and emplacement. Gestalt principles of visual perception—such as proximity, figure-ground, and continuity—are used to interpret the perceptual logic underlying the placement of markings along concavities, contours, and focal points. These insights suggest that such gestures were not only tactile but also often structured to be noticed and remembered. Though anonymous, these traces represent fragments of lives once enacted underground—gestures carried beyond the body. By foregrounding the interplay of gesture, perception, and material engagement, the article offers a biographical perspective in which identity, memory, and bodily presence are inscribed within the cave itself.  It contributes to broader understandings of how non-figurative cave art can record, extend, and transform human presence across deep time.