Monday, April 26 10:30 a.m.  

INSIDE THE PAINTED CAVES OF SOUTHWEST FRANCE

STEPHEN “Dr. Steve” PHILLIPS, Ph.D., Penn Museum

Modern human artistic expression is evident in the form of hundreds, if not thousands, of enigmatic images painted onto the walls of caves in southern France. Early modern human occupation(s) of these painted caves range in date from about 15,000 years ago to as much as 30,000 years ago, an astounding depth of time.

        Our capability to express ourselves symbolically through art is among the features that make our species unique in the animal kingdom. Scholarly research into the origins of human art plays an important role in anthropological research to this very day. Why produce art at all? Can we, from our viewpoint tens of thousands of years later, even understand the intent of the Paleolithic artisans who created these images deep inside remote caves?

         Over the course of four summers excavating Neanderthal archaeological sites elsewhere in southwest France, Dr. Steve had the opportunity to visit several of these remarkable caves, including going inside two of them. 

        This lecture takes us on a journey to three of these remarkable sites: Font de Gaume, Lascaux, and Chauvet. The images you will see we can relate to however, can we relate to “why” these images existed?

Join Zoom Meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/863810961

Meeting ID: 863 810 961

Dr. Stephen Phillips is the Curatorial Research Coordinator in the Egyptian Section of the Penn Museum, Philadelphia.  Dr. Phillips earned his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D., all from the University of Pennsylvania, in the fields of biological anthropology, archaeology, and Egyptology. He is listed with the Register of Professional Archaeologists.

He has traveled extensively and participated in a wide range of archaeological excavations for more than 25 years, including fieldwork at Petra, Jordan; near Bordeaux in southwestern France; and in Egypt – at the Great Pyramids and at Saqqara.  He is the Archaeological Site Supervisor and Biological Anthropologist for the joint Cairo University-Brown University Expedition in the Great Western Cemetery at Giza. He is also a professional guide for American tour groups to Egypt. Dr. Phillips specializes in the study of human origins, human skeletal biology, ancient Egyptian mummies and mummification, archaeology and Egyptology.

LECTURES BASED UPON MY FIELD RESEARCH AND TRAVELS IN EGYPT, FRANCE, AND JORDAN