Bernabé Mallo
Doctor en Filosofía por la Universidad del País Vasco (UPV/EHU)
Investigador
en neurofilosofía, evolución humana y origen del arte. / PhD in
Philosophy – University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU)
Researcher in neurophilosophy, human evolution, and the origins of art.
A reflection on the origin of art and the continuity of the species through the lens of Clottes, Menninghaus, and Henshilwood
Introduction: a simple and complex question
What connects an australopithecine who collected a pebble shaped like a face, a Palaeolithic artist who ventured into the depths of a cave to paint a bison, an Egyptian educator who protected young people with amulets and teachings, and a contemporary astronaut who gazes at Earth from space? The answer, perhaps, is simpler than it seems: they are all children of the same species, bearers of the same symbolic heritage, driven by the same urge toward survival, meaning, and wholeness.
Let us begin with a lived experience. The Guaraní peoples of Paraguay, like so many other indigenous cultures, demonstrate an extraordinary knowledge of their natural environment and its possibilities for survival. They know the plants, the animals, the cycles, the dangers. They know how to move, how to protect themselves, how to obtain resources. This knowledge is not an exception: it is the norm in every human culture that has depended directly on its environment. The educational systems of ancient Egypt, for their part, show us another aspect of this same capacity: childhood was protected through advanced teachings and amulets that safeguarded children from environmental threats . Survival was not only physical, but also symbolic.
If knowledge of the environment generates confidence, and confidence drives exploration, then the history of our species is the history of a continuous expansion. We know our environment, we feel safe, and we venture to investigate other lands, other cultures, other worlds. Thus it was in the past, and thus it continues today. The question we pose is, therefore, a question about the continuity of the human: what happened that led an australopithecine to carry a stone like the Makapansgat pebble to its home? What happened that led the artists of Altamira or Lascaux to paint animals in difficult-to-access areas, almost hidden? What happened that led the Egyptians to develop such advanced educational systems? And what is happening today with space travellers?
The enigma of Makapansgat: the first symbolic gesture
The Makapansgat pebble, a reddish jasper stone weighing about 260 grams, was found in 1925 in a cave in South Africa, several kilometres from its nearest natural source . Its natural marks and wear give it a striking resemblance to a human face. It was neither carved nor modified by human hands. It was collected and transported. Why?
The answer, though uncertain, is fascinating. Someone —an australopithecine, perhaps, or some other early hominin— saw in that stone something more than a stone. They saw a face. And they did not only see it: they valued it enough to carry it with them, to make it part of their home, to keep it in an inhabited space .
This seemingly trivial gesture is the earliest evidence of a capacity that defines us as a species: the capacity to recognise symbols, to see beyond immediate reality, to attribute meaning to objects that have no practical utility. The Makapansgat pebble was not used for cutting, striking, or protecting. It served to be looked at. And in looking at it, the one who found it saw themselves reflected in it.
The discoveries at Blombos Cave, with their engraved ochre pieces over 70,000 years old, confirm that this symbolic capacity was not an isolated accident . The abstract geometric patterns engraved on these pieces are not representations of animals or people. They are symbols: arbitrary conventions created to express shared concepts, whose meaning has been lost but whose symbolic intention is indisputable . As Christopher Henshilwood notes, "these finds demonstrate that ochre use in the MSA was not exclusively utilitarian and, arguably, the transmission and sharing of the meaning of the engravings relied on fully syntactical language" .
Cave art: why hide beauty?
If the Blombos engravings show us the capacity to create symbols, the paintings of Altamira and Lascaux show us the capacity to hide them. The animals represented in these caves are not at the entrances, nor in the illuminated areas. They are in the depths, in narrow galleries, in difficult-to-access places . Why?
Jean Clottes, in his article on the interpretation of prehistoric art, reviews the main theories that have attempted to answer this question . The theory of "art for art's sake", which saw in these works mere entertainment or ornamentation, was abandoned precisely because it could not explain why they were produced in such remote and dark places. The theory of sympathetic magic, which interpreted them as rituals to ensure hunting success, also failed to account for all the evidence: the animals represented were not always the most hunted, and wounded or pierced figures are surprisingly rare .
The most recent hypothesis, defended by Clottes together with David Lewis-Williams, is that of Palaeolithic shamanism . According to this interpretation, the deep caves were perceived as the realm of spirits, as gateways to the supernatural world. Entering them was therefore a form of shamanic journey, a search for contact with the forces that governed the world. The paintings and engravings would be the materialisation of the visions obtained during trance, and the natural reliefs of the walls —which could evoke animal forms— would be deliberately used to "free" the spirits from the rock .
This hypothesis offers an answer to the questions we posed. The animals represented were not the most consumed because they were not hunting objects, but auxiliary spirits: beings encountered by the shaman in their visions, whose power they sought to channel. The representation in difficult-to-access areas was not a whim, but a necessity: the journey to the underground world was a metaphor for the journey to the spirit world, and the difficulty of access was part of the ritual. The caves were not hiding places, but sanctuaries: places where the community could enter into contact with the sacred.
The restless traveller: from Altamira to outer space
If Palaeolithic art was a form of spiritual journey, our species has never ceased to travel. The hominins who collected the Makapansgat pebble, the artists who painted in the depths of the caves, the educators who protected the children of ancient Egypt, and the astronauts who today explore space share a common characteristic: dissatisfaction with the present, the need to go further, to explore, to know, to transcend.
This travelling drive is not a cultural accident. It is a consequence of our symbolic capacity, of our capacity to symbolise what is not present and to desire what does not yet exist. The space traveller is no different from the Palaeolithic hunter who ventured into a dark cave, nor the Polynesian navigator who crossed the Pacific in canoes, nor the explorer who mapped unknown continents. They are all bearers of the same heritage: the capacity to imagine a beyond and to act to reach it.
The technology that enables these journeys —from the Blombos bone tools to space rockets— is also a manifestation of the same symbolic capacity . The Blombos bone tools, about 70,000 years old, are not merely useful objects. They are products of a sequence of deliberate technical choices, requiring planning, knowledge, and transmission of skills . They are, in this sense, the Palaeolithic equivalent of a spacecraft: the result of a mind that thinks long-term, anticipates needs, and designs solutions for future problems.
Towards a synthesis: art as testimony to human continuity
Winfried Menninghaus, in his book Aesthetics after Darwin, proposes a "cooptation" model to explain the multiple origins of the human arts . According to this model, art emerged when three ancient and largely independent adaptations —sensory biases linked to sexual selection, play behaviour, and technology— came together and were transformed by human capacities for symbolic cognition and language . Art, from this perspective, is not a specific adaptation for a concrete function, but a new behavioural variant that emerged from the confluence of several evolutionary factors .
This model fits perfectly with the continuity we have traced from Makapansgat to space exploration. The capacity to recognise a face in a stone (sensory bias), the curiosity to explore the unknown (play behaviour), and the ability to make tools that allow us to reach further (technology) combined with symbolic capacity to create art, to travel, to educate, to transcend.
The question we posed at the beginning —what connects the australopithecine, the Palaeolithic artist, the Egyptian educator, and the astronaut— thus finds an answer: they are all manifestations of the same unique neuronal function, which we have called S/Y/C:
S (Survival): the need to know the environment, to protect oneself, to ensure the continuity of life. The Guaraní who knows the jungle, the Egyptian who protects their children, the astronaut who keeps their spacecraft functioning: they are all attending to survival.
Y (Symbolon): the capacity to create and share symbols, to attribute meaning to objects and actions. The australopithecine who sees a face in a stone, the artist who paints a bison in a cave, the Egyptian who makes an amulet, the astronaut who plants a flag on the Moon: they are all creating symbolon.
C (Wholeness): the drive toward totality, the need to close a cycle, to achieve a goal. The traveller who enters the cave, the explorer who crosses the ocean, the astronaut who reaches space: they are all seeking wholeness, the sensation of having arrived somewhere.
Final considerations: the species that never stops travelling
The history of our species is the history of a continuous journey. It began with a faltering step out of Africa, continued with the exploration of all continents, and today takes us to the far reaches of the solar system. But the journey is not only physical. It is also spiritual, symbolic, interior. Art, religion, philosophy, science, and technology are the different forms this journey has taken.
The Makapansgat pebble, the paintings of Altamira, the Blombos bone tools, the Egyptian amulets, and today's spacecraft are all milestones on the same path: the path of a species that is not satisfied with what it has, that always wants to go further, that never stops asking what lies on the other side.
And on this path, what we carry with us is always the same: our capacity to symbolise, to create meaning, to seek wholeness. That is what makes us human. And that is what, probably, will continue to accompany us as the journey continues.
References
Clottes, J. (2003). De « l'art pour l'art » au chamanisme : l'interprétation de l'art préhistorique. La revue pour l'histoire du CNRS, (8). https://doi.org/10.4000/histoire-cnrs.553
Henshilwood, C. S., d'Errico, F., Marean, C. W., Milo, R. G., & Yates, R. (2001). An early bone tool industry from the Middle Stone Age at Blombos Cave, South Africa: Implications for the origins of modern human behaviour, symbolism and language. Journal of Human Evolution, 41(6), 631–678. https://doi.org/10.1006/jhev.2001.0515
Henshilwood, C. S., d'Errico, F., Yates, R., Jacobs, Z., Tribolo, C., Duller, G. A. T., Mercier, N., Sealy, J. C., Valladas, H., Watts, I., & Wintle, A. G. (2002). Emergence of modern human behavior: Middle Stone Age engravings from South Africa. Science, 295(5558), 1278–1280. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1067575
Henshilwood, C. S., d'Errico, F., & Watts, I. (2009). Engraved ochres from the Middle Stone Age levels at Blombos Cave, South Africa. Journal of Human Evolution, 57(1), 27–47. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2009.02.006
Mallo, B. (2023). La construcción neuro-simbólica. Una aproximación al funcionamiento del cerebro desde una perspectiva multidisciplinar [Doctoral thesis, University of the Basque Country - Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea]. ADDI Repository. http://hdl.handle.net/10810/62701
Mallo, B. (2025). Arte y biología: Una aproximación neurofilosófica al origen de la experiencia estética. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0E8Y5WZMK
Mallo, B. (2025). Art and biology: A neurophilosophical approach to the origin of aesthetic experience. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0E8Y6C2XN
Mallo, B. (2026a). De la filosofía quirúrgica a la ley de coherencia biológica S/Y/C: Hacia una investigación sobre el origen del arte en la especie Homo. https://isbn.bibna.gub.uy/catalogo.php?mode=detalle&nt=57196
Mallo, B. (2026a). De la filosofía quirúrgica a la ley de coherencia biológica S/Y/C: Hacia una investigación sobre el origen del arte en la especie Homo [Kindle edition]. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GYGTJD5C
Mallo, B. (2026b). From surgical philosophy to the law of biological coherence S/Y/C: Toward a study of the origin of art in the Homo lineage. https://isbn.bibna.gub.uy/catalogo.php?mode=detalle&nt=57197
Menninghaus, W. (2019). Aesthetics after Darwin: The multiple origins and functions of the arts (A. Berlina, Trans.). Academic Studies Press. (Original work published 2011)
Autor / Author
Bernabé Mallo
Doctor en Filosofía – Universidad del País Vasco / Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea (UPV/EHU)
Investigador independiente en neurofilosofía, evolución humana y origen del arte.
Bernabé Mallo
PhD in Philosophy – University of the Basque Country / Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea (UPV/EHU)
Independent researcher in neurophilosophy, human evolution, and the origin of art.
Enlaces / Links
Página de autor Amazon / Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/author/bernabemallo
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9002-9728
Plataforma EHUenRed / Link EHUenRed: https://www.ehu.eus/es/web/masterrak-eta-graduondokoak/red-latinoamericana-de-posgrados
Canal YouTube / Channel YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@neuroideas815
Canal YouTube / Channel YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBsf6OZ482NjST6QA-hvYtQ
Publicaciones y proyectos en desarrollo / Publications and projects:
https://www.amazon.com/author/bernabemallo
https://ehuenred.theglocal.network/ideas/el-origen-del-arte-en-el-cerebro-de-makapansgat-al-moma-del-primate-al-sapiens