Visions of my Neolithic Living Room

We caught a couple of special exhibitions at AMNH today: 1) Reptiles, 2) Horses, and 3) Climate Change. The last special exhibition I caught was the Darwin exhibit ages ago, in spite of my having a STAFF pass which I barely utilize. (Yes, I know I should use it more often.) I thoroughly enjoyed all of them - they're like a breath of fresh air when I get to visit my old familiar friends like the HWhale, who will be around longer than me or all of my descendants. Ah, to be a museum specimen, frozen in time, embalmed for all perpetuity.

The Horse exhibit had some great Paleolithic cave art blown up as 10x10 paintings that would look marvelous in my living room. When I have my own house I want to decorate a room with a prehistoric theme: the Lascaux cave paintings, minerals, quartz lamps, fossils, everything made of stone.

Chauvet


Takhi! (Przewalski's horse, my favorite)


I can't see myself decorating with Neolithic goddess figurines or pottery, however, in spite of how much I love everything else about the Neolithic. I just don't get the goddess figurine aesthetic. Ha, it must be a reflection upon my distorted 21st century perception of "ideal" body image.

The cave paintings, on the other hand, are oddly familiar and haunting. Something about the horses reminds always me of "home." There must be something in our collective human memory that understands these symbols at a subconscious level.

Going to an old, familiar place with new friends is also fun because they make you see something you might not have thought of before.