I had two goals in writing The Eyes of the Leopard. The first was to depict what life was like 20,000 years ago during the last glacial period when caves of Europe were embellished with some of the most remarkable paintings in human history. I drew on all my experiences and knowledge to create as realistic a portrayal as possible of life and society at that time. The text is rich with these details, from the pitch sticks used for lighting in caves (I saw and used pitch sticks in Guatemala), to the use of stone tools, to the making of twine from blackberry canes (which I learned in rural France). There are dozens of details from my own experiences and even more from the literature on hunting and gathering societies, including the use of caves for rituals. Many of the names in the book are even derived from Basque words since some linguists and geneticists have argued that Basques were present before farming and Indo-European groups occupied almost all of Europe.
The second goal was to write a story that would captivate young readers and interest them in the archaeology of the past. I therefore centered the story on the conflicts and difficulties that a boy could be expected to encounter in a hunting and gathering society in the Southwest of France, replete with deaths of an age mate, cheating, threats, impressive rituals, and infatuations.
Readers should be aware, however, that archaeologists differ in their conceptions of what societies in this area were like 20,000 years ago. Many view these societies as very egalitarian and highly mobile small bands who were, for unexplained reasons, inspired to produce great art. In contrast, I and others view these societies as having both wealthy and poor, powerful and subservient individuals, residing in seasonally permanent settlements, with specialist artists supported by wealth payments similar to practices of Indigenous groups along the Northwest North American Coast. The Eyes of the Leopard is my view of what this latter type of society would have been like, but this is a contentious issue!
The Storyline: Sev is a boy of 13 winters who came with his family to live with the Bear Clan along a rich river valley in Southwestern Europe. As an outsider, Sev has difficulty being accepted by some age mates. Sev does what he can to participate in community events like hunts. He tries to prove himself to his age mates by accepting a dare to go into a forbidden sacred cave. A number of problems for Sev arise from this transgression and he is forced to contend with the powerful Lion Lodge. He is faced with leaving for good or dangerous alternatives. The decision is complicated by the visit of a girl and her father from a distant band. To say more would spoil the intrigue.
The Setting: The story is set in Southwestern France during the Ice Age, before there was agriculture, that is, when people lived entirely by hunting and gathering. I have chosen the environment around Les Eyzies de Tayac along the Vézère River as a model for the setting of the story for very specific reasons. In fact, I wrote the first pages of the story in Les Eyzies! The reasons are:
First, Les Eyzies is known as the heartland of French prehistory. Many of the most famous painted caves and habitation sites are located in and around Les Eyzies.
Second, there has been a great deal of archaeology done in this region including the identification of fording sites for animals–one of the main features of the book.
Third, there are many indications that this was one of the richest areas in Ice Age Europe, from graves with over a thousand shells from the distant sea attached to garments, to remarkable carvings in ivory and bone, as well as two of the four known Stone Age caves painted in polychromes.’
And fourth, the deeply incised river valleys would have channeled animal movements or migrations so that groups living along the rivers would have had a rich food source.
All these aspects make excellent materials for weaving stories about a past culture representing one of the pinnacles of Ice Age culture.
Features: Some of the main features in Eyes of the Leopard are: the portrayal of communal hunts, butchering and drying meat, special boys lodges, ritual societies, and arranged marriages.
Communal hunts: Hunting in many historic hunter/gatherer societies was done by both individuals and by organized groups. Large numbers of animals were sometimes taken during communal hunts as represented in the book.
Butchering and drying meat: I have seen Indigenous hunters in the Interior of British Columbia butcher deer, cut the meat into thin fillets, and dry the fillets on wood frames over smoky fires just as described in the book and in the illustrations. Archaeologists argue about why people in this time period produced long flint blades, but as a stone tool technologist, I think that these blades were needed for filleting and drying large amounts of meat. They might be compared to the use of a carving knife, whereas using smaller flint flakes can be compared to a pen knife. Which would you choose to fillet a dozen deer or reindeer? The disadvantage of long blades is that they require special skill, training, and toolkits to produce.
Boys lodges: When I worked and lived with the Australian Aboriginals, all the unmarried men and boys older than about six years lived together in one or two separate shelters. The same was true of girls. This created a broad age set of maturing boys and girls. Although age-grades weren’t universal, they were relatively common in many traditional areas like Africa and the North American Plains. Thus, it seems reasonable to think that they could have also existed among the groups in this story.
Ritual societies: Also known as ritual sodalities or secret societies, the kind of ritual society depicted in the story (represented by the Lion Lodge) is well documented among the more complex hunting and gathering societies of Western and Northwestern North America. They may not be universally present in tribal societies, but they are quite common, and I think there are some good archaeological reasons for thinking that they were present among the Ice Age societies around Les Eyzies. For those interested in pursing the topic, it is dealt with in more detail in a recent academic article and in my book, The Power of Ritual in Prehistory.
Arranged marriages: Marriages in many hunting and gathering societies, especially the more complex ones, were very frequently arranged by the parents or lineage heads of the bride and groom. Marriage was arranged to ensure survival and to further the economic interests of the family or kinship groups involved. The emphasis was on the importance to the family, not the individuals. This is an aspect typical of most traditional societies, while marriage for romantic love is a more recent development. In the more complex societies, there was typically a wealth price to pay for obtaining a marriage partner. These practices have persisted until today among many traditional societies, including even some upper classes in contemporary civilizations.
Illustrations: The illustrations for the book were done by Eric Carlson who is both an archaeologist and a gifted illustrator. Eric has an intimate familiarity with traditional groups in western North America as well as with hunting and animals. He combines this background with a unique ability to realistically depict the stances, actions, appearances, and environments of traditional hunters and gatherers. Examples of his artwork for The Eyes of the Leopard are provided here. Additional examples of his other archaeological drawings can be found on his website: