Abri Castanet

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Abri Castanet

The Abri Castanet near Sergeac in the Dordogne département in southwest France contains the oldest known French cave paintings from the early Aurignacia 35,000–37,000 BC. For a short time, the Abris representations in the Castel-Merle complex were even classified as the oldest known in the world. However, these can be found in the Spanish El Castillo Cave , as further investigations in 2012 revealed.

location

West of Sergeac, on the left bank of the Vézère, opens a small side valley called Vallon des Roches or Vallon de Castelmerle . In this valley there are a total of nine abrises that belong to the Castel-Merle complex. The Abri Castanet is located on the right side of the valley of the Vallon des Roches, about 200 meters south of the river. Nearby, further down the valley on the opposite side of the valley, including Abri Reverdit , Roc d'Acier , Abri Labattut and La Souquette .

History of exploration

Before the First World War , the French prehistoric historian Denis Peyrony had already started to examine the Abri Castanet, which was discovered in 1911, and discovered stone beads, perforated animal teeth and shells as well as numerous rock engravings and simple paintings on the rock ceiling and on boulders. Randall White of New York University found hundreds of pierced snail shells in the 1990s; the dating, however, was a mystery. The focus of interest are Stone Age wall paintings that were only found in 2007 on the underside of a broken stone block weighing 1.5 tons. Next to an unfinished mammal figure (possibly a bison or a horse) there is an oval shape that some researchers interpret as a representation of a vulva . The rock overhang was probably used by reindeer hunters who lived under it for around 400 years and gave it up after a collapse. The rock engravings were found on the underside of the fallen stone.

The dating was done using the C14 method on tools made of animal bones such as scrapers, arrowheads and pierced snail shells found in the ground under the stone. In 2012 it was found to be around 37,000 years old. The researchers assume that these are objects belonging to the residents.

Inferences

The fallen boulder was originally the ceiling of the shelter, which was two meters high. This made the ceiling accessible to the residents, and they could make their rock carvings on it. The sometimes ocher engravings: vulva , phallus , geometric figures and animals, especially horses. In contrast to other cave paintings that are deep in the earth, the engravings of the Abri Castanet were on the fire places and dwellings of the people.

The art in Abri Castanet is older than that of the famous Chauvet Cave , which is about 400 kilometers to the east. The Lascaux cave , about seven kilometers as the crow flies northeast of Abri Castanet, is again younger than Chauvet, but the art of Chauvet is also much more developed.

literature

  • Randall White, Romain Mensan, Raphaëlle Bourrillon et al .: Context and dating of Aurignacian vulvar representations from Abri Castanet, France. 2012, doi: 10.1073 / pnas.1119663109 .

Web links

Commons : Abri Castanet Cave  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ From very old and somewhat younger rock carvings: Abri Castanet and Grotte Chauvet. On: archaeologie-online.de from May 15, 2012.
  2. ↑ The world's oldest cave painting discovered in: Die Welt from May 14, 2012
  3. ↑ Erotic Stone Age wall art. On: Wissenschaft.de from May 14, 2012.

Coordinates: 44 ° 59 ′ 57.2 "  N , 1 ° 6 ′ 5.1"  E