Cap Blanc (Abri)
Coordinates: 44 ° 56 '44 " N , 1 ° 5' 49" E
The Abri Cap Blanc in the French department of Dordogne is by quite rare, carved out of the cliff sculptures of the Middle Magdalenian made famous. In addition to artifacts, it also contains the tomb of a young woman. The Abri is part of the Franco-Cantabrian cave art .
Geographical location
Cap Blanc, in German white cape , alluding to the bright cliffs of the flat-lying Coniacium , is located in the municipality of Marquay in the southeastern Dordogne, about 6 kilometers east of Les Eyzies . The Abri is located on the right bank of the Grande Beune , a left tributary of the Vézère , practically directly across from the Commarque Castle and a little downstream from Laussel . In the immediate vicinity, a little further downstream, the La Grèze site, which is also Upper Palaeolithic , can be visited.
The Abri is reached via the D 48 from Les Eyzies to Saint Geniès .
history
In the course of the excavation work in Laussel, a worker noticed a depression in the rubble at the current site. He then organized an excavation campaign between September and December 1909 for the account of Doctor G. Lalanne . The rubble was removed three to four meters deep over a length of 15 meters. After reaching the rock face, the works of art finally emerged.
At the site there is now a museum that documents life in the Abri during the Elder Dryas in an exhibition . Tours with a limited number of visitors are organized by the Center des monuments nationaux all year round .
description
The monumental sculptures, made as high and low relief, are unique in Périgord . About comparable works for the Middle Magdalenian can only be found in the Abri des Roc aux Sorcières near Angles-sur-l'Anglin in the Vienne department , near la Chaire-à-Calvin ( Mouthiers-sur-Boëme in the Charente department ) and in Abri Reverdit at Sergeac in the Dordogne.
The representations can be divided into two sections. The 9 meter long left panel is at the deepest point of the demolition. The 4 meter long right panel reaches overhanging parts in the Abri.
Among the total of 14 images there are 6 wild horses , all with one exception looking to the right. The left-facing wild horse occupies a central position in the Abri and is 2.20 meters long. The animals looking to the right overlap twice - in such a way that the head of one of them touches the croup of the previous one. Furthermore, three bison can be recognized, but the head of one of the animals had to give way to a horse's head. A fourth wisent was found on a boulder that had broken out of the abyss. This block is now kept in the Musée d'Aquitaine . The remaining figures are very difficult to identify, including deer-like ones .
The traces of red ocher suggest that the frieze was once colored.
Artifact Finds and Age
The stone and bone tools found in two archaeological horizons indicate a settlement of the abyss during Magdanénien III around 15,000 years ago BP . In older collections there are also signs of Upper Magdalenian - this is also confirmed by excavations by Denis Peyrony as well as Delluc, Roussot and Roussot-Larroque. The artifacts are now kept in the Musée d'Aquitaine and the Musée de l'Homme .
Among the stone artefacts such as scrapers and drills , there were also flint pimples , which were used for the sculpting work at the time. The bone finds contain decorative elements as well as spears and staffs made from reindeer bones .
Tomb of a woman
At the very bottom was a human tomb. The skeleton of a twenty-year-old woman lay under three large stone slabs. She was turned to the left and her legs were bent to her chin. This skeleton was sold to the Field Museum in Chicago , and a replica of the original skeleton can now be seen a little further down from the original site.
meaning
The Abri of Cap Blanc impresses with the monumental execution of its reliefs. In contrast to sites with cave paintings such as Lascaux , which undoubtedly had a purely spiritual function, Cap Blanc was inhabited. This fact confirms that the people of that time decorated not only deep cave systems, but also their immediate area.
Special awards
Since 1926, the Abri Cap Blanc Monument historique and since 1979 in conjunction with other major sites of the Vézère Valley World Heritage Site of UNESCO .
swell
- Delluc, B. & G., Roussot, A. & Roussot-Larroque, J .: Connaître la préhistoire en Périgord . Éditions SUD-OUEST, 1990, ISBN 2-87901-048-9 .
