French Cantabrian cave art
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An art circle of the Upper Palaeolithic , whose distribution area is in southern France and northern Spain, is called Franco-Cantabrian cave art . In the caves there , paintings, reliefs and drawings were created over the course of approx. 20,000 years (approx. 30,000 to 10,000 BP), especially on the walls (hence also called parietal art ). This Ice Age art is often of high artistic quality. Painted, plastic, engraved and scratched works of mobile art were also found.
In France alone around 150 caves and abrises with cave art have been discovered (as of 2000), but the number is constantly increasing. A total of around 350 picture caves were found in the entire Franco-Cantabrian region by 2014.
This article consists of a general part and a list part. In the lists, key data and special features of the caves are given.
term
The term was coined at the time to differentiate it from Mesolithic Spanish Levant art , i.e. rock paintings and engravings outside of caves in eastern Spain. The name was then temporarily extended to similar works of art across Europe. Southern France and Northern Spain have by far the oldest cave art sites in the world, but the independence of other European cave art - for example in Scandinavia, southern Germany, Eastern Europe and the Balkans - has now been recognized. The term is now used simply to denote the astonishing regional accumulation of Upper Paleolithic cave art in southern France and northern Spain. 90 percent of the cave paintings are concentrated in this area.
The term French Cantabrian is actually not exact, because the northern Spanish caves are not all in Cantabria , but also further west in Asturias and further east in the Spanish Basque Country . Cantabria is home to around half of the northern Spanish picture caves, including one of the most beautiful and famous: the Altamira Cave .
meaning
The Belgian historian of religion Julien Ries (1920–2013) noted: “The emergence of rock art in the darkness of deep caves during the Magdalenian culture is a unique fact in history [...] For a century, prehistorians have been trying to find the secret of this To penetrate cult caves and their iconographic and artistic wealth ”. The quality of this art is so high that it is considered to be the first peak of human art. The early explorers called the Niaux Cave the “ Versailles of Prehistory” and the Lascaux Cave the “ Sistine Chapel of the Paleolithic”.
The caves of the Vézère Valley, including the Lascaux cave, have been a UNESCO World Heritage Site in France since 1979 . In Spain, the Altamira Cave was declared a World Heritage Site in 1985 and another 17 caves in 2008 (see Paleolithic Cave Painting in Northern Spain ).
The motifs for the millennia-long design of these caves in their mostly inaccessible, deep, dark and uninhabited areas are assumed to be in the religious imagination of the people of that time (see prehistoric shamanism ). Emmanuel Anati (* 1930) sees this rock and cave art as the origin of conceptual thinking. Hermann Müller-Karpe speaks of an "intensification of consciousness". According to Ries, the symbols contained in the large pictures can lead us into the myths of Homo sapiens .
History of discovery and research
The history of research began when the first explorers stood in awe of what for them was incredibly artistic legacies of a time that had previously been classified as primitive. The Chabot cave in the Ardèche department was discovered in 1878 as the first painted cave; the discovery of the paintings in the cave of Altamira followed as early as 1879. From 1895 on, prehistoric art with both forms - mobile plastic art and the visual art on the cave walls - was recognized as art . From 1900 on, the French priest Henri Breuil (1877–1961) spread knowledge about them and carried out relevant research.
Since the end of the 19th century this art was assumed to have a religious or magical meaning. Such an approach created, according to André Leroi-Gourhan , "an awareness [...] of the common origin of religion and art". The interpretations were controversial from the start. Others saw prehistoric man as devoid of religion and his art as purposeless.
At the beginning of the 20th century, ethnology focused on concepts such as hunting magic , as found among the Aborigines . Especially Henri Breuil represented this direction. Other authors favored totemism or shamanism as an explanation. These attempts at interpretation did not only refer to the Franco-Cantabrian cave art, but were largely determined by it - most of the leading prehistorians at the time were French.
In the 1970s and 1980s, under the influence of prehistorians such as André Leroi-Gourhan, Annette Laming-Emperaire, Yves Coppens , Emmanuel Anati, Paolo Graziosi and A. Beltran, a coordination group was formed for the research, study and conservation of the rock and cave art. She achieved that some caves were closed to the public after the streams of tourists had now caused more damage to the pictures than the twenty thousand years before. Through the collaboration of researchers and inspired by the discovery of other picture caves such as the Grotto Chauvet and the Grotto Cosquer , a first overall picture of this heritage was created.
General requirements: environment, people and culture
Why the Franco-Cantabrian cave art came about at all is disputed. Several factors played a role in this "Upper Paleolithic Revolution":
- the environment of the Upper Paleolithic : the change between warmer and colder phases within the Würm Ice Age , the flora and fauna;
- the man at the time: the Cro-Magnon man , who ousted the Neanderthals and whose appearance coincides with the sudden onset of creativity;
- Caves and groups of caves as centers of life in connection with the migration of game animals and as sanctuaries;
- the emergence of a differentiated social structure;
- the development of human consciousness.
The ice age environment
climate
The last glacial period of the current Ice Age lasted from about 115,000 BP to 10,000 BP in Western Europe . In the Alpine region it is called the Würm Ice Age , in Northern and Eastern Europe it is called the Vistula Ice Age . Longer cold phases ( stadials ) were interrupted by warmer and wetter phases ( interstadials ).
The last phase of the last glacial period from around 35,000 BP is identical to the Upper Paleolithic . During this time the Franco-Cantabrian cave art developed. The cold maximum was between 20,000 and 18,000 BP when the Rhônetal glacier reached close to what is now Lyon and almost the entire area of what is now southern France was a treeless tundra. The temperatures were 5 to 13 ° C lower than today. The sea level was around 120 m lower than it is now, and the coastline at that time was often more than ten kilometers before it is today. Glaciers stretched as ice sheets up to 3000 m thick over large parts of northern Europe, partly as far as Central Europe. In the south, the Alps were glaciated deep into the foreland, as was the Pyrenees. As in Siberia today, the space between the northern ice sheet and the Alps was characterized by permafrost . Some summers may have been comparable to today's cool summers, but the winters were consistently very cold with temperatures below –10 ° C for several weeks. The climate in Europe was relatively dry.
The last glacial period ended with a sharp cold spike, the Younger Dryas (approx. 12,700–11,700 BP). The temperature sank by up to 15 degrees below today's level, the glaciation increased again strongly, the sea level sank. At that time, Franco-Cantabrian cave art was already in decline. It ended with the warming of the climate around 11,700 years ago when the Holocene began.
Flora
Paleobotanical pollen findings are the main sources for knowledge about the flora . At the edges of the northern ice sheets and far to the south, there was the treeless cold steppe ( tundra ) due to the permafrost , and further south there was a boreal coniferous forest (taiga). In the far south - near the coast and in the lower Rhône valley as well as in northern Spain - there was a park tundra with isolated groups of trees. Directly on the Mediterranean coast there was a somewhat denser mixed deciduous forest, as well as on the north coast of Spain. Further south, the landscape changed back into relatively treeless dry or bush savannahs . The extent of these areas was heavily dependent on the phases of the Ice Age, which alternated as warmer interstadials and ice advances.
The so-called mammoth steppe of the northern latitudes was overgrown with species and nutrient-rich vegetation and represented a lush habitat for grazing herbivores in summer, comparable to today's alpine pastures. However, winter meant a food shortage. The steppe landscape of the south was loosened up by spruce, birch, alder and pine trees and overgrown with juniper, sweet grass and mugwort. Like the treeless northern tundras, it offered shelter and food for a species-rich fauna.
Wildlife
The Ice Age people lived mainly as big game hunters. For the interpretation of the cave pictures, knowledge of the respective distribution of the animal species is indispensable. We encounter the animal world in many ways in the cave pictures, but not in accordance with the hunting significance of individual animal species, which results from the remains of bones. All in all, our knowledge of the large fauna of that time comes from both leftover food and the representations in the caves, although these are often anatomically imprecise, so that sometimes the species cannot be determined.
As larger game animals are reindeer , ibex and chamois demonstrated to the steppe bison. In the older literature in particular, the names wisent and bison vary . However, this is clearly the steppe bison ( Bison priscus ), which died out in Europe at the beginning of the Holocene. There were also wild horses , an extinct wild ass and saiga antelopes .
Preferred prey were horses, ibexes and especially reindeer. Some 99 percent of the bones found come from reindeer. They are so common, especially in the late glacial, that one can even distinguish regional subspecies. Their advance to the Pyrenees is considered a climate indicator. In addition to meat and fat, the reindeer also supplied fur for clothing and tents, sinews and intestines as sewing material, and bones and antlers for weapons, tools and small art.
Cervids lived in the valleys : red deer, roe deer and the later extinct giant deer . During the cold ages, moose could also stay in the more temperate zones of Europe (because of the similar shovel antlers they are not always distinguishable in pictures of giant deer). Mammoths and woolly rhinoceros were found with regionally and chronologically very different densities, although they became increasingly rare in the late glacial, as did the musk ox, which were particularly well adapted to a cold, dry climate .
Larger herbivores depend on large amounts of food. They have difficulties especially in winter and are therefore more likely to be found in the more southern areas of France and in northern Spain. Fallow deer and wild boar were mostly only common in the Mediterranean region during the cold ages. Forest elephants , like the forest rhinoceros, only occurred in the southern regions of Europe during the ice ages, so that their representation on rock art in the northern zones has to be provided with a question mark.
There were also many predators : cave hyenas , cave lions , and cave lynxes. The giant cave bear and the smaller brown bear were mostly herbivores. The wolf was present in small forms in the camps of the younger Magdalenian and probably served as a hunting aid and as a food reserve. The beginnings of wolf domestication can be traced back to the middle Upper Palaeolithic (approx. 27,000–20,000 BP), from 15,000 BP its domestication is considered relatively safe. In any case, it is striking that it practically never appears in cave pictures. On the other hand, wolverines , an important predator of the boreal coniferous forest, found numerous bones in caves. During the cold periods, the arctic fox can be identified, more rarely the red fox , which lived on the edges of the tundras.
Small game was very important for the nutrition of the Ice Age people. There were mountain hares ( it was too cold for the brown hare during the Ice Ages in Central Europe, as well as the wild rabbit ), badgers and beavers . The marmot and ground squirrel were frequent steppe inhabitants, as was the steppe lemming , whose occurrence is considered to be a strong indication of cold-time steppes . Squirrels and flying squirrels , on the other hand, were dependent on forests; their fossils are considered indicators of forest stocks. During the Ice Age, the mole was also common, some of which even impressed in a giant shape. Smaller rodents, plants, eggs, and fish are also believed to have made significant contributions to nutrition.
On the coast there were seals, alken birds and other sea birds, plus plenty of shellfish .
Ice Age man and his culture
Human type
We know from skeletal finds (burials) that the creators of the cave paintings are anatomically modern Homo sapiens , see Cro-Magnon man . These people came to Europe from 40,000 BP, possibly via the Near and Middle East. Africa is considered to be their origin, where they are proven from 100,000 BP. Their average height was 180 cm for men and 166 cm for women. The physique corresponded to today's humans. The term “caveman” associated with primitiveness is now considered obsolete (except when it is purely descriptive of the fact that caves were inhabited).
The Cro-Magnon man ousted the Neanderthal man . The exact course of events is unclear. The last traces of the Neanderthal man can be found in southern Spain and Portugal; they are around 31,000 years old.
The tool and weapon repertoire of that time included (data according to Hoffmann: Lexicon of the Stone Age) bows and arrows (Aurignacia before> 30,000 BP), spears with insertable points (from Solutréen ), spear throwers (from around 21,000 BP with a focus on Dordogne), a kind of boomerang (from around 20,000 BP) and harpoons (from around 15,000 BP with removable barb tips ). The blade and microlith technology matured in Europe between around 25,000 and 13,000 BP. In addition to wood, bone, ivory and horn were also used as materials and often artistically designed.
nutrition
The Cro-Magnon people were hunters and gatherers . The emergence of a treeless environment had far-reaching significance for the nutrition of the Upper Paleolithic people, because the extremely fertile tundra with its loess soils provided food for many animals that were adapted to the cold. The herds must have been huge. The people made their camps on the migration routes of the animals, which often led through valleys and along rivers. Fishing was also practiced on rivers and coasts (findings from leftovers and depictions in cave pictures).
The herd animals always followed the same migration routes between summer and winter pastures (like the bison and caribou herds in North America). A major factor was the migratory herds of reindeer, which at least in very cold climates were forced to follow the large rivers. During the glaciation, animal species such as the ibex migrated from the mountains to the lowlands. Thus there was a plentiful supply of game even in cold times.
Social structure
These favorable conditions led to a high population density, which in turn was a prerequisite for the emergence of a differentiated social structure and a pronounced immaterial culture with cave art and mobile art. What is particularly striking is the enormous increase in personal jewelry, which begins at around 34,000 BP and indicates a social differentiation, but also a view of life that goes beyond the strategies that are only necessary for survival. The increase in grave goods is also remarkable.
The caves were the main bases where women, children and the elderly stayed while the men went hunting in larger groups and moved from camp site to camp site. Many of these so-called outdoor stations have been found, some with the foundations of huts. A large group spread over various settlement sites and caves could easily comprise 500 people.
Caves as places of residence and cult
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The caves in question here are in most cases karst caves , which are formed in soluble limestone under the action of water and often form large systems. They are known as stalactite caves . Water is constantly dripping and flowing in them, whereby lakes, siphons (submerged passageways that have to be plunged through) and underground rivers can form. The climate in such caves is very constant, both seasonal and daily: constant temperature, high humidity. The temperature corresponds roughly to the mean annual temperature of the area.
Apart from the darkness, such caves were pleasant places to live for the time. Caves were already in use towards the end of the Paleolithic from around 200,000 BP. In the Middle Paleolithic , the large caves, which had previously been avoided because of the animal inhabitants, were also populated, but only in the foremost part, as shown by tool finds. It was not until the Upper Paleolithic that they penetrated into greater depths, which then seem to have been used for religious purposes. In their front parts, caves in the Upper Paleolithic were inhabited for long periods of time, sometimes several times at very different periods, thousands of years apart. Sometimes they were even designed with small walls, partitions, etc. In them and in their immediate vicinity there are isolated graves.
Some caves were never actually inhabited, and some were too inaccessible for that. Apparently they served exclusively as places of worship. You can tell that in some rich picture caves the so-called cultural layers (i.e. the garbage of the residents) are completely missing. In many caves, especially in the middle Magdalenian , the dark areas lying far behind the inhabited entrance zone were the actual places of worship. Leroi-Gourhan suspects that the paintings and engravings were placed deeper and deeper in the caves over time. Only towards the end of the Upper Palaeolithic did the pictures return to the daylight zone at the cave entrance.
The end of the ice age and cave art
The end of the Paleolithic came quite suddenly and coincides with the end of the Würm Ice Age. The subsequent warm period corresponds to the Holocene , which continues to this day, or culturally in Europe to the Mesolithic and the Neolithic .
The vast plains were flooded by the melting of the glaciers and turned into a swamp and lake landscape. In Europe, dense, impenetrable forests were now spreading, which hindered the migration of large game animals and thus offered less living space for people than the open tundras with their huge herds. Some animals like the mammoth, the woolly rhinoceros and the giant deer could not adapt and became extinct. Other animals such as the reindeer migrated north, the chamois moved into the mountains. The number of wild horses dependent on spacious landscapes decreased rapidly. They disappeared completely from large areas of Europe, only on the Iberian Peninsula did they persist until the early Neolithic, and also in the steppes of Asia.
The population dropped dramatically, and the Mesolithic food crisis broke out. People went on to small groups small game (proved by archeological finds the bone) to capture, and that apparently preferred by slings. The now numerous lakes and rivers provided an additional source of food, as demonstrated by large piles of mussel and snail shells as well as herringbones, which are considered a guiding paradigm of the Mesolithic. This food also shows the nutritional crisis, because shellfish have a low nutritional value (over 52,000 oysters correspond to the nutritional value of a deer). For this, more berries, mushrooms and nuts were available in the forests.
The consequences were considerable. The people now lived in smaller and more dispersed groups. Klans split up into relatively self-sufficient nuclear families. The transmission of cultural techniques was thereby severely restricted. The sanctuaries with their precious paintings lost their function and were given up unless they sank into the sea anyway or became uninhabitable due to penetrating water or debris avalanches. Only the mobile art was preserved, but mostly only ornamental and without figurative representations. In southwestern France, the culture was Magdalénien in the much sparser the Azilian over. Burial fields can only be found again from the late Mesolithic (around 6250 BP).
Representations in the caves
Techniques and formal aspects
The paintings and drawings can be analyzed according to different aspects. This includes, for example, the painting or engraving technique, the background, the colors and aids, but also criteria such as arrangement, perspective, details, dimensions and overpainting.
- Drawing and painting technique, engraving
Drawings are the most widely preserved type of figurative representation. Primarily as engravings (the most frequently used technique) they were attached to ceilings and walls with pointed stone utensils. The outline with charcoal is considered one of the most important inventions of early art.
Line drawings were mostly done in red or black, mostly with a colored fingertip, alternatively with ocher or charcoal pencil. A flat application of paint was done either dry (by rubbing or dusting) or moist. Areas can also be achieved by smudging the colors with your fingers. For application with brushes and other artificial aids, a smooth rock surface is generally necessary, but there was hardly any here. The subsurface is mostly natural. Occasionally, especially in later stages, there are signs that the rock has been previously smoothed. Brushes may also have been used here.
Sometimes the contours were also engraved, either as a preliminary drawing or after the application of paint to highlight certain details. There are three methods of engraving:
- Scoring, i.e. drawing a line with a burin,
- Pecking as a string of small depressions,
- Sanding (after scratching or pecking): Creating wider grooves with a wet wooden stake.
Modeling (mostly with clay) as well as the relief, which is mostly preserved in the entrance areas of the caves and in abrises, are used as further semi-plastic techniques.
- Colours
The colored representations are often multicolored throughout. The polychromy is particularly pronounced in Altamira and Font-de-Gaume , for example , where diverse shades of color were used in a virtuoso manner, in contrast to the older, only two-dimensional depictions in Lascaux, for example . Particularly in the early phases (for example in the Chauvet Grotto ) there are also monochrome, black line drawings or black paintings, sometimes supplemented by engravings. A later example of monochrome is Niaux .
Pigment dyes were used as dyes, especially iron ocher ( hematite ) for tints from red to yellow and brown. Vegetable and animal coals (which can also be used for carbon 14 dating) and manganese earth resulted in black. Yellow and brown were mostly achieved by a mixture with limonite (brown iron stone), hematite and manganese oxide . Mortars and pestles were used for grinding .
Contrary to what is often stated in the specialist literature, binders were probably not used, as especially fatty substances make it very difficult to apply to rock. The colorants were probably only dissolved in water. In the case of manganese black, water could not be used because it creates a greenish hue that is nowhere to be found in cave pictures.
- Distribution of the images
The distribution of the pictures in corridors and halls varies. Sometimes they are loosely arranged, but sometimes they are heaped so close together and on top of each other that only the most recent depiction can be seen. Leroi-Gourhan has developed his own stylistic interpretation scheme from the distribution of the individual animal species.
- characters
In general, the paintings consist of individual incoherent figures, which, however, can be densely packed on the rock walls. Occasionally, groups of figures are shown, such as herds, and sometimes groups of different animals that belong together ( cave of Les Combarelles ). A scenic background, such as a landscape with plants, does not occur. The size of the individual figures varies considerably from a few centimeters to a few meters.
- perspective
The usual view is in profile, mostly with clear contour lines and in motion. A spatial impression is hardly recognizable and mostly rather coincidental. Accordingly, there is no actual image composition. A real perspective can hardly be found in its full technical form, at best as a perspective foreshortening of limbs or pairs of horns.
From the Gravettian at the latest, however, the twisted or half-twisted perspective is increasingly found, in which the animal is shown sideways and looks at the viewer with its head twisted. Occasionally there is a staggered one behind the other of animals and a perspective correct representation of the pairs of legs (especially perfect in the cave of Teyjat ).
- Details
The detailed representation of fur or bison beard is particularly perfect in the monochrome drawings by Niaux . The polychrome pictures by Altamira and Font-de-Gaume got their effect by subsequently scraping away individual parts and adding darker parts, with details being worked out by fine engravings. Other details such as hooves or eyes were designed in a formulaic manner in many caves, so that a long tradition of representation can be assumed, which led to a code of rules.
- Overlays
Sometimes an old picture was scratched away and a new one inserted in the course of the cultic use that went on for thousands of years. The previous illustration was dusted with a temporary covering layer so that the old depiction did not interfere with the painting. Sometimes it was painted over several times, so that a real painting stratigraphy can result.
State of preservation
The pictures are lightfast, acid and alkali resistant . This effect is known from the fresco technique , in which alkali-resistant paint is mixed in water without a binding agent and applied to fresh lime mortar . When the lime sets, the pigments are firmly enclosed and bound by a sintered layer . Such calcareous sinters also form on the cave walls when calcareous water escapes and evaporates, whereby the dissolved lime crystallizes (this is how stalagmites and stalactites are formed ). This natural lime sinter can stabilize applied colors. In some caves the sintered layer is now so thick that the images have almost completely disappeared underneath. In addition, clays containing iron oxide , such as burnt ocher, form cementitious compounds with lime. The strength and durability of many cave paintings could well be due to these processes. It is possible that the pictures only survived the millennia because they were created without binding agents using the pastel technique or watercolor painting and, over time, became "natural frescoes".
Paintings can only be found in the back, dark parts of the cave, where these conservation conditions existed. The front, inhabited cave parts were often exposed to the weather, the temperatures fluctuated. Therefore only engraved representations are preserved there. The frequency of figurative representations in the darker areas of the caves is explained by the better conservation conditions there. There must have been such representations in the front, bright areas of the cave. This is indicated by remains of painted rubble and some preserved paintings and engravings (e.g. La Ferrassie, La Madeleine).
Motives and themes
In Paleolithic art one usually distinguishes four basic categories of motifs: animals, humans (and hybrids), signs, indefinite lines. In the French Cantabrian caves, hands also play a role.
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- Animals
There are very many depictions of animals, several thousand in all. The animal species correspond to the Ice Age fauna mentioned above. The frequency with which they are shown apparently followed different criteria. Leroi-Gourhan has statistically evaluated animal representations in 66 caves or decorated abysses, but for a larger total area: all of France, Spain and Italy. He found that only very specific animal species were depicted that did not even have to play a major role in everyday life. In order of frequency, these were: 610 horses, 510 bison, 135 hinds and 112 deer, 205 mammoths, 176 ibexes, 137 cattle, 84 reindeer, 36 bears, 29 lions and 16 rhinos, eight fallow deer, eight fish, six birds, six snakes , three undetermined predators, two wild boars, two chamois (?) and a saiga antelope (?). There were also nine “monsters” such as the “unicorn” and the “giraffes” from Lascaux, the “antelopes” from Peche-Merle and the webbed reindeer from Les Trois Frères.
- In the French Cantabrian caves the distribution is as follows: horse 30%, bison 20%, ibex 7.5%, Ur 6.8%, stag / giant deer 7.1%, hind 6.2%, mammoth 7.6 %, Ren 3.5%, Bear 2.3%, Leo 2.2%; the rest under 1%. Mainly the herbivores are shown, rather rarely the particularly dangerous animals such as bears, lions and rhinos. To what extent a hobby meaning can be derived from this - sometimes the animals are depicted with arrows and wounds or dying - or instead a symbolic meaning is controversial. What is astonishing is the relatively low representation of the reindeer compared to its high economic importance.
- The animal images are geographically distributed very unevenly. The 135 hinds appear mainly in the Spanish caves. Mammoths are only present in very few caves, half of them in Rouffignac. Snakes were only found in Rouffignac. Bears, lions and rhinos play an important role overall, but are usually only present with one specimen per cave.
- The distribution within the caves is also uneven: 91% of the bison, 92% of the cattle or aurochs, 86% of the horses and 58% of the mammoths are found in the middle parts of the caves and abrises; the other species are each below 10%. Deer and ibex are usually found in the entrance, edge and end areas, as are rarer animals such as bears and lions.
In addition, there is a temporal fluctuation in the frequency of animals with different priorities in the different culture phases.
- Humans and hybrid beings
Representations of people are rarer (a total of around 1500 including cabaret and handprints). They are not naturalistic, sometimes fragmentary, sometimes gender-neutral.
- Representations of women are rare. They appear almost exclusively as scratches, sometimes only pars pro toto as a vulva drawing. They are often in the central part of groups of images. Female representations group themselves preferentially with bison, aurochs and mammoths. Whether a sexual symbolism can be derived from this remains open.
- Male representations are somewhat more common and carried out very differently: partly as profile outlines, partly as a face from the front or in profile; partly ithyphallic , sometimes just a phallus. Representations of men are almost always found in the cave end zone or on the edge of a central composition, i.e. opposite to the female position. Male representations prefer to group with horses, ibex and deer.
- Particularly noteworthy are animal-human hybrid beings, which are also interpreted as mask wearers and shamans . The best known here are the “magicians” of Les Trois Frères and Le Gabillou, as well as two less distinct figures in Font-de-Gaume and La Pasiega.
It is noteworthy that there is not a single mating scene in all of Europe's Paleolithic art.
- hands
There are hand negatives and hand positives: 500 negatives and 20 positives in 20 caves (also mostly hand negatives occur worldwide). Hand positives were created by applying paint with the palm of the hand, hand negatives were created by blowing paint dust onto the hand pressed against the rock face. In each case, personal contact was established with the painting surface, which, according to Lewis-Williams, is to be understood as the closest possible contact with the spirit world behind the cave walls. This is one of the oldest evidence of an archetypal religious metaphor . Handprints are one of the first signs of Homo symbolicus .
All the dates of the hand negatives refer to the earliest period of the Franco-Cantabrian rock art. They were destroyed or painted over by later inhabitants of the caves, who might perceive them as dangerous magic.
For a long time, science assumed that men had artistically implemented their hunting experiences in the paintings, but there was no evidence for this. The archaeologist Dean Snow from Pennsylvania State University analyzed handprints from eight French and Spanish Stone Age caves , including the cave of Gargas, and found that around three quarters of all colored hands are from women, and there are also numerous handprints from children and adolescents.
- character
Geometric signs are extremely common. There are points, rectangles, triangles, grids, ovals, club-shaped (claviform) symbols, brackets, hooks, roof-shaped symbols (^). The signs are often associated with depictions of animals, but also mark the edges of the caves.
They form regional groups and are also evaluated by Leroi-Gourhan as ethnic markers. The locations of matching symbols are up to 60 kilometers apart, with some symbols even up to 600 kilometers, so that cultural relationships can be assumed over these distances.
The club-shaped symbols are often interpreted as abstractions by women, otherwise the meaning of the geometric signs is speculative. Lewis-Williams interprets them as the result of a trance, Leroi-Gourhan gives them sexual symbolism. Anati is considering a sign system in the narrower sense. It is completely unclear what kind of sign it could be. Pictorial signs in which human or animal forms are suggested come into question; Conceptual signs similar to the early hieroglyphs; non-objective signs that may express emotional states. The continuous and relatively uniform occurrence in many caves speaks for a consciously used meaning.
- Lines
Lines appear very different, sometimes tangled in one another and overlapping one another. They are more often engraved than painted. Sometimes they are executed with ocher or broken up into dots. They occur in almost all sites and sometimes make up a third to half of all picture elements, often creating connections between the individual figures. Leroi-Gourhan calls them "unfinished contours". It is unclear whether some of these could be signs. The interpretation of the lines is extremely speculative.
Interpretative approaches
Before the Upper Paleolithic there was no cave painting . Due to their technical perfection, the Franco-Cantabrian cave paintings presuppose millennia of development.
At times the paintings were only placed in the rear, dark cave areas (for details, see the chronology of style according to Leroi-Gourhan ). These areas were also often narrow, steep and difficult to reach. Painting in the poorly lit cave darkness, sometimes in a crooked position or lying down, was associated with considerable difficulties. Because of the high expenditure, the pictures must have had a great importance for the people of that time, at least at times. Müller-Karpe argues that one would not choose a dark and uncomfortable place to paint with "artistic" ambitions and that the depictions must therefore have had a different, religious purpose. This is supported by the depiction of symbolic motifs and the fact that the rear cave areas were painted even though they were not inhabited at all.
These caves were not studios or museums, but sacred spaces, sanctuaries, as Leroi-Gourhan in particular repeatedly emphasizes, places in which the physical world and the metaphysical world merged behind the cave walls. You have to take into account that the pictures could only be seen in the flickering light of torches and lamps, which has a tremendous mystical effect. The caves were places of worship that were set up inside the earth. Frequent patterns of interpretation in this context are animism , animalism and totemism , shamanism and hunting magic .
Modern research, meanwhile, places greater emphasis on the social context, above all on the necessity of celebrating the success of the hunt together and performing rituals after the hunt.
The South African rock art researcher David Lewis Williams incorporated neurological findings into the interpretation of rock art in his work The Mind in the Cave, Consciousness and the Origins of Art , published in 2002 .
chronology
Cultural stages of the Upper Palaeolithic
In the Upper Palaeolithic of Central, Western and Southern Europe, a distinction is made between several cultural levels, some of which are only regional and some of which overlap. The classification is not based on the cave painting, but on the typical tool inventories. The names refer to the main sites in France. The specified time periods are approximate values and sometimes vary in the literature by one to two thousand years (often there is also no information on whether the dating is calibrated).
- The Châtelperronien is a transitional phase (approx. 38,000–33,000 BP). Especially in France it still represents the culture of the Neanderthals , the Moustérien , with numerous finds in caves that the Neanderthals also used. Possible influences of the Cro-Magnon culture are controversial. Beginning of artistic representations with incised drawings on bones. Bone, horn and ivory are now increasingly used as materials. The Châtelperronien overlaps with the Périgordien in south-west France (approx. 36,000–30,000 BP), which, as a local transition technology, is often assigned to the Aurignacien and the Gravettien. The Périgord later developed into a major center of Franco-Cantabrian cave art.
- The Aurignacien (approx. 33,000–26,000 BP, beginning in Eastern and Southern Europe approx. 45,000 BP) is the first important period of Upper Palaeolithic art that is carried by the Cromagnon alone. Distribution area from the Middle East to the Atlantic. The first picture caves fall into this period. Retouched blades and microliths are characteristic of the tool inventories .
- The Gravettian (about 28,000 to 21,000 BP) brings a revival of prehistoric art. The culture spread across Europe. Typical is the appearance of Venus figurines and other small sculptures (mostly animals), as well as jewelry. Advanced blade technology, such as sewing needles with an eye. The clothes fit perfectly; Outside of caves, people usually lived in fur tents, sometimes in permanent dwellings.
- The Solutréen (approx. 21,000-18,000 BP) is restricted to southern France (Massif Central, Pyrenees) and northern Spain. Stone processing is at its peak ( leaf tips ), but visual art is stagnating. Painted stone slabs with animal figures have been preserved as works of cabaret (almost 5000 in the Parpalló Cave in eastern Spain), while the full sculpture is almost completely missing. Numerous lamps, with which one could light the interior of the cave apart from torches, were found (170 in Lascaux alone, some with a handle).
- In the Magdalenian period (approx. 18,000-10,000 BP) Paleolithic art reached its peak, but towards the end it also declined. Most of the picture caves (see below) date from this period.
The period after 10,000 BP is known as the Epipalaeolithic or Mesolithic , depending on the region , and also as Azilien in southern France . The cave art was abandoned within a short time. The art was now limited to painted rubble. The tools became simpler and clumsier.
Magdalenian as the main French Cantabrian period
The Magdalenian was named after the Abri La Madeleine in the Dordogne. It is the last Upper Paleolithic cultural stage and is considered the main period of Franco-Cantabrian cave art.
The art of the picture caves reached its highest level. Some of the paintings knew the perspective, were sometimes multicolored and sometimes semi-plastic with the inclusion of stone formations. Engravings and reliefs also show these techniques and in some cases are also outlined in color. The full sculpture (ivory, bones or antlers) reached a certain climax here, although in contrast to the rest of Europe it was of secondary importance, as did masterfully executed half-sculptures and scratches on these materials.
There were earrings and arm rings, amulets and necklaces in very large numbers, as shown by holes. The clothes were often decorated with sewn beads and shells. Pearls, snail shells and pierced shells show trade connections in the Mediterranean area. Predators' pierced teeth were probably also status symbols. In the caves there were real "museums" with collections of minerals and fossils. Body decorations with colors are also detectable.
Stone processing in the older Magdalenian reached a low point. The Magdalenian can be divided into six levels using typical tools (from old to young):
- Magdalenian I - star-shaped small burs
- Magdalenian II - microliths
- Magdalenian III - spear throwers, pierced rods, spearheads, half-rounded sticks
- Magdalenian IV - points made of reindeer bones with side notches (harpoon precursors), small bone rondels (partly decorated)
- Magdalenian V - harpoons with teeth on one side
- Magdalenian VI - parrot beak pricks, teyjat tips and harpoons serrated on both sides
Style chronology according to Leroi-Gourhan
Leroi-Gourhan's analyzes mainly concern the stylistic relationships between the murals and their relationship to the topography of the cave. He focuses on the principle of polar coupling (i.e. sexuality). With the help of statistical studies, he also draws conclusions about the structure of the caves as sanctuaries. Sometimes he neglects the care of the digging archaeologist. Despite all the overlaps and lack of timing, his system is still used today, including in the following lists.
Styles I to IV are preceded by a prefigurative period : Developed Moustérien from 50,000 BP. No sculptures. Notched bones and plaques. Jewelry from 35,000 BP in Châtelperronien . Ocher was known.
- Style I: Aurignacia from 30,000 BP. Crudely painted or engraved pictures on stone slabs, mostly unidentifiable animals, plus genitals. No pictures on rock walls, just on limestone blocks. Hand negatives ( Cosquer Phase 1).
- Examples: La Ferrassie, Abri Cellier, Isturitz
- Style II: transition from style I in the early Solutréen , roughly between 25,000 and 20,000 BP. The oldest animal pictures date from this period, but are still relatively schematic, often with a strongly wavy head and back line. Summary details characterize the individual animal species. Human figures are disproportionate, often with an overemphasized trunk. Mostly mobile art, but also representations on the walls of the entrance areas of caves, i.e. still in daylight.
- Examples: Pair-non-Pair , Gargas, Chabot
Style I and II are combined as a primitive period . Since the discovery of the Cosquer cave, this period has probably been moved a little later in the delimitation.
- Style III ( archaic period ): younger solutréen, approx. 20,000 to 15,000 BP. The technical mastery of paintings, sculptures and engravings is now complete. The shapes are still similar to Style II, as are the proportions (small heads and extremities, very large bodies). Very large number of sculptures. Increasingly differentiated characters. The images are in the daylight zone of the caves and in the semi-darkness down to a depth of a few dozen meters, where artificial lighting is already required.
- Examples: Roc-de-Sers, Fourneau-du-Diable, Lascaux, Pech Merle, Covalanas, Pasiega
- Older Style IV ( Classical Period ): Magdalenian , approximately 15,000 to 11,000 BP. The picture caves now reach their greatest number and distribution. Pronounced realism of the forms with an abundance of details, such as fur and manes. The perspective of the horns and antlers is invariably normal. However, the individual images are usually not yet integrated into the cave space as a composition. The human figures, including the statuettes, are increasingly stylized and reduced to individual parts of the body (mostly to the middle of the body). The images can be found from the entrance area to a depth of more than a kilometer, with sometimes difficult access.
- Examples: Arcy-sur-Cure, Angles-sur-l'Anglin, Font-de-Gaume, Cap Blanc, Les Combarelles, Niaux, Les Trois-Frères, Rouffignac, Montespan, Altamira, Etcheberriko, El Castillo
- Younger style IV ( late period ): Younger Magdalenian, up to 10,000 BP. The cave decoration is massively declining and only takes place in the entrance areas. Very realistic animal representations, the reindeer is now shown more often. The production of mobile art is now spreading more and more across Europe and lasts two to three thousand years longer than art production in the caves. At 9000 BP at the latest, the development stops abruptly, and the art of Magdalenian dissolves into awkward forms and schemata.
- Examples: Tejyat, Sainte-Eulalie
Style IV includes 78 percent of all works of Paleolithic art.
Many caves only belong to one period (e.g. Lascaux ). A large number of caves and deep cave areas seem to have been decorated in one go and then hardly frequented (e.g. the deeper areas of Niaux ). The settlement of a cave could also extend over several thousand years.
Some caves extend over two periods, so they have a very long period of settlement (e.g. Altamira ). In some cases there are overpaintings that testify to a resettlement in a later era.
For dating the caves
For archaeologists, formerly inhabited caves are archaeologists of the past, because after leaving the cave, the remains of humans (and animals) were gradually covered by blown sand or loess dust, blasted off limestone rubble or fallen rock. These cultural layers, often several meters thick, remained mostly undisturbed and today, with their inventories, form a reliable basis for dating. This does not only apply to the stratigraphic sequence of the layers of the find (relative dating). Absolute dating is often possible using charcoal remains. Sometimes even cave pictures can be directly dated using paint residues. The radiocarbon method , however, has various difficulties. Only from an age of 11,500 years can the dates be precisely calibrated using other methods .
Dating is particularly problematic if there are only engravings or if there are no tool finds. The absence of such traces of life suggests that the cave was only a sanctuary and never served as a residence. The temporal congruence with tool finds is often not clear anyway.
The most important caves or abrises and their image programs
The following lists are not complete. Only caves are listed in which essential pictures and sculptures as well as other works of mobile art were found. The information on caves and abrises is taken from the documentation at Müller-Karpe and Leroi-Gourhan. Books by Lorblanchet and Vialou were also included. For the dating of the most important caves see the dating table at Lorblanchet.
The sites in France are arranged according to departments from north to south, in Spain according to regions from east to west, then the older style periods according to Leroi-Gourhan first, as far as known. If the representations extend stylistically over several periods, the site is listed under the oldest. The localities near the sites are given in brackets.
The French caves
The sites are grouped into the following local groups on the basis of the site maps by Leroi-Gourhan and Müller-Karpe:
- the northern French caves of the border area
- Central French caves on the edge of the Massif Central and the Cevennes
- the southwestern French caves of the Atlantic coastal zone
- the French Pyrenees Caves
- the caves of the lower Rhône valley area and the Golfe du Lion
Sometimes historical regions are mentioned in the literature: Quercy , Aquitaine , Périgord , Languedoc , Provence . They partially overlap and are therefore not used here.
Northern France
- Indre department
- Abri Saint-Marcel ( La Garenne ): Only mobile art: pierced reindeer antler stick with a human face, engraved deer representation on a stone slab, carved horse head and bone pendant with the figure of a jumping cervid. Date: Magdalenian.
- Mayenne department
- La Dérouine ( Saulges ) cave : depictions of horses, bison and mammoths painted in black. Early Style III and elements of Style IV on characters. Close relationship to Gouy.
- Seine-Maritime department
- Grotte de Gouy ( Gouy ): Together with the La Dérouine and Arcy-sur-Cure caves, it belongs to the northernmost subgroup of the Franco-Cantabrian caves. It contains engravings. It shows vulvae, five horse heads and several horns or forked symbols. It is followed by a horse and another headless animal and several overlapping contours of aurochs. The style is classified under II with elements of style IV.
- Vienne department
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La Marche cave ( Lussac-les-Châteaux ): About 200 stone slabs with very fine engravings were found: some animals, but mostly humans or human heads. However, the authenticity of these stylistically completely different representations is disputed. Stratigraphically, they should come from late Paleolithic layers.
In the immediate vicinity, the Lussac-les-Châteaux grotto with several animal engravings was discovered at the end of the 1990s , including a striding mammoth and a human figure with bent knees. The C-14 dating resulted in 14,200 BP, i.e. middle Magdalenian.
- Abri Roc-aux-Sorciers ( Angles-sur-l'Anglin ): Approx. 30 m long relief images of bison, horses, ibexes and two fragmentary female and one male figures, partly in red or black, partly on panels from Protomagdalenia or Magdalenian times broken off from the wall. What is remarkable is the bearded head of a person in profile. Style IV.
- Yonne department
- Arcy-sur-Cure caves : system of four caves with the so-called Grotte du Cheval and the Grotte du Trilobite ; a corridor cave. In the Trilobite grotto , which is equipped with extensive tool inventories but poor in terms of art ,a slate of slate with rhinos engraved on top of each otherwas found in the Gravettian layer, a carved beetle sculpture and, notably, a piece of bone with a plant engraving were found in the Magdalenian layer. The horse grotto is much more funded (but hardly any tools) and contains engraved depictions of cervids , mammoths, bison and hinds as well as vulvae and some symbolson the walls. Date: early style IV, middle Magdalenian.
Massif Central and Cevennes
- Dordogne department
Most of the Franco-Cantabrian caves are in the Dordogne.
- Terme Pialat Cave ( Saint-Avit-Sénieur ): In an aurignacian layer, a stone with engraved outlines of two female figures, one in profile.
- Abris Cellier ( Tursac ), Castanet ( Sergeac ), De Belcayre ( Tonac ) and La Ferrassie ( Le Bugue ) contain only engraved plates from the Aurignacia and early Gravettia. In the Aurignacien layer of La Ferrassie there were traces of painting and remnants of reliefs (ibex head) as well as a plaque with incisions of horse heads, on a stone block black paintings and incisions of a rhinoceros head. Style I.
- Péchialet cave ( Groléjac ): Three figurative works of art were found in a gravettia layer: a bear with two human (?) Figures, the engraving of a bearded man and a woman sculpture on a slate.
- Abris from Laussel and ( Marquay ): In the Gravettia layer, stone blocks with reliefs of human figures (four female, one male), including the famous depiction of the "woman with horn" or Venus von Laussel . Traces of ocher indicate that it was painted earlier. Style II.
- Grotte La Grèze (Marquay): Some deeply grooved bison engravings still in daylight. Dating Solutréen . Style II.
- La Mouthe Cave ( Les Eyzies ): Cave with engravings from Style II and engravings and paintings from later styles. The decoration is particularly rich and includes periods II, III and IV. The more recent representations (cattle, horse) can be found in the lower area, the youngest at the back. The style II engravings in the front part of the cave are joined by engraved depictions of bison, ibex, a stag and horse, some with a twisted perspective, which are similar to Lascaux, Gabillou and Pech Merle (style II / III). In a side chamber there is a painted and engraved representation of confused lines and rectangular signs, which is called the "hut", plus a painted group of figures belonging to style IV: bison, reindeer, horses, mammoths, ibex, and further back in last discovered main sanctuary next to these animals also a rhinoceros. The representations there on the picture board are similar to those in Rouffignac.
- Abri Gorge d'Enfer (Les Eyzies): engravings, badly damaged except for a fish on the ceiling. Stratigraphic dating: Aurignacia . Style II.
- Abri du Facteur (Tursac): Remnants of limestone slabs that were previously painted red. Noteworthy is a carefully cut female limestone statuette, possibly showing a delivery. Stratigraphic dating: Gravettias (style II).
- Open-air find Bourdeilles , Le Fourneau du Diable ( Bourdeilles ): The block found during excavations is covered with masterfully executed reliefs (Leroi-Gourhan calls it one of the most precious documents of Paleolithic art), which, in terms of design and style, can be assigned to the Franco-Cantabrian district, although not come directly from a cave, but were found below one of the two abrises there. They are stratigraphically and easily datable with C-14 and show cattle, a horse, ibex or cervids. There are similarities with representations in Lascaux. Style III.
- Abris Les Roches (Sergeac): Several abrises with black wall paintings, handprints and remains of an animal frieze (bison and horses). Dating Aurignacia and Magdalenian. Style III.
- Villars Cave ( Villars ): The cave sanctuary consists of three halls and corridors in between. There are red and black paintings: cattle, bison, horses, ibex, possibly a deer's head, plus numerous red dots and abstract signs. The paintings are dated to the second period of Style III, which roughly corresponds to the early Magdalenian period. There are similarities to Lascaux.
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Lascaux Cave ( Montignac ): A really small cave, only 100 m deep. Lascaux is not an isolated cave from a stylistic point of view; rather, it contains numerous representations that resemble those in Gabillou, Font-de-Gaume, La Mouthe, Pech Merle and Villars; on the Spanish side there are parallels to La Pasiega, Altamira and El Castillo. The pictures belong to Style III throughout: animals with bloated bodies and small, stretched legs, sometimes perspective technology is used. Similar animal representations can be found in two dated sites: Roc-de-Sers and Bourdeilles, which definitely come from the Solutréen (19,000–16,000 BP). All C-14 dates cover the period between 18,500 and 15,500 BP. However, there are numerous overpaintings in Lascaux; and Henri Breuil distinguished 22 phases of decoration within this period alone, a differentiation according to Leroi-Gourhan, however, probably exaggerated. In the meantime, due to stylistic peculiarities, two main periods are assumed, an early style III and a developed style III, which merges into style IV. The representations in the passage and the apse are probably the oldest. Three phases can be distinguished with the abstract signs.
The main settlement layer apparently corresponds to the early Magdalenian , and the C-14 dating resulted in 17,000 BP, so that the representations of Lascaux can be classified between the second half of the Solutréen and the beginning of the middle Magdalenian, i.e. III – IV.
- Bara-Bahau cave ( Le Bugue ): Numerous engravings, some of them with fingers, of bison, horse, bull, ibex, possibly a wild cat, plus a bear and a reindeer. Numerous lines. Style III to IV.
- Le Gabillou cave ( Sourzac ): Leroi-Gourhan calls it one of the most important picture caves in France. It belongs to the type of corridor sanctuary with easy access and medium depth. A furnishing seems possible even before the middle Magdalenian. It existed at about the same time as Lascaux. There are also similarities with Niaux, Les Combarelles and La Pasiega. The cave contains only engravings (often up to a centimeter deep and sometimes traced with ocher) - mainly horses, bison, cattle, wild cats, cervids (probably reindeer) and ibex, as well as a hare, a bear and an antelope with a giraffe neck. There are also several depictions of people, including the "woman in anorak" (in profile). Also shown are horned men, one of them apparently dancing (the "magician"). Unevenness in the rock was sometimes used plastically. Different characters are also present, especially rectangles and brackets, lines and hooks, and rows of dots. Hands are missing. The style spans both epochs of Style III with transition to Style IV. A single C-14 dating resulted in 17,200 BP.
- Cave Saint Cirq , also Noël-Brousse-Höhle ( Saint-Cirq ): The small cave or grotto only contains engravings or reliefs in its bright front main room, mainly horses, possibly also a reindeer - especially noteworthy because they besides Roc-de-Sers and Bourdeilles are the only known ones from Style II. However, the deep cave sanctuaries from the Solutréen and early Magdalenian are rare, and the works of art in the front have often been exposed to the weather and are therefore not preserved. The rear part also contains engravings of the early style IV, in addition to the ibex and bison a naked human figure with a large penis, which is called the "magician" and whose interpretation is controversial, especially in comparison to human representations in other caves (Pech Merle, Combarelles , Les Trois Frères, Cougnac, Altamira, La Pasiega, Los Hornos). There are also other animal representations and abstract symbols typical of Style IV. It is possible that here, as in other cases, one has different sanctuaries in front of one, which followed one another in time.
- Abri Chancelade ( Raymonden-Nord ) and Abri Raymonden ( Chancelade ): bone plate with a crowd around a fleshed (?) Bison and other mobile works of art. Developed Magdalenian, Style IV.
- Rochereil Cave ( Grand-Brassac ): Numerous figural and abstract engravings on tools. Date: Late Magdalenian (stratigraphic), style IV.
- Limeuil : Mobile art only: Engraved plates with traces of paint. They show> 50 reindeer,> 50 horses,> 20 deer,> twelve cattle, three ibex, two deer, two or three bears, a wolf, a rhinoceros, a wild cat and two human figures, as well as decorated bone and horn objects and some abstract signs. The tool finds allow a late Paleolithic dating. Style IV.
- Teyjat Cave , consisting of Grotte de la Mairie and Abri Mège ( Teyjat ): mainly mobile art and remains on a block of stalagmites. Some very fine engravings with traces of color from the early days of the late Magdalenian period (deer, reindeer, cattle, bison, horse). The representations are very uniform and extremely artistic, partly also related to one another in terms of composition. Numerous overlaps. Dating middle Magdalenian. Style IV.
- Abri Le Cap Blanc (Marquay): twelve meter long relief frieze with several animal figures, some of them very large (horse up to 2.3 m), other horses, reindeer, bison, traces of ocher paint. Dating probably late Magdalenian. Style IV.
- Commarque cave ( Sireuil ): reliefs, partly indeterminable, with horses (?), Ibex and male figure. The dating of the middle Magdalenian is certain. Nearby was a crouching limestone female sculpture with no head or hands. The engraved horse head is considered to be the most beautiful of the Magdalenian. Strong resemblance to Cap Blanc. Style IV.
- Abri La Madeleine (Tursac): This famous late Paleolithic site, which gave the Magdalenian its name, contains some round sculptures and bas-reliefs on limestone slabs depicting animals, as well as remains of a bison engraving in the back. Numerous pieces of bones and stones with drawings of animal bodies and pieces of jewelry were also found. Special masterpieces are sculptural carvings made of renhorn and ivory as well as the anthropomorphic depiction of a woman and an ithyphallic man with a raised arm on a pebble. Style IV.
- Les Combarelles cave (Les Eyzies): The images there begin 125 m behind the cave entrance, then lead almost continuously to the end of the cave and are almost without exception engraved, some fine, some strong in relief. Sometimes the depictions are additionally painted over with black paint, but never flat, but only as contour stripes or highlighting individual areas. Remnants of only painted pictures are rare, characters occasionally red. The cave is considered a corridor sanctuary. Hundreds of animals are depicted, 291 of which are identifiable: bison, horse, cattle, cervids, mammoth, ibex, bear, reindeer, wild cat or lion, fox, fish and snake (?), 39 human or semi-human figures, one as a face, plus a hand negative. Dating probably later Magdalenian. Style IV.
- Font-de-Gaume cave (Les Eyzies): The cave, a corridor sanctuary, is located in the same rock as Les Combarelles. It contains numerous wall paintings (over 200 animal figures, some of which are life-size) in red, black and brown, some of which are monochrome, tinted and sometimes polychrome. Important parts are highlighted by engravings. Unevenness in the rock wall was used for a relief-like design. It depicts 80 bison, 40 horses, 23 mammoths, 17 reindeer and other cervids, 18 primal animals, four ibex, two rhinos, a wild cat, a bear, a wolf and four hand negatives. In the “Sanctuaire” there is a representation that can be interpreted as a human head profile. The so-called tectiform signs (roof-shaped: ^) are particularly numerous here. Apart from a few remains of style III, the representations are dated to the middle and later Magdalenian period. Style IV.
- Rouffignac Cave ( Fleurac ): Very large cave eight kilometers long. The cave ceiling contains numerous black paintings, some of which are engraved: mammoths, ibex, bison, horses, rhinos, which are stylistically very uniform. What is striking are the numerous parallel lines that were pressed into the clay (so-called "macaroni"). B. found as a meander in other caves (Altamira, Gargas, etc.). There are parallels to Les Combarelles and Font-de-Gaume. Dating: middle to late Magdalenian, approx. 13,000 to 14,000 BP. Style IV.
- Abris Laugerie-Haute and Laugerie-Basse (Les Eyzies-de-Tayac): numerous Magdalenian sculptures and carvings of mobile art were found in both abrises. There also seems to have been a sanctuary with wall engravings in the former. Style IV.
- Sous-Grand-Lac cave ( Meyrals ): engravings, some of which are difficult to recognize. Most important of all is an ithyphallic man with a round head and outstretched arms, whose portrayal is reminiscent of Saint-Cirq. Style IV.
- La Forêt Cave (Tursac): Small engravings of ibex, horses and reindeer belonging to the late style IV.
- Bernifal Cave (Les-Eyzies-de-Tayac): At the entrance a painted red mammoth and a bison head modeled from a rocky promontory. In several rooms 26 carved animal pictures (mammoths, bison, horses, wild goats), as well as numerous black hand negatives and mostly red abstract symbols, especially tectiform ones. There are strong similarities to Rouffignac, Combarelles and Font-de-Gaume. Style IV.
Newly discovered caves, abrises and other sites of the Dordogne that are not listed here until 2000: La Muzardie ( Campagne du Bugue ), La Jovelle ( La Tour-Blanche ), Font Bargeix ( Champeaux-et-la-Chapelle-Pommier ), Fronsac ( Vieux-Mareuil ), La Croix ( Condat-sur-Trincoux ), La Cavaille ( Couze ), Abri Pataud (Les Eyzies), Le Vallon de la Moutonnie (Les Eyzies), l'Église ( Cenac ).
- Outdoor discovery sites at Le Saut-du-Perron ( Villerêt ): Over 70 slates of slate with figurative engravings of reindeer and horse. Probably later Magdalenian. Style III.
- Lot department
- Roucadour Cave ( Thémines ): The cave is important because of the extensive finds of tools, but it also contains negative handprints and fine engravings. The walls painted black and red have been re-engraved. The engravings of extra-long fingers are striking. The horse and bison are shown. There are similarities to Gargas. The style is II to III.
- Grotte des Merveilles ( Rocamadour ): The entrance quickly widens to a 45 m long, 25 m wide and at least three meter high hall. This contains six hand negatives on the walls near the entrance, which are connected with dots, schematic and realistic engravings and paintings in red or black. Six horses, a cervid and a felid are shown. The cave belongs to the phase of Cougnac, Pech Merle and Les Fieux. The representations, the color of which was probably applied in part by spraying, are estimated to be more than 20,000 BP (Gravettien?).
- Les Fieux ( Miers ) cave: The cave, discovered in 1964, contains thirty red and black hand negatives, numerous red dots, lines and engravings in a large room. An isolated block of stalagmites in the center of the hall was first transformed into an archaic ibex with a pecked engraving, which was later changed into a mammoth, on whose body a small, finely engraved mammoth figure was finally attached. Overall, there is also the back line of a horse and tectiform signs. The pictures were probably created in a first phase of the Aurignacia (picked engravings, which are relatively rare in caves) and in Gravettia (hand negatives and dots). There are similarities to Pech Merle and Roucadour. The finely engraved mammoths, which take up the picked contours, could belong to a later period. The cave thus paradigmatically shows that the same formation was used to depict different animals during widely spaced periods. In a similar way, rocky outcrops were sculpted in other caves (Altamira, El Castillo, Tuc d'Audoubert, etc.).
- Cougnac Cave ( Peyrignac ): A widely ramified system of underground passages, which are, however, heavily sintered , including over many pictures. You can find engravings and drawings as well as abstract symbols. Some simplified human figures are noteworthy, including the "man pierced by spears" and two other similar motifs. There are no depictions of women. Animal representations in black lines include giant deer, hind, horses, mammoth or elephant, and possibly ibex. Stylistically you can see the half-twisted perspective. Style III.
- Pech Merle Cave ( Carberets ): It forms an underground system of about two kilometers, is one of the most important Franco-Cantabrian caves and contains red and black paintings, some with dots (horses), and some engravings, as well as red and black dots. It is entered through the rear section called "Le Combel", which contains the oldest representations. With the exception of the large hall, the pictures in the side rooms are arranged in groups. In addition to the many images of animals, including bears (some with skulls buried) and mammoths, depictions of people, both of women and men, including the "wounded man". Stylistically, the cave forms its own group and represents a transition to the caves of the Pyrenees and Cantabria. There are great similarities to Cougnac. Inside, two sanctuaries seem to overlap. The cave is classified before the middle Magdalenian and includes the two phases of style III. There are numerous abstract signs and hand negatives. Footprints in the ground were found, as in a total of ten of the French Cantabrian caves. Some rough sculptures (bears?) Show traces of litter. Style III.
- Marcenac Cave (Carberets): It is close to Pech Merle. Just two figures, painted black with your fingers, facing each other: a horse and a bison with the horns in half-twisted perspective. Similarities to Lascaux, Gabillou and Villars. Middle Magdalenian. Style III to IV.
- Sainte-Eulalie Cave : Small complex. Fine wall engravings at the cave entrance: horses, ibex and bison, plus several reindeer, which suggests dating in style IV. A C-14 dating of the associated find layer resulted in approx. 15,000 BP. Some indefinable animals and many different characters. There are similarities to Lascaux, Gabillou and Villars as well as Pech Merle.
- Pergouset Cave ( Bouziès-Bas ): A corridor cave . It contains engravings, mainly of ibex, bison and horse and hind. In the rear sequence of images there are several extraordinarily puzzling, partly distorted, partly possibly anthropozoomorphic representations. Style IV.
- Les Escabasses cave (Thémines): a dozen badly damaged depictions of horses, bison and ibex, as well as a horse and possibly a reindeer, painted black. The drawing of a swimming bird (like La Bastide) is unusual. All representations belong to style IV.
- Carriot cave ( Bouziès ): two female paintings in red. Ibex. Numerous lines executed with red ocher. A rubbing stone for grinding paint was found, as well as shell jewelry. The representations are in the deeper parts of the cave. Dating 13th JT BP.
Newly discovered caves, abysses and other sites in the Lot that are not listed here until 2000: La Bigourdane ( Saint Géry ).
- Tarn and Tarn-et-Garonne departments
- La Magdelaine cave ( Penne-du-Tarn ): high reliefs with bison and horse. The two depictions of a reclining woman with her head in her hands are unique. Style III / IV.
- Abrises from Bruniquel ( Bruniquel , Tarn-et-Garonne): Four abrises. Rich finds from the Magdalenian: animal drawings on stone slabs and bones, carved reindeer and human drawings from the early Magdalenian and developed Magdalenian (style III / IV).
- Abri Fontalès ( Saint-Antonin-Noble-Val ): In a late Magdalenian layer there were numerous engraved pieces of jewelry, some in relief and with anthropomorphic depictions, plus perforated rods and limestone slabs with animal engravings, including a cervid's head, a bird's head and a horse.
South West France
- Landes department
- Brassempouy cave, Grotte du Pape ( Brassempouy ): only sculptures, nine female ivory statuettes, albeit only fragmentarily preserved, including the Venus of Brassempouy , a horse's head in contour découpé technique and a geometrically decorated ivory cone. Stratigraphic dating Aurignacien to Gravettien , style I / II?
- Duruthy Cave ( Sorde ): Numerous engraved teeth of lions and bears (42 in total) were found in a late Paleolithic layer at a burial, which are interpreted as jewelry because of their perforations. The engravings show animals and harpoon-like characters.
- Charente department
- Pair-Non-Pair ( Marcamps ): A cave about 20 m deep. The dating extends over a period of 10,000 years. The animal engravings (ibex, bison / bovids, cervids, horses, mammoths) can be found on the walls of a round room, as well as many abstract symbols. Strong overlap. Paint residue. Style II.
- Archaeological site Roc-de-Sers ( Sers ): Several adjacent caves and rock shelters. With reliefs provided, the Solutrean were dated blocks that were originally part of the rear wall. Motifs are: bison and wild boar, horses, a single man and a man “pursued by a musk ox”, as well as an ibex, a bird's head or a snake's head. The execution is masterful. Style III.
- Abri La Chaire à Calvin ( Mouthiers ): Frieze-like wall relief with three horses, possibly in mating, and a bovid (bison?). Style IV.
- Le Placard cave ( Rochebertier ): In a late Paleolithic layer, several highly stylized animal engravings and a sculpture of a human head.
Newly discovered caves, abrises and other sites of the Charente that are not listed here until 2000: Le Placard ( Villehonneur ).
- Gironde department
- Abri Saint-Germain-la-Rivière ( Saint-Germain-la-Rivière ): remains of a horse engraving with a human representation. Numerous engraved deer teeth in connection with a female burial (ocher). Style IV.
Pyrenees
- Ariège department
- Le Portel or Crampagna ( Loubens ) cave: The cave contains two sanctuaries from different periods. In the older sanctuary , bison and horses are depicted in black and red lines, occasionally polychrome, as well as some engravings, as well as deer, which belong to styles II to III and are located on the border between Solutréen and Magdalenian. The younger sanctuary belongs to style IV and shows, often with great mastery, horses, bison, ibex, reindeer or deer and the “ghost with bird's body”, which is comparable to the depiction in Trois Frères, partly as a drawing, partly painted flat. The latter applies above all to the group of figures painted in uniform black, which has similarities in other caves of Style IV. Numerous abstract signs of this style group support this dating.
- Les Églises cave ( Ussat ): engravings of bison, ibex and horses. Numerous bundles of lines. Figures painted in red on the ceiling, highly schematic and indeterminate. Style IV, possibly also III.
- Cave of Niaux (Loubens): This huge corridor cave , which is artistically located on the same level as Lascaux, has a series of mostly black in its rear parts in addition to floor engravings in the cave clay (bovide, fish) and many painted red dots and other signs on the walls Paintings, which are mainly in the so-called "Black Hall". Mainly bison (> 25), ibex and horses are shown. The representations are stylistically very uniform, although they were created over the course of a millennium. At the entrance there are four groups of figures painted in red. Some bison have wounds. Also noteworthy is the depiction of a dying bison in the rear part. On the cave floor there are also prints, especially of children's feet. In a part of the cave that was only discovered in 1970, there are also other black figure groups, especially bison, plus a strange fantasy animal with a long neck - there are similarities with Pergouset and Gabillou. The dating has long been highly controversial, especially since there are no usable cultural layers. However, C-14 determinations have since shown an age between 14,500 and 13,000 years, whereby an emergence in several phases is assumed. Style IV.
- The La Vache cave, also from the end of Magdalena, is opposite. It contains around 500 objects of mobile art. Their style is so similar to that of Niaux that one suspects that the authors could also have carried out the paintings and engravings there (or vice versa). They certainly used the same color recipes. Similar relationships appear to exist with Les Trois Frères.
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Les Trois Frères cave and Cave of Tuc d'Audoubert ( Montesquieu-Aventès ): Both caves, which together with the cave of Enlène are known as the so-called Volp caves , form a complex that was presumably connected in the past.
In the front part of Les Trois Frères there are hand negatives and black and red patches of color or dots, as well as engraved pieces of bones with female figures drawn on top of one another and a representation of insects (grasshopper). The rear part contains over 600 very carefully engraved, some only a few centimeters, but also animal representations up to one and a half meters in size with, however, heavy overlays: mammoths, rhinos, felids, bears, bison, reindeer, ibex, deer, horses, cave lions, several times Arrows. The two engraved zooanthropomorphic representations, whichare interpretedas shamans, became famous. Legs and genitals are marked with black ribbons, a big exception for this cave. Dating: middle to latest period of the Magdalenian period (for the sanctuaries inside the cave).
Le Tuc d'Audoubert also contains engraved images of animals, some with arrows, and sandstone slabs with engraved horse and bison figures. At the end of a corridor there are two bison figures cut as half-sculptures from the cave clay, a male and a female, plus another unfinished bison sculpture. Style IV.
The cave of Enlène was inhabited in the Gravettian and Magdalenian periods and contains numerous finds of mobile art, but no wall art. A total of 1200 objects were found, mainly painted and engraved stone slabs and a pebble. The cave is one of the richest sites of mobile art. Thematically and chronologically there is a connection with the other two caves.
- Mas d'Azil cave (Mas-d'Azil): a huge tunnel cave system with engravings and paintings, probably from the middle Magdalenian. Bison, horses, roe deer and deer as well as wild boar are depicted. Remarkably well-crafted sculptures are plentiful, including a full bird and a unique carved horse head. There are also human figures as round sculptures, reliefs or drawings, as well as a few depictions of plants and pebbles mostly painted with geometric patterns, and rarely an animal silhouette. These small representations already belong to the post-Pleistocene Azilien , which owes its name to this cave. The Magdalenian is secured as a date by tool finds. Style IV.
- Bédeilhac cave ( Tarascon ): The front part of the cave contains 15, but heavily blurred, black and red depictions of bison and horses, plus numerous painted and engraved line drawings. In the rear part there are engravings introduced with red dots, clay engravings and black paintings, which are also badly damaged. There were also some sculptures, including a figure of an ibex carved from horn with a head turned back as part of a spear- throwing propulsor, and human engravings on a stone slab. Dating: like Montespan earlier style IV.
- Fontanet Cave : The cave is located high above the valley near the Niaux cave. There is a settlement site at the bottom of the valley. It is particularly noteworthy because of the black-painted and engraved bison man, who appears here six times, as well as some distorted human heads. In addition, a small female figure with spread legs and accentuated genitals was carved into the breast of the bison. The figure is strongly reminiscent of the hybrid creature of Trois Frères. The bison representations show arrows. The clay on the floor and on the walls has been worked into figures.
- Haute-Garonne department
- Lespugue Caves ( Lespugue ): Several closely spaced caves, which are important insofar as an ivory female statuette was found in an undisturbed gravettia layer in the Grotte des Rideaux , the Venus of Lespugue , plus a bone pendant with an engraved one Snake.
- Marsoulas Cave ( Marsoulas ): Cave with numerous engravings and paintings, partly polychrome, and exceptionally depictions of bison heads made of red dots, not with lines. The paintings belong to an earlier time than the engravings. Above all, bison and horse are shown, some of them almost natural size and polychrome, as well as an ibex. The frontal and profile views of human faces are striking. The problematic dating probably belongs to the late phase of style IV with some traces of the early phase.
- Montespan Cave ( Montespan ): The engraved images are located 1.5 km behind the entrance of this branched corridor cave, accessible at both ends. Horses, bison, an ibex and deer, possibly a mammoth, a hyena and a human head are shown. There is also an engraved human hand over a horse. Only remains of paintings have survived. There are numerous tectiform engravings. Leaning against the wall of the great hall are three incomplete animal figures, roughly modeled from clay, probably intended more as high reliefs, one of which is probably a wild cat. A little further on you can see a free-standing clay figure of a bear without a head, possibly with the real skull of a bear on it and covered with a bear skin. Numerous holes on the figure are interpreted as bullet marks, the other figures also show bullet holes. A little to the side you can find an apparently related composition of several engraved horses, behind them footprints of young people. Reindeer, rhinoceros and mammoth are missing. Early Style IV between the Middle and Late Magdalenian as the bear iconographically generally appears before the reindeer.
- Grotte du Ker de Massat also La Campagnole : Like many picture caves in the Central Pyrenees, this one is located high on the mountain, while there was a storage place in the valley. 81 engravings from the younger Magdalenian were found in several rooms: horses, cervids, chamois, ibex, bison. The cave is particularly noteworthy because of the numerous grimacing depictions of people, which resemble caricatures, including those with thick noses, etc. There are also numerous signs. Some of the engravings were made with fingers in clay. Among other things, a perforated rod sculpture with a bear's head was found.
- Hautes-Pyrénées department
- Lortet Cave ( Lortet ): Some important works of art come from the Magdalenian layer, which is very rich in finds, including drawings and engravings of deer and fish, ibex, horse on various materials such as stone, bird bones, horn. Style II.
- Cave of Gargas ( Aventignan ): The engraved representations ("macaroni") of bison, horses, bovids and mammoths in this large cave, which form several groups, partly pressed into the clay with the fingers, belong mainly to style II, especially the representations in Entrance area. There are also paintings of styles III and IV. The cave was inhabited until the late Gravettian period . The numerous red and black hand negatives (150), which otherwise appear in smaller numbers in Paleolithic terms, are striking. Numerous signs and meander lines can also be found. Style II.
- Labastide Cave ( Labastide ): Engravings of horses and some bison, some also painted red and black. Special features here are a lion image and two anthropomorphic figures. There were also plates with engravings of birds and the heads of bison and ibex. Style IV.
Newly discovered caves, abrises and other sites of the Hautes-Pyrénées that are not listed here until 2000: Abri Gourdan.
- Pyrénées-Atlantiques (French Basque Country)
- The caves of Isturitz and Oxocelhaya (Isturitz / St. Martin ) form an overall complex with the cave of Erberua , which has been proven to have been used again and again by people between 80,000 and 10,000 BP. The Oxocelhaya grotto lies 20 m below Isturitz and ends with the Erberua grotto, which was only discovered in 1973 and where the Arbéroue flows today .
Isturitz is particularly famous for the finds of prehistoric flutes that date from the early Aurignacia to the Magdalenian, i.e. between 35,000 and 10,000 years old, with two thirds of the finds coming from the Périgordia . There were also a dozen engravings depicting reindeer, ibex or deer as a relief on a stalagmite pillar. The attribution of style III is controversial, the dating is presumably between the middle and late Magdalenian, although some reliefs are also assigned to the Solutréen . Some black painted and engraved depictions of horses, bison and hinds as well as a bird's head are assigned to style IV, although they are rather roughly executed, but show similarities with Spanish caves of this style group (Altamira, Pindal). Also striking are the deep lines drawn with fingers in the clay.
The cave contains numerous testimonies of mobile art: engravings and 70 possibly ritually broken animal sculptures, and this is why it has its importance. Stratigraphically, the sculptures come mainly from a Premagdalenian layer, but finds have also been made from the middle Magdalenian. The number of figurative and decorative engravings on pieces of horn, bone and stone, including several images of people, but above all horses, is also large here.
- Grotto Espélugues / Arudy ( Arudy ): The cave contained no paintings or engravings, but many important sculptures from horn and bone, including one ibex figure, a horse's head and rods with spiral patterns that should all belong to the developed style IV.
- Etcheberriko-Karbia cave ( Camou-Cihigue ): The murals, which are only faintly recognizable, are painted black or made of brown clay and provided with dots made of ocher: bison, horse, ibex. There are black and red dots scattered in between. The representations are stylistically uniform and are assigned to the early style IV (middle Magdalenian). Etcheberriko-Karbia belongs to a group of deep caves with difficult, often only crawling passages such as Arcy-sur-Cure, Les Combarelles, La Bastide, Montespan, La Mouthe, Rouffignac, Niaux, Santimamine, Les Trois Frères and Tuc d'Audoubert all of which are classified as early Style IV.
- Tibiran Cave (Aventignan): Small cave with some black paintings: horse (at the entrance), ibex, bear and red hand positives. Style III to IV.
- Elephant Cave of Gourdan-Polignan : The cave was already inhabited in the Middle Paleolithic (tool inventory). Very diverse figurative engravings on stone slabs, pieces of bone and a perforated stick (a swimming bird, reindeer, bison, horse, beaver, chamois, cervids, plants, ithyphallic people, snakes, bears), sometimes several times on top of each other. Stratigraphically Solutréen , Magdalenian and Azilien . Bones of approx. 3000 animals, mostly reindeer.
Lower Rhône Valley and Golfe du Lion
These caves are listed separately because some of them have their own style. The representations seem to belong to an early period (Solutréen to early Magdalenian). The exact classification is still controversial today.
- Bouches-du-Rhône department
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Cosquer Cave (southeast of Marseille , Cap Morgiou): The only cave in Provence so far. Several occupancy phases. Phase 1: Four of the hand negatives and lines drawn with fingers could be dated with C-14 to an age of 28,000 and 26,000 years respectively. The cave was surrounded by an Ice Age steppe landscape. They would therefore be assigned to style I. The actual engravings and paintings of phase 2, however, are younger and have a C-14 age of 19,000 to 18,000 years, measured only on the black paintings, and thus belong to style III.
The 2nd phase of the cave paintings and engravings found there is stylistically similar to those of the Chauvet Grotto 150 km away and dates to the same time as this, i.e. the Solutréen (style II). However, C-14 dates, which range up to 14,000 BP, indicate that the cave was visited for a very long time. It also has the longest absolute chronology of all picture caves worldwide. Numerous representations were destroyed by the Holocene flooding of the cave. In this phase there are engravings and black paintings or drawings of land animals: horses, ibex, chamois, bison, aurochs, reindeer, stags and giant deer as well as of several undetermined animals, possibly felids or a bear. Marine animals were also depicted: especially seals, alks and fish, and possibly jellyfish and octopus. On the walls there are numerous different signs of indeterminate meaning, namely as engravings and paintings. It is worth noting an engraving that could depict a killed person and that is similar to the depictions in other caves of this era (Pech Merle, Cougnac).
- Ardèche department
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Chauvet Grotto ( Vallon-Pont-d'Arc ): As in the Cosquer grotto, which dates from roughly the same period (Solutréen, style II), the painted representations are all partly shaded drawings (here also in red), some of them engraved are superimposed. There are also numerous hand negatives, here in red. The image program is also similar. Naturally, there are no marine animals. There are mammoths (20% of the depictions), lions and numerous rhinos (19% each) as well as an eagle owl. Bears (4%) seem to have played a special role, as they may have arranged skulls and bones. In addition the “classic” picture program: horses (14%), bison (10%), giant deer, reindeer, ibex, aurochs. A total of over 400 images. It is noticeable that the animal representations sometimes seem to be grouped together, this even applies to lions. An anthropomorphic creature with human legs and the upper body of a bison can also be found, there are also numerous different signs and footprints, plus areas with red dots on the walls. Two female figures have been found
in the Grotte du Planchard near the Chauvet Grotto .
- Chabot Grotto ( Aiguèze , Ardèche Gorge, Gard department): engravings in daylight. Cattle, horses and mammoths and possibly a deer are shown. The representations belong to the early Magdalenian period and are also assigned to style II due to the finds from the Solutré period.
- Abri Le Figuier ( Saint-Martin-d'Ardèche ): At the exit of the Ardèche gorge opposite the Chabot cave. The engravings are all in the daylight area and are similar to those of the Chabot grotto (style II). It depicts a horse, deer head and numerous mammoths.
- Grotte de la Combe d'Oulen ( Labastide-de-Virac ): engravings in the front part of the cave, an abri, paintings in the back. The dating is open, possibly Gravettien (style II). Bison and mammoth are depicted here. The dating of the rear part is unclear, there may be similarities to style IV. In addition to mammoths, there is also an ibex. However, the pictures are heavily sintered .
- Tête-du-Lion ( Bidon ) cave : It mainly contains red paintings of aurochs, ibex and deer, plus simple symbols such as dots. A carbon 14 dating of charcoals associated with the paintings indicated an age of approx. 21,000 to 22,000 BP. Stylistic relationships exist with Pech Merle, Cougnac, Lascaux, Gabillou, Villars, Las Chimeneas and others. Style III.
- Colombier Cave (Vallon-Pont-d'Arc): About 60 m inside there are nine engravings of deer, ibex and aurochs. The engravings are from the late Magdalenian period and are around 12,000 BP. Further inside the cave there is an anthropomorphic image of a human face on a stalactite . In the immediately adjacent Abri du Colombier there are 15 more engravings, including a. eleven of ibexes.
- Ebbou Cave (Vallon-Pont-d'Arc): The Chauvet Cave is also nearby. Deep inside the cave there are 70 animal pictures engraved in the thin lime coating of the walls in simple, strong outlines: horses, mammoth, ibex, bison, deer, bovids and a mammoth. The representations are clearly French Cantabrian. The dating is problematic, however, because there are elements of style II, III and early style IV, so they range from the early Magdalenian, perhaps even Solutréen, to the middle Magdalenian. The problem of dating the Rhône Valley caves as a whole arises here. Leroi-Gourhan, who knew neither Chauvet nor Cosquer (he died in 1986, Cosquer was discovered in 1985, the Chauvet cave in 1994), suspected style IV due to stylistic features. The findings of the two mentioned, partly very early caves, however, suggest one older period and confirm Leroi-Gourhan's suspicion that in such a case one would have to assume that sanctuaries with great cave depths then existed earlier in the south than in the actual Franco-Cantabrian region.
- Baume de Bouchon also Baoumo de Boutchous (Vallon-Pont-d'Arc): The cave contains two groups of abstract characters and the representation of an ibex. This is comparable to the images in the Ebbou cave, about a kilometer away . A date is still open.
- Grotte Huchard also Grotte n ° 1 du Ranc-Pointu (Saint-Martin-d'Ardèche): In the cave there are engravings of a bison and probably a mammoth. These are to be assigned to the Solutréen, style II-III.
- Planchard Cave (Vallon-Pont-d'Arc): The cave is around 40 m from the Chauvet cave . Relief paintings of two female figures and several groups of abstract drawings were found in it. The representations come from the late Magdalenian and are between 11,000 and 13,000 BP.
- Grotte du Déroc (Vallon-Pont-d'Arc): 50 m from the western entrance, at a height of seven meters on the cave ceiling, a red-brown pattern is applied over a length of six meters. There is also an image of an ibex in a niche at a height of four meters. This is comparable to the images in the Cougnac cave, Lot. Style III. Dating is difficult and still open because the pictures are heavily sintered.
- Grotte Sombre also Grotte Castanier (Saint-Martin-d'Ardèche): In the cave there is an incomplete image of an animal and an oval and triangular symbol. The representations are comparable to those from the Grotte de la Combe d'Oulen and Grotte Chabot .
- Grotte de la Bergerie de Charmasson (Vallon-Pont-d'Arc): There is a representation of an ibex about 30 m inside the cave. There are abstract engravings on the opposite wall of the cave. The engravings come from the late Magdalenian period.
- Grotte de la Vacheresse also Grotte de Bacharesse (Vallon-Pont-d'Arc): Inside the cave there is a single representation of a horse. The dating is still open.
Newly discovered caves, abrises and other sites of the Ardèche that are not listed here until 2000: Les Deux Ouvertures (Saint-Martin-d'Ardèche).
- Gard department
- Grotto Chabot, see above.
- Bayol Grotto ( Collias ): The red and black paintings in this corridor cave are partly extremely schematic and abstract. This schematization, which is also found in other local caves, could well be a special stylistic feature of the Rhône caves according to Leroi-Gourhan. It shows horses and ibex, bison, mammoth, a wild cat and a number of different abstract symbols. Some animal representations cannot be assigned. Dating is not yet possible due to the uncertainty surrounding the Mediterranean caves.
- Grotte de La Baume Latrone ( Sainte-Anastasie ): In a hall more than 200 m away from the cave entrance there are loops of lines on the loamy, uneven wall, some of which are scratched with several fingers ("macaroni"), but there are also difficult to interpret in between Animals. In addition, animals that are easier to understand are shown, the grooves of which have also been redrawn. Mainly mammoths, horses, wildcats and positive handprints are shown. The style fits neither the Mediterranean nor the Franco-Cantabrian traditions, a dating has not yet been successful. Stylistically, there is some evidence of style III.
- Hérault department
- Aldène Cave ( Cesseras ): Large cave system, severely affected by mining activities. Engravings, 300 m from the cave entrance, partly traced with ocher. Horses, bears, wild cats and possibly a rhinoceros are shown. The drawings are sometimes clumsy, sometimes quite nifty (the wildcat is considered to be one of the most beautiful Paleolithic depictions of this animal). Dating is not possible.
- Aude department
- Grotte du Gazel ( Sallèles-Cabardès ): depictions mostly engraved in the lime coating, now heavily peeled off, mainly horses and ibex and a bison. On a board there is an excellent depiction of an ibex and a female ibex, a horse and numerous symbols. The representations are to be classified in style IV and are closer to the Franco-Cantabrian art than to the Mediterranean, thus showing, according to Leroi-Gourhan, that the western influence in the middle and late Magdalenian region extended into the Rhône valley.
- Ain department
- Abri La Colombière ( Poncin ): engravings on bones (humans and reindeer) as well as painted pebbles with drawings of animals (rhinoceros, bison, reindeer, horse, ibex, wildcat or bear). The dating is controversial; it fluctuates between Solutréen and Magdalenian due to the tool inventory and differing C-14 regulations (between 11,000 and 16,000 BP). Style IV.
The northern Spanish caves
See also Paleolithic cave paintings in northern Spain .
The sites are grouped into the following local groups on the basis of the site maps by Leroi-Gourhan and Müller-Karpe:
- Spanish Basque Country
- Cantabria
- Asturias
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Spanish Basque Country
- Guipuzcoa region
- Altxerri Cave ( Aya ): It contains engravings and mostly black and a few red paintings. In addition to the frequent work on the wall, the filling of the images with a network of crossing lines is typical. Bison, ibex, reindeer, foxes, aurochs, horses, saiga antelopes, chamois, fish and a human figure similar to that of Cougnac are depicted. The reindeer representations testify here in particular the importance of this animal for the Spanish area. All representations belong to Style IV and the later Magdalenian.
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- Ekain Cave ( Cestona ): This important cave near the Altxerri Cave is compared to Niaux, Altamira and Lascaux. It contains red and black paintings, some in two colors, often with two-dimensional, three-dimensional fillings and engravings. With their attention to detail, the large group of horses is considered to be the best representation of Paleolithic art. Deer, ibex, bison, doe, fish (salmon), bears, possibly a rhinoceros, plus abstract symbols, points, etc. were also found, a slate of slate engraved with an ibex head, deer and possibly a horse on top of each other. A stalagmite appears to have been shaped into a horse's head. C-14 dating resulted in 30,600 BP for the oldest residential class IX. The pictures, however, mostly belong to the late and final Magdalenian (C-14: 15,000 and 12,000 BP). Style IV.
- Santimamine Cave ( Bilbao ): Stylistically very uniform black painted or engraved depictions: bison, horse, bear and head of a cervid and a cow. Some of the images are upside down, some parts of the body are highlighted. Few characters. The dating corresponds roughly to the early style IV as in Altamira, Niaux or Portel. Style IV.
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Cantabria
- Santander region
- Los Hornos cave or “Hornos de la Peña” (San Felice de Buelna / Tarriba): There are two engravings in the entrance area: a horse and an ibex head. Mainly style II. There was also a scratch on a bone plate. The later discovered engravings, some of which are impressed in clay, and a few fragmentary drawings in a lower room are assigned to Style IV and evidently form a separate sanctuary from a more recent era. Ibex, deer, cattle, bison and horses are depicted, as well as a human figure.
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The following five caves Las Chimeneas, La Pasiega, El Castillo, Las Monedas and Covalanas together form the complex of the Cuevas de Viesgo within a radius of a few hundred meters.
- Las Chimeneas Cave (Puente Viesgo): engravings and black contours: cervids, beef, horse, deer, doe, ibex. Plus rectangular characters. Horns, antlers and ears in half-twisted perspective. Style III. C-14 dates refer to the older Magdalenian and not to the Solutranian.
- La Pasiega cave (Puente Viesgo): In the entire complex, five zones can be distinguished, which correspond to different stages of the sanctuary: Gallery B contains the “Inscription of Pasiega”, a group of abstract symbols that are reminiscent of a lettering. In total there are 226 pictures painted in red, yellow and black as well as 36 engraved. The most common are red to yellow horses and deer or hinds, either with a thin contour line or a broad line. Bison and ibex are rarer than cervids. Some animals are fully painted and made three-dimensional through shades of color. Often are signs. What is unique, however, is a hand with an arm painted black. A black-brown anthropomorphic figure is highly schematic. Stylistically, the more developed style III can be found in the front part, the early style IV in the rear. This results in a chronology of 17,000–13,000 BP. Similarities with the neighboring Spanish caves Castillo and Las Chimeneas are clear.
- El Castillo Cave (Puente Viesgo): In all parts of the cave there are wall paintings and engravings, plus over 50 handprints, mostly negative in red. Mostly red signs are common. Animal figures painted in red or brown mostly as outline drawings. The motifs are bison, bovid, horse, ibex, stag and doe as well as an "elephant". The painted and engraved figures belong to different time stages. The engravings in the entrance area are the oldest, perhaps gravettias , the polychrome depictions are the youngest and belong roughly to the time of Altamira. The chronology is complex, however, and the connection with the neighboring caves is relatively uncertain, especially as it extends over 6000 years. Style III / IV. A single first C-14 dating was 13,500 and 13,000 BP. In a later investigation, the age of the calcite deposit over a painting was determined to be at least 40,800 BP by means of uranium-thorium dating . This painting probably comes from the early Aurignacia . This would in principle also include Neanderthals as cave painters, who at that time still lived in this region alongside the anatomically modern Homo sapiens .
- Covalanas Cave (Puente Viesgo): At the rear end of the 80 m long cave passage there are 19 red painted animal figures, mostly hinds, a horse and a bovide, which are very uniform both in the way of painting (dots) and in style. There are rectangular signs between the animals. The representations can be classified in the second period of style III from the early Magdalenian period, comparable to Lascaux, Gabillou and Peche-Merle.
- Las Monedas Cave (Puente Viesgo): All representations are in a room near the entrance, signs of a late phase of Style IV. There are around 30 pictures painted in black: horses, deer, bovids, bison, ibex and symbols. Classification between style III and style IV.
- La Haza Cave (Ramales): Small cave with a horse painted as a red outline, dating from around the early to middle Magdalenian period . Style III.
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- Altamira Cave ( Santillana del Mar ): Along with Lascaux and Niaux, the most famous Franco-Cantabrian cave. The representations extend over a period of more than three millennia. The older ones have a C-14 age of 17,000 BP, they range from the beginning Solutréen to the middle Magdalenian , some pictures at the end of the cave with bison, mammoth, horse seem to come from the younger Magdalenian. The cave contains polychrome depictions, especially the famous bison group on the ceiling (C-14: 14,700 BP), those with only black outlines (so-called "black image sequence") and engravings (the oldest). Some of the wall protrusions are transformed into masks. In addition to many abstract, often rectangular signs and meanders (“macaroni”), bison, cattle, horses, cervids, ibexes, doe, wild boars, as well as engraved male figures can be found in the motifs. Overall, the cave is designed relatively uniform. There are stylistic connections to several other Spanish caves (La Pasiega, El Castillo) as well as to some French ones (Rouffignac, Trois Frères, Niaux, Portel etc.). Dating: Magdalenian III – IV. Style IV.
- Moro Chufín cave (Riclones): There are strikingly deep engravings in the daylight zone of the cave entrance: deer, a bison and signs. Further inside there are engravings and red paintings: in addition to sexual symbols, horses, a primal and a few series of dots, a female figure and a deer, further bison, bovids, cervids, wild goats, an anthropomorphic figure and a wader (?). The age of the representations, engravings and paintings, presumably made within two time phases, is more than 17,500 BP for the engravings at the cave entrance and some red paintings inside, i.e. in the Solutréen or early (pre-) Magdalenian. The engravings inside the cave, on the other hand, are much younger and were made around 11,500 BP.
Newly discovered caves, abrises and other sites in Cantabria that are not listed here until 2000: La Fuente del Salin.
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Asturias
- Oviedo region
- Cueva del Buxu cave (Cangas de Onis): engraved and painted pictures about 70 m behind the entrance. Horses, deer, ibex. Tectiform characters.
- El Pindal Cave (Pimiango): The cave consisting of a single, approx. 300 m long corridor, which, due to its geographical location, is also considered an outpost of the Franco-Cantabrian group to the south and west and has no cultural layers that can be archaeologically assessed (it was also because of its moisture and inaccessibility on a rock face hardly habitable), contains various paintings; in red: elephant, mammoth, horse head, doe, a polychrome black and brown bison, other bison, some with red outlines, some flat red, some engraved and redrawn, with numerous red characters. Such points are superimposed on a red fish. Stylistically, the representations are assigned to the early style IV (such as Niaux and Trois Frères), i.e. set in the middle to late Magdalénien.
- Other regions
- El Pendo cave (Camargo): In the rear of the long-known cave, paintings have recently been discovered: nine red hinds, an ibex, a horse as well as signs and indeterminable figures that are stylistically assigned to the Solutréen (style of Covalanas). Engravings of mobile art had already been found in the front part, and indefinite incisions were visible on the cave walls.
- La Loja Cave ( Panes ): Some engravings of aurochs, where the different perspectives are striking. Dating early to middle Magdalenian. Style III / IV.
- Tito Bustillo cave , also Cueva les Pedrones ( Ribadesella ): Large cave system that was only discovered in 1968. It contains very large (up to three meters) long two-tone paintings of horses and some engravings. Capricorn, bison, deer and chamois are also shown. Here too, as in Altxerri, representations can be found. Stylistically there are similarities with Ekain. At the end of a long corridor there is the so-called "Vulvengalerie". Date: Middle Magdalenian.
- La Garma Cave (Ribamontàn del Mar): 1995 discovered deep cave galleries with engravings and black and red paintings of horses, bison, hind, ibex, aurochs and giant deer.
- La Peña de Candamo cave (Roman de Candamo): On the walls there are engravings and paintings, a total of about 60 superimposed figures, some red, some black: bison, horse, cervids, plus hand negatives and lines drawn with fingers ("macaroni") . Three different periods of time: an archaic phase (hands, lines), middle phase with dotted hinds such as Covalanas and La Pasiega, and black paintings and engravings from the middle Magdalenian period. For this purpose, small art was found, especially perforated rods.
- Covaciella Cave (Carrena de Cabrales): Magdalenian period paintings: bison (C-14: 14,000 BP).
Newly discovered caves, abysses and other sites in Asturias that are not listed here until 2000: Cave of El Bosque, Abri Santa Adriano.
Other rock art regions
In addition to the Ice Age art of the Franco-Cantabrian region, there are other centers of parietal art on the Iberian Peninsula . The region in the Duero basin with hundreds of thousands of petroglyphs in today's Parque Arqueológico do Vale do Côa and the Neolithic rock paintings in the Spanish Levant are outstanding .
Other regions of Paleolithic cave art are in Italy and in the Ural Mountains (see cave painting ).
Mobile art
The mobile art of the Upper Palaeolithic is altogether much older than the stationary rock art. Figural cabaret can be demonstrated in the Aurignacien and reaches a climax in the Gravettien . It has regional focuses in Central and Eastern Europe (see sketch). However, numerous objects of mobile art were also found in the Franco-Cantabrian region - in caves, but also in open-air sites.
A distinction is made between the following types of mobile art:
- Figurative engravings and half sculptures
- Reliefs and contours découpés (figurative outlines cut out of thin plates of bone, in whose silhouettes an interior drawing was then engraved)
- Full sculptures
- Non-figurative ornaments
Radio broadcast
- Moritz Holfelder: Cave painting in Cantabria. At eye level with the Stone Age. Recording of a contribution in the broadcast radioReisen auf Bayern 2 from 21:40, broadcast information
literature
- General and special reference works
- Brockhaus encyclopedia in 24 volumes. 19th edition. FA Brockhaus, Mannheim 1994, ISBN 3-7653-1200-2 .
- Emil Hoffmann: Lexicon of the Stone Age. CH Beck Verlag, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-406-42125-3 .
- Lexicon of Art . 2nd Edition. EA Seemann Verlag, Leipzig 2004, ISBN 3-86502-084-4 .
- Paleolithic, rock and cave art in general
- Emmanuel Anati: rock art. Cradle of art and the spirit . U. Bär Verlag, Zurich 1991, ISBN 3-905137-33-X .
- Barry Cunliffe (Ed.): The Oxford Illustrated History. Illustrated prehistory and early history of Europe . Campus Verlag, Frankfurt am Main. 1996, ISBN 3-593-35562-0 .
- Dietrich Evers: Rock paintings - messages from the past. Urania Verlag, Leipzig 1991, ISBN 3-332-00482-4 .
- Joachim Hahn : Recognition and determination of stone and bone artifacts. Introduction to artifact morphology. 2nd Edition. Publishing house Archaeologica Venatoria, Inst. F. Prehistory of the Univ. Tübingen 1993, ISBN 3-921618-31-2 .
- André Leroi-Gourhan : Prehistoric Art. The origins of art in Europe. 3. Edition. Herder publishing house, Freiburg i. Br. 1975, ISBN 3-451-16281-4 .
- David Lewis-Williams: The Mind in the Cave. Consciousness and the Origins of Art. Thames & Hudson Ltd., London 2004, ISBN 0-500-28465-2 .
- Michel Lorblanchet: Cave Painting . A manual. Jan Thorbecke Verlag, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-7995-9025-0 .
- Hansjürgen Müller-Beck (ed.): The beginnings of art 30,000 years ago. Konrad Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart 1987, ISBN 3-8062-0508-6 .
- Hermann Müller-Karpe : Handbook of Prehistory. Volume I: Paleolithic . 2nd Edition. C. H. Beck Verlag, Munich 1977, ISBN 3-406-02008-9 .
- Hermann Müller-Karpe : Basics of early human history. 5 vols. Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart 1998, ISBN 3-8062-1309-7 .
- Andrew Sherratt (Ed.): The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Archeology . Christian Verlag, Munich 1980, ISBN 3-88472-035-X .
- Denis Vialou: The early days of man . CH Beck Verlag, Munich 1992, ISBN 3-406-36491-8 .
- Individual picture caves
- Jean-Marie Chauvet: Chauvet grotto. Paleolithic cave art in the Ardèche valley. Jan Thorbecke Verlag, Sigmaringen 1995, ISBN 3-7995-9000-5 .
- Jean Clottes: Niaux. The paleolithic picture caves in the Ariège and their newly discovered paintings. Jan Thorbecke Verlag, Sigmaringen 1995, ISBN 3-7995-9003-X .
- Jean Clottes, Jean Courtin: Cosquer cave near Marseille. A picture cave sunk in the sea. Jan Thorbecke Verlag, Sigmaringen 1997, ISBN 3-7995-9001-3 .
- Jean Plassard: Rouffignac. The sanctuary of the mammoths. Jan Thorbecke Verlag, Sigmaringen 1999, ISBN 3-7995-9006-4 .
- Roemer and Pelizaeus Museum , Hildesheim: Lascaux, Ice Age Cave. Exhibition 1982. Verlag Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 1982, ISBN 3-8053-0593-1 .
- Vjaceslav E. Scelinskij, Vladimir N. Sirokov: Cave painting in the Urals. Kapova and Ignatievka. The Paleolithic picture caves in the southern Urals. Jan Thorbecke Verlag, Sigmaringen 1998, ISBN 3-7995-9004-8 .
- religion
- Jean Clottes, David Lewis-Williams: Les chamanes de la préhistoire. Texts intégral, polémiques et réponses. Éditions du Seuil 1996, La maison des roches, Paris 2001, ISBN 2-7578-0408-1 .
- André Leroi-Gourhan : The religions of prehistory. Paleolithic. Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1981, ISBN 3-518-11073-X , OA 1964
- Julien Ries : Origin of Religions. Pattloch Verlag, Augsburg 1993, ISBN 3-629-00078-9 .
- Anthropology, Climate and Environment
- Norbert Benecke : Man and his pets. The story of a relationship that goes back thousands of years. Konrad Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart 1994, ISBN 3-8062-1105-1 .
- Rudolf Feustel: History of the descent of humans. 6th edition. (UTB 1722). Gustav Fischer Verlag, Jena 1990, ISBN 3-334-00272-1 .
- Winfried Henke , Hartmut Rothe: Paleoanthropology. Springer Verlag, Berlin / Heidelberg / New York 1994, ISBN 3-540-57455-7 .
- Wighart von Koenigswald: Living Ice Age. Climate and fauna in transition. WBG, Darmstadt 2010, ISBN 978-3-534-23752-4 .
- Hubert Horace Lamb : Climate and Cultural History. The influence of the weather on the course of history. Rowohlt Taschenb. Verlag, Reinbek 1994, ISBN 3-499-55478-X .
- Martin Schwarzbach : The climate of the past. An Introduction to Paleoclimatology. Ferdinand Enke Verlag, Stuttgart 1993, ISBN 3-432-87355-7 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g h Lorblanchet, p. 56.
- ↑ Ries, p. 34; Leroi-Gourhan: Prehistoric Art , 1975, p. 425.
- ↑ Lexicon of Art. Vol. 2, p. 571.
- ↑ Ries, pp. 35, 41.
- ↑ Anati, pp. 228-239.
- ↑ Müller-Karpe, Grundzüge, Vol. 1, 1998, p. 36.
- ↑ a b Ries, p. 50.
- ↑ Anati, pp. 223-228.
- ↑ Ries, p. 38 f.
- ↑ Sherratt, p. 88; Cunliffe, p. 86 f.
- ↑ Müller-Beck, pp. 25 f., 35 f .; Cunliffe, pp. 55-58.
- ↑ Cunliffe, pp. 55, 67-72, 81
- ↑ Müller-Beck, pp. 16, 27 ff .; Cunliffe, pp. 73-79
- ↑ a b Cunliffe, p. 88.
- ↑ Müller-Beck, pp. 20 ff., 50 f .; Overall presentation of this topic in: Lewis-Williams: The Mind in the Cave , 2002.
- ↑ Schwarzbach, p. 247 ff .; Lamb, p. 129 ff.
- ↑ Cunliffe, pp. 55-60; Clottes / Courtin: Cosquer, pp. 33-40; Hoffmann, p. 91 ff.
- ^ V. Koenigswald, p. 145.
- ↑ V. Koenigswald, pp. 143–149.
- ↑ Lorblanchet, pp. 57-61.
- ↑ Von Koenigswald, pp. 40-137.
- ↑ Hoffmann, p. 244.
- ↑ V. Koenigswald, pp. 79–82.
- ↑ Benecke, p. 210.
- ↑ V. Koenigswald, p. 156 f., P. 166.
- ↑ Hoffmann, p. 76 ff.
- ↑ Hoffmann, p. 116 ff., Clottes / Courtin: Cosquer, p. 44; Henke / Rothe, pp. 451-457; Feustel. Pp. 178-182.
- ↑ Hoffmann, p. 175 f .; Hahn, pp. 331-390.
- ^ V. Koenigswald, p. 148.
- ^ Clottes / Courtin: Grotte Cosquer, p. 38.
- ↑ Cunliffe, pp. 61, 65, 73-79, 85-88; Müller-Karpe: Grundzüge , Vol. 1, 1998, pp. 29-33.
- ↑ Cunliffe, pp. 73-79, 88; Hoffmann, p. 299; Müller-Karpe: Handb. D. Pre. Vol. I: Paleolithic , 1977, pp. 151-162, Müller-Beck, pp. 28-33, 36, 44, 61.
- ↑ Brockhaus, Vol. 10, p. 176 f.
- ↑ Hoffmann, p. 176; Müller-Karpe: Grundzüge , Vol. 1, 1998, p. 54 f.
- ↑ Müller-Karpe: Handb. D. Pre. Vol. I: Paleolithic , 1977, pp. 141 ff.
- ↑ Ries, pp. 34-53; Müller-Karpe: Basics. Vol. 1, 1998, pp. 22-27; Lorblanchet, pp. 200-205.
- ↑ Leroi-Gourhan: Prehistoric Art , 1975, pp. 193-202.
- ↑ Anati, p. 216 ff.
- ↑ Benecke, p. 290.
- ↑ Cunliffe, p. 124 ff.
- ↑ Cunliffe, pp. 88-92.
- ↑ Cunliffe, pp. 148 ff.
- ↑ Cunliffe, pp. 138, 141 f.
- ↑ On these criteria, see Leroi-Gourhan: Religionen der Vorgeschichte , 1981, p. 76 ff .; Vialou, pp. 171-194; Müller-Karpe: Grundzüge , Vol. 1, pp. 36–42; Lexicon d. Kunst, B. 2, p. 477 f .; Hoffmann, pp. 128-132; Lorblanchet, pp. 67-74, 143-156, 249-266.
- ↑ On these criteria, see Leroi-Gourhan: Prehistoric Art , 1975, p. 132 ff.
- ↑ Müller-Karpe: Handb. D. Pre. Vol. I: Paleolithic , 1977, p. 193 ff.
- ^ Roemer and Pelizaeus Museum: Lascaux, p. 61 ff.
- ↑ Leroi-Gourhan: Religions of Prehistory , 1981, pp. 108–127; see. also Clottes / Lewis-Williams: Les chamanes de la préhistoire , pp. 83–127.
- ↑ Müller-Karpe: Handb. D. Pre. Vol. I: Paleolithic. P. 195; Grundzüge, Vol. 1, 1998, p. 39; Chauvet, p. 114.
- ^ Roemer and Pelizaeus Museum: Lascaux, p. 63.
- ↑ Lorblanchet, p. 57.
- ↑ Chauvet, pp. 52-58.
- ↑ Leroi-Gourhan: Prehistoric Art , 1975, p. 136 ff .; Lorblanchet, pp. 57-61.
- ↑ Plassard, p. 62.
- ↑ Lorblanchet, p. 60 f.
- ↑ Lorblanchet, p. 58 (after Leroi-Gourhan).
- ↑ Leroi-Gourhan: Prehistoric Art , 1975, pp. 138-142; Lorblanchet, pp. 61-64.
- ↑ map cf. Clottes / Courtin: Cosquer, p. 66.
- ↑ Lewis-Williams, pp. 216-220.
- ↑ Ries, p. 39 ff.
- ↑ Clottes / Courtin: Cosquer, pp. 166 f., 173 f.
- ↑ Hubert Filser: Strong women. Common ideas about the Stone Age are supposed to justify today's gender roles. The 'weaker sex' gathered berries, while the brave guys did heroic deeds on the hunt. The problem with that: it's not true. Women were once good hunters and as strong as men. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung, No. 28, 3./4. February 2018, p. 34.
- ↑ Thorwald Ewe: image of science online - booklet archive. (No longer available online.) In: bildderwissenschaft.de. July 2014, archived from the original on April 8, 2018 ; accessed on April 8, 2018 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Vialou, pp. 329-338; Lorblanchet, p. 64 f .; Leroi-Gourhan: Religions of Prehistory , 1981, pp. 104-107.
- ↑ Lewis-Williams, pp. 127, 130, 134, 151-154.
- ↑ Anati, pp. 161-174.
- ↑ Hoffmann, p. 130 f.
- ↑ Lorblanchet, p. 65 f.
- ↑ Müller-Karpe: Grundzüge , Vol. 1, 1998, p. 34 ff.
- ↑ Müller-Karpe: Grundzüge , Vol. 1, 1998, p. 39.
- ↑ Clottes: Niaux, p. 141 f.
- ↑ For the individual directions of interpretation cf. Lorblanchet, pp. 84-92.
- ↑ Müller-Beck, p. 44.
- ↑ Ries, p. 34 f.
- ↑ Hoffmann, p. 299.
- ↑ Hoffmann, p. 159 f.
- ↑ Hoffmann, p. 230 f., 346 f.
- ↑ Hoffmann, p. 34 f.
- ↑ Overview of styles: Leroi-Gourhan: Religionen der Vorgeschichte , 1981, pp. 97-102.
- ↑ Lorblanchet, p. 81 ff.
- ↑ Hoffmann, p. 176.
- ^ V. Koenigswald, p. 25 ff.
- ↑ On the newly discovered, scientifically insufficiently described caves that are missing in this overview, see Lorblanchet p. 56.
- ↑ Müller-Karpe: Handb. D. Pre. Vol. I: Paleolithic , 1977, pp. 257-292.
- ↑ Leroi-Gourhan: Prehistoric Art , 1975, pp. 344-444.
- ↑ Lorblanchet, table p. 268, for modern dating techniques see p. 267–309.
- ^ Leroi-Gourhan: Prehistoric Art , 1975, pp. 557-559; Müller-Karpe: Handb. D. Pre. Vol. I: Paleolithic , 1977, plate 272/273.
- ↑ For example Leroi-Gourhan: Prehistoric Art , 1975, pp. 9557 ff.
- ↑ Lorblanchet, p. 318.
- ^ Leroi-Gourhan: Prehistoric Art , 1975, p. 355.
- ↑ a b Lorblanchet, p. 316.
- ↑ Müller-Karpe: Handb. D. Pre. Vol. I: Paleolithic , 1977, p. 274 f.
- ↑ Plassard, p. 41.
- ↑ Le Merveilles on fr.wikipedia
- ↑ Les Fieux on fr.wikipedia
- ↑ Lorblanchet, pp. 204, 206.
- ↑ Lorblanchet, p. 294.
- ↑ Lorblanchet, pp. 63, 66, 186, 217, 287.
- ↑ Clottes: Niaux, 1997, p. 155 ff.
- ↑ Lorblanchet, pp. 222, 307.
- ↑ See also The secret caves of the Counts Bégouën on 3sat.de
- ↑ Lorblanchet, p. 306.
- ↑ Vialou, pp. 289, 294 ff. Abstract signs, especially points and key-shaped symbols (claviforme).
- ↑ Lorblanchet, p. 63.
- ↑ Isturitz on fr.wikipedia
- ↑ Leroi-Gourhan: Prehistoric Art, 1975, p. 425; Lexicon of Art, Vol. IV, p. 306 f.
- ↑ Clottes / Courtin: Cosquer, pp. 7, 167; Lorblanchet, p. 314.
- ↑ Chauvet, p. 112.
- ↑ a b Lorblanchet, p. 314.
- ↑ Documentation: Clottes / Courtin: Cosquer, pp. 81–125.
- ↑ Clottes / Courtin: Cosquer, pp. 127-139.
- ↑ Clottes / Coortin, pp. 155-161.
- ↑ Chauvet, p. 42 f.
- ↑ Documentation in: Chauvet: Grotte Chauvet, 1995.
- ↑ Lorblanchet, p. 300 ff.
- ↑ Information brochure autumn 2011, Musée Préhistoire, Orgnac-L'Aven
- ↑ André Glory: Les gravures de la Grotte du Colombier à Labastide de Virac, Ardèche, in: Comptes-rendus of séances de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, 91e année, No. 4, 1947, pp 670-676. .
- ↑ Leroi-Gourhan: Prehistoric Art, 1975, p. 431.
- ↑ a b c d e N. Aujoulat: L'art des cavernes. Atlas des grottes ornées paléolithiques françaises. Ministére de la Culture et al., Paris 1984, ISBN 2-11-080817-9 .
- ↑ G. Bosinski, P. Schiller: Représentations féminines dans la Grotte du Planchard (Vallon Pont d'Arc, Ardèche) et les figures féminines du type Gönnersdorf dans l'art pariétal. Bulletin de la Société préhistorique de l'Ariège volume 53, 1998.
- ↑ B. Gely, A. Gauthier, A. Suarez: La décoration pariétale paleolithique de la grotte de la Bergerie de Charmasson (Vallon-Pont-d'Arc, Ardèche). In: Bulletin de la Société préhistorique Ariège-Pyrénées. 54, 1999, pp. 117-126.
- ↑ Leroi-Gourhan: Prehistoric Art, 1975, p. 432.
- ↑ Leroi-Gourhan: Prehistoric Art, 1975, p. 435.
- ↑ Altuna, p. 196.
- ↑ Altuna, pp. 103-112.
- ^ AWG Pike et al .: U-Series Dating of Paleolithic Art in 11 Caves in Spain. In: Science . June 15, 2012, pp. 1409-1413.
- ↑ Roland Knauer: Steinalte Bilder Tagesspiegel, June 15, 2012
- ↑ Dating: Lorblanchet, p. 315.
- ↑ Lorblanchet, p. 282; Vialou, p. 348; Chufín cave cuevas.culturadecantabria.com
- ↑ Lorblanchet, p. 315.
- ↑ Altuna, p. 194 f.
- ↑ a b Lorblanchet, p. 317.
- ↑ Lorblanchet, p. 270.
- ↑ Overviews and maps of the localities: Müller-Karpe: Handb. D. Pre. Vol. I: Paleolithic Age , 1977, pp. 287-339 and Taf. 272, 273; Leroi-Gourhan, pp. 425-436, maps p. 538 f .; Vialou, pp. 344-373; Lorblanchet, p. 54 f.
- ↑ Müller-Karpe: Handb. D. Pre. Vol. I: Palaeolithic , 1977, pp. 206-215; Leroi-Gourhan: Prehistoric Art , 1975, pp. 117–126.
- ↑ Müller-Karpe: Handb. D. Pre. Vol. I: Paleolithic , 1977, p. 215 f .; Leroi-Gourhan: Prehistoric Art , 1975, pp. 117–126.
- ↑ Müller-Karpe: Handb. D. Pre. Vol. I: Paleolithic , 1977, pp. 216-221; Leroi-Gourhan: Prehistoric Art , 1975, pp. 108–117.
- ↑ Müller-Karpe: Handb. D. Pre. Vol. I: Paleolithic , 1977, pp. 221-223.
