Fronsac cave

The Fronsac Cave , French Grotte de Fronsac , is a cave of the outgoing Magdalenian . It is located in the northwest of the French departments of Dordogne and contains carvings representing animals, human beings, sexual symbols and abstract signs.

geography

The Manoir de Fronsac , located near the cave

The Fronsac Cave is located near the eponymous hamlet Fronsac , which belongs to the municipality of Vieux-Mareuil .

Neighboring caves are La Jovelle ( La Tour-Blanche ), Font-Bargeix ( Champeaux-et-la-Chapelle-Pommier ), Villars , Teyjat and Fourneau du diable near Bourdeilles .

history

The cave was discovered in 1984 by the speleologist Christian Carcazon. The scientific recording was carried out by Barbara and Gilles Delluc. The cave is currently (2011) closed to visitors.

Description of the cave

Small, right side valley of the Belle near Fronsac

The cave was formed in the flat layers of Angoumiens . It is 60 meters long. A corridor behind the entrance splits into two narrow passages, the so-called Galerie des animaux and the Galerie des femmes . Illustrations can be found in all three sections. The front passage is provided with an abstract grid sign and the front part of a deer -like. The animal gallery shows a bison , a horse's head and several fragmentary figures on the left side of the wall ; the right side of the wall also contains a grid sign, schematic female profiles, three headless horses and a complex composition consisting of sexual symbols (a phallus and two vulvae ), a horse's head and three small horses. The women's gallery consists of 20 depictions of women that are more or less schematic (often headless and footless) and appear in smaller groups or associated with other elements (for example with a human face or a phallus). Small animal images appear in the rear section.

Composition of the figures shown

A total of 40 figures were scratched:

1 bison
8 horses
some indeterminate animals
2 grid characters
2 phalluses
2 vulvae
21 women
1 human profile

Age

According to the style classification according to André Leroi-Gourhan , the images, especially the depictions of women, can be assigned to style IV, ie the outgoing Magdalenian . They are therefore likely to have originated around 12,000 years BP. Similar schematic depictions of women can also be seen in the caves of Lalinde , Couze (La Gare de Couze), Gouy (Seine-Maritime), Champeaux-et la-Chapelle-Pommier ( Font-Bargeix ) and in Gönnersdorf (district of Neuwied ).

literature

Préhistoire de l'art occidental . Citadelles et Mazenod, 1995.