Pair-non-Pair's den

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Pair-non-pair

Entrance to the cave

Entrance to the cave
Location: Gironde , Nouvelle-Aquitaine , France
Geographic
location: 		45 ° 2 '20.3 ​​"  N , 0 ° 30' 6.4"  W Coordinates: 45 ° 2 '20.3 ​​"  N , 0 ° 30' 6.4"  W.
Pair-non-Pair cave (Nouvelle-Aquitaine)
Pair-non-Pair's den
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Incised drawing (mammoth) in the grotto of Pair-non-Pair

The Pair-non-Pair cave is a cave in Nouvelle-Aquitaine in France and at the same time an important archaeological site with petroglyphs from the earlier Upper Paleolithic . With a depth of almost 30 meters, it is one of the smallest picture caves within the Franco-Cantabrian cave art and the only publicly accessible prehistoric site in the Gironde department .

Discovery and excavation

Pair-non-Pair's cave was discovered by chance in 1881 by a farmer who caught a grazing cow. During the excavations started on March 6, 1881 under the direction of François Daleau (1845–1927), almost 15,000 stone tool parts , bones and ivory as well as around 6,000 animal bones were discovered in addition to numerous prehistoric incised drawings and wall paintings. The excavation work continued until 1913. Daleau assigned the oldest engravings to the Aurignacien , the oldest archaeological culture of the Upper Paleolithic (33,000 to 26,000 years ago).

cave

About 1.5 m thick deposits of the Middle Paleolithic lay two altogether more than 2.5 m thick Upper Paleolithic layers, which Daleau initially assigned to the Solutréen and Magdalenian , but after an examination by Henri Breuil belong to the older cultures Aurignacia and Gravettia . After these layers had been removed, lines were first seen on the rock walls in 1883. Engraved animal figures were discovered in 1896, some of which were still paint remnants in the engravings. Another corridor with murals was later exposed. The cave, which may have been a sanctuary, also served the Cro-Magnon people as a place to live at times.

location

The Pair-non-Pair cave is located near the village of Marcamps in the Gironde department in southwest France. The Dordogne flows in the south . The largest city in the area is Bordeaux, about 22 km away .

The Grotte des Fées, discovered by François Daleau in 1873, is 300 meters away . Nearby is the Marcamps Rock (Roc de Marcamps), discovered in 1929 by Fr. David and Georges Malvesin-Fabre (1893–1956).

stratigraphy

Since the cave was almost completely filled with sediment, Daleau had to expose it layer by layer. He carefully drew the longitudinal profile in his excursion book. The layers A – F 'shown here come from the front part of the cave and were summarized by B. and G. Delluc in 1991. A. Cheynier presented the archaeological finds again in 1963 and divided them into different settlement horizons: Moustérien (type Quina, Moustérien in Acheul tradition), Châtelperronien, Aurignacien and Gravettien ( Périgordien ). The Gravettia thus represents the end of the settlement of the Pair-non-Pair cave, since at this point in time it was no longer possible to use it due to the sediment filling.

Stone and bone industry

The cave covers the horizons from Moustérien to Magdalenian, as evidenced by the stone artifacts found. In general, the strata according to F. Daleau were dated as follows: the oldest strata F and F 'in the Moustérien, K and D' in the Solutréen and the youngest strata B, C and D in the Magdalenian. Using the stone and bone artifacts, François Daleau was able to summarize four periods of settlement in the cave. The Moustérien represents the beginning of the settlement in the cave. The Neanderthals lived mainly in the Middle Paleolithic in the cave of Pair-non-Pair. Characteristic for this are the Quina and Moustérien v. Acheul tradition. The second settlement phase is consequently the Châtelperronia (35,000–30,000), i.e. the transition period from the Middle to the Upper Paleolithic. At that time the cave was still inhabited by the Neanderthals. The characteristic stone artifacts here are the Châtelperronien peaks. In the Aurignacia, the third phase of settlement, Homo sapiens sapiens gradually established itself in Europe, and it also settled in the cave of Pair-non-Pair. The blades, awls and perforated rods are decisive here . Above all, the bone tips with a split base are important for the Aurignacia. In the fourth and last settlement period, the Gravettian, one can assign the Gravette tip as a safe leading form. The Gravettian (Perigordien) is the youngest and most important settlement horizon. From this phase mainly Font Robert points, bone sticks with decorative notches, double bullet points and pendants made of ivory in the shape of a cowrie shell come from . The fragments of a flute made of bird bones found there are interesting.

Rock art

But the most interesting finds from the Pair-non-Pair cave are undoubtedly the animal engravings. These are located in the front part of the cave, directly in the entrance area. The hall decorated all around is one of the oldest so-called "sanctuaries". As here in Pair-non-Pair, these sanctuaries were mostly created in the entrance area of ​​a cave. The paleolithic artists were able to engrave the walls in the semi-darkness through a shaft in the ceiling. However, the cave at the end of the Gravettien was almost completely filled, so it must have been very uncomfortable and narrow in the cave at that time. This immediately raises the question of the dating of the rock art. F. Daleau recorded the rock art vividly in his excursion book. Based on his notes, the rock paintings could be divided into six panels. The animal representations seem to have been laid out in a certain scheme. An important clue for the dating of the rock art is the numerous overlays. These could therefore come from different times. In addition to depictions of animals, there are also circular and oval characters, which are interpreted as female, sexual depictions. In 1971 André Leroi-Gourhan classified the rock paintings of Pair-non-Pair on the basis of comparisons with rock paintings from other caves in Style II, which fell into Gravettia. Style II can be defined as follows: The back line of the animals is strongly emphasized, they usually have a raised neck, peripheral details such as horns, legs or tail are completely absent. Tables 1, 2, 3 and 5 contain circular and oval symbols with double lines; in period II they replace the female sexual representations from period I; Male rows of stitches can be seen on all picture panels, on panel 5 a double row of dots above the cattle-horse group.

fauna

The fauna of Pair-non-Pair has been reconstructed very precisely due to the numerous bone finds. Around 60 animal species could be identified. The carnivores include the cave bear, wolf and the cave lion. Furthermore, the wild boar, the reindeer, the deer, as well as the rhinoceros and the mammoth, which also belonged to the fauna of Pair-non-Pair. Many of these animals were carved into the walls of the cave. It is interesting, however, that the ibex, which is most often depicted in the cave, did not leave any traces in the form of bones in the pair-non-pair and the surrounding area. Based on the remains of bones found, one can infer the climatic conditions of that time. In the colder periods, reindeer, mammoth and bison were hunted. In the warmer sections, however, aurochs, wild boar and deer are more common.

Dating

The dating of the rock art of Pair-non-Pair is controversial. If one uses the individual finds as an aid for dating, one could limit the period of origin to Aurignacien to Solutréen, which, however, spans 10,000 years. The terminus ante quem would be: The engravings are under a gravette layer, i. H. the pictures must have been taken beforehand. Dating based on the style brings the result that the pictures must have been created in the period from the Gravettien to the Solutréen. There is a very good parallel to this in the Abri of Labattut, where a very similar representation of a horse was found between two layers of Gravetti. Francois Daleau dated the engravings to the Aurignacia on the basis of archaeological finds. On the basis of comparisons with pictures from the Chauvet cave, some of the engravings are also dated to the Aurignacien today. The numerous overlays of the animals also suggest that the images could have been taken at different times. According to this, some of the animals would already have originated in the Aurignacia, the better preserved ones in Gravettia. The painting process itself is interesting. The people of the Aurignacien would have to have made the pictures while standing, those of the Gravettien could only have done it lying down, as the cave was already much more filled at that time. From this point of view, a partial dating into the Aurignacien would appear plausible. The end of the Gravettien represents the border, since at that time the cave was no longer accessible and settlement could no longer take place.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Grotto of Pair-non-Pair ( Memento of the original from May 29, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Leaflet from the Center des Monuments Nationaux (German, PDF; 396 kB)  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.monuments-nationaux.fr
  2. ↑ a b H. Müller-Karpe: Handbook of Prehistory. Volume 1, Paleolithic, Munich 1966, p. 278
  3. ↑ Heinz Tron: Burials of the early and middle Upper Palaeolithic. GRIN Verlag, 2007. ISBN 3-638-79758-9 , p. 11

literature

  • A. Cheynier: La caverne de Pair-non-Pair (Gironde). Fouilles de François Daleau. Description des parois gravées par l´Abbé Henri Breuil , Documents d'Aquitaine 3, Bordeaux 1963.
  • H. Kühn: History of Prehistory , Berlin 1976.
  • M. Lenoir: La grotte de Pair-non-Pair à Prignac-et-Marcamps (Gironde) , Bordeaux 2006.
  • André Leroi-Gourhan : Prehistoric Art , Freiburg i. Br. 1971.
  • Michel Lorblanchet: Cave Painting . A manual , Sigmaringen 1997.
  • H. Müller-Karpe: Handbook of Prehistory Vol. I, Paleolithic, Munich, CH Beck'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1966
  • C. Züchner: Archaeological dating - an antiquated method for determining the age of rock art , Quartär 51/52, 2001, pp. 107–114

Web links