Swimming reindeer
As Floating reindeer ( English Swimming Reindeer ), a 13,000 years old glacial sculpture in the British Museum called. The sculpture was in the late Ice Age in today's France from the top of a mammoth - tusk carved. It was found in 1866 near Bruniquel in France in two fragments, which Abbé Henri Breuil only recognized as belonging together in the early 20th century based on the tail and muzzle.
Find
The French engineer Peccadeau de l'Isle found the parts of the sculpture in 1866 on the banks of the Aveyron River , when he was specifically looking for evidence of early settlement there; However, there are also contemporary reports that ascribe the find to the local antiquarian Victor Brun. At the time, Peccadeau de l'Isle was building the railway line from Montauban to Rodez , and in his spare time he was looking for archaeological finds, finding some prehistoric flint tools and several examples of works of art from the late Ice Age on the hill of Montastruc . The finds were given the name "Montastruc", although the closest place is Bruniquel . The hill is 30 m high, and the findings were on the river bank in an area of 250 m² under a 14 m deep overhang. Peccadeau de l'Isle had to dig 7 m deep to find the layer in which the finds lay. Originally it was thought that they were two different reindeer carvings, as it was not obvious how the pieces could be put together.
Peccadeau de l'Isle published a scientific article about his findings and exhibited them at the 1867 World's Fair in Paris . The visitors were impressed by the quality of the finds and especially the delicacy of the reindeer carvings. The carvings are also so impressive because reindeer are now extinct in France. Dating was possible because the carvings were made from the tusk of an also extinct mammoth. This made it possible to draw conclusions about the life of the people in the late Ice Age. His finds were all the more surprising at the time because no cave paintings had yet been found. Only Henry Christy and Edouard Lartet proved that humans and mammoths had lived at the same time.
The coexistence of humans and mammoths is also evident from the sculpture of a mammoth spear thrower found in the same place . This was used to use extra leverage when throwing a javelin . It was carved from a piece of reindeer antler in the shape of a mammoth.
The reindeer sculptures were re- exhibited in Toulouse in 1884 after it was believed to have found a French buyer, but they were eventually acquired by the British Museum in 1887. Peccadeau de l'Isle initially offered its finds for the sum of 150,000 francs , which today corresponds to around £ 580,000 ( € 740,000 ). Augustus Franks , an enthusiastic antiquarian who was then in charge of the museum's Northern European section, declined the offer but sent Charles Hercules Read to negotiate with de l'Isle. He was able to negotiate the price down to £ 500, which would be around £ 30,000 (€ 38,000) today. The purchase was funded through the Christy Fund, a £ 5,000 trust from Henry Christy , who had also bequeathed his own collection to the museum.
It was not until 1904, during a visit to a museum, that Abbé Breuil realized that it was actually a question of fragments of a sculpture that originally belonged together, and how these should be put together. The sculpture that was then assembled is now kept in a protected atmosphere and moved as seldom as possible. Today ivory is very fragile and could turn to dust if not handled properly. In contrast to the spear thrower, the reindeer sculpture probably has no practical use. It is one of the oldest objects in the British Museum.
Age of the Reindeer Sculpture
The finds date from the late Ice Age, which Henry Christy and Edouard Lartet originally called the age of the reindeer . This is noteworthy because the mammoth ivory carving depicts reindeer and the mammoth spear thrower was made from a reindeer antler. This confirms that reindeer, mammoths and humans lived in this part of Europe at the same time when the climate there was like today's Siberia. This period is now called Magdalenian , after the French cave Abri de la Madeleine , where works of art similar to the swimming reindeer were found.
description
The sculpture shows a female reindeer followed by a larger male reindeer while crossing a river. The male is distinguished by its size, antlers and genitals, while the female's teats are shown.
The river crossing was necessary during the spring and autumn migration . The autumn river crossing is shown here because both reindeer are shown with antlers. They are easy to hunt at this time of year and their flesh, fur, and antlers are in prime condition.
Both reindeer were engraved with a burin to show the different color and texture of the fur. There are ten deeper engravings on the back that create colored markings, the meaning of which is unclear. Studies of other Ice Age finds led to the hypothesis that these indicated how many animals, in this case reindeer, the owner of the carving had killed.
The history of the world in 100 objects
This sculpture was chosen as object No. 4 in the radio series The History of the World in 100 Objects , which the BBC broadcast in association with the British Museum.
literature
- Jill Cook: The Swimming Reindeer , British Museum Objects in Focus Series, 2010, ISBN 978-0-7141-2821-4 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f Jill Cook: The swimming reindeer; a masterpiece of Ice Age art , bradshawfoundation.com, accessed August 2, 2010
- ↑ a b c d The Swimming Reindeer , British Museum Objects in Focus, accessed August 3, 2010, ISBN 978-0-7141-2821-4
- ↑ Primitive Man , Louis Fiuier, p 88, accessed 2 August 2010
- ^ Mammoth Spear Thrower , British Museum, accessed August 7, 2010.
- ↑ a b c Transcript of Episode 4 , History of the World in 100 Objects , BBC, accessed August 9, 2010.
- ^ Europe p. 200 , Peter N. Peregrine, Melvin Ember, accessed August 7, 2010.
- ↑ a b Swimming Reindeer , bbc.co.uk, accessed August 2, 2010.
- ↑ Swimming reindeer , British Museum, accessed June 2, 2016.