Fontainebleau vulval engravings

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The Vulvengravuren Fontainebleau found in the caves of the forest of Fontainebleau (Forêt de Fontainebleau) in the region Ile-de-France in France . Most of the time they are close to the network and line scratches that are mostly depicted and that were created around the same time.

Real depictions of women, as they already occur in the Eurasian Paleolithic ( Venus figurines ), are no longer shown in the art of rock carvings and carvings of the Mesolithic and Neolithic in Western and Central Europe. Only in the motif of the vulva , which is more numerous in the caves of the Parisian basin than in the Paleolithic find regions, is there a connection to the previous symbolism.

The pubic triangle is reproduced in numerous versions. Equilateral triangles , diamonds and almond shapes with a line on the axis of symmetry or a depression in the center are the most common. Many equilateral triangles were engraved into cave walls and floors without this obvious vulval reference. They were also arranged upside down (in the form of a tent) or as a double ax (Grotte aux Fees near Milly-la-Forêt ). They are arranged in threes, in rows, fan-like, or grouped like the wings of a windmill (Thorant Grotto in the Trois-Pignons area). The abundance of forms, interpreted as vulva, is complemented by flower motifs. There are several caves with two or more vulvar engravings. In the “Grotte à la peinture”, at Larchant's, seven were counted, but often there is only one.

The vulvae engraved in the floor of the Roche au Violon cave are reminiscent of stringed instruments and gave the cave at Moigny-sur-École its name. The lines of the middle, largest and probably oldest of the three "violin-shaped" vulvae are deeply carved. The labia bulge around a deep crevice . Above, three parallel lines are engraved that seem to represent mannered symbolism. Such a group of three can be found e.g. B. also in the Essonn valley , in a cave above Villetard. Natural depressions in the rock were created on the Buloup plateau, near D'Huison-Longueville, in cave B by incisions around the vulva. In the area of ​​Trois Pignons, in the Ségognole 4 cave, there is a pointed oval depression, starting from the center line of which lines running in the same direction as leaf veins were engraved. In the Rocher des Potets, also in the area of ​​Trois Pignons, A. Forty found an echoing shape, but without the symmetrical "leaf veins". She sees in it an open vulva with gaping edges and therefore interprets the "leaf shape" of Sègognole as a vulva, although this shape is otherwise not interpreted as such.

literature

  • Joest Leopold, Angelika Vierzig, Siegfried Vierzig : Celebration of life. Cult and Religion in the Stone Age. Engraved caves in the Paris Basin (= Archaeological Communications from Northwest Germany. Supplement 35). Isensee, Oldenburg 2001, ISBN 3-89598-760-3 , pp. 34-36.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ For naturalistic rock carvings outside of Central Europe see: Hans-Georg Bandi, Johannes Maringer: Art of the Ice Age, Levant Art, Arctic Art. 2nd Edition. Holbein Verlag, Basel 1955.
  2. ↑ (G. Bosinski: 1999, p. 194) It can be assumed that the rich picture painting of the Upper Paleolithic in the Mesolithic gradually expired and was increasingly replaced by geometric representations "

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