htDdIce Age People Doin the What Did 20 T he w alls andst volume 47, number 3 expedition number volume 47, alactites inCougnacCa v e (P ayrignac, France) have beenrepeatedlytouched by fingers covered withblack orredpaint. by jeanclottes

Jean Clottes Expedition Winter05Edit10/26/0511:21AMPage21

Robert Bégouën (left), François Rouzaud, Michel Soulier, and Yves Lignereux (right) ne h lceiglgto their torches. of under theflickering light world discoveredthe underground they mindandtheirbeliefsabout state of ples’ us to better understandsomeancientpeo- theseremains allow Often includingart, andaction. pasthuman behavior of traces excellent conditions to inwhich preserve For archaeologists caves provide sary. valuable resource neces- to beusedwhen must keep people which away are orthey a dangerous placesseen asspiritually from are They either entailtwo attitudes. erally orthedead. thegods, spirits, the of powers, supernatural the realm of canbe they Greek andothermythologies, In the Maya provide physical they access to theotherworld. among while emergence ororigin, to berespected places of in Europe numerous activities performed humans modern thelastIceduring Age, Between 35,000and12,000years ago, I Avantès, France). Enlène (Montesquieu- been found intheCave of of ayoung animalhave such asthissmallcarving Many decoratedobjects OTHERDURING ACTIVITIES Traditional toward feelings caves gen- THE UPPERPALEOLITHIC R NTHEDARK AND ART IN aeotnbe wdb ae.TheInka believed caves have often beenawed by caves. people however, theworld, of past andinotherparts In the spelunkers. andstudyforexploratory for sport asareas primarily now serving aura, their supernatural n ourmodern e tr ol,deepcaves have lost Western world, were closelyrelated to ritual. conducted intheirdepths activities discoveredart there suggeststhat wall objectsalongwith art portable Theabundance of painted caves. in southwestern France’s famous particularly however, can befound, deep caves zonesin thedark of longstays Evidence of predecessors. rock shelters like theirNeandertal butinstead favored live indeepcaves, didnotgenerally they imagination, to popular Contrary inside caves. behavior on the part of Neandertals. behavior onthepartofNeandertals. may andstalagmites indicateritualstalactites Garonne, France) madeofanaccumulation Stone structures inBruniquel Cave (Tarn-et- T Neandertals inDeepCaves Possible by RitualBehavior capped by the remains of a small fire. asmall capped by theremains of stones and covered another layer with of mound, theburial top of Adeerantlerwasfound on deposited before andafter theburial. brown bearboneswere incorporating indicate thatstone structures Professor Eugene Bonifay’s excavations body lay onbearhides. thatthe andevidence stone tools, including two bearlegbones, grave goods, with wasfoundinassociation Neandertal burial a Here, cave Neandertal ritual use. another possibleexample of usrcue butnosuch protection would beneededinadeep substructure, beinterpreted thesemight asatent’s Onanopenairsite, structure. stone inanoval adjacentand arranged to round, asmaller broken were andstalagmites stalactites foundpiled Cave, The smallRégourdou Cave inFrance’s Dordogne provides s mn enetl.I h etso France’s Bruniquel In thedepthsof use amongNeandertals. deepcave ritual here are atleasttwo possibleinstances of www.museum.upenn.edu/expedition occupied Europe. theNeandertals when ( Mousterian period dating themto the dating stone structures— the with contemporary is that thehearth itseemslikely cavern, this inthemiddleof ity human activ- of traces With noother ago. more than47,600years dated to hearth nearby bonefrom a ment of frag- a burned dated, mites were not directly andstalag- stalactites the Although world. inside thesubterranean space orritual symbolic a of the delimitation esis thatmakes senseis Theonlyhypoth- there. people didnotlive remains indicates that any living absence of the Furthermore, cave. ca. 200,000–30,000 BP) 21 The ritual use of caves in Europe was exceptional during the Ice Age. Only a few deep caves, approximately 150, bear evidence of wall art. Given the extremely long duration of the Upper Paleolithic, this suggests only sporadic usage. On average, for the whole of Europe, there was one painted cave for every five gener- ations of people. Furthermore, even the most-utilized caves seem to have been in use for only a restricted time by a limited number of people. Despite the relative scarcity of such occurrences, similar sophisticated forms of art can be found in the deepest parts of caves all over Europe, from Gibraltar to the Ural Mountains. For this tradition to have gone on for so long over such dis- tances, there must have been firmly rooted beliefs passed from generation to generation, as well as numerous contacts between geographically disparate groups. We see this in Paleolithic art that evinces an overall unity. Not only are there similarities among themes (big ani- mals, few humans, many geometric signs) and the techniques used, but also the use of caves themselves. s e t t o l C

n a e Above, in Chauvet Cave an ibex has been engraved as J if coming out of a crack in the wall. To the left, a hand stencil from the Cosquer Cave (Marseille, France).

22 volume 47, number 3 expedition A cave bear humerus in Chauvet Cave (Vallon-Pont-d’Arc, France) was stuck halfway into the ground next to a cave bear skull. Another one was stuck in the same way about 10 m away.

People of the Upper Paleolithic consistently used the deep. These speleological feats make sense only if they wanted topography and unique wall surfaces of caves in their art to get to the deepest and farthest parts of the earth—probably throughout the entire period. They concentrated images to access the hidden powers of the underground rather than around shafts in several caverns. In Niaux, France, most of the achieve exploratory prowess. images were located at the end of a deep gallery in a place where the voice resounds in a most impressive way. A number SUPERNATURAL PLACES OF POWER of examples of animals are painted or engraved on walls as though they were issuing from or disappearing into recesses. The caves were probably felt to be places of power that The cave as a place crawling with spirits in animal form, liter- could be attained and used in a variety of ways through ally at hand, ready to emerge from the walls, is also apparent in images, but also by touching and marking the walls to access the use of natural relief surfaces in the rock. People seem to the supernatural power believed to reside in the cave. One have believed that animal spirits were there inside the walls, possible procedure was to make finger meanders on the soft half ready to come out. Perhaps painting the missing outlines rock surfaces. On occasion, they were made by children, to complete them aided humans in accessing the spiritual for example at Rouffignac and Cosquer, and perhaps also by power of the animals. the uninitiated or the sick—directly exposing them to any The creators of the art explored extensive caves sometimes supernatural power in the rock. Hand stencils and hand prints l

e more than a mile long, such as the French caves at Niaux, could have played a similar role, with the paint facilitating r o M

Montespan, Rouffignac, and Cussac. They crawled through contact through the wall. At La Garma, Spain, and Cougnac, e p p i narrow passages, climbed avens (natural chimneys), crossed France, the walls were simply touched with fingertips covered l i h

P precipitous ledges, and even descended shafts several meters in paint.

www.museum.upenn.edu/expedition 23 y A r sk e und p o activities point to ritual the dead. to inwhich deposit tion sidered loca- afitting con- be might that they quite understandable itis the supernatural, likely with association deep caves andtheir nature ofotherworldly p ca t p list issty- engravings, mostly itsabundant art, About amilelong, paint b 24 in Chauvet Cave (France). the P J between thestones atthe Wailing Wall inJerusalem. into paper thecracks prayerson bits of written inserting everydaylife—much like of theJewish practice problems of itaway the to with help some of andbring thedark world of andcontact thegap thepowerbridge inthatsupernatural to but thewill rather thatwasimportant, itself the object itwasprobably not boneinto fissures or into theground, of When bits sticking however symbolic. anoffering, by meansof andto touchworld either directly thespirit or forces close by, to pierce itfrom theveil thesupernatural separating living, the desired They to reach world of beyond theordinary caves. among to Europe’stestify anattitude Ice Age toward people into theground. boneswere found stuck vertically France, At Chauvet, Spain. in17painted thewalls caves France insouthern and sures of i gesture Another ritual seems to have andChauvet. Garma andmore have discovered been recently atLa to placate spirits, places inspecial thatmay objects have made been deposits of vle tcigbt fanimalboneintoandfis- thecracks nvolved bits of sticking o ean Clottes infrontof dly overdly more than20 ear h icvr n20 fthefirst Ice Age inadeep burial y thediscovery in2000of h ato Ice Age of n thepart rnos Given the oraneous. eople. That they went Thatthey eople. e ns c e v r ical The datawe have This s andapparently behavior ritual artistic These examples of We have many examples from deep painted caves of le e io a erground repeat- s) s ’ anel oftheHorses dio s ar t ed cave, Cussac Cave in France, which created which quite astir. Cussac Cave inFrance, cave, ed d (28,000–23,000BP). oue4,number volume 47, o ould b l ns w y ho ug car t andthesk upernatural connection hasrecently supported upernatural been g b e ests thatthe mo o r e disc e c n dat g o e nt ne overed wallows inbear deep inside thecave. e o e ous andatt e m- le b - tained fromtained abone(25,120BP±120 3 expedition The r r ibutable to the Gravettian e mains o f se ven human played inthatreligion. amajor part caves Deep connections andtheir supernatural the world. of their deadreveals inthehistory religion thelongest lasting andto bury ceremonies, to perform tomillennia produce art, Lewis-W Harry Abrams,1998. the OriginofArt Clottes, Jean. For FurtherReading jean clottes Clottes, Jean,andDavidLewis-W Paris: ÉditionsduSeuil,2005. mary interest isinprehistoricrock art. mary His pri- inJuly retirement hisofficial until held 1999. position a related matters forall to prehistoricrock art, the sameMinistry Advisor at Scientific andin1993hebecame Culture, of Ministry hewas appointedGeneral Inspector forArchaeology atthe 1992, In Prehistoric Antiquities in1971. forMidi-Pyrénées Director of He was appointed both inParis. at La Maison desRoches, Collections (Arts Rupestres) duand Seuil atÉditions Director of Newsletter onRock theInternational Art and (INORA) of Editor He is He haspublished23books oredited and350papers. 1975. Clottes, Jean,JeanCourtin,andLucVanrell. Institute, 2002. Pr ehistor illiams, DavidJ. y: T rance andMagicinthePaintedCaves World RockArt . London:Thames&Hudson,2002. eevdhsP..from Toulouse University in received hisPh.D. The MindintheCave:Consciousnessand . LosAngeles,CA:GettyConservation illiams. The Shamansof Cosquer Redécouvert . NewY ork: .

Philippe Morel