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Symbolic Territories in Pre-Magdalenian Art?

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Symbolic Territories in Pre-Magdalenian Art? See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/321909484 Symbolic territories in pre-Magdalenian art? Article in Quaternary International · December 2017 DOI: 10.1016/j.quaint.2017.08.036 CITATION READS 1 61 2 authors, including: Eric Robert Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle 37 PUBLICATIONS 56 CITATIONS SEE PROFILE Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects: An approach to Palaeolithic networks: the question of symbolic territories and their interpretation through Magdalenian art View project Karst and Landscape Heritage View project All content following this page was uploaded by Eric Robert on 16 July 2019. The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file. Quaternary International 503 (2019) 210e220 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Quaternary International journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/quaint Symbolic territories in pre-Magdalenian art? * Stephane Petrognani a, , Eric Robert b a UMR 7041 ArscAn, Ethnologie Prehistorique, Maison de l'Archeologie et de l'Ethnologie, Nanterre, France b Departement of Prehistory, Museum national d'Histoire naturelle, Musee de l'Homme, 17, place du Trocadero et du 11 novembre 75116, Paris, France article info abstract Article history: The legacy of specialists in Upper Paleolithic art shows a common point: a more or less clear separation Received 27 August 2016 between Magdalenian art and earlier symbolic manifestations. One of principal difficulty is due to little Received in revised form data firmly dated in the chronology for the “ancient” periods, even if recent studies precise chronological 20 June 2017 framework. Accepted 15 August 2017 There is a variability of the symbolic traditions from the advent of monumental art in Europe, and there are graphic elements crossing regional limits and asking the question of real symbolic territories existence. The different thematic choices also allows to raise territorial kinships between various caves Keywords: Territories and various regions. fi Graphic traditions The object of this paper is to de ne where these rich and varied symbolic records appear, and how Cave art graphic traditions are distributed in the Western European Paleolithic area, throughout these 15 000 Portable art years. To provide some elements of response to this question, we will draw on the one hand, on the West-Europe formal approaches in the figures, and on the other - on the thematic range used by Paleolithics. Aurignacian © 2017 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Gravettian LGM 1. Introduction into question the notion of progress in Upper Paleolithic graphic manifestations, on the one hand based on too little data at that time The legacy of specialists in Upper Paleolithic art shows a com- firmly dated in the chronology for the “ancient” periods; and, on mon point, because they all highlight a more or less clear separation the other hand, on the neither coarse nor clumsy character of between Magdalenian art and earlier symbolic manifestations. Aurignacian portable art (Ucko, 1987). While the authors do not always characterize in exactly the same In addition, the author mentions the possible existence of way the iconographic content of the stages of their model, a point of different approaches at an early moment of the chronology, which reference is found in the chronological breakdown - that of the was particularly highlighted by the decorated caves, discovered Lascaux cave. This site, dating between the end of the Solutrean and from the 90s. This clearly visible diversity, and its degree of sig- early Magdalenian (according to Aujoulat, 2004; Delluc and Delluc, nificance seem likely to be one of the determining criteria in the 2003; Leroi-Gourhan, 1965 …), acts as a reference to embody the evolution of graphic productions during these ancient phases main separation between two distinct worlds of form in Franco- (Petrognani, 2013). Iberian rock art: a pre-Magdalenian and a Magdalenian world. In term of chronology, this art of the pre-Magdalenian periods is The idea of a steady evolution of the graphic productions during more and more accurately dated, through the studies of sites like the Paleolithic has been widely discussed and even questioned, Chauvet (Clottes, 2001), Aldene (Ambert et al., 2005), Baume particularly since the 90s, following the discoveries of Cosquer, Latrone (Azema et al. 2012), but also Mayenne-Sciences (Pigeaud, Chauvet, Cussac, La Garma, la Grande grotte d’Arcy … the richness 2004), Margot (Pigeaud et al., 2010), Candamo (Corchόn et al., and diversity of whose productions did not correspond to the 2011), or Altxerri (Ruiz-Redondo et al., 2015). framework established until then (Moro and Garate, 2010). But this The progress of the radiocarbon datings, specially for the pres- critical rereading has existed since the 80s. Notably Peter Ucko calls ence of modern carbon contamination in the pigment specimen, has lately allowed to reconsidered the chronology of Cosquer. Datings on 12 animal figures (32 000e19 000 cal. BP) obtained by using the IntCal 13 curve (Reimer et al., 2013) and OxCal v4.2 * Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: [email protected] (S. Petrognani), erobert@mnhn. software (Bronk Ramsey, 2009). These new datings introduce an fr (E. Robert). intermediate period of decoration towards 27 000 cal. BP and https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2017.08.036 1040-6182/© 2017 Published by Elsevier Ltd. S. Petrognani, E. Robert / Quaternary International 503 (2019) 210e220 211 underlines that the oldest figures of Cosquer Cave, falls in the same first difficulty is that of the direct chronological dating. Among the time range as the Chauvet Cave's latest occupation dated, between hundred sites which have been proposed for attribution to these 31 000 and 29 000 cal. BP (Valladas et al., 2017). periods, only eight sites have dating on figures, and 23 others e Within the spaces where these rich and varied symbolic records datings by context (Petrognani, 2013). Therefore, graphical analysis appear, can this new chronological data also help delineate sym- remains dominant to address the question of these decorated en- bolic territories? How are graphic traditions distributed in the sembles, notably based on comparisons with the most recently Western European Paleolithic area, throughout these 15 000 years? discovered sites under study as well as with new datings which To provide some elements of response to this question, we will regularly enrich our chronological panorama. draw on the one hand, on the formal approaches in the figures, and In terms of geography, decorated sites or collections of portable on the other - on the thematic range used by Paleolithics. For that, art are widely distributed with the northern sites of Mayenne- we will try to distinguish the common elements of Aurignacian, Sciences or Arcy-sur-Cure and the Andalusian sites such as Nerja Gravettian and Solutrean symbolic behaviors across the Franco- or La Pileta for the southernmost area. Iberian area, from those clearly more original and specificto In terms of theme and forms, several symbolic trends are also certain areas or certain time periods. clearly shown during this period. In terms of shapes, three main features are present throughout the period of “ancient” rock art: the concave stomach line of … 2. The pre-Magdalenien Palaeolithic art: common ground mammoths, the frontal view of bisons' horns, the horses' muzzles in the shape of a duck's bill. These ways of drawing are already How should we consider the pre-Magdalenian cave art? The Fig. 1. 212 S. Petrognani, E. Robert / Quaternary International 503 (2019) 210e220 Fig. 2. present on the walls of the Chauvet cave, and will characterize Through these three treatments of shape, we discern/detect many decorated ensembles until the dawn of the Magdalenian. strong graphic elements that have clearly crossed both periods and Thus horses with “duck's bill” (less than 5% of the corpus) regions. The fact that these treatments are absent in Magdalenian occupy a prominent place in all regions of our study (Fig. 1). They art, but clearly present in the areas where the themes are depicted, are present from the north of France to the south of Spain. The shows a cultural unity of theme and image on which distances, or existence of this feature of shape in Parpallo portable art, and on shape of territories have clearly no impact. No more than the the Bouil-Bleu decorated stone (Airvaux, 2001), shows that groups movements, environmental changes or technical de- graphical rendering transcends the material. velopments (see Figs. 3 and 4). As for the stomach line of the mammoth, the distribution is necessarily more limited, on the scale of that of the theme itself 3. Aurignacian rapprochements (Fig. 2). In fact, the mammoth is currently absent from Andalusian sites and occurs only rarely in the center of Spain or in the Canta- As for the oldest Aurignacian period, the links between Chauvet brian region. However, the Iberian mammoths of Los Casares, El and the portable art of the Swabian Jura were rapidly highlighted Arco B, El Castillo and Pindal, all have a concave stomach line, and by Jean Clottes (1995). thus illustrate the importance of this treatment for the mammoth Among currently confirmed Swabian figurines (Floss, 2015), the theme. This representation of both horse and mammoth is animals are mainly mammoths, lions, horses, bisons and perhaps completely absent from Magdalenian art. rhinos. As for the most recent discoveries, they extend to other less The theme of the bison is absent in the current stage of research common animals, such as Anatidae (ducks, geese, swans), fish and from Andalousia and the center of Spain. There are only few small mammals. Radiocarbon dating of the Swabian Jura sites occurences in the north of France. The most northern example is (Higham et al., 2012) are entirely consistent and indicate an age for nevertheless characteristic of a frontal representation of the ani- the lower Aurignacian art of around 42 000 years cal BP.
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