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Cave Paintings and Sculptures

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A map of decorated caves in western Europe with the names of a few notable or outlying sites. The broken line encloses caves decorated in the distinctive 'Mediterranean Style' which seems to have been little influenced by the master artists of France and Spain. It often features simple, stark animal representations together with quite elaborate geometrical designs. There are important caves decorated in the Mediterranean style in southeast Spain, the Ardèche canyons in southern France, the heel of Italy, and in Sicily.

There are now some 200 Painted caves known in southern France and northern Spain. Several new discoveries in the remote Spanish Basque country appear to be closing the gap between these two main regional groups which, in any case, certainly share many correspondences of style and theme.

But there are also outliers located far away from the major centers of activity-the engravings in the cave of Gouy near Rouen, for example, almost at the present shores of the English Channel. Three crude engravings on bone were recovered from cave entrances at Creswell Crags in the Derbyshire county of central England, dating perhaps as far back as 13 000 BC. There is no reason why cave artists should not have left paintings there or elsewhere in England, although no such traces have been found. Perhaps the sharper climate of the north has obliterated ancient cave walls through the natural forces of erosion more effectively than farther south.

In some regions of Europe where caves were absent - such as Moravia and the Ukraine - rich traditions of engraving and sculpting in bone and ivory flourished. A detailed knowledge of these carving traditions is just beginning to be acquired by scholars in the west. And there are surprises in store for those interested in such regions: for example, the isolated painted cave discovered at Kapova in the Ural Mountains is, so far, the only one of its kind in the whole of eastern Europe. A number of animals painted in red ochre were identified in the Kapova cave, although the style is quite different from those of the west.

Photo and text: 'Secrets of the Ice Age' by E. Hadingham

One of the bisons on the ceiling of Altamira in Spain, representing the final stage of polychrome art in which four shades of colour are used.
Photo: M. Burkitt 'The Old Stone Age' (1955), after Breuil.

A view near the cave entrance, which is under trees on the skyline in the centre of the photograph. To the right, the ground drops down to the valley of the river Saja.

Photo from "Secrets of the Ice Age" by Evan Hadingham.

The following is condensed and adapted from 'Cro-Magnon Man' by T. Prideaux:

In 1868 a hunter's dog chased a fox across hilly countryside about 15 miles inland from the port of Santander on the Atlantic coast of Spain. The dog fell among some boulders. When the hunter rescued the dog, he saw the entrance to a cave.

Don Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola's daughter Maria

The owner of the estate was a Spanish Nobleman and amateur archeologist, Don Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola (1831 - 88). The paintings were not discovered until November 1879 when the Don's daughter Maria, aged 5 to 9 years old, looked up from where the Don was digging for tools, and saw a herd of red animals spread across the ceiling. 'Mira, Papa, bueyes!' (Look, Papa, oxen!) she exclaimed.

Photo: P. Bahn, 'Prehistoric Art'

Henri Breuil (1877 - 1961). Although he trained as a priest in his youth, and remained a priest till he died, he never practised his profession. Instead he was allowed by the church hierarchy to devote his whole life to the study of prehistory. He was the son of a lawyer, and was guided in his studies by a teacher at the seminary who expounded the theory of evolution to him, and lent him books by Gabriel de Motillet, the anticlerical prehistorian.

Photo: Secrets of the Ice Age by Evan Hadingham, 1980

Left, the Abbé Breuil (wearing cassock) photographed at El Castillo, northern Spain, in July 1909, with his patron, the Prince of Monaco (sitting at right).

Breuil had a talent for drawing animals, and was co-opted by prehistorians to help with the illustration of paleolithic portable and cave art. He became the world's leading authority on paleolithic art until his death. He spent about 700 days of his life underground, exploring and painting. In some cases his drawings and tracings are the only record left of paintings that have since faded or disappeared.

Lascaux: Paintings in the main hall.

Photo: J Pfeiffer 'The Creative Explosion'

Lascaux: (Corrèze), salle des Taureaux. Premier et deuxième taureaux.

Lascaux. Room of the Bulls.
First and second bulls.
Photo from: Agenda de la Préhistoire 2002 - 2003, a superb diary with excellent illustrations sent to me by Anya. My thanks as always.

The world's oldest engraving on an ox rib from Pech de l'Azé in the Dordogne region, dating to the early part of the Riss glaciation. There are many other markings on the bone, most of which were probably due to naturally caused damage in the ground. The bone is nearly 17 centimeters long and may date to about 200 000 B.C.

Grotte de Belvis (Aude) - Magdalénien supérieur récent - 12 270 ± 270. Grue gravée sur un tronçon de côte d'ongulé (longueur : 13,5 cm). Faut-il voir une évocation de la saison, retour du printemps ou venue de l'automne, dans cette figuration du grand migrateur ?

Grotte de Belvis (Aude) - recent higher Magdalenien - 12 270 ± 270 BP. Crane engraved on a section of bone (length: 13.5 cm). Is it possible to see an evocation of the season, the return of spring or the arrival of the autumn, in this depiction of a large migratory bird?

Station de Gönnersdorf (Rhénanie-Palatinat) - Magdalénien supérieur - vers 12 600 - Ces silhouettes féminines, sans tête ni bras, gravées sur une plaquette de schiste (11,8 x 10,8 cm), se distinguent, par leur remplissage de traits, des quelques 400 autres figurations de femmes mises au jour sur ce site.

Station of Gönnersdorf (the Rhineland-Palatinat) - higher Magdalénien - around 12 600 BP - These female silhouettes, without head or arms, are engraved on a schist plate (11,8 X 10,8 cm), are distinguished by their shading, as for some 400 other depictions of women on this site. At this site there is a walkway between two huts, with the female figurines in one of them. This is believed by some to be a female initiation site.

Engraved Teeth

Grotte de La Marche (Vienne) - Magdalénien moyen - Incisive de cheval ornementée d'un motif triangulaire gravé à connotation sexuelle féminine évidente (longueur : 5 cm environ)

Grotte de La Marche (Vienna) - middle Magdalenien - Incisor horse tooth ornamented with an engraved triangular motif with obvious female sexual connotation (length: approximately 5 cm)

Grotte Gazel (Aude) - Magdalénien moyen - 15070 ± 270 Éléments de parure; de gauche à droite: incisive de renne, incisive de lièvre, canine de renard, canine de cerf. (long.; 2 cm)

Grotte Gazel (Aude) Some ornamentation; Middle Magdalenien - 15070 ± 270 From left to right: incisor of reindeer, incisor of hare, canine of fox, canine of stag. Length 2 cm.

Le Masque Moustérien de la Roche-Cotard à Langeais (Indre-et-Loire)

The site of la Roche-Cotard was discovered at the beginning of the 20th century but the Mousterien level (Roche-Cotard II), located in front of the opening of the cave, has been known only for 25 years.

In this dwelling site a very special object undoubtedly prepared by humans was discovered: it is a flint having a natural hole in which a small piece of bone has been placed. This object which makes one think of a human or animal face is an exceptional witness of the slow advance of humanity towards the beginning of illustrated art.

Text: By Jean-Claude Marquet, http://ma.prehistoire.free.fr/masque.htm

Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008

Source: Facsimile, display at Musée National de Préhistoire, Les Eyzies

The only dating obtained for this Mousterien site (which contained some rare tools) from the fragments of bone gives 32 000 years "or more".

"The Mask" consists of a small flat flint which was modified to accentuate its resemblance to a face:

(1) a small piece of bone was inserted in a natural hole in the stone and fixed by two small stones;

(2) the stone was then improved to obtain greater symmetry.

"The Mask" is regarded as "a proto-figurine", one of the first steps towards the art of the upper Paleolithic. It is an exceptional object because the mousterian culture is not known to give this type of artistic production.

If Mousterian civilization is specific to Neandertals in Europe, "the Mask" thus leads us to think that Neandertals were capable of an artistic production more advanced than than anyone suspected until now.

This protofigurine is a flint improved by Mousterians to accentuate the appearance of a face which the stone offered.

Version française

Le site de la Roche-Cotard a été découvert au début du XXe siècle mais le niveau moustérien (La Roche-Cotard II), situé devant l'ouverture de la grotte, n'est connu que depuis 25 ans.

Dans ce niveau d'habitation a été découvert un objet très spécial indubitablement préparé par l'Homme : c'est un silex possédant un trou naturel dans lequel est placée une petite esquille d'os. Cet objet qui fait penser à une face humaine ou animale est un témoin exceptionnel du lent cheminement de l'humanité vers l'avènement de l'art figuré.

La seule datation obtenue pour ce niveau moustérien qui contenait quelques rares outils et des fragments d'os donne 32000 ans "ou plus".

Le "Masque" consiste en un petit silex plat qui a été modifié pour accentuer sa ressemblance avec un visage :

(1) un petit éclat d'os a été inséré dans un orifice naturel de la pierre et calé par deux petites pierres ;

(2) la pierre a été ensuite retouchée pour obtenir une symétrie.

Le "Masque" est considéré comme une "proto-figurine", l'un des prémices vers l'art du Paléolithique supérieur. C'est un objet exceptionnel car la culture moustérienne n'est pas connue pour donner ce type de production artistique.

Si la civilisation moustérienne est bien comme on le croit spécifique de l'Homme de Neandertal en Europe, le "Masque" donne ainsi à penser que les Néandertaliens étaient capables d'une production artistique plus évoluée que ce que l'on soupçonnait jusqu'à présent.

Cette protofigurine est un silex retouché par des Moustériens pour accentuer l'apparence de visage qu'offrait la pierre.

Chauvet Cave

Grotte de La Marche, Lussac-les-Châteaux (Vienne), Tête humaine vue de face, Grotte de La Marche, Lussac-les Ch5teaux (Vienne). Tête humaine avec ornement facial. Très profondément incisés, des traits de gravure parallèles couvrent la joue. Il peut s'agir de peintures corporelles ou de scarifications.

Grotte de La Marche, Lussac-les-Châteaux (Vienne, France). Human head with facial ornament. Very deeply incised, with parallel lines covering the cheek. They could be body paintings or scarifications.

Du côté gauche : grotte de La Marche, Lussac-les-Châteaux (Vienne), Tête humaine vue de face, relevé sélectif. Ce visage a I'apparence de celui d'un homme âgé, peut-être un vieillard.

On the left: Grotte de La Marche, Lussac-les-Châteaux (Vienne, France). Face of what appears to be an old man.

Du côté droit : grotte de La Marche, Lussac-les-Châteaux (Vienne). Têtes humaines affrontées, On remarque, en particulier, des éléments de coiffure : bonnets probablement.

On the right: Grotte de La Marche, Lussac-les-Châteaux (Vienne, France). Faces of two children wearing what appear to be hats.

Photos from: Agenda de la Préhistoire 2002 - 2003, a superb diary with excellent illustrations sent to me by Anya. My thanks as always.

A painted abri broken in fragments (Abri Blanchard, Sergeac). The Aurignacians at the Abri Blanchard also painted the ceiling of their rock-shelter, which collapsed due to frost during the coldest period of the Wurm glaciation, thus shattering the decoration. On a large wall fragment, one can still read the black lines against a red background, which depict the limbs and ballooned stomach of an animal that probably represents a horse. The rest was destroyed. From 1910 to 1911, Abri Blanchard was studied by Louis Didon and his trusty excavator Marcel Castanet (Musee du Perigord).
Photo: 'Discovering Perigord Prehistory' by B & G Delluc, A Roussot & J Roussot-Larroque.
My thanks to Sharon Rogers/walkhound for alerting me to this excellent book.

Spearthrower made of antler showing a young ibex with an emerging turd on which two birds are perched, found around 1940 in the cave of Le Mas d'Azil, Ariege. The ibex figure is about 7 cm long, and dates to about 16000 BP.

This was one of the first examples of mass produced art. Fragments of up to ten examples of this design have been found, which means that scores or hundreds must have been manufactured originally. The joke must have been very popular amongst the people of the time!

Photo: P. Bahn 'Prehistoric Art'

Carving from La Madeleine in the Dordogne that probably served as the weighted end of a spear thrower. Note the peculiar bridle pattern on the muzzle. This is a good argument against similar patterns on horses being representations of halters.

Woolly Mammoth engraved on a plate of ivory found in the cavern of La Madelaine, Perigord
Photo: C. Lyell 'The Antiquity of Man' (1873)


Mammouth gravé sur un gros fragment d'ivoire de mammouth trouvé lors des fouilles de l'abri-sous-roche de La Madeleine près des Eyzies par Edouard Lartet en mai 1864. Photo H. Delporte.

Mammoth engraved on a large fragment of mammoth ivory found at the time of the excavations of the rock shelter of the Madeleine close of Eyzies by Edouard Lartet in May 1864. Photo H. Delporte.

Photo and French text: "les mammouths - Dossiers Archéologie - n° 291 - Mars 2004"

My thanks to Anya for access to this resource.

Text below from: 'Cro-Magnon Man' by T. Prideaux, an excellent introduction to the subject:

'By 1867, the march of archaeology reached a milestone in the grand Exposition Universelle in Paris. Sponsored by Napoleon 111, the big fair paid homage to industry and culture. It introduced an oddly ominous vehicle called a batteuse, or locomobile, that was supposed to prove useful as a steam-driven thresher. The United States, though still shaken by the Civil War, sent a display of rubber goods, including a life raft, and a new drink-much sampled in the American bar on a gaslit promenade --- called a mint julep. As a bow to ancient culture, a replica was built of Egypt's Temple of Philae on the Nile. But far more ancient, and more astonishing, was a small but comprehensive exhibit of prehistoric artifacts, assembled from all over Europe.

A metre long life size salmon, made on the overhang of Abri du Poisson in the Gorge d'Enfer is the only sculpted representation of a fish, an animal rarely depicted in cave art, although it appears more often in portable art.

There was an attempt made once to steal this sculpture, and the thieves were disturbed at the point where they had put a series of holes around the sculpture ready to undercut it. This photo is probably of a well made cast of the original, since it appears to be free standing. Sharon Rogers tells me the original is still in place, on the ceiling of a small cave just south of Laugerie Haute.

Abri Poisson, Perigordian engraving of a vulva.

Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008

Source: Original, display at Musée National de Préhistoire, Les Eyzies

Bone plaque from the Abri Blanchard, Sergeac, France, with enlargement of the series of pits, suggested to indicate phases of the moon (drawing after Marshack, A. 1970. Notation dans les Gravures du Paléolithique Supérieur, Bordeaux, Delmas.) Colour photo: source unknown

The following text is from the useful book, 'The Prehistory of Europe' by Patricia Phillips, Allen Lane 1980:

A controversial but imaginative approach to Palaeolithic art has been used over the past decade by Alexander Marshack. This worker believes he has detected notation and symbolism in Upper Palaeolithic art. He investigates artifacts by means of a high-powered microscope, and is also working on the development of spectroscopic techniques for analysis of compositions in the painted caves. The majority of his published results concern mobiliary art; a more recent publication of his draws together evidence for symbolism in the Mousterian, which he regards as the background to the sophistication evident in the early Upper Palaeolithic.

One of Marshack's early reports concerned the lines of pits, strokes or notches cut into six bone or stone plaques of the Aurignacian period, housed at the Musée des Antiquités Nationales at St-Germain-en-Laye. He concluded that the pits occurred in multiples of thirty to thirty-one, and were produced by a series of techniques, for instance stabbing, curving to the left or to the right. In a bone plaque from the Abri Blanchard, Sergeac, Dordogne, in sixty-nine marks there were twenty-four changes in the type of pitting (see figure above). According to Marshack the type of technique changes with the different phases of the moon, when the moon becomes crescent-shaped, full or dark. The Abri Blanchard plaque bore eighty-one marginal marks which, in addition to the original sixty-nine, would comprise a record of about six months. Similar analysis suggested that the marks on both sides of a schist pebble from Barma Grande on the Riviera amounted to a total tally of fifteen months. A decorated bone bearing the design of a horse and rows of pits from La Marche, central France, bore a lunar notation of seven and a half months; the horse had been 're-used' several times. These markings could possibly have been used to represent the seasonal sequence of regional phenomena or economic activities, or ceremonies.

Ancient phallus unearthed in cave

A sculpted and polished phallus found in a German cave is among the earliest representations of male sexuality ever uncovered, researchers say.

The 20cm-long, 3cm-wide stone object, which is dated to be about 28,000 years old, was buried in the famous Hohle Fels Cave near Ulm in the Swabian Jura.

The prehistoric "tool" was reassembled from 14 fragments of siltstone.

Its life size suggests it may well have been used as a sex aid by its Ice Age makers, scientists report.

"In addition to being a symbolic representation of male genitalia, it was also at times used for knapping flints," explained Professor Nicholas Conard, from the department of Early Prehistory and Quaternary Ecology, at Tübingen University.

"There are some areas where it has some very typical scars from that," he told the BBC News website.

Researchers believe the object's distinctive form and etched rings around one end mean there can be little doubt as to its symbolic nature.

"It's highly polished; it's clearly recognisable," said Professor Conard.

The Tübingen team working Hohle Fels already had 13 fractured parts of the phallus in storage, but it was only with the discovery of a 14th fragment last year that the team was able finally to put the "jigsaw" together.

The different stone sections were all recovered from a well-dated ash layer in the cave complex associated with the activities of modern humans (not their pre-historic "cousins", the Neanderthals).

The dig site is one of the most remarkable in central Europe. Hohle Fels stands more than 500m above sea level in the Ach River Valley and has produced thousands of Upper Palaeolithic items.

Female forms, such as the 30 000-year-old Venus of Willendorf are more common.

Some have been truly exquisite in their sophistication and detail, such as a 30,000-year-old avian figurine crafted from mammoth ivory. It is believed to be one of the earliest representations of a bird in the archaeological record.

There are other stone objects known to science that are obviously phallic symbols and are slightly older - from France and Morocco, of particular note. But to have any representation of male genitalia from this time period is highly unusual.

"Female representations with highly accentuated sexual attributes are very well documented at many sites, but male representations are very, very rare," explained Professor Conard.

Current evidence indicates that the Swabian Jura of southwestern Germany was one of the central regions of cultural innovation after the arrival of modern humans in Europe some 40,000 years ago.

The Hohle Fels phallus will go on show at Blaubeuren prehistoric museum in an exhibition called Ice Art - Clearly Male.

Count Bégouën and his three sons, photographed at the entrance to Le Tuc d'Audobert in 1912, shortly after the discovery of the clay bison.

Photo: Secrets of the Ice Age by Evan Hadingham

An engraving of a bison on a limestone pebble from Laugerie Basse. It may have been a preparatory sketch for a painting in one of the caves.

Note the way the hooves are pointed down, not in a naturalistic position. It may be that the sketch was made from 'life' - a bison kill.

Photo: Man before history by John Waechter

Head of a bison drawn with the fingers on the clay floor at Niaux, French Pyrenees. It lies over half a mile from the cave entrance. Dating from the Madalenian period, it measures 24 inches (60 cm) in length.

Photo: Man before history by John Waechter

Oiseaux stylisés de Malta (Sibérie). Collection Musée de l'Hermitage.

Stylized birds of Malta (Siberia). Collection Musée de l'Hermitage.

Photo and French text: "les mammouths - Dossiers Archéologie - n° 291 - Mars 2004"


My thanks to Anya for access to this resource.

Click on each image to see a close up

Statuette de mammouth de Kostienki 1. Collection MAE. Photo L. Iakovleva.

Mammoth figurine from Kostienki 1. Collection MAE.

Photo and French text: "les mammouths - Dossiers Archéologie - n° 291 - Mars 2004"
Photograph L Iakovleva.

My thanks to Anya for access to this resource.

Three dimensional sculpture of a horse carved in ivory, with coat and markings shown by engraved shading, from the Grotte des Espelugues, Lourdes, Hautes Pyrenees. Length 7.5 cm. Discovered in 1886 in a crevice in the Grotte. Musee de Saint-Germain-en-Laye

Photos: (top) A. Sieveking 'The Cave Artists'
(centre) http://www.primtech.net/ivory/ivory.html
(bottom) http://www.musee-antiquitesnationales.fr/pages/page_id18167_u1l2.htm

Madgdalenian horse head carved in bone - one of the most beautiful examples of prehistoric carving. Found in a cave excavation, its date is fixed to about 12000 BC. The structure of the bone did not allow for carving in the round, and the reverse side is flat.

Photo: Man before history by John Waechter

Abri du Roc-aux-Sorciers, cave Taillebourg, Angles-sur-L'Anglin (Vienne). Tête de cheval en deux fragments.

Abri du Roc-aux-Sorciers, cave Taillebourg, Angles-sur-L'Anglin (Vienne, France). Head of a horse in two pieces.

Photo from: Agenda de la Préhistoire 2002 - 2003, a superb diary with excellent illustrations sent to me by Anya. My thanks as always.

Caverne de Niaux (Ariège)

Salon Noir, Cheval barbu
Black room, bearded horse

Photo from: Agenda de la Préhistoire 2002 - 2003, a superb diary with excellent illustrations sent to me by Anya. My thanks as always.

Caverne de Niaux (Ariège)

Successive paintings, one on top of the other

Photo from: Man before History by John Waechter

Caverne de Niaux (Ariège), galeries profondes. Empreintes de pieds

Caverne de Niaux, (Ariège), lower galleries. Footprints

Photo from: Agenda de la Préhistoire 2002 - 2003, a superb diary with excellent illustrations sent to me by Anya. My thanks as always.

Le Portel (Ariège), Cheval

Le Portel (Ariège), Horse

Photo from: Agenda de la Préhistoire 2002 - 2003, a superb diary with excellent illustrations sent to me by Anya. My thanks as always.

A dun pony near Silver City NM, as well as his dad and brother. Note the similar markings to the dun Devonshire pony above.

Photo: Jeff and Helena Hammer, near Silver City, New Mexico, USA.

A little sister and a filly with good markings. Usually colts have better markings than fillies, but this one is exceptional.

Photo: Jeff and Helena Hammer, near Silver City, New Mexico, USA.

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