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La grotte de la Mouthe
Grotte de la Mouthe was discovered in 1894, and was excavated by Emile Rivière. It contains more than 200 engravings and paintings of bison, horses, deer, cats, wolves, as well as two hands and a tectiform. The deposits in the cave record its use by Neanderthals and modern humans, based on the tools which were found there.
La grotte de la Mouthe
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008
La grotte de la Mouthe
The site is not open to the public.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008
Wall engravings and paintings from La Mouthe
Painting of a hut in Grotte de la Mouthe.
Photo: http://www.culture.gouv.fr/culture/conservation/fr/grottes/Pageshtm/89024.htm
Engravings of Aurochs and Bison.
Photo: Rivière (1897)
The Lamp of Grotte de la Mouthe
Rivière (1899)
Translated by Don Hitchcock
A modern photo of the base of the lamp from Grotte de la Mouthe.
Photo: http://www.slideshare.net/extremecraft/01-paleolithic
Photograph from Rivière (1899) showing the ibex engraved on the underside of the lamp.
Photo: Rivière (1899)
This lamp appears to have been carved from a pebble of Permian sandstone which is abundant in the basin near Brive, about 40 km as the crow flies from Les Eyzies. It may well be that the Vézère or any of its tributaries have rolled a fragment of this rock, which may have been picked up in the river near Les Eyzies, or in its vicinity and carved for use as lamp cup, while one of its ends was ground down and rounded to serve as a short, thick, triangular handle (4 cm long).
The total length of the lamp is 171 mm, handle included. The cup has been carved in a regular circular shape, and , measures 106 mm longitudinal diameter and 104 mm transverse diameter, with 34 mm as its greatest depth, in the centre. Finally, its thickness is 45 mm. The edge is also thicker at the opposite end to the handle and has no grooves.
Its general color is dark gray, except in the interior of the cup there is a sooty black appearance of fat, or materials which have been burned for lighting the cave.
The outside of the lamp face on which it rests is convex, except in its central part, which is almost flat. It presents an engraving reminiscent in an astonishing way, but in much smaller than those which adorn the walls of the Grotte de la Mouthe. Indeed, this drawing represents the head seen in profile, of an ibex, a remarkable detailed head: nose, mouth, eyes, ears, horns of a considerable length (they measure up to 12 cm for one and the other 13 cm) and strongly curved in a semicircle.
The oval head measures 35mm in length and its greatest width is 23 mm. Two lines are drawn to indicate a fairly long neck. The body and legs of the animal are not drawn.
The lamp from La Mouthe. This photo shows the lamp restored with the missing piece either found or skilfully restored. We can see the four parts into which the lamp was originally broken.
Photo: http://www.hominides.com/html/art/art_mobilier.php
Grotte de la Mouthe
Contribution à l'étude de son outillage
Raoul (1960)
Translated by Don Hitchcock
Location: The cave is in upper Cretaceous limestone, and is located about 300 m from the hamlet of that name, with an altitude of 193m in the commune of Tayac. The entrance is a semicircular bay oriented south-east, 10.95m wide and 3 meters high.
History: In 1895 E. Rivière found that the cave was closed by a dry stone wall, it had been used as a barn by the owner and some of the archaeological deposits had been dug out and spread in the fields, but except at the entrance, the filling was intact and was almost to the ceiling.
Rivière opened a trench 140 m long, with a width of 6 m to 1 m, and a depth of 2 m. The search was executed according to the methods of the time, so it did not involve any question of fine stratigraphy, that is to say, it was done "with pick and shovel", in the words of Rivière. Thus a beautiful sandstone lamp was broken in four pieces, including one which was never found, with an ibex engraved on it.
From his excavations (1895 to 1903) Rivière could distinguish 'three distinct superimposed epochs '.
Above, a limestone/calcite layer, with blackish-gray 'Neolithic' fireplaces with modern fauna, pieces of coarse blackish pieces of pottery, flint very rare, two fragments of polished axes, human bones.
2 Limestone/calcite of variable thickness.
3. Magdalenian level with fireplaces, thickness 40 cm to 55 cm, blackish sandy soil, ash and carbonaceous material. Flint. Bone industry includes points, bone tools, fragments of needles, a short spear with a double bevel, a pin 18 cm long, etc. There was not a single harpoon, tooth, or pierced shell. Some Solutrean pieces in the mixture.
4. Mousterian clay layer, scattered or disorganised, in which the flints have sometimes worn edges, nine Mousterian bifaces found. Wildlife includes reindeer, rhinoceros, etc., but especially the bear and hyena. A wildlife haven, one tooth is attributed to a hippopotamus. These sporadic finds would approximate those of the great cave of Arcy and Roche-au-Loup Merry (Yonne).
The researches of Rivière were subject to the remonstrations of Dr. Salmon of la Societé d'Anthropologie (1897) who clearly indicated the stratigraphic gaps.
He stated 'I asked E Rivière to kindly give the notes layer by layer and in order of deposition, the zoological debris and other objects of industry in contact with them in la grotte de la Mouthe, to kindly submit the bone and flint tools collected by him, but in the successive order in which they were in the soil of the cave.
This methodical process has the ability to take away uncertainty and provide clarity. Some material hardship seems not to have allowed our colleague to classify observations in stratigraphic order, he has merely a general list of cave animals irrespective of the level and types of instruments based on their morphology'.
At the public sale made at the hotel Drouot in 1922 of part of the Rivière collections, I was able to acquire for a small fee, a locked box of which I did not know the contents. It was one of many unlabelled boxes some of which, I think, for lack of purchasers, went to the garbage!
This box contained no indications of levels, whether Mousterian, Upper Palaeolithic or very rare Neolithic remains, or more recent artefacts. None of these pieces had been washed. In the absence of stratigraphic data, my classification is merely indicative, but given the presence of sufficient characteristics it can be said that the artefacts classed as Magdalenian by Rivière, came from several horizons, and which were probably mixed up by the excavators.
Tools from la grotte de la Mouthe, Tayac, Dordogne. Excavations E. Rivière
Nos. 1 to 7, Perigordian.
8 to 14, typical Aurignacian.
15, Solutrean
16 to 22, Magdalenian.
Collection Daniel Raoul, drawings by R. Espitalié)
Photo: Raoul (1960)
(The lower Perigordian comes from the beginning of the interstadial Würm III. The characteristic element is the Chatelperronian knife. - Don)
The presence of the Perigordian I is attested by the presence of some knives with backs more or less arcuate of the Chatelperronian type, perhaps the evolved form.
(Fig. 1, Nos. 1 to 7, others are not shown)
These knives still bore the traces of their burial, with a somewhat glossy, black and gray patina. Two of these knives were worn and the edges show traces of clay, like the Mousterian flint from the lower level. Further, it is interesting to note the presence of a few Chatelperronian knives/points as at the small grotte de Combe, located in the immediate vicinity of La Mouthe.
MacCurdy (VII) informs us that there was sometimes confused stratigraphy there:
"The absence at "la Combe" of distinct alternating sterile layers increased the difficulties in the way of a clear-cut demonstration".
To my knowledge the Périgordien I had not yet been reported at La Mouthe, directly overlying the Upper Palaeolithic Mousterian (as in la Combe). We do not know if Mousterian elements were combined in this "ghost" stratum; a second batch of flint is clearly Aurignacian, with nosed or 'muzzle' scrapers, keels (one large, not shown) (Fig. 1, Nos. 11 to 13) and fine retouched Aurignacian blades (Fig. 1, Nos. 8, 10). The Vesignie collection included pieces with the same style (IV, P. 76) I would also point out an artificially pierced piece of limestone, which is similar to an example published by MacCurdy at la Combe (VII, Fig 38). In the absence of split base points we can not clarify whether the artefacts are Aurignacian I or more evolved, but la Combe I had an Aurignacian I level with Aurignac points. (VII, Fig 39)
The Solutrean is very poor, as has been reported by Rivière, mixed with the Magdalenian. It consisted of (IV, Fig 37, Nos. 2 to 4) of laurel leafed blades and a shouldered point. Personally I have only the tip of a flat face point (Fig. 1, No. 15). A small pebble, like those collected in the middle Solutrean may in fact may be part of this sequence.
The Magdalenian is well represented at la Mouthe, it includes beautiful blades, numerous single and double burins chisels, with a predominance of straight dihedrals (Fig 1, our 20 to 22) rarely warped or truncated.
Scrapers according Rivière were few, they are sometimes associated with a burin, or a fine awl (Fig 1, our 16-17), backed blades (Fig 1, No. 19) Upper Magdalenian without being able to more precisely define them, especially without sufficient remains and the lack of type tools such as beaked burins and harpoons.
The Azilian has left traces at la Mouthe: a typical painted pebble from the Rivière collection, published by MacCurdy (viii, fig 29) and an Azillian point (IV, Fig 37, No 8)
Mousterian: The series I have is too reduced for a comprehensive study. Probably "Mousterian of Acheulean tradition", despite its lack of bifaces (9), like the grotte de léglise de Guilhem where they are more numerous as at la Combe. The tool kit includes scrapers, straight, convex, thick scrapers, backed knives, (sometimes very small) spikes, truncated tools, denticles, and waste. Quartz has sometimes been used. A number of flints have their edges worn smooth by some mechanical action.
Conclusions:
From an examination of some of the Rivière finds, now dispersed, it appears that the cave was frequented at different times and that there was a den (bears, hyenas) observed at 61 m from the entrance. From bottom to top the original stratigraphy reconstituted by extrapolation would be as follows:
- Mousterian of Acheulean tradition
- Perigordian I
- Typical Aurignacian (probably Aurignacian I)
- upper Solutrean
- Magdalenian (V?) with perhaps an earlier phase
- a trace of the Azilian
- Neolithic (above this level is the stalagmitic/calcite layers from the cave entrance (2)
It is possible that as at la grotte Combe, stratigraphy has presented certain difficulties which the methods employed have failed to solve, any review of materials shows the complexity of archaeological deposits in a level from 40cm to 55 cm, attached to the whole Magdalenian. Archaeologically La Mouthe was a small deposit.
References
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Raoul, D., 1960: Grotte de la Mouthe (Dordogne). Contribution à l'étude de son outillage, Bulletin de la Société préhistorique française, 1960, tome 57, N. 9-10. pp. 627-631.
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Rivière E., 1897: La grotte de la Mouthe (Dordogne), Bulletins de la Société d'anthropologie de
Paris, IV Série. Tome 8, 1897. pp. 302-329
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Rivière E., 1899: La lampe en grès de la grotte de La Mouthe (Dordogne), Bulletins de la Société d'anthropologie de
Paris, IV Série. Tome 10, 1899. pp. 554-563.
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File last updated: Sunday, 16th May 2010 13:53
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