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The notice reads:
The prehistoric Grotte du Sorcier has been classified as a UNESCO World Heritage site. The objects and works of art here are extremely rare records and witnesses of lost civilisations. This archeological site is invaluable for the knowledge of the most remote periods of human history and for the study of cave art dating from the Paleolithic, 19 000 years ago. The prehistoric works you will see here are classified as historic monuments, they do not belong only to France, the country that looks after them, but to all the world.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008
Facsimile of the Sorcerer, from the display at Grotte du Sorcier
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008
Source: Facsimile, display at Grotte du Sorcier
Almost certainly a cast from the mold of 1966 made by Abbé Glory
This is image No. 37 (according to Dams (1980)), or No. 18 (according to Delluc et al (1987)), known as the Sorcerer.
(Note: If one compares even modern colour photographs as shown here, the deterioration in recent times is very obvious. When flakes of rock fall away, they remove the grey patina and expose the yellowish rock beneath. In addition, the white fungal growth around the head seems to be increasing in area and thickness. The oldest photograph is the one to the lower left in this group - Don)
Photo: (far left) http://www.grottedusorcier.com/main.html, Source: Original, Grotte du Sorcier
Photo: (left) http://www.perigorddecouverte.com/perigord_pages.php?menu=3&rubrique=11&id_pays= , Source: Original, Grotte du Sorcier
Another image
Representation of a human with an erect phallus, located on the roof in the deepest part of the cave. The man has a narrow thorax, distended abdomen, extended upper limbs, and the head is round. The engraving is on limestone, the surface of the rock is affected by falling flakes primarily in the ventral part. The cave was closed for twenty years. This helped to stop the proliferation of microorganisms associated with various parameters, including light and heat. The superficial flaking of the limestone seems to have been naturally stabilised for twenty years and is one of the positive effects of the management of the cave.
Photo, and text translated from the French at: http://www.culture.gouv.fr/culture/conservation/fr/grottes/Pageshtm/cirq1.htm
My adaption and translation of Delluc et al (1987) with respect to this figure follows:
Man in profile
The figure is about 50 cm high and 22 cm wide, and is turned to the left. It is carved towards the top of the vault, on a support almost at the top, inclined at an angle of 10° to the horizontal. The surface texture has been used to give relief to the figure: the line of the head has been sited on a small rounded boss. The chest is drawn on a concave area, the arms on a surface slightly convex, as also the stomach and legs. The axis of the figure is at an oblique angle to the axis of the joints, the head being directed to the floor of the cave and the feet away from the axis of the joints.
The surface is very dark and grainy, affected by the falling of flakes from the surface, exposing the yellowish rock. Some flakes appear to have fallen before or contemporaneous with the discovery, if one refers to old photos. Others have appeared between that date and 1959, at which date the photographs of J. Vertut and A. Leroi-Gourhan were prepared for la Préhistoire de l'art occidental and may be related to the first cast of the engraving from which very accurate information was obtained.
Bluish traces mark the location (including scars of flakes) of a cast carried out on the 12th and 13th April, 1966 under the direction of Abbé Glory and kept in l'institut de Paleontologie humaine in Paris, but no one seems to have imputed the damage done to him.
Finally, the location of the head is the seat of the development of white blooms of fungus that appear to have proliferated recently, which we particularly noticed during a visit with M. Lorblanchet on 23/12/1986.
The figure is carved throughout with fairly broad strokes, 2 to 10 mm wide, and 1 to 5 mm deep.
Tracing by Abbé Glory at the time of discovery, 4th May 1953, of the Sorcier, and a clean version of the tracing, also by Abbé Glory.
Photo: Delluc et al (1987)
Drawing of the section surrounding the Sorcier. The flakes of rock which fell from the area between 1953 and 1959 are indicated by the dotted areas.
Photo: Delluc et al (1987)
This is a cast of images No. 33 and 34 (according to Dams (1980)) or no. 15 (according to Delluc et al (1987)), of bisons, as well as the respective drawings by these authors of the two bisons.
In neither case, however, do the authors put in their drawings all the features visible in the cast, and in particular the eye of the second bison and the snout of the first bison.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008
Source: Facsimile, display at Grotte du Sorcier
Almost certainly a cast from the mold of 1966 made by Abbé Glory
Drawings: (left) Dams (1980) (right) Delluc et al (1987)
Here are my interpretations of the carvings.
First bison in yellow, later bison in red, apparently unrelated carvings in purple.
Photo and drawings: Don Hitchcock 2008, 2009
Source: Facsimile, display at Grotte du Sorcier
Almost certainly a cast from the mold of 1966 made by Abbé Glory
Here are my interpretations of the carvings.
First bison in yellow, later bison in red, apparently unrelated carvings in purple.
Drawings: Don Hitchcock 2009
Source: Facsimile, display at Grotte du Sorcier
Almost certainly a cast from the mold of 1966 made by Abbé Glory
A head with a bestial face, turned to the right, 10.5 cm by 9.5 cm, and 6.5 cm from the ear to the front. R24 is 113 cm above the bedrock floor. The background is a broad and deep concave rectangular depression, 42 cm wide and 32 cm high. The average planar surface is at 45 °. It looks a little towards the entrance of the cave, that is towards the centre of the dome. Currently, the surface of the rock is clean. The superficial, fragile blackish crust has disappeared, apparently during the removal of the mold of April 1966 under the direction of A. Glory.
The traces of the figure which remain are fine lines, but perfectly recognisable, with a width of 2 to 4 mm, and a depth of 1 to 2 mm. However the figure is very clear on the negative molding kept in the Institute of human palaeontology.
The head is rounded at the front, engraved in the top right of the panel of drawings, near the top of the wall, without any indication of the skull. The face is projected forward, which bestialises it, with two features to represent the nose and mouth. The chin is sharp and the angle of the jaw is marked.
The oval shaped eye and the ear are deeply engraved.
Two small marks on the top of the head may suggest hair. The head is tilted forward, tilted about 50 deg to the vertical, almost looking down. For Leroi-Gourhan, it is "a buffalo or a bestialised human face. This panel consisted for A. Glory as several figures: an "ibex" (for us: the No. 24 head itself), a horse, one deer, two animal heads and maybe a third, as indicated on his tracing.
The remains preserved on the wall are too degraded to allow discussion of all these interpretations. However, observation of the cast leads us to identify with certainty that for the bestialised human head No. 24, neither of the animal identifications (buffalo for Leroi-Gourhan and ibex for Glory) can be justified. For us, this drawing must be a human face, similar to those of the Middle Magdalenian, in particular those of La Marche, la Madeleine and Comarque.
With the death of A. Glory, this drawing, now barely legible on the wall had been completely forgotten. It was the discovery of the mold, as well as casts of three panels of the more well known Saint-Cirq figures (No. 15, 18, 25 to 27) which helped us link them with the grotte of St. Cirq and rediscover the remains of the drawing on the wall. The rest of the panel is covered by some straight lines, more or less vertical, apparently of little significance.
Text: translated from the French of Delluc et al (1987) by Don Hitchcock.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008
Source: Facsimile, display at Grotte du Sorcier
Almost certainly a cast from the mold of 1966 made by Abbé Glory
Tracing by Abbé Glory of the panel carrying the combined graphics of R23 and R24.
Photo: Delluc et al (1987)
Left, a photograph of the 1966 cast of the bestial face, and right, a photograph of the actual panel in 1987.
Photo: Delluc et al (1987)
This outline of the bestial face also using the 1966 facsimile is from Delluc et al (1987)
Photo: Delluc et al (1987)
At a distance of 60 cm to the right of the No. 37 man, continuing towards the bottom, there is a very interesting panel.
At the left is the head of a man, No. 42, (R25 according to Delluc et al (1987)) which is on a degraded area, with traces of scraping. The top of the skull is high, with no indication of hair, the forehead is high and convex. The nose is heavy and convex and continues with a meandering line indicating the nostril and an open mouth. The ear is formed by two lines of which one extends to the thin neck. The eye is shaped with an elliptical shape, with an extension to the left. The inner surface also seems to have been pecked out by dots.
The head of the man faces a horse, from which it is separated by a group of lines. It seems that a vague outline of a horse head emerges from these features, but it is not certain.
Text: translated from the French of Dams (1980) by Don Hitchcock.
Drawings (left to right): Delluc et al (1987), Dams (1980)
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008
Source: Facsimile, display at Grotte du Sorcier
Almost certainly a cast from the mold of 1966 made by Abbé Glory
Black and white photo by Dams (1980)
Above - my original photo stretched to match the black and white photo by Dams (1980), and two images delineating the carvings. Head in red, vulva in green, horse in blue.
Photo and drawings: Don Hitchcock 2008, 2009
Interior of Grotte du Sorcier
Photo: http://www.grottedusorcier.com/main.html
The Museum at Grotte du Sorcier has an excellent display, very well put together.
Photo: http://www.grottedusorcier.com/main.html
La Quina type mousterian tools from the local area. These are thick, asymmetrical tools.
The denticulate (or toothed edge) tool on the left of this photograph is particularly interesting.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008
Source: Originals, display at Grotte du Sorcier
Mousterian biface axes of the Acheulian tradition, made by neanderthals, found in the local area. It is always good to get accurate signage like this of the origin of the materials on display, it happens far too rarely.
These Acheulian and Mousterian bifaces come from the plateau of Fonvidal, about 1500 metres from the Grotte du Sorcier.
Note the remains on some of the specimens of the white, weathered outer layer or rind on the original flint nodule, known as cortex.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008
Source: Originals, display at Grotte du Sorcier
Blades, bison teeth, sea shells, and what appears to be a stone lamp, scrapers on a retouched blade (Grattoir sur lame retouchée), awls (Perçoir) and what appear to be boar's teeth.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008
Source: Originals, display at Grotte du Sorcier
Magdalénien tools, 18 to 10 000 years BP found at the grotte du Sorcier
In particular we should note the dihedral burins and the double burins, which have a burin at each end of the tool.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008
Source: Originals, display at Grotte du Sorcier
Racloirs are the wider tools at the base of this photo.
Racloirs, like grattoirs, are scrapers. They are created from a flint flake and look like a large scraper. As well as being used for scraping hides, they may also have been used as a knife.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008
Source: Originals, display at Grotte du Sorcier
These upper Paleolithic tools all come from the Grotte de Saint Cirq (Grotte du Sorcier) or from the immediate environs.
Notice especially in the photo on the right, the classic Gravettian points, the microawl (microperçoir), and the bone needle, used for sewing leather garments, with a hole for the thread or sinew used, which is the reason for the tiny, delicate awl.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008
Source: Originals, display at Grotte du Sorcier
These are Magdalenian tools, from the period 18 000 BP to 10 000 BP.
Burins, or engravers, were very important tools for creating bone points and other bone tools. Notice especially the group of dihedral burins (Burin dièdre) and the group of circular scrapers.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008
Source: Originals, display at Grotte du Sorcier
Crâne complet d'Ursus spelaeus (ours des cavernes)
Complete skull of a cave bear, Ursus spelaeus. Although it looks genuine, not a facsimile, it would appear to be made up of a skull and lower jaws found in different layers or locations, judging on the colouring.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008
Source: Originals, display at Grotte du Sorcier
Mammoth teeth, left and centre, with a modern African elephant tooth for comparison, right.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008
Source: Originals, display at Grotte du Sorcier
Mammoth vertebra.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008
Source: Originals, display at Grotte du Sorcier
Mammoth lower jaw.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008
Source: Original, display at Grotte du Sorcier
Mammoth tooth and part of a Mammoth tusk.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008
Source: Originals (?), display at Grotte du Sorcier
Sabre tooth tiger skull and jaw.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008
Source: This appears to be a facsimile, display at Grotte du Sorcier
Part of the jaw of a hairy rhinoceros.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008
Source: Original (?), display at Grotte du Sorcier
Tibia of a wooly Rhinoceros.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008
Source: Original (?), display at Grotte du Sorcier
Half of the jaw of a Cave Bear.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008
Source: Original (?), display at Grotte du Sorcier
Biface of the Micoquien type. The type site is La Micoque, not far away from Roc du Sorcier. The deposits at La Micoque are from the ancient Palaeolithic, dating from 400 000 BP to 130 000 BP. One set of horse teeth at La Micoque gave ages of between 241 000 ± 15 000 and 288 000 ± 10 000 BP.
I know of no evidence that there were any Homo erectus in this vicinity, however, despite the implication in the display photo here.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008
Source: Originals, display at Grotte du Sorcier
Boxes of various bones found during digs in the area. Sometimes huge quantities of these are discovered, and it is a real problem to find something useful to do with them. They cannot be just thrown away, but it is expensive to catalogue and store them, let alone display them to best advantage.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008
Source: Originals, display at Grotte du Sorcier
Sculpture of a tortoise.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008
Source: Original, or a superb, museum quality facsimile, from the display at Grotte du Sorcier. I did not see the sculpture displayed in the Les Eyzies museum, but the fact that a hole has been drilled in the specimen shown here leads me to think that this may not be the original sculpture.
Sculpture in the round is less common in Quaternary art than bas-reliefs. The subjects vary over time - feminine statuettes during the cycle Aurignaco-Perigordian and animal figurines, however more rare, in the Magdalenian period. To this period belongs the tortoise of the Magdalenian gisement of Roc-Saint-cirq-du-Bugue, Dordogne.
With another found at Marsoulas (Haute-Garonne), this is the only known representation of a tortoise. It is a terrestrial tortoise, no doubt the Greek tortoise of our gardens, but it presents two anatomical anomalies:
the symmetrical lateral grooves which greatly cut into the shell correspond to nothing known in turtles;
Below, the turtle has no plastron, the shield in a tortoise that corresponds to our sternum.
The head is slightly raised, emerging from a highly domed carapace, neck outstretched, mouth marked by a fine incision, this tortoise has life and realism despite some maladroits of execution.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008
Source: display at Grotte du Sorcier, text translated from "La Préhistoire Moderne" by Denise de Sonneville-Bordes.
Carved Magdalenian Tortoise from the collapsed shelter of Roc Saint-Cirq.
Found in the excavations of 1935-1936 by H. L. Kidder.
The collapsed abri is beneath your feet in this museum.
The mirror allows the visitor to see the base of the tortoise.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008
Source: Original, or a superb, museum quality facsimile, from the display at Grotte du Sorcier. I did not see the sculpture displayed in the Les Eyzies museum, but the fact that a hole has been drilled in the specimen shown here leads me to think that this may not be the original sculpture.
At Marsoulas, there is a carved turtle pendant on a small oval with a carved hole for a string. It is unique because it was the first time that this animal was reported in prehistoric art.
This is one of many objects found during excavations by Abbé Cau-Durban from 1883. However many successive excavations have helped to disperse these objects into various private collections and several museums.
They are usually fragments of animal bones such as rib fragments engraved with a buffalo, pierced teeth, and so on.
Photo, and text adapted and translated from:
http://membres.lycos.fr/jeff31/tortue.jpg
Shell plate patterns of Testudo graeca top, and Testudo hermanni bottom.
Photo: Peyrony et al (1960)
In order, top, left, right, underneath, frontal photographs.
(I have included these photos because they show the general shape of the sculpture, and the depth of the hole in the base of the object. I wonder if the hole was there in the original roughly shaped piece of sandstone that the artist turned into a sculpture after noting its rough resemblance to a turtle or tortoise, and then added the features such as the head, the grooves on the side, and the specific shape of the sculpture - Don)
Photo: Peyrony et al (1960)
Silica Gogotte
Gogottes are normal and attractive formations and were first discovered many years ago inside a sand quarry near Chartres, France. They are composed of tiny grains of quartz cemented together by carbonate minerals, forming a type of sandstone. These formations or concretions are fairly common and can occur in specific rounded and mammillary forms, but they are rarely as aesthetically pleasing as this one.
This nodular form was found in the shelter where you now are, beneath the floor.
Its outer layer is very polished, displaying the effects of repeated rubbing by human hands.
Is the top of the stone natural or sculpted by man?
From its shape which is suggestive of an idol, it was very likely the object of veneration or formed part of a fertility rite.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008
Source: Original, display at Grotte du Sorcier
Plan of the Grotte du Roc Saint-Cirq, as well as the position of all the parietal art within the grotte.
Photo: Dams (1980)
This book is the only reference book I have been able to find for the parietal art of the Grotte Du Roc Saint-cirq, the Grotte du Sorcier. It is a wonderful resource, and essential reading for those interested in the art of the Vézère Valley. The extract below is the abstract in English at the back of the book.
The cave of Roc Saint-Cirq is located on the right bank of the river Vézère, about halfway between the villages of Les Eyzies and Le Bugue, in the department of Dordogne. It is oriented south-east and its opening is set in a cliff overlooking the hamlet of Saint-Cirq-du-Bugue. When looking at the cave-mouth, at about 50 metres to the right, one can see the rock-shelter of Roc Saint-Cirq, which has been repeatedly excavated and where Magdalenian deposits have been found. There is a magnificent view of the Vézère valley from the opening of the cave.
Like many other caves and rock-shelters in the area all around Les Eyzies, the cave of Roc Saint-Cirq has been used as a dwelling-place up to the present time. When the first carvings were discovered, in 1952, the porch, the flat area in front of the shelter, was used as a store-room and partly closed by a stone wall. The inner walls of the abri had been flattened with picks, which had removed part of the walls and damaged the carvings. The rear gallery was blocked by boulders, some of large size, as well as clay and sand deposits.
The first figures to be recognised in 1952 were the sculpted bison (no. 28) and the carved horse (no. 27), which was presumed by Abbé Breuil to be a reindeer figure. After his visit, part of the low rear gallery was excavated by a local group of speleologists and made more easily accessible. In 1953, the cave was visited by Abbé Glory, who saw the first horses (no.18 and no.19) as well as the engraved male figure no. 37 in the rear gallery; this last figure has since become known as "the sorcerer of Saint-Cirq".
An oil lamp (a deer fat lamp), found in Lascaux cave in Montignac, Dordogne, Aquitaine, France. Magdalenian culture, 17 000 BP. It can be viewed in the National Prehistory Museum in Les Eyzies-de-Tayac.
The red sandstone lamp was found by Abbé André Glory at Lascaux. André Leroi-Gourhan, said in 1982 that Abbé Glory was the man who best knew Lascaux.
Photo: Wikipedia Creative Commons license, photographer Sémhur, 25 September 2009
Source: Original on display at Le Musée National de Préhistoire, Les Eyzies-de-Tayac
| animal figures | 38 | 66% |
| symbols | 18 | 31% |
| human figures | 2 | 3% |
The most frequently portrayed animal is the horse, with 27 figures and a proportion of 71% of the depicted animals; this is a high percentage for a Palaeolithic cave-art site.
Both human figures of Roc Saint-Cirq have no anthropomorphic traits. The male no. 37 may be a cult figure, because of the lack of individual characteristics of the face, an abdomen as voluminous as that of a pregnant woman, and an abnormally large and erect penis. These last attributes, pregnant belly for the female, erect penis for the male, may indicate a preoccupation with a fertility rite.
On the other hand, the male head no. 42 looks like a real-life portrait, such as the exceptional engraved slabs of the cave of La Marche, which are dated to the Middle Magdalenian.
While the panel of the man no. 37 seems to have been carried out by successive stages, starting with the bison head no. 34 and ending with the light cross-hatchings, the panel of the male head no.42 has the aspect of a singly conceived group: man, horse and inverted V symbols.
The significance of each group and the relationship between man, animal and symbols, remains obscure for the modern mind; notwithstanding that, their importance must have been great. This is stressed by the cramped position from which they can be viewed, panel no. 37 being best seen when lying flat on the back. The location of both panels is such, that one could crawl all along the length of the ledge without becoming aware of their existence.
We have at various times underlined the fact that Palaeolithic cave-art must have fulfilled particularly urgent needs and motivations, and that the respective positioning of the figures is often related to their importance. The figures located in narrow crevices, at the top of steep limestone flows or inside deep pits, were not meant to be seen by many people; the act of painting, engraving or carving was more important than the effect obtained.
Like the complex signs in the small recess of the cave of Castillo, or the hinds in the low terminal chamber at Altamira, some cave-art is meant to be secret and hidden, and is secreted in hidden places.
The reticulated symbol no. 36 has no analogy with other signs or symbols of the Eyzies area. It can only be compared to the complex fringed and reticulated signs engraved in the spanish cave of El Buxù, where this type of sign forms the majority of the depicted symbols.
We would like to stress the fact that some caves may contain a very specialised type of symbol, not to be encountered in other sites. Such are the latticed signs (scutiforms) of Lascaux, the spirals and "corrals" of La Pileta, the ladder-like symbols of the small recess on the left side of the cave of Altamira. We are presently working in the cave of Nerja (prov.Malaga) where the most ubiquitous signs are formed by various combinations of wave-lines and dots, not to be found elsewhere. This may enforce the hypothesis of a specialised sanctuary, reserved for a particular human group, and corresponding to the group motivations and mental processes. The specialised signs may have been inintelligible to another group, used to a different type of symbol.
Symbol no. 41 may represent a schematised vulva, similar to those of the cave of Les Combarelles, which is in the neighbourhood of Roc Saint-Cirq.
The bison no. 28 displays an exceptional and powerful marching posture, the hind legs being wide open. To our knowledge, only two cave-art bison show this particular open-legged posture, and neither is as clear and explicit as the bison from Roc Saint-Cirq; both are engraved, one at Gargas, the other in the rear corridor of Altamira.
Most of the Roc Saint-Cirq horses are not very elaborate; none shows any of the typical Palaeolithic deformations like for instance the so-called 'duck-bill'. Some have no visible tail or mane, but this may be also due to poor preservation. One horse only has visible sexual organs.
The average length of the more or less complete 24 horses is 50 cm.; only one horse, no. 27, has a length of more than 1 m. Whenever the eye is displayed, it has an oval outline. Though some of the horses may evoke similar figures from Montespan, Isturitz or the engraved slabs of Limeuil, most of their stylistic affinities are with the horses from the cave of Les Combarelles, where the art is attributed to the Middle Magdalenian.
The horses no. 44 and 52 have inverted V symbols, also comparable to a pointed arch, superimposed on their trunks. We believe the symbols to have been engraved at the same time as the respective horse. Very few Palaeolithic horses would seem to be associated with this type of sign, and the nearest specimens are in the caves of Les Combarelles and Commarque; the art of Commarque is believed to be of the Middle Magdalenian period.
The horses no. 4, 9, 18 and 19 have been compared to some of the Lascaux ponies, with short legs and heavy bellies. Prof.Leroi-Gourhan dated the Roc Saint-Cirq horses in the Perigordian period, on the basis of this analogy.
As for the horses with small cup-marks punctured on their trunks, they are by no means exceptional. The Perigordian cave-art of Gargas has finger-drawings on clay of animal figures with little punctured holes, the Upper Aurignacian figurines from Vogelherd show small punctures and the tradition continues up to the Magdalenian of Montespan, with the horses finger-drawn on clay of the "Hunters' Gallery", which are literally covered with pierced holes.
At Roc Saint-Cirq, the horses with punched holes are deeply engraved or in low relief, that is horses no. 9, 18, 19, 21 and 27. Even though some variations may be observed in their general aspect, they probably date from the same period. Paradoxically, the horses pierced by arrows or spears, like no. 39, have no such markings.
Notwithstanding, we believe that this type of marking may be related to the concept of a wounded animal. At the cave of Niaux, for instance, the engraved bison with natural cupules has some signs, engraved on clay, in the form of arrows, and the signs start from the cupules; the cupules may thus represent the wounds.
Chronologically, from the stylistic point of view, the opinion of Prof.Leroi-Gourhan that the art of the first room or porch goes back to the Perigordian, while that of the rear gallery is more recent and dates from the Middle Magdalenian is basically justified. But we believe that some Middle Magdalenian figures, such as horse no. 1 for instance, are also located in the porch. We also believe that further visits to the cave during the Final Magdalenian were at the origin of the fine cross-hatchings, which are more recent than the other figures.
The rock-shelter of Roc Saint-Cirq, located near the entrance of the cave, has been excavated at various times, the last being from 1935 to 1936 by Mr.and Mrs. Kidder. The two archaeological levels are dated respectively as being from the Early Magdalenian II-III, and the beginning of Middle Magdalenian III. It also seems that the rock-shelter was used during the Late Magdalenian.
We presume therefore that the rock-shelter was not used as a living-site during the Perigordian, when the first figures of the cave were carved, and that the archaeological levels of the Early and Middle Magdalenian correspond to the engravings in the rear gallery. The Late Magdalenian occupation of the rock-shelter may correspond to the fine cross-hatched signs.
A very charming little sculpture in-the-round portraying a turtle was also found during the excavation of the rock-shelter .
No new figures can be expected to appear in the porch, where the radical flattening of the walls may have destroyed several important carvings. But if the excavation of the rear gallery should continue, new figures may come to light and give the whole rock-art complex of Roc Saint-Cirq a new dimension and an enlarged meaning.
Roc Saint-Cirq is only a small sample of the enormous and exceptional group of ornamented caves found at Les Eyzies and in the immediate vicinity: 6 major caves with numerous figures, 51 lesser caves of which Roc Saint-Cirq is only one, and at least 60 caves or rock-shelters with ornamented blocks fallen from the ceiling, or portable art, or living sites. Almost every year there is a new discovery in the area and maybe another Lascaux is still waiting for discovery.
In the present state of our knowledge, there is no explanation for this extreme density of cave-art in a relatively limited area. The environment must have been favourable, there was plentiful water and an abundance of caves of every possible size as well as natural rock-shelters. Still, a very prolonged stay of several groups of nomadic hunters would very rapidly have depleted the surrounding forests of their game. Perhaps the Les Eyzies area was a compulsory stop on the migration routes. We could imagine the area as a cult centre of great importance, consecrated to annual or seasonal gatherings, which might have served many functions: exchanges of techniques, of information, selection of new partners, etc.
The total of, for instance, Late Magdalenian sites in the Eyzies area is so high that it does not seem possible to consider long-term settlements without a depletion of the natural resources.
On the other hand, some sites, such as for instance, Laugerie Basse have occupation levels from the Perigordian to the Late Magdalenian. This may imply the return of various groups and a pattern of short-term settlements, throughout a period of several thousands of years, and can only be caused by the primordial importance of the site, perhaps cultic, transmitted by oral tradition.
This curious stone known as the "gynécomorphe" comes from the Sorcerer's Cave.
Robert Colle wrote: "In the sorcerer's cave of la Roche Courbon, we found a stone carved in the shape of a woman's vulva, covered with flint tools (offerings?)."
The stone, which shows that there was a Magdalenian fertility cult, may be seen in the Musée de Préhistoire du Château de La Roche Courbon.
Photo: « Pierre gynécomorphe » découverte dans la « Grotte du Sorcier ».
(Musée de Préhistoire du Château de La Roche Courbon)
© TLR / Musée de Préhistoire de La Roche Courbon
Source: http://www.cavernes-saintonge.info/rchist.htm
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