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The Venus figures of Neuchâtel - Monruz Venus of Courbet / Bruniquel / Montastruc
This venus has apparently been carved so that it is in a seated position, rather than standing erect as most venuses do.
Photo: http://www.connaissancedesarts.com/archeologie/diaporama/les-femmes-de-la-prehistoire-90233.php#
The Courbet venus. About 14 900 years old. Fine-grained red quartzite. 25 mm. Musée Toulouse-Lautrec d’Albi.
Photo: Caldwell (2005)
The site
The Roc du Courbet is one of a series of Upper Palaeolithic rockshelters near the village of Bruniquel, in France's Tarn region. Located within the face of a massif or cliff (now known as Courbet), it was first explored by Vicomte de Lastic Saint-Jal in 1863, and then by de Lastic, M. des Serres and R. Owen in 1864 (Owen1869a). It is believed that the majority of the remains recovered were derived from de Lastic's black layer or 'couche noire', which is thought to date to Magdalenian V or VI; however, the provenance of remains within this layer is not clear. Furthermore, both human and animal remains were found within not only a black layer ('limon noir'), but also a red layer ('limon rouge') and a breccia deposit. Owen took such an interest in the cave itself, as well as the faunal and artefactual remains which had been recovered from it, that he purchased de Lastic's first collection for the British Museum in 1864.
Text above: Kaagan et al. (2011)
Rock Shelter, Bruniquel. Reindeer Age abode. Antique wood engraved print. Date of printing 1890. From 'Peoples of the world' by Robert Brown, published by Cassel & Co.
Photo: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2873/2873-h/Chap4.html
Grotte de Bruniquel, interior, showing the large chamber and stalactites and stalagmites. Many of these are broken, because it has been open to the public for hundreds of years, with the inevitable damage that this incurs.
Photo: Rouzaud (1997)
Two horse heads engraved on antler from Roc du Courbet, Bruniquel, BM Palart.508. Length of specimen 15.1cm.
Photo: © The Trustees of the British Museum. All rights reserved.
Kaagan et al. (2011)
The right fourth metatarsal bone of a horse (NHM 38475), 159 mm long, on which an engraving was made, discovered when re-examining material from Courbet collected there by Owen ca 1869.
Photo: © Natural History Museum, London
Text and source: Kaagan et al. (2011)
A close-up of the newly discovered horse-head engraving.
The engraving depicts a horse's head in left profile located on the bone's dorsal surface at the proximal end. The image was partly obscured by the specimen identification sticker, confirming that it had not been noticed by previous workers. It is a good example of a 'naturalistic' depiction, in typical Magdalenian style, of a Late Pleistocene wild horse.
Photo: © Natural History Museum, London
Text and source: Kaagan et al. (2011)
A drawing of the engraving.
Engraved lines above the ear suggest that these animals had a forelock. This is a common trait in domestic horses, but many wild Przewalski's horses also grow a forelock before their mid-summer moult, especially in old age or due to lack of fitness (Mohr, 1971).
Compared to other Palaeolithic depictions of horses, the muzzle in the Courbet engraving is unusually square in shape; other horse-heads from the site seem to share this trait, albeit to a lesser degree.
Photo: © Marion Duffin
Text and source: Kaagan et al. (2011)
Portion of rib of a Deer, with incised outlines of the heads of Reindeer and Bouquetin (ibex - Don ) from the Cavern of Bruniquel.
Photo: Owen (1864)
Portraits of three reindeer and an Ibex, engraved on rib bone; Fragment of decorated rib bone; Found in Courbet Cave.
Photo: © The Trustees of the British Museum
Text: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturepicturegalleries/9847457/Ice-Age-Art-in-pictures.html?frame=2470439
Very small fragment of bone engraved with the figure of a horse facing left, complete except for the head; Palaeolithic; Montastruc, France
Photo: © The Trustees of the British Museum
Text: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturepicturegalleries/9847457/Ice-Age-Art-in-pictures.html?frame=2470445
Portion of wing-bone of a bird with incised outlines of the head of Reindeer (Cervus tarandus ) from the Cavern of Bruniquel
Photo: Owen (1864)
The Montastruc decorated stone (Acc. No. Palart 518) is an example of Ice Age art, now in the British Museum. A human figure that appears to be female has been scratched or engraved to decorate a fragment of a piece of limestone used as a lamp. The piece was excavated from Courbet Cave, Montastruc, Tarn-et-Garonne, Midi-Pyrénées, France, on the northern bank of the River Aveyron, a tributary of the Tarn. It is dated to around 11 000 BC, locally the Late Magdalenian period of the Upper Palaeolithic, towards the end of the last Ice Age.
It was excavated by Edouard Lartet and Henry Christy in 1863, and bequeathed with many other items to the museum by Christy. The dimensions of the stone are: length 230 millimetres, width 145 mm, depth 52 mm. The Swimming Reindeer and Mammoth spear thrower were found at the same site.
The other side of the slab of limestone has a natural depression in which fat was burnt, no doubt for lighting in the rock shelter. The engraving seems to have been made after the stone lamp broke, as the figure is neatly centred on the fragment.
Photo: Johnbod
Permission: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
Tracing: Don Hitchcock 2013
Text: Wikipedia
The headless figure is shown from the side, bending to the right, with the large rounded buttocks and thigh carefully drawn. The thin torso features a small sharp triangle that may indicate the breasts, or perhaps arms held out. The two lines defining the front and rear of the profile are continuous and 'confidently drawn', though they converge at knee level. Extra lines below the waist may represent an apron or skirt. Similar characteristics can be found in engraved figures from Neuwied in Germany.
Tracing: Don Hitchcock 2013
Text: Wikipedia
Spear thrower in the shape of a wooly mammoth made from reindeer antler from the rock shelter of Montastruc, Tarn-et-Garonne, France, Late Magdalenian
Ca 12 500 years old
Length 124 mm
Christy Collection
Photo: © The Trustees of the British Museum
Text: http://www.skydive.ru/en/masterpieces-of-the-british-museum/1732-mammoth-shaped-spear-thrower.html
Another version of the spear thrower above. Note that the hook or peg is missing in this photo.
Photo: Johnbod
Permission: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
This carving in the form of two reindeer is one of the most beautiful pieces of Stone Age art ever found. The reindeer are depicted with their noses up and antlers back, apparently in the act of swimming. This choice of pose might have been suggested by the tapering shape of the mammoth tusk.
The animals are perfectly modelled from all angles. The front figure is a female and has a smaller body and antlers. Her delicately shaded fur is depicted using feathered strokes to represent the reindeers’ distinctive autumn coat. The larger, male, figure is not shaded but the strength of his body is indicated by the bold, sweeping lines of the carving. On both animals the antlers are laid along their backs and their legs are folded underneath them, with the exception of the back left leg of the male which originally extended behind.
From the rockshelter of Montastruc, Tarn et Garonne, France Late Magdalenian, 12 500 years old
Length 207 mm
Christy Collection
Photo: © The Trustees of the British Museum
Text: http://www.skydive.ru/en/masterpieces-of-the-british-museum/1902-swimming-reindeer-carved-from-the-tip-of-a-mammoth-tusk.html
Swimming reindeer, showing the other side.
Photo: Val
Permission: licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license
Left, cross section of l'abri Monatastruc at the place of the excavations.
Right, stratigraphy at a larger scale.
Photo: Bétirac (1952)
Source: Castel (2008)
Stone fragment of a waterworn pebble broken on one edge and across the reverse surface. Obverse is engraved with a bison facing right, complete except for the feet which have been omitted. The hump and beard are indicated with lines of hachuring, the back is shaded, a single arrow is drawn on the flank and the head is attached full face to a body in profile. The naivety of head (and figure) is accentuated by two round eyes.
Found at Montastruc.
Image from the British Museum Ice Age Art event, October 2011.
Dimensions: length: 130 mm, width: 75 mm, thickness: 38 mm
Photo: Johnbod
Permission: licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
Two more versions of the bison above.
Photo: (left) Discott, (right) Johnbod
Permission: licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
View of Bruniquel rock-shelters (DAO : O. Onezime, INRAP, modified).
Photo: Langlais et al. (2007)
Extract from the topographic map at1/25 000 of Montricoux (n°2141 est) showing local morphology and the location of the Gandil site, shown with a star, and with a red circle. The river is the Aveyron.
The deposits of the Gandil Rockshelter were laid down in fluvial context during the Oldest Dryas episode.
Photo and text: Texier (1997)
Map of the area. Bruniquel is north of Toulouse.
Photo: Google Maps
Bruniquel is on the Aveyron River, and there are a series of rock shelters along the river near Bruniquel.
Photo: Google Maps
The grotte du Courbet is also called the Caverne Bruniquel. This figure is from the same site, and is known as the Bruniquel Venus.
Photo: Leroi-Gourhan (1982)
Lalinde figure from Courbet / Bruniquel, upper Magdalenian, engraved on a tablet.
Photo: Alaux (1972)
Lalinde figure from Courbet / Bruniquel, with other Lalinde figures for comparison.
Photo: Alaux (1972)
Vertical longitudinal section of Cavern of Bruniquel.
The Cavern of Bruniquel, briefly noticed by Marcel de Serres in the subjoined passage from his work 'Sur les Cavernes a Ossemens', is situated in a grand escarpment of the Jurassic limestone bordering the river Aveyron, opposite the village of Bruniquel, Department of Tarn and Garonne. The entry of the cavern is in the face of the cliff, about 40 feet above the bed of the river, partly concealed by a projecting peak of rock behind which is a platform showing evidence of having been artificially flattened, so as to serve apparently as a stand-point for defence.
Photo and text: Owen (1864)
Entry of Cavern of Bruniquel.
The entry (now bricked up, with a door in charge of a keeper of the proprietor, the Vicomte de Lastic St. Jal) is of an oblong form, about 20 feet in width, and from 8 to 12 feet in height; the cavern widens a little beyond the entry, expanding to a breadth of about 50 feet two-thirds of the way towards the opposite end: the length of the cavern is between 60 and 70 feet; it has a pretty regular domed roof, and from the lowest part of the present excavated floor to the top is from 15 to 20 feet.
Photo and text: Owen (1864)
Horizontal section, Cavern of Bruniquel.
Photo: Owen (1864)
Vertical Transverse Section, Cavern of Bruniquel.
Photo: Owen (1864)
~14 500 BP
L'Anthropologie, (Paris) - Tome 96 (1992), n° 2-3, pp. 349-356
LA VENUS DU COURBET par Edmée LADIER* (* Institut du Quaternaire. Centre François Bordes. U.R.A. 133 CNRS. 33405 Talence.)
Résumé. - La grotte du Courbet (Penne, Tarn) est connue depuis le siècle dernier pour la richesse de son mobilier osseux attribuable au Magdalénien moyen et supérieur. Lors d'une fouille de sauvetage urgent sur ce site, le 30 Juillet 1986, une "Vénus" fut mise au jour. Sculptée dans un petit bloc de roche gréseuse rouge. cette figurine est de très petites dimensions: 25 mm x 18 mm x 8 mm. Elle est complète et la tête montre un visage assez détaillé. La statuette se trouvait à l'entrée de la grotte, dans une petite cache dont l'accès correspond à la première occupation de la grotte, qu'on peut situer au Magdalénien moyen IV.
Abstract. - The courbet Venus. The "Grotte du Courbet" (Penne, Tarn) has been known since the last century for the richness of its bone portable art dating from the Middle and Late Magdalenian.
On 30th July I986, during an urgent salvage dig a "Venus" was uncovered. It is a very small figurine: 25mm x l8mm x 8mm, carved in red sandstone. It is complete and the face is fairly detailed. The statuette was at the entrance to the cave, in a little cache, corresponding to the cave's earliest occupation ascribed to Middle Magdalenian IV.
La Vénus du Courbet
a profil droit - right side view
b vue de face - front side view
c profil gauche - left side view
d vue de 3/4 droit - right 3/4 side view
e vue de dos - back side view
f vue de 3/4 gauche - left 3/4 side
References
- Alaux, J., 1972: Gravure féminine sur plaquette calcaire, du Magdalénien supérieur de la grotte du Courbet (commune de Penne, Tarn), Bulletin de la Société préhistorique française1972, tome 69, N. 4. pp. 109-112.
- Bétirac, B., 1952: L'abri Montastruc à Bruniquel (Tarn-et-Garonne), L'Anthropologie56, Paris: p 213-231.
- Caldwell, D., 2005: Common Features and New Ideas concerning Upper Paleolithic Feminine Imagery Arts and Cultures 2010, Barbier-Mueller Museums
- Castel, F., 2008: De la collection privee de Prehistoire Jean Hallemans, au futur musee de Prehistoire de Sciex-sur-leman (Haute-Savoie): Le projet culturelUniversité Pierre Mendes-France, Grenoble II, as part of a Master en Sciences humaines et sociales.
- Kaagan, L., Bahn P., Lister A., 2011: Discovery of a horse engraving from Bruniquel, France Antiquity Volume 085 Issue 330 December 2011
- Langlais M., Ladier E., Chalard P., Jarry M., Lacrampe-Cuyaubère F., 2007: Aux origines du Magdalénien 'classique' : les industries de la séquence inférieure de l’Abri Gandil (Bruniquel, Tarn-et-Garonne) Paléo, 19 | 2007 : Spécial table ronde (1ère partie) : Le Gravettien : entités régionales d'une paléoculture européenne, Les Eyzies, juillet 2004, p341-366
- Leroi-Gourhan, A., 1982: Präistorische Kunst, Ursprünge der Kunste in Europa. 5. Aufl. 1982.
- Marshack, A., 1972: The Roots of Civilization: the Cognitive Beginning of Man’s First Art, Symbol and Notation New York, McGraw-Hill
- Mohr, E., 1971: The Asiatic Wild Horse London: J.A. Allen and Co. Ltd.
- Owen, R., 1864: Description of the Cavern of Bruniquel and its Organic Contents. No. 970 of Letter-book. British Museum pp. 517-533 January 24th, 1864.
- Rau, S., Naumann D., Barth M., Mühleis Y., Bleckmann C., 2009: Eiszeit: Kunst und Kultur, Thorbecke, 2009, 396p. ISBN: 978-3-7995-0833-9
- Rouzaud, F., 1997: La paléospéléologie ou: l'approche globale des documents anthropiques et paléontologiques conservés dans le karst profondQuaternaire, Volume 8 - Numéro 2-3 - 1997. pp. 257-265.
- Texier, J., 1997: The dépots du site Magdalénien de Gandil à Bruniquel (Tarn-et-Garonne), Dynamique Sédimentaire, signification Paléoenvironmentale, Lithostratographie et implications ArchéologiquesPaléo, N° 9 - DECEMBRE 1997 - Page 263 à 277