|
Lighting
Palaeolithic man used several types of
lighting to explore the underground environment. The narrowness of the
cave entrance - limiting the penetration of daylight to only a few
metres - and the nature of the system of galleries made it necessary to
use some form of lighting. In some caves, marks on walls, ledges or
floors, where Palaeolithic man snuffed our torches and lamps, and traces
of hearths survive to this day. Different types of lighting were used
for different activities: hearths illuminated one whole sector, torches
aided passage through the cave, and lamps produced a more defined light
for artistic activities.
We know that lamps were certainly used at
Lascaux. The other forms of lighting, based on calcined organic
material, are more difficult to locate and identify. However, the huge
number of charcoal fragments recovered -- moved and dispersed by the
flow of underground water or the movement of man -- would suggest that
there were indeed hearths. They were not preserved in their
original condition, but pieces of charcoal from them were carried away
by water and scattered, or trampled. As for torches, no traces of smuts
have been discovered on the walls at Lascaux. The high density of the
figures painted and engraved on the walls and respect for the art and
the walls might explain this absence.
Lamps at that time were made of durable
minerals, and many have survived. Chance discoveries and excavations
have yielded more than a hundred specimens. The majority are simple
limestone slabs, sometimes with a slight concavity where the combustible
material (animal fur) would have been placed. This natural depression
makes it easy to identify these objects as lamps, but often there are
also black carbonaceous residues and, in cases of prolonged use, even
red colouration.
40 Lamp of rose-coloured
sandstone, found at the foot of the Shaft Scene during excavations by
Andre Glory, 1959. It bears two signs on the upper face of the
handle
Two of the portable objects recovered
during Andre Glory's excavations in the Shaft merit closer inspection.
One, a tallow-burning lamp made of pink sandstone (ill. 40), is intact,
but the other, a rim, is just a fragment of a second lamp. The complete
lamp is much more elaborate than the other examples. Measuring a maximum
of 22.4 centimetres by 10.6 centimetres and with an average depth of 3
centimetres, it was manufactured in the shape of a tennis racket. There
are remains of combustion in the concave section, identified as
carbonized fragments of juniper and coniferous wood. The edge of the
hollow is blackened over several centimetres. The handle is decorated
with two nested engraved symbols, identical to those found on the walls
of the Apse, the Axial Gallery, the Nave and the Chamber of the Felines,
as well as on a spear. An engraved longitudinal line runs between and
separates the two sets of incisions. The fragmentary rim bears
similarities to the intact lamp as they were both manufactured in the
same way.
The majority of these objects were found
at the foot of the Shaft Scene and the panel of the Great Black Cow in
the Nave. These two locations also have the highest levels of carbon
dioxide in the cave: here, the concentration of carbon dioxide often
lies between 1 and 3 per cent, or indeed more, and ir can exceed 6 per
cent in the Shaft. These concentrations vary during the year, reaching
their highest in summer and autumn. It may just be a coincidence that
the majority of lamps were found where carbon dioxide levels are at
their highest. However, it is possible that the high concentration of
carbon dioxide necessitated the use of the numerous lamps found in those
locations, as the flame of a candle or oil lamp would be affected by a
carbon dioxide concentration of 2 per cent and is often extinguished
when it exceeds 3 per cent.
Dating
Lascaux.
The relatively important assemblage of
portable objects recovered in situ and the limited number of incursions
into the deep galleries of the cave during the entire Upper Palaeolithic
have helped in working out the chronology of Lascaux. The
inaccessibility of the entrance -largely due to its position on the
mid-slope of a smooth-faced hill, where it has been subject to extensive
solifluction, and its instability - ensured that the cave remained
relatively undisturbed. During certain periods, the entrance was
entirely closed up. The entrances to cave systems in this type of
topographical relief ate always of modest dimensions and thus difficult
to locate, limiting access and human intrusion.
In areas characterized by steep walls and
high overhangs, such as the region around Les Eyzies-de-Tayac, the
situation could not be more different. These formations favour permanent
access to the underground realm. Located at the foot of a cliff, the
caves are less susceptible to natural phenomena and have been much
easier to find over the course of time. Thus, at Font-de-Gaume, just as
at La Mouthe, La Greze or Oreille-d'Enfer, parietal art and excavations
reveal several occupations of the same site, from the Aurignacian up
until the Upper Magdalenian (ill. 41). (...)
41 Chronology of parietal art
during the Upper Palaeolithic.
Henri Breuil and Denis Peyrony were the
first to assess the chronology of Lascaux, looking at parietal art and
portable objects respectively. Both of them established an association
with the Upper Perigordian (known today as the Gravettian). For Breuil,
the chronology of the Palaeolithic parietal art depended on two cycles:
one Aurignacian- Perigordian, the other Solutrean-Magdalenian. Using the
stratigraphy of decorated rock from Abri Labattut and Abri Blanchard (Aurignacian),
he was able to date Lascaux's art. The blocks from Abri Labanut and Abri
Blanchard depicted a cervid and a bovine, and aurochs or bison
respectively. For Breuil, the morphology of the animals and the
technique of their engraving bore striking similarities to works in the
Hall of the Bulls or the Axial Gallery. But the most marked difference
lay in the use of perspective, particularly in the horns and hooves of
the bovines. Breuil noticed a distortion of the contours of the great
aurochs: the right horns follow a simple curve, whereas the left horns
are marked by a double curve. Furthermore, the hooves seem to face the
onlooker.
Annette Laming-Emperaire drew a different
conclusion from Breuil's findings, pointing out that the features of
this iconography could in fact be attributed to both of the two major
cycles. Severin Blanc, on the other hand, thought that part of the art
was probably Solutrean-Magdalenian in origin. In support of his thesis,
he quoted certain conventions that have little in common with
Perigordian art, particularly the treatment of the limbs in the
background - the way in which they ate separated from the body through
the use of a blank, and the animation given to the animals in the double
inflection of the legs.
Each theory had its advocates and
detractors. In 1951, one of the very first radiocarbon tests was
carried out. Fragments of charcoal from excavations in the Shaft were
analysed in Chicago at the laboratory of Willard Libby, who pioneered
the method. The results seemed to corroborate the second theory,
assigning a date of c. 15,500 BP (Magdalenian) to Lascaux. (BP stands
for 'Before Present'.) After some controversy, the theory developed by
Henri Breuil was subsequently abandoned.
Andre Glory refused to be swayed either
way. Then, as his research was at quite an advanced stage, he collected
a lot more data and started to develop his own chronology. Furthermore,
when he had new samples of charcoal from his excavations in the
Passageway and the Shaft dated, the results yielded dates of 17,190 ±
140 BP and 16,000 ± 500 BP respectively, which backed up the theory that
the portable objects belonged to an ancient phase of the Magdalenian. On
the other hand, the charcoal washed into the cave and found immediately
below the calcited basins of the Hall of the Bulls and the Passageway,
together with that recovered from the debris cone in the entrance woe,
showed a possible occupation of the site during the Mesolithic. This
last attempt to enter the cave, which was perhaps merely an occupation
close to the entrance, has left absolutely no trace of portable objects
or colouring matter. The weighted mean of the five more recent dates is
8380 ± 60 BP.
Another theory carne from the
prehistorian Andre Leroi-Gourhan. Distancing himself from Breuil,
Leroi-Gourhan subdivided the evolution of prehistoric art into five
periods: a prefigurative period, followed by four phases or styles. His
work, though not focusing on Lascaux, made reference to its iconography
in the definition of Style III (defined as the end of the Solutrean to
the Lower Magdalenian). This Style III possesses specific
characteristics: '... animals with inflated bodies and diverging
short feet, horns of bovines in which the front horn is a simple curve
whereas the rear horn is sinuous, bison horns depicted in front-view,
deer antlers in a specific perspective, the brow tine in the background
parallel to the beam of the antler in the foreground, and with a double
or triple brow time.'
The well-dated sites of
Fourneau-du-Diable and Roc-de-Sers served as reference points. They
enabled Leroi- Gourhan to specify that, 'it would be... rational to
think that Lascaux is Solutrean and it cannot be ruled out that the most
ancient figures are of this period'. [14] This implies multiple occupation
of the cave at different periods, suggesting a certain heterogeneity of
the works of art involving both the animals and the geometric signs. Leroi-Gourhan emphasized this: 'Lascaux would comprise...three phases:
the phase of partitioned rectangular signs... the phase of bracketed
signs, which are few in number and correspond to the period in which the
Chinese Horses were executed in a style already close to that of the old
Style N and, finally, the phase of true claviform signs which is already
in the old Style N .... This scheme of suppositions is accordingly
concrete enough to locate the entire art of Lascaux between the second
half of the Solutrean and the beginning of the Middle Magdalenian.' [15]
Nevertheless, a few years later, study of
the lithic and organic portable objects and the stratigraphic analysis
of the sections cut by Andre Glory brought further changes to
Leroi-Gourhan's scheme. Arlette Leroi-Gourhan and Jacques Allain [16]
directed the work, which narrowed down estimates of the chronology and
attributed Lascaux to the Magdalenian II. The study convinced Andre
Leroi-Gourhan that the sanctuary was created over a limited period of
time with stylistically homogeneous figures.
These successive corrections show the
difficulties in establishing a precise and secure chronological scheme.
Furthermore, a radiocarbon result of 18,600 ± 190 BP, obtained in 1998
[17] on a sample removed from a fragment of a reindeer antler baton from
the excavations of Henri Breuil and Severin Blanc at the foot of the
panel of the Shaft Scene, [18] rends to raise the former age estimates,
placing the art at the boundary between the Upper Solutrean and the
Badegoulian.
This new information calls for a review
of the preceding hypotheses. Unfortunately, the paintings and drawings
of Lascaux do not contain charcoal. We therefore have to use other
methods of analysis and compare our results with data from better-dated
Palaeolithic sites. This comparative analysis is based on a broad range
of data, ranging from the portable lithic and organic objects to the
formal characteristics of the figures in the paintings and the
composition of the panels. The themes depicted in the art and the
landscapes surrounding the cave are also important factors to take into
consideration.
Analysing the lithic assemblage brought
into the cave by Palaeolithic man requires a different approach to the
study of habitation sites) be they temporary or permanent, in the open
or under rock shelters. The cave functioned as a type of filter,
encouraging the painters and engravers to select only part of the range
of tools available to them. This is why it is misleading to classify the
portable objects by looking merely at the quantities recovered, such as
the high number of backed bladelers. Moreover, the majority of collected
objects, including the backed bladelets, needles and spearheads, could
just as well belong to the Solutrean as the Magdalenian.
As Andre Leroi-Gourhan originally pointed
out, analysing the forms depicted at Lascaux suggests that the cave's
parietal art could date back to the Solutrean. The paintings and
engravings do call to mind the works at Fourneau-du-Diable or
Roc-de-Sets, which have been convincingly identified as Solutrean rather
than Magdalenian art. This analysis, based upon morphological
comparisons between the outlines of the animals, was recently criticized
after radiocarbon tests carried out in other caves seemed to raise
doubts over the accuracy of the method. Such was the case at the Chauvet
Cave, although careful study of the Chauvet figures shows that the most
accomplished ones, particularly those in the panel of the Horses or the
End Chamber, do not fit into any defined framework. Indeed, some of
their characteristics are unlike any other known specimens.
Form-based comparisons continue to be
used today to date parietal art, without recourse to radiocarbon tests.
A whole host of decorated caves discovered over the last ten years were
originally dated by hypotheses rather than physical methods, including
Cussac, Pestillac and Lagrave (Lot) and Cosquer. When radiocarbon dates
have been obtained later (as is the case with Cussac and Cosquer), they
have confirmed the initial attributions.
Geometrical signs tend to back up the
connection made between the Lascaux art and the Solutrean. In the cave
of Le Placard (Charente), Louis Duport discovered a long panel, engraved
with numerous depictions of animals and signs. Excavations directed by
Jean Clottes [19] placed these works in the Solutrean. Among them, he
recognized several signs, which he called the 'Placard type'. They are
identical in their form to the 'chimney' signs in the caves of Cougnac
and Pech-Merle (Lot). Furthermore, he noticed the similarity of the
shape with the large black 'curly bracket' sign that underlines the
diptych of the first Chinese horse at Lascaux.
In addition, the Confronted Ibexes drawn
on the right wall at the end of the Axial Gallery are not dissimilar to
those shown in bas-relief at Roc-de-Sers. At this same Upper Solutrean
site there is also the rare image of a man confronted by a horned
animal, in this case a musk ox. This scene is repeated at Lascaux at the
base of the Shaft, with the bison, so it seems, replacing the musk ox.
Both of these sites also feature a bird, a theme rarely
encountered in this context.
42 Depiction of two aurochs on
both faces of a palmate reindeer antler, Le Placard, Vilhonneur,
Charente.
43 Aurochs executed in bas-relief
(detail and overall view), Abri du Fourneau-du-Diable, Bourdeilles.
Research of Denis Peyrony, 1924.
The fauna represented on the walls of
Lascaux indicates a relatively temperate climate, particularly in those
scenes in which aurochs are depicted. However, palaeontological research
shows that almost no bone remains of this species have been found from
the period in the region. This period, stretching from the Upper
Solutrean to the Badegoulian, is regarded as the coldest of the Upper
Palaeolithic. [20] One problem is that it is extremely difficult to
distinguish between aurochs and bison bones, and a significant
proportion of the total recovered remains unidentified. Nonetheless,
there are several paintings that show man encountering this species.
There are also depictions of aurochs at other, accurately dated sites,
including Fourneau-du-Diable and 10 Placard, where a palmate reindeer
antler was discovered with engravings of aurochs on both faces (ill.
42). One face of the block from Fourneau-du-Diable bears several
depictions (ill. 43) in bas-relief. This contemporaneous depiction
of bovines on the walls of Lascaux and on the portable objects of
several Solutrean prehistoric sites suggests that this animal was
observed in the vicinity of Lascaux or further south, where the
recovered fauna has proved its existence. Moreover, studies carried our
recently on climatic variation during the Upper Palaeolithic show that -
contrary to what had been said up to the 1990s - these fluctuations in
temperature were often considerable but very brief. Such abrupt changes
of climate would certainly have resulted in north-south migrations of
animal populations, with very short periods of stability, which would
partly explain the very elusive presence of the aurochs in the Black
Perigord.
In a chronological study of the art of
Lascaux it is always important to remember that the various hypotheses
only contemplate a time scale limited to, at most, one and a
half-millennia, a relatively short period of time. In the special
context of parietal art, where works are only rarely associated with
archaeological levels in situ, as at Pair-non-Pair or Le Placard, in
particular, and in the absence of datable organic pigment, we have
little chance of achieving greater accuracy.
The cultural attribution is also worthy
of investigation. Once again, analysis of the pictures is able to
provide some of the answers. The confrontation between the man and the
bison takes on its full significance when it is compared with similar
images in other decorated caves. In the Vezere drainage basin, it is
found in a less elaborate form at Saint-Cirq (only the head of the bison
was engraved), and at Bara-Bahau (an abbreviated version, which contains
the head of a bison and a phallus). A similar image can be seen at
Gabillou. in the valley of the Isle, but this time the two motifs are
merged into a single representation. that of the bison-man. At Villars,
further to the north, in the drainage basin of the Dronne, the scene
takes on a form identical to that at Lascaux.
These comparisons can be taken even
further, as the locations of the sites provide us with even more·
information. Indeed, Lascaux. Saint-Cirq, Bara-Bahau. Gabillou and
Villars, decorated caves possibly belonging to this chronological
period, are all located on smoothly sloping hillsides and share similar
landscapes in the immediate proximity of their entrances. This latter
point distinguishes them from the decorated caves of the Middle
Magdalenian Font- de-Gaume. Rouflignac, Les Combarelles or Bernifal --
which open into the heart of a far more steep-sided relief. The same is
true of Solutrean-Badegoulian habitation sites, which are also located
on hillsides, overlooking an open landscape, in contrast to the majority
of sites of the Middle and Upper Magdalenian. These observations suggest
that notions of territory, whether sacred or profane, are linked
intimately and uniquely to a specific period of the Upper Palaeolithic.
a concept we will need to examine more closely.
Go to Next Page
|
