Sheila Spire Travelling Scholarship
KATARZYNA LITWA
Bsc Physical Geography and Archaeology
CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT AND INTERACTION
WITH NATURE EXPRESSED BY THE PALAEOLITHIC
ART IN DORDOGNE REGION OF FRANCE.
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CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT AND INTERACTION WITH NATURE
EXPRESSED BY THE PALAEOLITHIC ART IN DORDOGNE REGION OF
FRANCE.
The broad aim of my project was to learn about and understand the Palaeolithic
culture complexity along with geology; climate and landscape of the Southern France. The
report is a complement to the report I have written previously and titled Cultural development
and interaction with nature expressed by the Palaeolithic Art in Cantabria. As the previous
report it is written in order of places visited and it is only an overview of my research.
As previously my visit to Spain, this year visit to France has enabled me to extend my
knowledge about the Dordogne region, its landscape, geology and climate and to see firsthand the caves with their art. Researching Palaeolithic art, artefacts and palaeoclimate is an
excellent way of gaining knowledge about the prehistoric people and their lives as I stressed
before. My research concentrated not only on caves but also included visits to Prehistoric
Park and National Museum of Prehistory in Les Eyzies and trips to the local mountains.
Different approaches allowed me to piece together information from various fields.
Some key information about the Dordogne.
The Dordogne region forms the northern part of the Aquitaine. It is divided into four regions,
the Périgord Noir (Black), the Périgord Blanc (White), the Périgord Vert (Green) and the
Périgord Pourpre (Purple). The Dordogne claims a unique concentration of prehistoric caves
and shelters, particularly in the Vézère Valley in Périgord Noir which has been designated a
World Heritage Site. The first excavations in 1863 revealed the key to 200 000 years of
prehistory in the region. Almost 200 sites have been discovered since those early days,
including a number of Stone Age shelters with unrivalled wall paintings, engravings and
sculpture. From Lascaux to Les Eyzies, the caves and rock shelters of the Vézère Valley offer
a journey back in time, further enriched by a visit to the National Museum of Prehistory and
nearby prehistoric parks.
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Map of Périgord Noir with the Vézère Valley and places visited.
Places Visited.
Les Eyzies:
National Museum of Prehistory, Les Eyzies-de-Tayac, Dordogne
This museum, located in the heart of a region which is rich in Prehistoric remains, offers an
overview of Prehistory. The tour leads one from the oldest hominid footprints, found in Africa
and dating from around 3.5 million years ago, to Homo sapiens sapiens, our direct ancestors.
One will find the famous Lucy, the Nariokotome Boy – a 10-year-old child found on the
edges of Lake Turkana, reconstructed from a skeleton (the most complete ever found) of a
very ancient Prehistoric man who lived around 1.8 million years ago – along with
Neanderthal man and Cro-Magnon man. One can also discover the wide range of tools of the
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archetypal Prehistoric man: tools made from stone, bone, etc., his works, his lifestyle, and the
animals he encountered and hunted. As well as workshops the museum also offers
reconstructions and audiovisuals providing a better understanding of the life and work of our
ancestors.
Grotte Font de Gaume
The cave was first settled by Stone Age people
during the last Ice Age – about 25,000 BC – when
the Dordogne region was the domain of roaming
bison, reindeer and mammoths. The cave mouth is
no more than a fissure concealed by rocks and trees
above a small lush valley, while inside, it's a narrow
twisting passage of irregular height in which one
quickly loses his bearings in the dark. The first
painting one can see is a frieze of bison, at about
eye level: reddish-brown in colour, massive, full of movement, and very far from the
primitive representations you might expect. Further on a horse stands with one hoof slightly
raised, resting. But the most interesting of all is a frieze of five bison discovered in 1966
during cleaning operations. The colour, remarkably sharp and vivid, is preserved by a
protective layer of calcite. Shading under the belly and down the thighs is used to give threedimensionality with a sophistication that seems utterly modern. Another panel consists of
superimposed drawings, a fairly common phenomenon in cave painting, sometimes the result
of work by successive generations, but here an obviously deliberate technique. A reindeer in
the foreground shares legs with a large bison behind to indicate perspective. Stocks of artists'
materials have also been found: kilos of prepared pigments; palettes – stones stained with
ground-up earth pigments; and wooden painting sticks. Painting was clearly a specialized,
perhaps professional business, reproduced in dozens and dozens of caves located in the
Dordogne region, central Pyrenees and areas of northern Spain.
Grotte des Combarelles
The innermost part of the cave is
covered with engravings from the
Magdalenian period (about 12,000
years ago). Drawn over a period of
2000 years, many are superimposed one
upon another, and include horses,
reindeer, mammoths and stylized
human figures – among the finest are
the heads of a horse and a lioness. With
more than 600 images on its walls, most
of them engraved, the cave of
Combarelles is considered to be one of the major sanctuaries of Magdalenian culture. Beyond
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the entrance of the cave, excavated by Emile Riviere in 1892, two galleries diverge. The
largest one, now open to the public is a narrow and winding passage, following a zig zag
pattern for more than 240 metres. The animals represented are finely engraved, or (more
rarely) drawn in black outlines. A diverse fauna is represented, including horses, reindeer,
ibex, mammoths, rhinoceros, bears, lions and a few bison and aurochs. The identification of
these often superimposed animal engravings is facilitated by their naturalistic style. This
naturalism is in contrast to the exceptional assemblage of 52 anthropomorphic figures, which
are more schematic, and the occasional signs (mostly tectiforms). The entire ensemble of
images is attributed to the late Magdalenian culture, about 13 000 years ago.
Grotte Cap Blanc
A few kilometres from Eyzies, the Cap Blanc
Prehistoric Centre reveals another aspect of
Prehistoric Art: Sculpture. Over 15 000 years ago,
Prehistoric hunters carved horses, bison and reindeer,
some of which are over two metres long, straight into
the Limestone cliffs. Cap Blanc, which was
discovered in 1909, is today the only frieze of
prehistoric sculptures in the world to be shown to the
public. All around this monumental frieze, a
museographical area provides the visitor with an overview of Cap Blanc life and art. Objects,
pictures, and a fresco tell the story of Prehistoric sculptors throughout Europe.
Montignac:
Lascaux II
Executed by Cro-Magnon people 17,000
years ago, the paintings are among the
finest examples of prehistoric art in
existence. There are five or six
identifiable styles, and subjects include
the bison, mammoth and horse, plus the
biggest known prehistoric drawing, of a
5.5-metre
bull
with
astonishingly
expressive head and face. In 1948, the
cave was opened to the public, and over
the course of the next fifteen years more
than a million tourists came to Lascaux.
Sadly, because of deterioration from the body heat and breath of visitors, the cave had to be
closed in 1963, now one has to be content with the replica known as Lascaux II. Opened in
1983, Lascaux II was the result of eleven years' work by twenty artists and sculptors, using
the same methods and materials as the original cave painters.
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Grotte Le Thot
Museum:
The museum features a large panorama of Franco Cantabrian art explaining the techniques,
the themes, the lighting, the approach to the underground environment and its exploitation by
man. Two educational centres are available. The "cave painting module" offers an initiation
into the techniques of prehistoric art using natural pigments on the reproduction of a cave
wall. The "excavation module" simulates an archaeological dig situated at the foot of a rock
shelter and shows how strata are laid down over time with the aid of a stratigraphic cross
section. There are also reconstructions that show a daily life in the prehistoric Franco
Cantabria.
Animal Park:
The animals in the park recall the species which
lived in the wild in this region during the upper
Palaeolithic Age and some of them are represented
in the art of that time. Animals such as reindeer, the
European bison, the aurochs, the Przewalski horses,
the Tarpan horses, the ibex, the red deer and the
fallow deer can be seen. There are also replicas of
extinct species such as the mammoth and woolly
rhinoceros.
Tursac:
La Madeleine
The Abri the la Madeleine (The Magdalene
shelter) was a prehistoric shelter and is now a
site of Magdalenian prehistoric finds. This place
gave its name to the Magdalenian culture and is
the site of the discovery of the famous ‘Bison
Licking Insect Bite’, a carving estimated to be
12,000 to 20,000 years old. It is a Bison carved
and engraved on a fragment of a spear-thrower
made of reindeer antler. It depicts the figure of a
bison with its head turned around licking itself
as if bitten by an insect.
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Le Bugue:
Grotte de Bara-Bahau
In 1951, the famous speleologist discovered the cave of Bara-Bahau. Classified as one of the
eldest sites in Human History of Art, this
authentic site is listed among Historic
Monuments. There is a double interest in
visiting this cave: geology and prehistoric art.
In the more than 100-meter long chamber, one
can admire many limestone rock faces,
embellished with eccentric stalactites. At the
end of the gallery, there is the chamber of
engravings. On the limestone rock face, the
bears' claw marks testify to the presence of
this animal in Bara-Bahau about 35,000 years
ago. Horses, bison, oxen, deer, bears, but also
human hands, phallic and mysterious symbols
can be found. These were drawn with silex in a rough but original style approximately 14,000
years ago.
Tursac:
Prehisto Parc
The park is set in several acres of ground, throughout which
are scattered scenes of prehistoric life as well as various life
sized animals hidden amongst the trees or looking down from
rocks. Prehisto Parc is
a collection of about
twenty
life-size
models of people and
animals, living and
hunting at the time the caves were painted.
Explanatory panels help in understanding lives
customs of the Neanderthals and Cro-Magnon
hunters. Prehisto Parc also runs daily workshops on
flint napping, making fire and spear throwing.
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I would like to thank the Sheila Spire Travelling Scholarship and the Ede and
Ravenscroft fund which financed my trip. All the expenses were fully covered by money from
the scholarship. The accurate list of my expenses is attached below. The travelling scholarship
meant that not only I was able to carry out helpful observation for my dissertation, but I also
broadened my general knowledge about France and French culture.
Expenses: £595
Accommodation - £295
Alimentation - £70
Museums and caves - £55
Travel expenses:
Leicester – Bergerac - £95
Travelling around the Dordogne region - £80
Bibliography:
1) Brochure for Cap Blanc
2) Brochure for Lascaux
3) Brochure for Grotte Font de Gaume
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