Elsevier

Quaternary International

Volume 491, 20 October 2018, Pages 46-64
Quaternary International

A new Aurignacian engraving from Abri Blanchard, France: Implications for understanding Aurignacian graphic expression in Western and Central Europe

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2016.09.063Get rights and content

Abstract

In the excitement of the widely publicized new finds of Aurignacian art from Chauvet, from the Swabian Jura and from as far afield as Pestera Coliboaia in Romania, it has almost been forgotten that a rich corpus of Aurignacian wall painting, engraving and bas-relief sculpture had been recognized and studied before World War I in the Vézère Valley of SW France. Scientific knowledge of the chronological and cultural context of that early-discovered graphic record has been limited by the crude archaeological methods of that pioneering era, and the loss and dispersal of many of the works discovered. In 2011, we launched new excavations and a re-analysis of one of the key sites for such early discoveries, the collapsed rock shelter of Abri Blanchard. In 2012, we discovered in situ a limestone slab engraved with a complex composition combining an aurochs and dozens of aligned punctuations.

This new find, recovered by modern methods and dated by molecular filtration and Hydroxyproline 14C, provides new information on the context and dating of Aurignacian graphic imagery in SW France and its relationship to that of other regions. The support is not a fragment of collapsed shelter ceiling and is situated in the midst of quotidian occupational debris. The image shows significant technical and thematic similarities to Chauvet that are reinforced by our reanalysis of engraved slabs from the older excavations at Blanchard. The aligned punctuations find their counterparts at Chauvet, in the south German sites and on several other objects from Blanchard and surrounding Aurignacian sites. In sum, we argue that dispersing Aurignacian groups show a broad commonality in graphic expression against which a certain number of more regionalized characteristics stand out, a pattern that fits well with social geography models that focus on the material construction of identity at regional, group and individual levels.

Introduction

Scientific understanding of the origins and early evolution of graphic and plastic imagery underwent a revolution in the 1990's and 2000's with the discovery and dating of Aurignacian images and representational objects. This new body of work amplifies both the research sample available and the previously restricted view of symbolic expressions attributed to the early Upper Paleolithic (Leroi-Gourhan, 1965). Well-dated discoveries include the wall images from the Grotte Chauvet in SE France (Clottes, 2001), part of the decorated ceiling from Abri Castanet in SW France (White et al., 2012), new ivory sculptures from Hohle Fels and Vogelherd in SW Germany (Conard, 2003), painted limestone slabs from Fumane in Northern Italy (Broglio and Gurioli, 2004) and black outline drawings of animals from Pestera Coliboaia in Romania (Besesek et al., 2010, Clottes et al., 2011). The attribution of already known works to the Aurignacian, such as those in the Grotte d'Aldène (Ambert et al., 2005), Baume-Latrone (Azéma et al., 2012) and Altxerri B (Garate et al., 2014a, Garate et al., 2014b, Ruiz-Redondo et al., 2016) adds to the impressive corpus of Aurignacian graphic works and debates surrounding the chronology of early Upper Paleolithic graphic representation (Ochoa and García-Diez, 2014, Ontañon and Utrilla, 2015, Pike et al., 2015).1

In the justifiable excitement of the widely publicized new finds from Chauvet and from the Swabian Jura it has almost been forgotten that a large corpus of Aurignacian wall painting, engraving and bas-relief sculpture had been recognized and studied before World War I in the Vézère Valley of SW France (Delluc and Delluc, 1978, Delluc and Delluc, 1981). This “neglect” is in part a result of the fact that scientific knowledge of the chronological and cultural context of that early-discovered symbolic record has been limited by the crude archaeological methods and anecdotal descriptions of that pioneering era as well as the loss and dispersal of many of the works discovered (White, 1992a, White, 1992b, White, 2002).

In May 1909, at the site of Fongal in the Vézère Valley, Otto Hauser would be the first to discover engraved and otherwise modified limestone blocks of Aurignacian age2 (Peyrony, 1941). Although he would see in these figures the crude forms of animals, we can now recognize classic Aurignacian “vulvar” imagery. Shortly thereafter, in early 1910, Marcel Castanet reported finding “heart-like” images on limestone blocks from the rich Aurignacian site of Abri Blanchard (Didon, 1911), just 3 km from Hauser's diggings at Fongal. Presented with images of one of these engraved forms, the abbé Breuil would declare it to represent a “pudendum muliebre” (letter from Breuil to Didon dated January 25, 1911, in Delluc, Delluc, 1978) in other words a female vulva. Although several more discoveries of Aurignacian engraved blocks were made in the period between 1912 and 1927, when 7 modified blocks were discovered by an American team at Abri Cellier (Peyrony, 1946), discoveries of this sort would soon dry up. The only blocks to be found subsequently were those recorded by Movius's team at Abri Pataud (painted vault fragments and gouged ring) (Brooks, 1979, Delluc and Delluc, 2004).

We report here on a major new find of Aurignacian art from the classic site of Abri Blanchard, located on the east side of the vallon de Castel-Merle just outside the village of Sergeac, in the historically-important Vèzère Valley of SW France. Last excavated from 1910 to 1912 by hotel owner and amateur archaeologist Louis Didon, the Abri Blanchard yielded to Didon's workman, Castanet, several limestone blocks bearing engraved “vulvar” and animal images assigned with considerable uncertainty to the site's two identified stratigraphic units. In 2011–2012, new excavations by our team over an area of several square meters yielded a significant Aurignacian record in situ. These newly excavated archaeological units contained a large engraved slab bearing a complex animal image presented below.

The excavation of this new sector of Abri Blanchard and the meticulous extraction of this limestone slab provide precious new contextual and chronological data on Aurignacian art from the Vézère. Excavations documented the direct association between the engraving and in situ artifacts typical of a classic living site: lithic implements and debitage (including dozens of refits and conjoins), osseous weapons and implements, fauna and personal ornaments. A series of four AMS dates were obtained from bone samples in the immediate proximity (Fig. 16) of the slab. Seemingly too recent on archaeological grounds, two of the four dated samples were re-dated by the same laboratory using the Hydroxyproline (Hyp) method, which excludes possible groundwater contamination. The resulting Hyp dates in the vicinity of 33 000 BP are more consistent with expectations (see below, Fig. 17; Table 3).

Section snippets

Abri Blanchard: history of research

Abri Blanchard is a partially collapsed rock shelter situated in the Vallon de Castel-Merle about 9 km downstream from Montignac-Lascaux in the Vézère Valley of the Department of Dordogne (SW France) (Fig. 1). Tested in 1868 by Reverdit,3

Blocks and slabs found by Didon and Castanet

In the Dordogne region, there are 9 rock shelter sites yielding, in varying quantity, Aurignacian representations on limestone supports (Fig. 4) (Bourrillon and White, 2015, White, Bourrillon). Abri Blanchard holds a dominant place within this site sample, having yielded more than 26% of the 147 works inventoried to date. While supposed “vulva” are often the focus of discussions of Aurignacian imagery from the Vézère, Abri Blanchard actually shows great diversity in represented subjects,

The engraved slab found in 2012

The discovery of the block was made in two steps during field operations on July 9 and 10, 2012. Already broken in situ, it showed a clear longitudinal fracture line, having probably been weakened by the gouging (by the Aurignacians) of a deep depression near the middle of the engraved surface (Fig. 6). During the extraction of the first fragment of the block, the punctuations were recognized on the downward-facing surface. Situated in the center of sector 4/5 just beyond the northern limit of

Materials and methods

Our study of the decorated surface involved the following procedures: photographic coverage of the surface of each constituent block; creation of a photo mosaic reuniting all constituent surfaces of the block; tracing on transparent plastic film of all of the graphic elements visible on the photographs; high resolution photogrammetry of the surface so as to obtain a 3D image of the block and to undertake precise measurements; microtopographic study of the engraved surface of the block and of

Radiometric dates

Four 14C-AMS accelerator dates (Oxford) were obtained on non-burned mammal-bone fragments sampled in the same layer, and in immediate horizontal and vertical proximity to the slab (Fig. 16; Table 3). The 14C results showed a bimodal distribution that is difficult to understand given the archaeological and sedimentary integrity of the deposit. Moreover the dates seem too young for an Early Aurignacian assemblage that is in almost all respects indistinguishable from the well-dated archaeological

Discussion: wider implications and comparisons

In the early phases of the French Upper Paleolithic, the Aurignacians sometimes inhabited (Chiotti et al., 2003) limestone terraces sheltered by overhangs created by differential erosion due to frost action. In those contexts, they developed a tradition of graphic expression on shelter ceilings and on free standing limestone blocks and slabs. The latter were semi-mobile, transportable over a few meters at most (Fig. 14). Among the known sites, techniques (point-percussion, red/black painting)

Acknowledgements

The excavations and experimental program undertaken at Abri Blanchard were funded by a three-year grant from the Partner University Fund and the Andrew Mellon Foundation through a Franco- American collaborative exchange between UMI 3199-CNRS-NYU & UMR 5608-TRACES, U. of Toulouse 2-Jean Jaurès, entitled Aurignacian Genius: Art, daily life and social identity of the first modern humans of Europe. Additional funding was received from the Direction régional des affaires culturelles dAquitaine

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