2023-08-06 10:16:42
In 1864, the discovery of a mammoth engraved on a piece of mammoth tusk in the cave of Pair-non-Pair in Gironde would prove, for the first time in the eyes of incredulous scientists, the existence of a prehistoric art. The walls also featured large engravings of equines and a giant deer, the megaloceros. Fifteen years later, the spectacular parietal paintings revealed at Altamira, in Cantabria, nevertheless aroused a long controversy. Eminent prehistorians called them “false” before changing their minds…
Since then, evidence of a veritable breeding ground for prehistoric art on both sides of the Pyrenees has continued to accumulate, such as the tiny and lovely lady in the hood mammoth ivory discovered in 1894 by the prehistorian Édouard Piette, in Brassempouy in the Landes. And it continues. In the 21st century alone, more than twenty new groups of parietal art have been discovered in the Basque Country…
Pendant in the shape of a horse’s head (Abri Duruthy, Sordes l’Abbaye, Landes). Collection of the departmental site of the Abbey of Arthous. / Aurelien Simonet
A pierced conch to serve as a trunk
It is around this spectacular flowering that the Museum of Aquitaine imagined its major exhibition on the prehistoric art of the Pyrenees (1), in connection with museums in northern Spain and Portugal where it will then stop. Thanks to loans from these institutions and many others, including the National Archaeological Museum of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, more than 450 original pieces have been brought together: bifaces, ornaments, stones and engraved bones human and animal figures or geometric signs, and even a large conch found at Marsoulas in Gironde, decorated with ocher dots and pierced with a hole to serve as a trunk, a true witness to prehistoric music. The oldest works date back approximately 35,000 years, when Homo sapiens arrived in the region.
With a good educational effort, the Museum of Aquitaine evokes the techniques used by prehistoric artists. Using stuffed specimens, he depicts the animals that surrounded them then, such as the aurochs, the bear, the deer or the wolf. Replicas of small sculptures to manipulate, a cave wall on which to draw while playing with relief are also offered to the public. Filmed interviews with prehistorians who explored the region shed light on certain discoveries. We only regret the scenography which recalls old-fashioned museums with its windows lining up in tight rows exceptional works – such as this so-called engraving The pursuit of love – alongside facsimiles.
Doe’s head and two fish (La Vache, Alliat, Ariège). / Loic Hamon / MAN Saint-Germain-en-Laye
Flints exchanged over hundreds of kilometers
A large map of the main prehistoric sites discovered on both sides of the Pyrenees and as far as Cantabria attests to the many exchanges between these nomadic peoples. By retracing the origin of their flints, we have indeed noticed that many came from deposits sometimes several hundred kilometers away. Prehistorians have even been able to establish some stylistic features common to this large geographical area. Prehistoric Pyreneans seem to have had the habit of carving mammal heads on the hyoid (throat) bones of equines, as several exhibited works show. Among them, a rare set of 18 pierced izard heads, discovered in the Cave of Horses at Labastide in the Hautes-Pyrénées, seems to have been used for adornment. One of the earliest examples of mass-produced art, nearly 14,000 years ago.
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