Grotte Margot

[trehinp]

The French Press Agency (AFP) mentionned the discovery of a new decorated cave in Mayenne, a région  South of French Britany. Click here for more

In brief, two occupations of the cave, one in the Gravetian the other in the late Magdalenian, have lead to apparently beautiful paintings.  This pushes up North the presence of Palaeolithic art compared to the Cantabrian, Pyrenean and Dordogne art.

From a purely artistic point of view, one scene is representing a fight between two horses, this is  very exceptional in the palaeolithic art where most animals are drawn or painted as stand alone animals, even though some are represented in groups but even in that case, they are not represented while directly interacting.

One can see a few pictures of this art in the original paper has been published in Antiquity Vol 80 No 309 September 2006 Click here for more.

Enjoy.

Paul Trehin

[Jacques Cinq-Mars]

The French Press Agency (AFP) mentionned the discovery of a new decorated cave in Mayenne, a région  South of French Britany. Click here for more

In brief, two occupations of the cave, one in the Gravetian the other in the late Magdalenian, have lead to apparently beautiful paintings.  This pushes up North the presence of Palaeolithic art compared to the Cantabrian, Pyrenean and Dordogne art.

From a purely artistic point of view, one scene is representing a fight between two horses, this is  very exceptional in the palaeolithic art where most animals are drawn or painted as stand alone animals, even though some are represented in groups but even in that case, they are not represented while directly interacting.

One can see a few pictures of this art in the original paper has been published in Antiquity Vol 80 No 309 September 2006 Click here for more.

Enjoy.

Paul Trehin

Dear Paul,

Thanks for passing on this information. The AFP piece is, for me anyway, only tantalizing, since all I have been able to get from Antiquity by using the url you provided or by going directly to the journal’s site (Gallery Project) is a bunch of pages filled up with exotic asian characters. I’ll try again later.

Best

Jacques

[lagarvelho]

Paul and Jacques:

Either the photos weren't al that good or my eyesight is *really* getting bad. . . .I  finally figured out, with some difficulty that the first picture was *supposed* to be a woolly rhinoceros, but for the life of me, it was hard to tell.  The horse was easier; I made *that* out in a shorter period of time, partly because it looked like it had a horse's ears and mane.  But how did the discoveres know the thing was a stallion?  The second picture was too blurry for me to make out much detail at all, much less any diagnostic anatomical detail.

Still, just the fact that somebody has discovered another Magdalenian artists' cave is a wonderful thing, and I'm glad Paul passed it along.
Anne G

[Daryl Habel]

The French Press Agency (AFP) mentionned the discovery of a new decorated cave in Mayenne, a région  South of French Britany. Click here for more
(snip)
One can see a few pictures of this art in the original paper has been published in Antiquity Vol 80 No 309 September 2006 Click here for more.

Enjoy.

Paul Trehin

Dear Paul,

Thanks for passing on this information. The AFP piece is, for me anyway, only tantalizing, since all I have been able to get from Antiquity by using the url you provided or by going directly to the journal’s site (Gallery Project) is a bunch of pages filled up with exotic asian characters. I’ll try again later.

Seems I had opposite luck.  The AFP article describing the cave and its content did not come up for me, but the Antiquity link worked fine.  Thanks for catching this, Paul. 

Dar

[Jacques Cinq-Mars]

The French Press Agency (AFP) mentionned the discovery of a new decorated cave in Mayenne, a région  South of French Britany. Click here for more
(snip)
One can see a few pictures of this art in the original paper has been published in Antiquity Vol 80 No 309 September 2006 Click here for more.

Enjoy.

Paul Trehin

Dear Paul,

Thanks for passing on this information. The AFP piece is, for me anyway, only tantalizing, since all I have been able to get from Antiquity by using the url you provided or by going directly to the journal’s site (Gallery Project) is a bunch of pages filled up with exotic asian characters. I’ll try again later.

Seems I had opposite luck.  The AFP article describing the cave and its content did not come up for me, but the Antiquity link worked fine.  Thanks for catching this, Paul. 

Dar

Someone was kind enough to provide me with a copy of the article, but my most recent attempt at accessing Antiquity's Gallery Project resulted in more of the same, i.e., pages of (presumably) chinese characters. Curiously, other components of the Antiquity site are perfectly readable. I was told that my problem may be caused by a problem of font compatibility. Search me.

Jacques

[trehinp]

Paul and Jacques:

Either the photos weren't al that good or my eyesight is *really* getting bad. . . .

Anne,

I don't know what is the problem as the pictures I see on the website are rather good and there is also a drawn pictures in pencil. Have you also tried to click on the pictures, for most of them you get an enlarged version.

Still, just the fact that somebody has discovered another Magdalenian artists' cave is a wonderful thing, and I'm glad Paul passed it along.
Anne G

I completely agree, note that it isn't aonly Magdalenian but some of the art is dated from the Gravettian. This discovery is expanding the geographical domain of Palaeolithic art production in the Northern parts of France. With the discovery of Cresswell Crag, we have a new vision of the development of that art.

I wish the representation of the two stalions fighting each other were available on the Antiquity article as it is the most astonishing aspect of this discovery: scenes involving animal interaction are extremely rare in all the upper Palaeolithic art.

Yours sincerely.

Paul

[lagarvelho]

Paul:

It would have been nice to see the picture of two horses fighting.  Then it would have been easier to "peg" them as stallions.  The pictures I saw, just showed what might be called "generic horses".  But I still say it's an amazing find.  And I suspect there are more of them out there somewhere.
Anne G