Divergence in the evolution of Paleolithic symbolic and technological systems: The shining bull and engraved tablets of Rocher de l'Impératrice

Abstract

The development of the Azilian in Western Europe 14,000 years ago is considered a “revolution” in Upper Paleolithic Archaeology. One of the main elements of this rapid social restructuring is the abandonment of naturalistic figurative art on portable pieces or on cave walls in the Magdalenian in favor of abstract expression on small pebbles. Recent work shows that the transformation of human societies between the Magdalenian and the Azilian was more gradual. The discovery of a new Early Azilian site with decorated stones in France supports this hypothesis. While major changes in stone tool technology between the Magdalenian and Azilian clearly mark important adaptive changes, the discovery of 45 engraved schist tablets from archaeological layers at Le Rocher de l’Impératrice attests to iconographic continuity together with special valorization of aurochs as shown by a “shining” bull depiction. This evidence suggests that some cultural features such as iconography may lag far behind technological changes. We also argue that eventual change in symbolic expression, which includes the later disappearance of figurative art, provides new insight into the probable restructuring of the societies.

Review of the Animal Figures in the Palaeolithic Rock Art of the Romito Shelter. New Discoveries, New Data and New Perspectives

“…The horns follow a key pattern that can be found among the bovine figures in several sites, namely S-curved horns pointing forwards, which is not a unique feature of the bovine figures in the Mediterranean artistic province, contrary to Graziosi's statements (1956;1968;1973), e.g. the Azilian portable art object Fragment 317 from Rocher de l'Impératrice in Brittany (Naudinot et al 2017). The body profiles of RMT001-A1 and A3 are similar, reflecting a certain degree of naturalism that can be found in other bovine figures in various European Magdalenian sites, e.g.…”

What lies beneath . . . Late Glacial human occupation of the submerged North Sea landscape

“…The terrestrial diet of the Late Palaeolithic foragers, inferred from the isotopic values of the human parietal bone, forms the baseline for a gradual increase in aquatic foods seen subsequently during the Mesolithic in the region (van der Plicht et al 2016). The geometric design of the decorated bovid bone is further evidence of a shift in symbolic expression from naturalistic figuration to geometric abstraction (Naudinot et al 2017). As organic remains documenting this transformation are rarely preserved, the North Sea proves to be an important source for organic material culture, such as art objects and human and faunal remains.…”

“…Clarke 1936; Milner et al 2016). It suggests that the symbolic shift from naturalistic figurative art to abstract geometric expression took place during the Allerød period, possibly linked to profound changes in mobility and social organisation (Naudinot et al 2017).…”

Artists on the edge of the world: An integrated approach to the study of Magdalenian engraved stone plaquettes from Jersey (Channel Islands)

“…They overlap the straight lines, and only in few instances, they could tentatively be interpreted as the representation of zoomorphic parts: the back or the belly of horses, deers or bovids and possibly the depiction of the snout of a bovid on its right profile ( Fig 8E, red lines). None of these elements, however, is detailed enough to offer an unequivocal interpretation, and is far from the carefully crafted zoomorphic representations depicted on stone plaquettes such as those from Le Rocher (Britany, France; [40]).…”

“…Plaquettes are found in lower numbers in more north-westerly sites; they are almost absent amongst the classic Magdalenian sites of the Paris Basin with a single engraving of a horse, on a pebble rather than a plaquette, recovered from the site of Étiolles, Essonne [39]. Further west, they are also absent in Magdalenian contexts, though a slightly later (Azilian) collection of schist plaquettes was recently discovered at the site of Rocher de L'Impératrice, Brittany [40].…”