Of Abri and Grotte

Started off the day with a trot around town (easy to do given it’s postage stamp size) and enjoying the sights, sounds, and smells.  The sun was shining this russet color on the limestone cliffs, birds whose songs I had never heard accompanied me through Les Eyzies and the air was heavy with lavender, wafting through the streets at every turn.  They love their lavender here – and all of the gardens made me insanely jealous. After breakfast I realized that all the clocks in the cottage were telling different times, as much as one hour off!  When I realized what time it really was (thank you iPod), I needed to rush off to pick up tickets for my tours.  I was under the (obviously mistaken) impression that we got tickets then met at the site. The answer to that one is - that’s right - no. We were caravanning there in cars. I explained in terrible French that I had no car and two complete strangers offered to take me with them (they’re amateur prehistorians from Agen, France).

Monique and Francois drove me to Laugerie Haute where we learned all about the rock shelter there. The overhang collapsed some 18,000 years ago, preserving the artifacts behind the massive break. I understood quite a bit (see, Greek and Latin roots do take you places!) and was fascinated to learn that the site was used from 24,000 years ago up until about 18,000 years ago by early people but was re-purposed even 300 years ago (ruins of a home/ chapel crushed by a more recent avalanche are there). That’s thousands of years of use by hundreds of generations of humans!  Wow – and then we learned that scientists and historians believe that the late Solutrean group that occupied it may have been traders.  Their evidence? Shells from the ocean and mammoth dung. Mammoths existed in France, but no fossils have been found in the valley here, whereas they were common in the north. Okay, I thought it was interesting (I mean, what exactly do you trade for poop?). We then went to Abri du Poisson, a carved relief of a meter long salmon that may have spawned in the prehistoric Vezere River. It’s believed to be 25,000 years old and has magnificent details. Nearby is what looks like the start of a hand, five fingers clearly in the position of an open palm dated to the same era of the fish, but the guide cautioned us to not jump to conclusions as the historians themselves can’t quite make sense of it. It looks similar to the other hands found in cave art in the Dordogne region, but unfinished.

The final stop of the day was Font de Gaume which was a great way to end the prehistory tour. This grotte (cave) features the handiwork of Magdelanian artists who painted animals of the area on the walls. But not just flat work, these prehistoric Picassos used the curving walls, bumps, and other features to give the animals a sense of depth and presence. Some bison are seen two or three deep, so they used perspective in their artwork. It was all quite stunning and humbling to think that 17,000 years ago, a group of people would work by torch to leave this record, sometimes climbing 20 feet up to use the right formation! Of course, being the teacher I am (and because it was an English-speaking tour guide) I asked where the practice paintings were. I mean, none of these had errors. They may have worn away but they were in proportion and animated – it’s not easy drawing a horse let alone a running one! He said that there are no indications of “mess ups” or “doodles” in the caves. Historians think that a special group of people was trained, perhaps practicing outside on the limestone cliff walls or on other stone surfaces, until their work was good enough for the cave walls. 

No stick figures, no big heads-small bodies, no erasures, just these highly stylized animal figures that are consistent in caves across France and much of Europe. Could early humans have traded art skills and supplies as easily as shells and mammoth dung? Hmmmm…

Lots of questions, lots more to read and research and I’ve only got three days left here in Les Eyzies!