About
151
Publications
93,740
Reads
How we measure 'reads'
A 'read' is counted each time someone views a publication summary (such as the title, abstract, and list of authors), clicks on a figure, or views or downloads the full-text. Learn more
1,990
Citations
Introduction
Carole Fritz is a renowned archaeologist and specialist in prehistoric art, particularly European Paleolithic art. She conducts her research at UMR 8220 LAMS at UPMC Sorbonne University and at the MSHS in Toulouse. Driven by her passion for fieldwork, she places great importance on direct observation in caves and museums, considering this approach as crucial to research in prehistoric art.
Her research methodology is strongly influenced by interdisciplinarity, a skill she developed during her twelve years at the Research Laboratory of the Museums of France. Currently, she is affiliated with the Laboratory of Molecular and Structural Archaeology (LAMS), a unique institution focused on chemistry and dedicated to the history of art.
Since 2018, she has been leading the scientific team working in the Chauvet-Pont-d'Arc Cave in Ardèche. She was also a member of the pioneering team that first explored this cave in 1998, under the direction of Jean Clottes, and followed the work of Jean-Michel Geneste, both of whom were curators at the Ministry of Culture.
In addition to her research at Chauvet, Carole Fritz directs programs in the Marsoulas (Haute-Garonne) and Mas d'Azil (Ariège) caves. Her work focuses on identifying technical, stylistic, and biological criteria to assess the role of cognitive data and cultural influences in the creation of graphic forms. For several years, she has developed a social anthropological interpretive approach, convinced that symbolic efficiency is fundamental to the thinking of non-literate societies. The integration of concepts from disciplines outside archaeology, such as social anthropology, psychology, shape psychology, and philosophy, as well as understanding artistic forms in an extended socio-cultural context, are essential to her in enriching interpretative paradigms and our understanding of ancient societies.
Current institution
Current position
- Senior researcher and Director of the scientific team of the chauvet cave.
Additional affiliations
January 2000 - October 2021
January 2018 - present
January 2001 - January 2016
Education
September 1988 - September 1996
Publications
Publications (151)
There are two main families of photographic 3D reconstruction methods. On the one hand, so-called geometric methods (photogrammetry), which use images of the scene taken from different viewpoints, are based on the principle of triangulation. Photometric methods, on the other hand, relate the appearance of a 3D point (grey level or colour levels) to...
There are two main families of photographic 3D reconstruction methods. On the one hand, so-called geometric methods (photogrammetry), which use images of the scene taken from different viewpoints, are based on the principle of triangulation. Photometric methods, on the other hand, relate the appearance of a 3D point (grey level or colour levels) to...
Discovered in December 1994 and inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage List in 2014, the Chauvet-Pont-d'Arc Cave is a masterpiece of prehistoric art. Far more than just a decorated cave, it boasts an exceptional state of preservation, breathtaking underground landscapes, and drawings (depicting lions, cave bears, mammoths, horses, bison, and more) in...
Discovered in December 1994 and inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage List in 2014, the Chauvet-Pont-d'Arc Cave is a masterpiece of prehistoric art. Far more than just a decorated cave, it boasts an exceptional state of preservation, breathtaking underground landscapes, and drawings (depicting lions, cave bears, mammoths, horses, bison, and more) in...
There are mainly two families of photographic 3D reconstruction. Photogrammetry techniques work according to the principle of triangulation, from the matching of different views, while photometric techniques link the appearance of a 3D point to the orientation of its normal, relative to the direction of the incident light. While photogrammetry allo...
The nature of archaeological research implies documenting and recording the remains or structures uncovered in the most precise and objective way possible. Archaeologists use digital tools precisely because they meet the challenges of their discipline. The creation of digital twins thus actively contributes to the study, protection and disseminatio...
No PDF available
ABSTRACT
Due to geological closures between 21 000 and 29 000 years ago, the acoustics of the UNESCO World Heritage site, Chauvet Cave (Ardèche, France) have been in slow flux via mineral deposition processes that continue to alter its interior. Since Upper Paleolithic humans created extensive and elaborate artworks throughout this...
(OPEN ACCESS) The Marsoulas conch and its Magdalenian resting place in the Marsoulas Cave in southern France offer unprecedented physical evidence of the interconnectedness of visual art making and music. Acoustical science provides empirical means for characterizing the sounding relationship of the shell horn with a likely context for its performa...
This volume originates in a conference session that took place at the 2018 International Council of Archaeozoology conference in Ankara, Turkey, entitled "Humans and Cattle: Interdisciplinary Perspectives to an Ancient Relationship." The aim of the session was to bring together zooarchaeologists and their colleagues from various other research fiel...
The large bovids, bison and aurochs, both feature in Paleolithic archaeofauna and art, particularly in Southwestern Europe during the Late Upper Pleistocene. We present a brief taxonomic and morphological description of the bovid species present at that time, as well as their biogeographical distribution. We then compare this distribution data with...
Animal emblématique des Pyrénées, le bouquetin peuple ses deux versants depuis les temps les plus anciens. En s’adaptant à cet environnement, une forme typiquement pyrénéenne Capra pyrenaica pyrenaica apparaît, il y a plusieurs millénaires. Consommé pendant la Préhistoire, le bouquetin est devenu, au cours du Paléolithique récent, une figure incont...
The Mas d'Azil cave is a major site for the study of European prehistory, and the evolution of the discipline itself, especially regarding our understanding of the late Upper Paleolithic. In particular, its mobiliary art is one of the richest and the most beautiful known in a Magdalenian context. Lesser known however, is its rock art. Few publicati...
The Chauvet-Pont d’Arc Cave (Ardèche, France), famous for its remarkable rock art, also contains unique thermal-alterations such as rock spalling and color changes on the walls. These alterations resulted from intense fires that have not been observed in the other decorated caves thus far discovered. The functions of these unusual fires challenge a...
Depuis plus d’une dizaine d’années, les systèmes d’information géographique sont utilisés pour l’étude de la grotte Chauvet-Pont d’Arc (Vallon-Pont-d’Arc, Ardèche) avec l’appui du Centre National de Préhistoire (CNP) du ministère de la Culture. Leur emploi a facilité la centralisation et la description des données et des métadonnées. L’arrivée du w...
The monographie de la grotte Chauvet-Pont d'Arc is the official publication of all the multidisciplinary research in the cave sine 1997. The first volume, the Atlas, is to enable readers to circulate in the cave via intermediary of a rich iconography and to observe and understand then underground landscapes in which the race art and archaeological...
An international group of archaeologists specializing in cave art explain the difficulties they faced to publish their response to another paper, previously published in Science (Hoffmann et al. 2018), reporting a Neanderthal origin of some Spanish cave paintings according to Uranium-thorium method. In their reply, they underlined the different sou...
An international group of archaeologists specializing in cave art explain the diffi- culties they faced to publish their response to another paper, previously published in Science (Hoffmann et al. 2018), reporting a Neanderthal origin of some Spanish cave pain- tings according to Uranium-thorium method. In their reply, they underlined the diffe- re...
Anthropologists and ethnomusicologists assert that there is no society without song, and more specifically, there is no ritual or celebration without accompanying sound. The production of sounds in social contexts is very ancient. Here, we report on the study of a seashell from the decorated cave of Marsoulas and demonstrate that the Magdalenian oc...
Dès la découverte en 1994 de la grotte Chauvet-Pont d'Arc, ses représentations pariétales attribuées à une phase ancienne du Paléolithique récent, aux alentours de 36 000 ans ont suscité une curiosité et une attention internationales. Conscient des enjeux importants et multiples soulevés par cette découverte, le ministère de la Culture a immédiatem...
Dès la découverte en 1994 de la grotte Chauvet-Pont d'Arc, ses représentations pariétales attribuées à une phase ancienne du Paléolithique récent, aux alentours de 36 000 ans ont suscité une curiosité et une attention internationales. Conscient des enjeux importants et multiples soulevés par cette découverte, le ministère de la Culture a immédiatem...
Dès la découverte en 1994 de la grotte Chauvet-Pont d'Arc, ses représentations pariétales attribuées à une phase ancienne du Paléolithique récent, aux alentours de 36 000 ans ont suscité une curiosité et une attention internationales. Conscient des enjeux importants et multiples soulevés par cette découverte, le ministère de la Culture a immédiatem...
Dès la découverte en 1994 de la grotte Chauvet-Pont d'Arc, ses représentations pariétales attribuées à une phase ancienne du Paléolithique récent, aux alentours de 36 000 ans ont suscité une curiosité et une attention internationales. Conscient des enjeux importants et multiples soulevés par cette découverte, le ministère de la Culture a immédiatem...
Dès la découverte en 1994 de la grotte Chauvet-Pont d'Arc, ses représentations pariétales attribuées à une phase ancienne du Paléolithique récent, aux alentours de 36 000 ans ont suscité une curiosité et une attention internationales. Conscient des enjeux importants et multiples soulevés par cette découverte, le ministère de la Culture a immédiatem...
Dès la découverte en 1994 de la grotte Chauvet-Pont d'Arc, ses représentations pariétales attribuées à une phase ancienne du Paléolithique récent, aux alentours de 36 000 ans ont suscité une curiosité et une attention internationales. Conscient des enjeux importants et multiples soulevés par cette découverte, le ministère de la Culture a immédiatem...
Digital technologies are applied in the study of Palaeolithic decorated caves and shelters with increasing success because they offer a 3D rendering of rock walls, visually attractive and accessible to all. The 3D associated with image processing is also used to meet the various constraints of time and space that the conservation of site imposes on...
The Grotte Chauvet is world renowned for the quality and diversity of its Palaeolithic art. Fire was particularly important to the occupants, providing light and producing charcoal for use in motifs. Charcoal samples were taken systematically from features associated with the two main occupation phases (Aurignacian and Gravettian). Analysis showed...
The Grotte Chauvet is world renowned for the quality and diversity of its Palaeolithic art. Fire was particularly important to the occupants, providing light and producing charcoal for use in motifs. Charcoal samples were taken systematically from features associated with the two main occupation phases (Aurignacian and Gravettian). Analysis showed...
LES AUTEURS
Carole Fritz (dir.) est archéologue, spécialiste de l’art
préhistorique, chercheure au CNRS et responsable du Centre de
recherche et d’études de l’art préhistorique Émile-Cartailhac à la
Maison des sciences de l’homme et de la société de Toulouse.
Comité éditorial : Michel Barbaza, Geneviève Pinçon, Gilles
Tosello. Les auteurs : Carolyn...
Dramatic progress was seen in 14C-dating with the introduction of accelerator mass spectroscopy (AMS) which made possible the direct dating of prehistoric artworks painted or drawn with charcoal. However, in the case of engravings and red paintings, only indirect methods can be used that allow us to date deposits that have covered the works over ti...
Dramatic progress was seen in 14C-dating with the introduction of accelerator mass spectroscopy (AMS)
which made possible the direct dating of prehistoric artworks painted or drawn with charcoal. However,
in the case of engravings and red paintings, only indirect methods can be used that allow us to date
deposits that have covered the works over ti...
n an attempt to introduce concerns with social identities into the discussion and understanding of the making of what we call Paleolithic art, this article considers issues of gender, skill, apprenticeship, and tradition. We note that, as in every period of history, Paleolithic art can be seen as embedded in the society that studies it. Over the la...
The two living species of bison (European and American) are among the few terrestrial megafauna to have survived the late Pleistocene extinctions. Despite the extensive bovid fossil record in Eurasia, the evolutionary history of the European bison (or wisent, Bison bonasus) before the Holocene (o11.7 thousand years ago (kya)) remains a mystery. We...
Supplementary Figures 1-27, Supplementary Tables 1-11, Supplementary Notes 1-4 and Supplementary References
Significance
We compiled a set of more than 250 radiocarbon dates related to the rock art, human activities, and bone remains in the Chauvet-Pont d'Arc Cave (Ardèche, France) and derive a modeled absolute chronology of the human and cave bear occupations of this site, presented here in calendar years. It provides an insightful framework for the suc...
Les fouilles conduites depuis 1998 dans la grotte de Bourrouilla à Arancou (Pyrénées-Atlantiques) ont permis la découverte de vestiges d'art mobilier donnant un contexte chrono-culturel aux pièces issues des déblais d'une fouille clandestine réalisée antérieurement (Aurière et al. 2013). Certaines pièces proviennent d'un niveau archéologique bien i...
New discoveries of mobile art in the Magdalenian of Bourrouilla cave (Arancou, Pyrénées-Atlantiques). During the excavation campaign in 2014 at Bourrouilla cave (Pyrénées-Atlantiques), eight new decorated objects were discovered in the magdalenian layers. These remains, from well preserved layers, confirm the importance of the artistic production i...
Abstract: The Uranium-Thorium (U/Th) series dating method, developed 50 years ago, has proven its usefulness and reliability for the dating of marine (corals) and continental (speleothems) secondary carbonates deposits. Recently, improvements of the analytical techniques (TIMS – Thermo-Ionization Mass Spectrometry, and then MC-ICPMS – Multicollecto...
A l'occasion d'une réorganisation des collections du Museum de Toulouse, un galet gravé a été retrouvé. Seule une face de cet objet provenant de l'Abri de Laugerie Basse et considéré comme perdu, avait été anciennement publié. Une nouvelle étude de ce galet a conduit à identifier plusieurs figures animales et un signe géométrique inédits. Des compa...
Les productions symboliques, « non utilitaires », des sociétés paléolithiques sont examinées afin d’en tirer des enseignements sur les relations culturelles à courte, moyenne et grande distance entre les groupes de chasseurs-cueilleurs, de 20 000 à 12 000 BP. Cette enquête montre d’importantes
fluctuations dans la constitution et l’étendue des rése...
Depuis les débuts de la fouille programmée en 1998, les découvertes d’art mobilier dans le gisement Magdalénien de Bourrouilla (Arancou, Pyrénées-Atlantiques) se sont multipliées. Ainsi, ce sont dix-neuf pièces inédites et trois raccords avec des pièces déjà connues qui sont présentés d’un point de vue thématique, stylistique et technique. La décou...
Les créations artistiques préhistoriques qui nous sont parvenues (art mobilier, art rupestre) constituent une source d'information inestimable sur les cultures de ces sociétés. L'art rupestre est l'une des constantes des sociétés sans écriture, mais nous sommes incapables d'interpréter ces mes-sages totalement étrangers à notre propre culture (E. P...
Pierresàhistoires» L'art des objets du Paléolithique recèle une riche iconographie qui possède une dimension narrative, illustrée dans les thèmes représentés, dans leur traitement graphique, mais aussi et de façon très originale, dans des éléments de contexte archéologique qui permettent de restituer des fragments de la vie symbolique de l'objet. G...
Dans la phase ancienne du Paléolithique supérieur (38000–20000 BP), l’art pariétal et mobilier de la péninsule Ibérique présente, selon les périodes considérées, un développement plus ou moins original par rapport au reste de l’Europe. Pendant l’Aurignacien, les témoins sont trop rares pour qu’on puisse établir de liens avec le sud-ouest de la Fran...
Les techniques de scanner 3D sont appliquées dans des grottes et abris préhistoriques ornés avec un succès croissant. L’imagerie 3D peut même aider à restaurer les fresques des cavernes endommagées par le temps et les hommes. Pour la première fois, la « restauration virtuelle » d’une galerie ornée a été réalisée dans la grotte de Marsoulas ; cette...
Parietal art poses numerous questions to its observers about its meaning and its role in past societies. While it is often tempting to seek answers in the motifs, it is critical to include the preserved evidence in the sediments and walls of the sites and, indeed, the caves themselves. This context sheds light on the behavior of prehistoric human g...
En art pariétal paléolithique, la troisième dimension a toujours constitué une difficulté majeure
dans la phase d’étude et de relevé des parois ornées. Dans la grotte de Marsoulas, un volet de
l’opération 3D a été consacré à une évaluation de l’intérêt de ces nouvelles technologies dès
les premières étapes de la recherche. Ce choix a paru bien adap...
Feminine representations were first discovered at the end of the XIXth century (e.g. archeological sites of Grimaldi, Liguria in Italy; Brassempouy, Landes or Laugerie-Basse, Dordogne in France). Since then, they have been studied from different perspectives, formal, technical and symbolic as well as anthropological (Piette, 1984; Bégouën, 1934; Pa...
Essai de synthèse des travaux menés autour du gisement du Cuzoul de Vers (Lot).
Female representations were first discovered at the end of the 19 th century (e.g. archaeological sites of Grimaldi, Liguria in Italy; Brassempouy, Landes or Laugerie-Basse, Dordogne in France). Since then, they have been studied from different perspectives, formal, technical and symbolic as well as anthropological (Piette, 1984; Bégouën, 1934; Pal...
La fragilité de l'art des cavernes de la Préhistoire conduit inexorablement à la réduction du nombre de visiteurs, voire à la fermeture des grottes. Le fac-similé est un moyen simple, accessible à tous, pour faire connaître des œuvres dont le public ne connaîtra jamais la version «original». La qualité des fac-similés d'art préhistorique est d'auta...
Not available
[es] A partir del postulado de que el proceso de realización de un objeto del arte mueble magdaleniense tiene una cierta tradición técnica que puede expresar valores cognitivos y culturales, este trabajo se orienta hacia la percepción de las técnicas de grabado en hueso. El análisis de 90 objetos del sudoeste de Francia ha puesto en...
The discovery of an engraved stone on the open-air Magdalenian site of
Étiolles (Essonne) is an exceptional event, as there is very little evidence for
Palaeolithic art in the Paris Basin. The stone is a large, hard limestone pebble
(3 kg), chosen for its suitability for engraving. It had been placed beneath
a slab on the edge of hearth D71-1, date...
