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Premières observations sur deux nappes de ponctuations de la grotte chauvet (Vallon-Pont-d'Arc, France) - First observations on two panels of dots in the Chauvet cave (Vallon-Pont-d'Arc, Ardèche, France)

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... An entrance porch leads to a 100-m-long gallery hollowed out of Urgonian limestone. The rock art is confined to the middle of the gallery and consists of 59 dots (called points-paumes), produced by pressing the palm of the hand on the wall (Baffier and Feruglio, 1998), five animal figures (three ibex, a horse and a bison), an angular line, and a few indeterminate marks consisting of single lines and dots (Monney, 2018b). Expansion processes (Jaillet and Monney, 2018) have caused fragments, some of them pigmented, to flake off the walls, and several flakes bearing red pictorial matter applied with the palm of the hand have been found at the foot of the walls in the Grands Signes area. ...
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Analysing the colouring matter used to make prehistoric rock art is essential in order to retrace the chaînes opératoires involved. Despite the well-documented limitations of portable analysis systems, the need to conserve rock art led us to reassess the capabilities of portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) spectrometry. Thus, we compared in-situ and laboratory analyses of materials from the Points cave (France), and laboratory pXRF results with analyses obtained using other methods and with reference samples. Results confirmed that current pXRF systems are unable to provide data suitable for elucidating the chaînes opératoires of ferruginous colouring matter.
... Several authors have brought to light elements enabling us to place Chauvet Cave in a wider artistic context. Let us cite, in particular, the comparison of the "hand-dots" from Chauvet, recorded by D. Baffier and V. Feruglio (Baffier, Feruglio, 1998, with their counterparts in the Grotte aux Points (Gély, 2005). D. Sacchi also underlines the formal similarities between the "arc-shaped" rhinoceros ears from Chauvet with Aldène Cave in Hérault (Sacchi, 2000;Tosello, Fritz, 2004), and the almost identical ear on a representation (rhinoceros) from La Baume Latrone (Azéma et al., 2012). ...
... La presencia de manos positivas no es muy común en el arte parietal paleolítico cantábrico , en comparación con las negativas, aunque están presentes, al menos, en las cuevas de Altamira y Fuente del Salín. Pero la aplicación de las palmas es un hecho totalmente excepcional, solamente paralelizable con las palmas rojas que forman una figura animal en la sala Brunel de la cueva de Chauvet (Baffier y Feruglio, 1998 ). Indudablemente, resultaría muy aventurado establecer cualquier tipo de vinculación, más allá de la coincidencia técnica entre ambas cavidades, pero no por ello deja de ser un dato de notable valor. ...
... La presencia de manos positivas no es muy común en el arte parietal paleolítico cantábrico , en comparación con las negativas, aunque están presentes, al menos, en las cuevas de Altamira y Fuente del Salín. Pero la aplicación de las palmas es un hecho totalmente excepcional, solamente paralelizable con las palmas rojas que forman una figura animal en la sala Brunel de la cueva de Chauvet (Baffier y Feruglio, 1998 ). Indudablemente, resultaría muy aventurado establecer cualquier tipo de vinculación, más allá de la coincidencia técnica entre ambas cavidades, pero no por ello deja de ser un dato de notable valor. ...
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: La cueva de La Peña (Candamo, Asturias) contiene uno de los conjuntos de arte parietal paleolítico más significativos de la Cornisa Cantábrica. La cavidad fue descubierta en los albores del siglo XX, habiendo sufrido con posterioridad diversos procesos de alteración debido a su utilización como refugio durante la Guerra Civil o por su acondicionamiento para la explotación turística. Recientemente, ha sido declarada Patrimonio de la Humanidad por la UNESCO y se ha retomado el estudio del arte parietal. Como resultado preliminar, se da a conocer el hallazgo de una serie de grafías parietales inéditas, tanto pintadas como grabadas, que se distribuyen por todos los sectores de la cavidad, ofreciendo así una nueva visión del conjunto parietal de la cavidad que enlaza con lo observado en otras cuevas del occidente de la Región cantábrica.
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In this article, we propose an approach to reconstruct the timing of human activity at Points Cave, an Upper Paleolithic rock art site located in the middle of the Ardèche River Gorge (Rhône valley, France), based on the dating and characterisation of a stalagmite containing soot. Points Cave (‘Grotte aux Points’ in French), also called the ‘little sister of Chauvet Cave’, is famous for its parietal art including a series of dots made of palm prints. A large number of stalagmites formed in the cave during the last 500 ka. However, quarrying of the cave floors during historic times led to the partial destruction of the sedimentary deposits, and many of the stalagmites were found lying on the floor. In particular, one of them (STM‐18‐04) showed the presence of at least four dark layers in cross‐section, which appeared as possible remnants of fire‐related activities in the cave. Despite being present at the same site, no other specific link between STM‐18‐04 and the rock art has been documented. This stalagmite, however, allows us to identify phases of human presence, located at the cave entrance. To do so, we performed a series of analyses to determine its period of growth and the nature of the dark layers that it contains. Scanning electron microscopy and Raman microspectroscopy confirmed that the dark layers include soot, and uranium‐series dating indicated that the fire events occurred, respectively, around 14,200–14,100 and 12,500 years ago, in agreement with the radiocarbon ages of charcoal specimens recovered from the excavation areas nearby. We thus highlighted phases of human activity at the site during the Upper Magdalenian and/or beginning of the Epipaleolithic. By comparing our results with the regional paleoclimatic record, the soot layers trapped in the stalagmite appear to be synchronous with two cold periods, likely the Older Dryas and the Younger Dryas.
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CLOTTES J. (dir.) 2012. — L'art pléistocène dans le monde / Pleistocene art of the world / Arte pleistoceno en el mundo Actes du Congrès IFRAO, Tarascon-sur-Ariège, septembre 2010 – Symposium « Signes, symboles, mythes et idéologie… » Signes, parois, espaces. Modalités d'expression dans le Paléolithique supérieur ouest-européen Éric ROBERT * Aborder la place des signes dans l'art préhistorique revient le plus souvent à aborder des questions de forme ou de type. La nature même de ces représentations incline vers cette orientation de la recherche. L'abstraction de ces tracés, leur caractère le plus souvent géométrique, mais surtout l'impossibilité de les rattacher à une image identifiable, qu'elle soit animale, végétale ou minérale, sont autant d'éléments qui nous conduisent à de simples classifications formelles. Pourtant, dans l'art paléolithique de l'Europe de l'Ouest, ils constituent pendant plus de 20 000 ans la création graphique privilégiée des différentes cultures qui se succèdent dans cet espace. Plusieurs milliers se répartissent sur les parois des grottes, des abris, mais aussi sur les objets en matière dure animale, outils, armes ou parure. Si les clefs pour révéler leur sens nous manquent, nous pouvons en revanche aborder la question de leur fonction, de leur statut au sein des ensembles ornés. Pour cela, il faut dépasser la seule approche liée à la morphologie, et intégrer l'échelle du support et du cadre naturel que constituent les parois des grottes. Les dimensions spatiale et pariétale sont indissociables du message graphique que nous ont laissé les artistes de la Préhistoire. En cela, elles sont porteuses de sens, au même titre que les images auxquelles elles servent de support.
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Since 1998, a multidisciplinary scientific team has been studying the Chauvet Cave, the oldest painted cave in Europe. Lines of research have included studies of the physical environment and its evolution, subterranean climatology, karstology, sedimentology, taphonomy, palynology, and anthracology. Biological studies (molecular biology and geochemistry) and studies on the archaeological context (archaeozoology, human and animal ichnology) have also been completed, along with standard test excavations. Studies of the art have included tracing, recording, and pigment analysis. Dating has been via 14 C AMS dating on charcoal and bone and U/Th TIMS dating of calcite. This chapter presents these multidisciplinary results.
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