The Semantics of Sets of Signs on Paleolithic Artifact from Plugatel (France, Brittany)

Abstract

The article attempts to interpret a set of signs (points and lines) on two Paleolithic artifacts found by French archaeologists near the town Plugatel (Brittany). The author considers that the sets of signs on archaeological artifacts and folk ornaments hid sacred sets of ancient people and were formed by dividing the cycles of the Sun, the Moon, Venus, and Mercury, as well as the menstrual cycle and the pregnancy cycle of a woman into relatively small (and sacral!) numbers (7, 8, 28 & 5). The presence of the set of 13 on the artifact (Figure 1) in front of the animal's muzzle and 13 “rays” around the bison's head is the basis for concluding that the semantic connection of horned animals and the Sun was already formed in the Paleolithic. This is evidenced by an artifact called «Venus from Laussel», representing an engraved image of a woman holding in her hand either a horn or a sickle moon with 13 lines painted on it. The same number of marks on the animals' horns is found on a number of artifacts of later times. There is every reason to assume that the horns symbolized the Moon, and the 13 signs on them denoted 13 lunar cycles (28 days each) per year. In general, it can be stated that the sets on artifacts from the Plugatel are embedded in the framework of the concept of sacral sets, which was formed by the author based on the study of many archaic artifacts, folk ornaments, and fairy tales.