French Caves Research Articles

Were palaeolithic cave paintings placed because of acoustic resonances?

Previous archaeoacoustics work published from the 1980s to the 2000s has suggested that the location of palaeolithic paintings in French caves, such as Le Portel, Niaux, Isturitz, and Arcy-sur-Cureis, are associated with the acoustic response of those locations, particularly with strong low frequency resonances. Recent work done in caves in the Asturian and Cantabrian regions of Northern Spain has shown some evidence of statistical association between paintings dated from the Aurignacian/Gravettian period (cf. 42,000-25,000 BP) and the existence of acoustic responses which exhibit resonant artifacts. The work presented in this paper reports on a further analysis of the data that explores the association in more detail. A number of metrics focused specifically on low frequency response are used as factors to form statistical models that explain the position of paintings within the caves studied. The results of this study further our understanding on how perception of acoustic response might have played a part in modulating the expressive behavior of our ancestors.

Tracking in Caves: Experience Based Reading of Pleistocene Human Footprints in French Caves

Some of the painted caves in southern France preserve human footprints from the Ice Age of 17,000 years ago. Research has so far dealt with them sparsely and through a morphometric approach only. In 2013 three indigenous hunters/trackers from the Kalahari had an opportunity to read several spoor accumulations in four caves on the basis of their indigenous knowledge. As a result of this morpho-classificatory approach to track reading they produced new hypotheses on prehistoric cave visitors. Most spectacular is the narrative which the trackers generated from the footprints not far from the clay bison at Tuc d’Audoubert. Further research is planned to inspect more tracks and look into the epistemological status of the indigenous tracking method.

Conservation of prehistoric caves and stability of their inner climate: Lessons from Chauvet and other French caves

In the last 150years, some prehistoric painted caves suffered irreversible degradations due to misperception of conservation issues and subsequent mismanagement. These sites presented naturally an exceptional stability of their internal climate allowing conservation in situ of outstanding fragile remains, some for nearly 40,000years. This is for a large part due to exchanges of air, CO2, heat and water with the karstic system in which these caves are included. We introduce the concept of underground confinement, based on the stability of the inner cave climate parameters, especially its temperature. Confined caves present the best conservative properties. It is emphasized that this confined state implies slow exchanges with the surrounding karst and that a stable cave cannot be viewed as a closed system. This is illustrated on four case studies of French caves of various confinement states evidenced by long term continuous monitoring and on strategies to improve their conservation properties.The Chauvet cave presents optimal conservation properties. It is wholly confined as shown by the stability of its internal parameters since its discovery in 1994. In Marsoulas cave, archeological works removed the entrance scree and let a strong opening situation of the decorated zone. Remediation is expected by adding a buffer structure at the entrance. In Pech Merle tourist cave, recurrent painting fading was related to natural seasonal drying of walls. Improvement of the cave closure system restored a confined state insuring optimal visibility of the paintings. In Gargas tourist cave, optimization of closures, lighting system and number of visitors, allowed it to gradually reach a semi-confined state that improved the conservation properties. Conclusions are drawn on the characterization of confinement state of caves and on the ways to improve their conservation properties by restoring their initial regulation mechanisms and to avoid threats to their stability.

Paleolithic Finger Flutings and the Question of Writing

Discussions of Paleolithic Cave Art rarely, if ever, explore the possibilities of evidence of writing and yet finger flutings (lines made by fingers in soft moonmilch or clay on cave walls and ceilings) raise significant questions as to what is writing and what internal structures would need to be evident within fluted panels to constitute writing. In this paper, the author shares findings from the French caves of Rouffignac and Gargas, and nine caves in Cantabrian, Spain. This paper does not pose to claim that finger flutings are necessarily writing, but instead raises the question of what elements would need to be present for them to be considered writing, and asks what would be the implications if they did.

Late Pleistocene steppe lion Panthera leo spelaea (Goldfuss 1810) skeleton remains of the Upper Rhine Valley (SW Germany) and contributions to their sexual dimorphism, taphonomy and habitus

The Upper Rhine Valley (SW Germany, Europe) has delivered 20,000 Late Pleistocene megafaunal remains found at gravel pit sites in the past decades and only 0.1% carnivore remains including a nearly complete lion skeleton of a small male Panthera leo spelaea (Goldfuss, 1810) and also skeleton parts of two more grown-up to even older males from different localities, such as the additional isolated bones. Less than 1% of the bone material belongs to adolescent animals; cub material is completely absent. The material from the Upper Rhine Valley was compared with many caves and few open-air sites of central Europe, indicating strong sexual dimorphism in the last lions of Europe, but problematic remains in the glacial/interglacial size variation. Some lions are in the open air, and all cave localities are overlapping with hyena and cave bear den sites; in some cases, they seem to have been in the open-air hyena den sites in the Upper Rhine Valley. Proofs for hyena or other large carnivore scavenging activities on lion carcasses are cracked lower jaws and chewed long bones. The ‘steppe lion’ habitus is reconstructed by comparisons with French cave art figurations. Finally, a first overview of the steppe lion paleobiogeography in SW Germany is presented.

Try holding your pencil like this

Artists train the next generation of artists. To the uninitiated, this system might seem mysterious, even bizarre. Communities of idiosyncratic creative individuals pass on a lineage that stretches back to some French caves, further perhaps. A life spent as an artist is remarkable enough. A life spent as artist and as an educator of future artists is extraordinary. This essay is a tender reflection of the joy and honour of being one link in the chain.

¿Escorbuto en los neandertales? Posibles casos en Combe-Grenal (Domme, Francia)

This paper analyzes three human bones found by F. Bordes in the French cave of Combe-Grenal. They are part of the twenty-eight fossils from level 25 (~75/65 ky) assigned to H. s. neanderthalensis and accompanied by Mousterian (Quina) culture. Chronostratigraphic and faunal data document very cold climatic conditions corresponding to OIS 4. The fossils consist of a small parietal fragment (Combe-Grenal A), and two incomplete mandibles, the juvenile Combe-Grenal III-IV, and the child Combe-Grenal I. The three remains show bony lesions which have altered the cortical bone. These are interpreted as the result of a reaction to chronic haemorrhages. In the parietal the periostitis may be due to the rupture of some parts of the middle meningea arteria media. In the subadult mandible it is related with the deep vasculature associated with the temporalis muscle function, while in the child the reactive bone is probably connected to the mentalis artery and stress at the anterior alveolar region. The lesions are interpreted as possible the result of scurvy, considering the bony reactions on the parietal and two mandibles, the identified cases published, the aethiology of this disease, and the periglacial environmental conditions in which these Neanderthals lived.

New taxa of Rhagidia and Foveacheles (Acari: Prostigmata: Rhagidiidae) from Italian and French caves, with keys to adults of subgenera Deharvengiella and Mediostella

Three new species of rhagidiid mites from France and Italy, Rhagidia (Deharvengiella) paralleloseta sp. nov., R. (D.) serpentiforma sp. nov. and Foveacheles (Mediostella) carnichensis sp. nov., are described. Keys to adults of the known species of Rhagidia (Deharvengiella) and Foveacheles (Mediostella) are presented.

Reanalysis of French Cave Could Deal Setback to Neandertal Smarts

According to a study published online this week, new radiocarbon dating at a celebrated site in France indicates that jewelry and tools once attributed to Neandertals may be the work of modern humans.

Microclimates of l'Aven d'Orgnac and other French limestone caves (Chauvet, Esparros, Marsoulas)

AbstractWe assess the aerodynamics of the atmosphere in some limestone caves using a 5‐year monitoring of the Aven d'Orgnac system, shorter thermal vertical profiling experiments, and comparison with the time series from other French caves. In the first rooms, located under the Aven opening, our records indicate, for each year, a succession of a summer regime characterized by stable parameters (except for the perturbations introduced by tourist visits) and a winter regime, in which the inner air temperature drops and is highly correlated with that outside. Atmospheric composition suggests that during the winter regime the cave is ventilated by the outside air. We show that the onset of the winter regime is governed by a thermo‐convective instability involving the inflow of the outside cold and dense air. Atmospheric temperature and composition allow us to follow the stepwise progression of the winter regime toward the adjacent rooms.In the Salle Plane (SP), a far room of the Orgnac‐Issirac karstic system, in which the winter regime has never been observed, the air temperature is extremely homogeneous and steady, and is characterized by a half‐daily signal of amplitude less than 0.03 °C, which is correlated with the derivative of pressure versus time. This correlation, which is also observed in various other confined caves, may be explained by pressure‐induced temperature changes relaxed in less than 1 h by thermal exchanges with a large volume of rock whose temperature is assumed to be constant.The various microclimates of karstic cave systems should be taken into account for the conservation of the caves open to tourists and for the interpretation of growth laminae of speleothems. Copyright © 2006 Royal Meteorological Society.

Sexual dimorphism in Upper Palaeolithic hand stencils

Sexual roles in deep prehistory are among the most intriguing puzzles still to solve. Here the author shows how men and women can be distinguished by scientific measurement in the prints and stencils of the human hand that occur widely in Upper Palaeolithic art. Six hand stencils from four French caves are attributed to four adult females, an adult male, and a sub-adult male. Here we take a step closer to showing that both sexes are engaged in cave art and whatever dreams and rituals it implies.

Digging up Debate in a French Cave

Digging up Debate in a French Cave

Occupations: Digging up debate in a french cave

Science NewsVolume 169, Issue 19 p. 302-302 Meeting Occupations: Digging up debate in a french cave First published: 30 September 2009 https://doi.org/10.1002/scin.5591691916AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume169, Issue1910 May 2006Pages 302-302 RelatedInformation

Sequencing mtDNA of the cave bearUrsus spelaeus from the Bavarian Alps is feasible by nested and touchdown PCR

Ancient DNA from bones of the extinctUrsus spelaeus Rosamueller et Hainroth, 1794 found in the Bavarian Alps has been amplified by PCR. Two out of five samples yielded a distinct band of 135 bp originating from the mtDNA control region. A combination of nested and touchdown PCR supported the amplification. Analysis of the nucleotide sequences revealed four transitions compared to the French cave bear sequence, the only cave bear data known so far (Genbank database X80259, AF121779). The consensus distant matrix tree clustered the two cave bears next to the brown bearUrsus arctos Linnaeus, 1758.

Giving neandertals their due: Similarities with modern humans shift the image of the caveman brute

S ince 1856, when a thick-browed, humanlike skull turned up in Germany's Neander valley, the ancient people known as Neandertals have suffered a less-than-flattering reputation. A 19th-century anatomist described Neandertals as benighted members of the genus Homo. Their muscled bodies and simple tools contributed to their image as the brutish cousins of the human family. Most researchers do credit Neandertals with being well-adapted creatures who survived the cold climate of Europe long before the appearance of modern humans, H. sapiens. Some anthropologists consider Neandertals a regional variant of modern humans, who most scholars believe evolved in Africa about 200,000 years ago. Many, however, see them as a separate species and doubt that they shared H. sapiens' newly sophisticated behaviors. Although Neandertals' brains were roughly the same size as those of modem people, they often have been portrayed as lacking the language skills, foresight, creativity, and other cognitive abilities of modern humans. In this view, the simpler ways of Neandertals marked them for extinction after modern humans-the makers of cave paintings and more advanced toolsarrived in Western Europe about 40,000 years ago. By 30,000 years ago, Neandertals had vanished. That tends to predispose people to thinking about them in one specific kind of way, as the loser, says John J. Shea of the State University of New York (SUNY) at Stony Brook. In recent years, however, research has begun to cast a more complimentary light on the older cousins. This emerging view depicts Neandertals as having a capacity for creative, flexible behavior somewhat like that of modern people. For example, although some anthropologists have argued that Neandertals showed limited prowess as hunters, German archaeologists in 1997 reported finding a trio of aerodynamic wooden spears that they concluded ancestors of Neandertals made 400,000 years ago (SN: 3/1/97, p. 134). Studies published in a supplement to the June CURRENT ANTHROPOLOGY offer further support for polishing the Neandertal's image. Researchers from France and Portugal report that Neandertals occupying a French cave developed their own, relatively sophisticated ornaments and tools, distinct from those of their modern-human neighbors. Two other studies challenge the view that Neandertals could not hunt effectively and had to survive by scavenging the leftovers of animal predators. Other scientists have disputed aspects of the new studies. But many say that the emerging evidence may help researchers find possibly subtle differences between modern human and Neandertal cultures that can explain why one flowered and the other vanished. We can make [Neandertals] more like us in some but that's not saying they were like us in all respects, says Christopher B. Stringer, an anthropologist at the Natural History Museum in London. Although he views Neandertals as a separate species, he says, studies like the one from France narrow the gap.

French Cave Yields Stone Age Art Gallery

French Cave Yields Stone Age Art Gallery

Prehistoric cave painting PIXE analysis for the identification of paint “pots”

Abstract Prior to the advent of modern analytical techniques, the methods of producing prehistoric paintings were a subject of conjecture. We have sampled and extensively analysed prehistoric paint in several French cave sites of the Upper Paleolithic. The results indicate that, more than 12000 years ago, artists working within a restricted area utilized a number of “paint recipes” which are chronologically significant and may thus assist in dating the paintings. These recipes consist of a precise manufacturing of the different elements: pigment, extender and sometimes binder. The chemical impurities associated with the paint (here the mineral part composed of pigment + extender) may determine the “paint pot”. These impurities are characteristic of the sources of the minerals. Among the different sites that we analysed, three from the most important ones are presented here: Niaux, Gargas (French Pyrenees) and Lascaux (Perigord, France).

Collemboles cavernicoles VIII. Contribution à l'étude des Oncopoduridae

Three species-groups are recognized in the genus Oncopodura. Two of them are present in Europe, with several cave-restricted species. Some new or badly-known morphological characters are discussed. Troglomorphic forms of the crassicornis-group are regular inhabitants of French caves, but they have been completely overlooked by biospeleologists because of their minute size and relative scarcity. O. pelissiei n. sp. from Quercy caves is described. The larger tricuspidata-group species were known in France by O. tricuspidata and O. occidentalis from Pyrénées. Two new highly troglomorphic species of this group are described from Pyrenean caves : O. jauzioni n. sp. and O. lebretoni n. sp.

Edwin French Cave 1896-1976

Edwin French Cave 1896-1976

The Reindeer Hunting Tribes of Northern Europe

There is some truth in the assertion that the greatness of Britain, as displayed to the world at the Great Exhibition of 1851, should be ascribed as much to the favourable juxtaposition of iron and oal as to any qualities inherent in the British people : it can hardly be disputed that the re-eminence in Prehistoric Archaeology once enjoyed by France was due in large measure to the rchaeological richness of the caves and rock-shelters of the Dordogne and the Pyrenees. But, if we must deplore the backwardness of France in fields where other countrie are as richly endowed by history, it is only fair to acknowledge that her archaeologists succeeded in systematizing. the cultures of Upper Palaeolithic man in western Europe, at a time when the Neolithic was still chaotic in many countries and a ' hiatus ' separated the two epochs. The exploration of the French caves began in the sixties of the last century and may be said to have already reached its culminating point by 1912, when Breuil put forward his famous classification at the Geneva Congress (Breuil, 1912). It is eloquent of the advanced stage reached by Upper Palaeolithic cave research in western Europe before the Great War that, after the lapse of a quarter of a century, Breuil has felt able (in 1937) to re-print his original lecture with only minor alterations.