‘We have learned nothing in twelve thousand years’.
Picasso might have exclaimed this on exiting the Lascaux cave in the southwest of France. Though it might have been: ‘We have invented nothing …’, or perhaps he was exiting the Altamira cave in Spain, there is no evidence for any of them. Bahn (2005) reveals Picasso’s limited interest in Ice Age art, though he did own a reproduction of the Venus of Lespugue. His insight into the distorted ideas we have about early humans due to the ephemeral seems very valid though …
‘Je ne crois pas me tromper en affirmant que les plus beaux objets de l’âge de, “pierre” étaient en peau, en tissu et surtout en bois. L’âge de “pierre” devrait s’appeler l’Age de bois.…’.1
So what relevance does the Vézère valley ensemble (147 prehistoric sites and 25 decorated caves of the Dordogne department, southwest France), now as a landscape classified UNESCO World Heritage site, have? The UNESCO website states that:
‘The objects and the works of art found in the Vézère Valley are extremely rare witnesses of long extinct civilizations, which are very difficult to understand’.2
And that;
‘by their chronology (from 400.000 to 10.000 years), these sites reflect the diversity of human occupations and artistic productions of prehistoric humankind. The essential of the sites is conserved in the state in which they were discovered, ensuring their authenticity’.
Much of the ‘outstanding universal value for humankind’ of this ‘dead-end migration route’ lies in the coherence of what (however limited; see Picasso’s insight) was left behind. The landscape guided human and animal migration routes (reindeer and salmon) following rivers and cliffs, providing shelters and caves at a time the global human population was below 5 million.
The Ice Age landscape looked very different, lower sea levels meant the continent, the British Isles and possibly on to present day Iceland, were one vast brush tundra supporting herds of bison, aurochs, horses, mammoth, woolly rhinoceros and giant deer.
Much (most) of the cultural remnants lie at the bottom of the sea, or have rotten away. The entrance to the decorated Cosquer cave was discovered at 36 meter below current water level of the Mediterranean. The sites of the Vézère valley were relatively accessible and relatively undisturbed.
Undisturbed that was, till 1868 when the construction of the Périgueux-Agen railway line uncovered animal bones, flint tools, and human skulls in the Cro-Magnon rock shelter (abri) at Les Eyzies. French geologist Louis Lartet was called for excavations, and found the partial skeletons of four prehistoric adults and one infant, along with perforated shells used as ornaments, an object made from ivory, and worked reindeer antler.
The discovery shook the common understanding of human history and forced a re-think. 27,500 Years ago, people that shared modern anatomical characteristics, buried their dead carefully and left accompanying ‘offerings’? A frenzy of treasure hunting excavations turned up a series of shelters: Le Moustier, La Micoque, La Ferrassie, Shelter of the Fish, Cap-Blanc, la Madeleine.
All pieces of a puzzle that only fell in place with the excavation of the Laugerie-Haute (24,000 – 14,000 BC) with its 10.000 year unbroken record of bone tools, art objects and an abundant series of carved flint.
A travel industry developed around the pre-historic sites and caves, so conveniently located on the railway. Reading the accounts and advertisement up till the turn of the century leaves you wandering; why was there no reference to the cave paintings?
Unbelievably enough, no one saw them, visitors carved their names right across poly-chrome paintings of the Font-de-Gaume cave without even noticing. We explore this in the ‘The Art of not seeing prehistoric cave art’ post on the remarkable ‘modern’ history of the Miramont/Rouffignac cave.
The 1878 third Paris World's Fair displayed Vézère valley objects that attracted the fascination of a certain Mr. Sautuola. He decided to try his luck in some of the local caves of Altamira on returning to Spain. Bringing his daughter along to hold the light, she first saw the figures on the ceiling of the cave (he had been scouring the floor for objects). In 1880 Sautuola published ‘his’ find, linking the drawings to the Paleolithic Period.
Again shock, disbelieve and skepticism from incredulous prehistorians from evolutionist or creationist perspectives a like. They had to be fake… they were not recognized until 1902, after the discovery of Paleolithic rock art in caves like Combarelles and Font-de-Gaume at Les Eyzies had validated the idea.
By the end of the 19th century the Vézère valley became known as the Valley of Mankind. The discoveries made through haphazard excavation of prehistoric sites fed the euro-centrist (and ‘scientifically’ racist) world view that creativity and intelligence must have originated in Europe.
Discoveries around the word3 have since affirmed these qualities to be essentially human and ‘we’ carried them with us from Africa (with the African rift valleys now the cradle of mankind).
The relevance of the idea diminished even further when DNA research revealed little continuity between these early and present day Europeans, and now even Cheddar Man seems to have had dark skin… Great shock and disbelief again, we have learned little indeed ... still the same small tribal mindset.
‘I do not think I am mistaken in saying that the most beautiful objects of the “Stone Age” were made of skin, fabric and especially wood. The "Stone" Age should be called the Wood Age’ …
Picasso as quoted in Bahn P., 2005 . A Lot of Bull? Pablo Picasso and Ice Age cave art. In: Munibe. Antropologia-arkeologia. 2005, Num 57, pp 217-223. Accessible through: http://www.aranzadi.eus/fileadmin/docs/Munibe/200503217223AA.pdf
https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/85/ Last accessed 14-11-2022
For some recent examples see: Tens of Thousands of 12,000-Year-Old Rock Paintings Found in Colombia https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/tens-thousands-12000-year-old-rock-paintings-found-colombia-180976427/
45,000-Year-Old Pig Painting in Indonesia May Be Oldest Known Animal Art https://www.smithsonianmag.com/articles/45000-year-old-pig-painting-indonesia-may-be-oldest-known-animal-art-180976748/