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engraved antler/bone/ivory
;
portable art
Object Type
engraved antler/bone/ivory
portable art
Museum number
Palart.508
Description
Engraved bone. Both sides of this piece of horse rib are decorated with drawings of horse heads.Two horse heads appear facing left on the flat upper surface. They are shown with their heads up, eyes wide and ears back one behind the other as if running from danger. A small deer head, ears up alert to danger faces right. The composition continues on the opposite face which shows three similar horse heads facing left. These vary in size suggesting a foal on the left being driven along by a larger stallion and mare. When alarmed horses run away in just such single file. The bone has ancient breaks at both ends and the lower surface is a darker brown due to staining during burial. Tool marks are visible from the scraping of the bone surface in preparation for drawing.
Cultures/periods
Magdalenian
Findspot
Excavated/Findspot:
Courbet Cave
Materials
bone
(horse rib)
Dimensions
Length:
151 millimetres
Weight:
23.60 grammes
Thickness:
7 millimetres
Width:
32 millimetres
Bibliographic references
Sieveking 1987 / A Catalogue of Palaeolithic Art in the British Museum
(508)
Cook & Welté 1996 / La Grotte du Courbet (Tarn): sa contribution dans l'histoire de l'homme fossile et de l'art paléolithique
Owen 1869 / Description of the Cavern of Bruniquel and its organic contents
(part 2 fig 7 and 8 p 36-38)
Cook 2013 (a) / Ice Age art Arrival of the modern mind
(pp 200-1)
Cook 2013 (b) / El arte en la epoca de Altamira
(pp 60-1; 193-4)
Lucas et al 2023 / Industry and art on osseous materials from Courbet cave (Penne, Tarn, France) in the British Museum collections: evidence of Magdalenian connections
(fig. 8D)
Location
Not on display
Exhibition history
Exhibited: 2013 24 Jun-16 Sep, Spain, Santander, Fundación Botín, Ice Age Art 1984-1985 1 Oct-31 Dec, France, Paris, Musee de l'Homme, Arts et Civilisations des Chasseurs de la Prehistoire Has mount.
Subjects
horse/ass
Acquisition name
Purchased from:
Vicomte louis Marie de Lastic Saint-Jal
Acquisition date
1864
Department
Britain, Europe and Prehistory
Registration number
Palart.508
Conservation
Treatment
: 04 Mar 2008