pin; spatula; portable art

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pin; spatula; portable art

Object Type: pin; spatula; portable art
Museum number: Palart.151
Description: Decorated antler pin or spatula. The shaft curves slightly in long profile. It is well worked and smoothed down, varying in cross-section from round near the heavy head to oval-flat at the thin spatulate end where there is a repaired break. The upper part of the shaft is decorated with horizontal incisions which extend onto the head which retains areas of unmodified antler surface.
Cultures/periods
Findspot: Excavated/Findspot: Gorge d'Enfer, Abri Lartet, a small rockshelter on the left flank of the Gorge d'Enfer, about 100m from the onfluence with the Vezere valley. Abri Lartet is adjacent to the abri du Poisson from which it is separated by a limestone piller. The rockshelter is about 15m wide, 2.5-3m deep and about 2m high.
Materials
Dimensions: Length: 20.10 centimetres; Thickness: 1.20 centimetres; Width: 1.70 centimetres
Curator's comments: Lartet & Christy were vague about exactly which sites they excavated in Gorge d'Enfer. However, given that the stone, bone, antler and ivory artefacts in the collection are Aurignacian, it is probable that they came from abri Lartet.
Bibliographic references: Sieveking 1987 / A Catalogue of Palaeolithic Art in the British Museum (151); Lartet & Christy 1875 / Reliquiae Aquitanicae; being contributions to the Archaeology and Palaeontology of Perigord and the adjoining provinces of Southern France. (p.170); Roussot, A / Le Perigord et l'art paleolithique au British Museum
Location: Not on display
Acquisition name
Acquisition notes: Exacavated by Christy and Lartet in 1863.
Department: Britain, Europe and Prehistory
Registration number: Palart.151

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