engraved antler/bone/ivory; portable art

Please enable JavaScript in your web browser to get the best experience.

engraved antler/bone/ivory; portable art

Object Type: engraved antler/bone/ivory; portable art
Museum number: Palart.506
Description: Engraved bone. This bone from the mid-section of the left wing of a Whooper swan has engraved drawings on one side. A reindeer head facing left is drawn in the centre. The head is shown with the nose up, the face is shaded with dots, the mouth is open and the antlers are drawn horizontal along the top surface of the bone as if tipped backwards. Four deeper, horizontal parallel lines have been incised below the antlers behind the head. The pose of the head suggests that the animal is swimming. Left of this central drawing there is a second, larger but less distinct head which also has a spotted face.
Cultures/periods
Findspot: Excavated/Findspot: Courbet Cave
Materials
Dimensions: Length: 91 millimetres; Weight: 3.50 grammes; Thickness: 8 millimetres; Width: 9 millimetres
Curator's comments: When it was found in 1864 this was probably the fourth piece of Ice Age art ever discovered but it was the first depicting a reindeer and became important in discussions about human antiquity, the contemporaneity of people with animals now extinct in Europe and climate change. The bone has been identified as that of a Whooper swan (Cygnus Cygnus) by Anne Eastham.
Bibliographic references: Sieveking 1987 / A Catalogue of Palaeolithic Art in the British Museum (506); Owen 1869 / Description of the Cavern of Bruniquel and its organic contents (part 1 fig 5 p 16); Cook & Welté 1996 / La Grotte du Courbet (Tarn): sa contribution dans l'histoire de l'homme fossile et de l'art paléolithique
Location: Not on display
Subjects: mammal; reindeer
Acquisition name
Acquisition date: 1864
Department: Britain, Europe and Prehistory
Registration number: Palart.506
Additional IDs: Miscellaneous number: 1864,1226.748
Conservation

Free entry

Opening hours