A Neanderthal face? The proto-figurine from La Roche-Cotard, Langeais (Indre-et-Loire, France).

A Neanderthal face? The proto-figurine from La Roche-Cotard, Langeais (Indre-et-Loire, France). Introduction The site of La Roche-Cotard is in Indre-et-Loire, in the commune ofLangeais, between that town and Cinq-Mars-la-Pile (Figure 1). The cave,discovered at the beginning of the twentieth century, is on thesouth-facing slope on the right bank of the Loire. The entrance is atthe back of a small rocky cirque, only a few metres above the top of theriver's modern embankment. Francois d'Achon discovered thecave on 17 January 1912, and published an account of his work in anarticle in the journal La Touraine on 15 January 1913 (d'Achon1913). In 1975, an excavation trench one metre wide was cutperpendicular to the talus that ends the terrace to the south. This ledto the discovery of diffrerent Pleistocene geological layers (LaRoche-Cotard II), one of which, layer 7, was an undisturbed occupationsurface (Marquet 1976, 1979, 1983, 1997, 2000) (Figure 2). Layer 7consisted of a very characteristic yellow alluvial sand containing aprobable hearth. Near the hearth were found a large herbivore herbivore:see carnivore. herbivoreAnimal adapted to subsist solely on plant tissues. Herbivores range from insects (e.g., aphids) to large mammals (e.g., elephants), but the term is most often applied to ungulates. rib, twosidescrapers, and a few flint flakes. A bit farther away slightly below,there were other sidescrapers including a very big specimen, someknives, a few used flakes, some more numerous small raw flakes, and,finally, the proto-figurine. The flint tools and the numerous flakesfound in the sand of Layer 7 belong to a Mousterian culture and are infresh condition with very sharp ridges (Figure 3). These lithic lith��ic?1?adj.Consisting of or relating to stone or rock.Adj. 1. lithic - of or containing lithium2. lithic - relating to or composed of stone; "lithic sandstone" pieceswere, for the most part--and especially the biggest pieces (thetools)--lying flat in the sand. The herbivore rib (more than 50 cm inlength) was also lying flat in the sand. This supports theidentification of layer 7 as an intact occupation level where Mousterianpeople (probably Neanderthal) had stopped on the beach of the Loire, lita fire and prepared food. Perhaps this served as a point of departurefor short expeditions into the environs for the game they needed, oreven for expeditions further field, as shown by the variety of rawmaterials with which the tools were made. [FIGURES 1-3 OMITTED] The proto-figurine The worked stone which carried the figurative image is a piece offlint approximately trapezoidal in plan, featuring a natural tubularperforation per��fo��ra��tionn.1. The act of perforating or the state of being perforated.2. An abnormal opening in a hollow organ or viscus, as one made by rupture or injury.PerforationA hole. or tube on an axis that is more or less parallel to the topand bottom edges of the trapezium trapezium/tra��pe��zi��um/ (-um) [L.]1. an irregular, four-sided figure.2. the most lateral bone of the distal row of carpal bones.tra��pe��zi��umn. pl. . Into this perforation, a splinter ofbone has been jammed (see below). Placing the object flat on a table,the side with the natural tube and the bone splinter will be called thefront (Figure 4) and the other the back (Figure 5). The object'sheight (the height of the trapezium) is 98 mm on the left and only 93mmon the right (Figure 6). The greatest width (the longest side of thetrapezium) is 105.5 mm (B), while the small base, below, only measures69 mm (D). Viewed from the front, the object's thickest part is inthe upper left area, showing a bulge, trihedral in shape. The thicknesshere is 40.5 mm. while the right upper area is only 31 mm thick. Theobject's front is markedly more bulging than the back. [FIGURES 4-6 OMITTED] The natural tubular perforation is of a type that occurs quitecommonly in the flint found around the site. The tube creates a"bridge" whose axis is perpendicular to the edges of thetrapezium and thus divides the object into two roughly symmetricalparts, left and right. The tube comprises three sections of more or lessequal length, the middle one corresponding to the rocky bridge. Underthe bridge, the tube has a regular oval cross-section 21 mm by 15 mm.Since the object's upper part is thicker than the lower, the firstand last thirds of the tube (the open parts) are both highlyasymmetrical, being abrupt at the top, and gently linking up towards thebottom with the surface of the mask; in the same way, there is anasymmetry of the external surface of the rocky bridge, which is narrowat the base and broadens quite regularly towards the top. Its minimumwidth is 28 mm. Close inspection shows that the object has been worked to give it amore regular shape. On the upper surface, at top right, a big flake, 42mm wide and 24 mm long, was removed. The top of the negative of the bulbof percussion is very clear when the object is seen from above. On thesame surface, under the last third of the tube, a very regular hollow,in a homogeneous part of the rock, seems to be a negative of the bulb;similarly, under the first third of the tube, a very broad flake mayhave been removed by percussion. On the back, at bottom left, a hollowmay be a negative of a bulb, but this is unclear, because the rock isfinely granular at this spot. Conversely, higher up, a flake was clearlyremoved by percussion from the edge of the block. The negative of thebulb is clearly visible, and the flake grows in size away from thestriking platform. Finally, and again on the back, the block's edgedisplays a certain thickness which likewise seems to be due to a retouchaimed at thickening but also regularising the edge. A drawing made byL-A. Millet-Richard (Figure 7), shows spaces corresponding to theremoval of flakes. It is clear that the flakes removed from the frontresulted in the suppression of areas of higher relief, and the relativeregularisation Noun 1. regularisation - the condition of having been made regular (or more regular)regularizationcondition, status - a state at a particular time; "a condition (or state) of disrepair"; "the current status of the arms negotiations"2. of this surface of the block. On both faces smallremovals were made from the same zone of the edge of the block, andtheir purpose was to thin out this part; in fact it is not impossiblethat the work, starting from this edge, was far more extensive than whatis described here. Indeed the whole length of this edge, on the righthand side, seems to have been evened up. The arrows that accompany thedrawings indicate the removals by percussion. We have tried to give thearrows a size that is proportional to that of the removed flake. [FIGURE 7 OMITTED] The bone splinter The bone splinter measures 74 mm in length, 14.5 mm in width at theright and 13.5 mm at left, 11 mm in thickness at bottom left, and 6 mmat bottom right. To the left, it is impossible to measure its thicknessat the top; conversely, to the right, the splinter becomes thinner, andis only 3 mm thick. The upper surface of the splinter and the surfaceturned to the bottom are both unmarked. The latter has a groove alongits whole length. The two ends of the splinter have breakages. To theleft, the break is perpendicular to the splinter's axis, while thaton the right makes an angle close to 45 degrees with its axis. The thinedge turned upwards is a break, but, to the right, it seems that thelower surface is unbroken. To the left, the bone is thicker, and one cannot say if the lowersurface is natural or broken. It seems to be the marginal, and doubtlessterminal, part of a flat bone with a narrow groove in its thick edge.Two small fragments were accidentally knocked off when the object wasdiscovered. The splinter extends beyond both sides of the rocky bridge:to the left by 22.5 mm and to the right by 23.5 mm. Even if the two endsof the splinter are very different in shape, there is a definite balancebetween the two visible parts. The splinter is strongly fixed inside the tube by the sediment ofthe layer in which it was found, a sediment which doubtless came in, atleast in part, after the object was abandoned. However, it is possibleto affirm that the splinter was purposely blocked inside thanks to twolittle flint plaquettes that were inserted, at left, between thesplinter and the block: one of these plaquettes is located immediatelyunder the splinter, the other was placed between the first and theblock, thus ensuring that the ensemble was completely solid. Theblocking of the splinter by means of these two small plaquettes, as wellas the bevelled shape at its right-hand end, leads us to think that thebone splinter was forced in from the left opening of the tube towardsthe right. The bone splinter is not visible in its entirety. As far asits nature is concerned, it is extremely difficult to specify whichlarge mammal it came from, and which bone it is. The narrow longitudinalgroove alone does not make it possible to locate this fragment in aparticular bone. To remove the bone completely would doubtless notprovide any extra information, and would destroy a considerable part ofthe piece's value. Interpretation The flint nodule nodule:see concretion. noduleIn geology, a rounded mineral concretion that is distinct from, and may be separated from, the formation in which it occurs. from which this object was formed has a naturalperforation, conduit or tube, like many other blocks of the same kindthat are visible at the site. The bone splinter was purposely pushedinto the interior of the tube, its two extremities extending beyond therocky bridge in a balanced way. The splinter was intentionally securedso that it could no longer move in the tube, and its slightly archedshape shows that the blocking was carried out with some energy. Theblock was retouched purposely around its periphery to give it a regularshape and a certain symmetry. The block with the splinter placed in theconduit depicts a kind of face with its forehead (at the top), its eyesockets (the first and last thirds of the conduit), and its nose (therocky bridge). To modern eyes at least, the whole thing resembles a faceor a human face or animal mask. The object from La Roche-Cotard is a particularly important exampleof a "pierre-figure" that was collected and then intentionallymodified by humans; it was discovered in a secure stratigraphic stra��tig��ra��phy?n.The study of rock strata, especially the distribution, deposition, and age of sedimentary rocks.strat levelascribed to the Mousterian. It thus takes its place in the globalcontext of the beginnings of the birth of Palaeolithic art. We thinkthat this is indeed a "protofigurine", that is, a small flintblock whose natural shape evokes a crudely triangular human face--or amask if one notes that it is primarily the upper part of the face thatis concerned, like a carnival mask, or, rather less clearly, an animalface, perhaps a feline? It was not only picked up and brought into thehabitation HABITATION, civil law. It was the right of a person to live in the house of another without prejudice to the property. 2. It differed from a usufruct in this, that the usufructuary might have applied the house to any purpose, as, a store or manufactory; whereas , but was also modified in various ways to perfect itsresemblance to a face: the forehead, the eyes underlined by the bonesplinter, the nose stopped at its extremity by an intentionalflake-removal, and the rectified cheeks. The mouth is less clear, butcould be indicated by a natural notch at the base, in the narrow part atthe bottom edge of the trapezium ... so much so that, at first glance,the human appearance hits one with astonishing force. The object'svisual impact, resulting from the combined work of nature and art, issuch that its presence in a Mousterian habitation cannot be fortuitous. The parallels to this piece are the three proto-sculptures ofBerekhat Ram (Israel), Tolbaga (Siberia) and Srbsko (Czech Republic Czech Republic,Czech Česká Republika (2005 est. pop. 10,241,000), republic, 29,677 sq mi (78,864 sq km), central Europe. It is bordered by Slovakia on the east, Austria on the south, Germany on the west, and Poland on the north. )(Lorblanchet 1999), which we will briefly describe here. The figurine ofBerekhat Ram (Figure 8) is a small nodule of volcanic scoria scoria:see pumice. scoriaHeavy, dark, glassy igneous rock that contains many bubblelike cavities. Foamlike scoria, in which the bubbles are very thin shells of solidified basaltic magma, occurs as a product of explosive eruptions (as on Hawaii) , 3.5 cmlong, and roughly ovoid o��voidor o��voi��daln.Something that is shaped like an egg.adj.Shaped like an egg; oviform.ovoidhaving the oval shape of an egg.ovoid bodycolloid body. in shape, which displays a medial narrowing anda slight lateral groove which is natural and which gives it a humanappearance that recalls the shapes of the famous Palaeolithic"venuses". The object was discovered in 1981 by N. Goren-Inbarduring the excavation of the Acheulean open-air site Berekhat Ram; it isstratigraphically dated to between 250 000 and 280 000 years ago. Itsinterpretation is controversial. The piece was recently subjected to amicroscopic examination by A. Marshack (1997) who discovered somediscreet retouches, especially a deepening of the horizontal groove thatforms the "neck", and a few marks of scraping on what can beinterpreted as the "shoulders" and the "chest" ofthe subject. According to according toprep.1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians.2. In keeping with: according to instructions.3. Marshack, this is indeed a retouched object,suggesting the crude image of a woman of heavy shape and big bosom. Thepiece has also been examined with great rigour rig��our?n. Chiefly BritishVariant of rigor.rigouror US rigorNoun1. by F. d'Errico andA. Nowell, who observed traces of human intervention but rejected theclaim that it is a figurine (d'Errico & Nowell 2000). [FIGURE 8 OMITTED] The open-air site of Tolbaga (Siberia), excavated by M. V.Kostantinov a quarter of a century ago, yielded the remains of a coldfauna, and a transitional industry from the Middle to the UpperPalaeolithic, radiocarbon dated to 34 860 [+ or -] 2100 BP (SOAN 1522)on bones of woolly rhinoceros rhinoceros,massive hoofed mammal of Africa, India, and SE Asia, characterized by a snout with one or two horns. The rhinoceros family, along with the horse and tapir families, forms the order of odd-toed hoofed mammals. , and to 27 210 [+ or -] 300 BP (SOAN 1523)on a mixture of bone splinters. Z. A. Abramova (1990, 1995) hasdescribed a sculpture of a bear head, carved on a woolly rhino vertebra vertebra/ver��te��bra/ (ver��te-brah) pl. ver��tebrae ? [L.] any of the 33 bones of the vertebral (spinal) column, comprising 7 cervical, 12 thoracic, 5 lumbar, 5 sacral, and 4 coccygeal vertebrae . ,from this assemblage (Figure 9). The traces of sculpture are very clear.The bear's characteristic silhouette has expressive details, thenose animated and slightly turned up; the lower lip The lower lip covers the anterior body of the mandible.It is lowered by the Depressor labii inferioris muscle. See alsolip External linksx at eMedicine Dictionary juts forward in acharacteristic way. [FIGURE 9 OMITTED] Another strange piece was briefly described by J. Neustupny in theproto-Aurignacian of the cave of "Chlum hill" at Srbsko inBohemia (Figure 10). It is the bone of a large mammal, which bears adeep circular, artificial groove and various traces of working; it bearsa general resemblance to the main traits of the human body, reduced to ahead and trunk. This doubtful piece, which cries out for a modern study,can be compared quite convincingly to the series of very primitive ivorystatuettes from the Early Upper Palaeolithic, and the one carved in amammoth metacarpal from the Pavlovian of Predmosti in Moravia, althoughthese are younger in date (27th millennium BP). It is not impossiblethat a tradition of crude human figurines existed in Central Europe Central Europe is the region lying between the variously and vaguely defined areas of Eastern and Western Europe. In addition, Northern, Southern and Southeastern Europe may variously delimit or overlap into Central Europe. before the Aurignacian. [FIGURE 10 OMITTED] All things considered All Things Considered (ATC) is a news radio program in the United States, broadcast on the National Public Radio network. It was the first news program on the network, and is broadcast live worldwide through several outlets. , three-dimensional human creations before theUpper Palaeolithic are extremely rare throughout the world. The fourpieces that we have just described belong to the Acheulean, a Mousterianand the Proto-Aurignacian. In all four cases, they are merely the modestexploitation of natural shapes that were slightly retouched andcompleted. The same phenomenon may be observed in the exceptionalfabrication fabrication (fab´rikā´shn),n the construction or making of a restoration. of a tool in the Acheulean of Saint-Just-des-Marais (Oise)which conforms closely to the structure of a fossil."Pierres-figures", curious productions of nature, weresometimes noticed and collected by prehistoric man prehistoric man:see human evolution. , and have anextremely long past: more than two million years ago an Australopithecusin South Africa South Africa,Afrikaans Suid-Afrika, officially Republic of South Africa, republic (2005 est. pop. 44,344,000), 471,442 sq mi (1,221,037 sq km), S Africa. brought to its habitation of Makapansgat a jaspillitecobble that evoked a human head (Bahn 1999: 75-77). The four more recentpieces cited above illustrate a later stage in the use of natural forms:no longer the simple collecting of a curious object, but itsmodification to improve its resemblance to elements of the real world.Despite the simplicity of such modifications, and the justifiedreservations that they arouse, these pieces must be taken into accountin a global perspective on the origins of art. One should not forget that, at the time of the Mousterians of laRoche-Cotard (c. 32 100 BP), the existence of beliefs and symbolicbehaviour is already firmly attested; people were burying their dead,sometimes with offerings and deposits or spreads of red ochre Red ochre and yellow ochre (pronounced /'əʊk.ə/, from the Greek ochros, yellow) are pigments made from naturally tinted clay. It has been used worldwide since prehistoric times. . Thetradition of cupules (cupmarks), one of the first and most durable formsof rock art, originates in this period: in the rock shelter A rock shelter is a shallow cave-like opening at the base of a bluff or cliff. Another term is rockhouse.Rock shelters form because a rock stratum such as sandstone that is resistant to erosion and weathering has formed a cliff or bluff, but a softer stratum, more subject of LaFerrassie (Dordogne), a well-dated block, decorated with a score ofcupules, was associated with a burial. The Mousterians frequently usedred and black pigments, doubtless for body paintings, collected fossilsand rare materials with beautiful colours, with which they fabricatedperfectly-shaped tools, and thus commonly practised functionalaesthetics. They began to produce the first geometric incisions onbones, and doubtless even the very first ornaments. The lastNeanderthals of the Chatelperronian in a few sites made the firstpendants with animal teeth perforated at the root. These variouselements, spread over an immense span of time, constitute clues thatannounce the great cultural and spiritual change which would soonprovoke the blooming of European figurative art Figurative art describes artwork - particularly paintings - which are clearly derived from real object sources, and are therefore by definition representational. The term "figurative art" is often taken to mean art which represents the human figure, or even an animal figure, and, between 30 000 and 11000 years ago. Acknowledgements A version of this article appeared in the journal Paleo 12 (2000)and Antiquity is grateful to the editors of that journal for permissionto include material published there. The photos of the mask are byMichel Degenne (back), and Jean-Claude Marquet (front); the drawings areby Laure-Anne Millet-Richard (mask), Bernard Leblanc Bernard LeBlanc is a politician in the province of New Brunswick, Canada. He was elected to the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick in the 2006 election as the Liberal MLA for the new district of Memramcook-Lakeville-Dieppe. (lithic industry),Michel Lorblanchet and Naama Goren-Inbar (comparative pieces). We wouldlike to thank Mr and Mrs Fernand Menassanch, owners of the site of LaRoche-Cotard, for the facilities they have always granted us. Anyreproduction, even partial, is prohibited without the authors'permission. The editor is grateful to Paul Bahn for submitting thisdiscovery to Antiquity. References ABRAMOVA, Z. A. 1990. L'art mobilier paleolithique en Siberie.Bolletino del Centro Camuno di Studi Preistorici 25/26: 80-98. ABRAMOVA, Z. A. 1995. L'art paleolithique d'Europeorientale et de Siberie. Editions Millon: Grenoble. D'ACHON, F. 1913. Au pays des chateaux, la Roche Cotard. Sagrotte prehistorique. La Touraine, l'ere annee, No. 4, 15 January:125-131. AUBRY, T. 1997. L'origine des matieres premieres ell'industrie lithique. 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Antiquity 71: 327-37. TAVOSO, A. 1984. Reflexion sur l'economie des matierespremieres au Mousterien. Bulletin de la Societe Prehistorique francaise81: 79-82. Jean-Claude Marquet (1) & Michel Lorblanchet (2) (1) Curator of the Musee departemental de Prehistoire duGrand-Pressigny (Indre-et-Loire), 16 Place Richemont, 37550Saint-Avertin. France. (Email: jcmarquet@wanado.fr) (2) Director of Research in the CNRS CNRS Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (National Center for Scientific Research, France)CNRS Centro Nacional de Referencia Para El Sida (Argentinean National Reference Center for Aids), Roc des Monges, 46200Saint-Sozy, France. Received: 14 January 2003 Accepted: 27 June 2003