Cougnac Cave
Wounded Men, Placard-type signs
Megaloceros frieze 23,000 BC
CONTENTS
Grotte de Cougnac
Cougnac Cave is a Stone Age site of some importance in the Lot region of southwestern France. It's cave art is noted for three things:
- Its cave painting of animals, notably a frieze of Megaloceros with accompanying ibex and mammoth.
- Two human figures pierced by spears. Wounded men are a very rare occurrence in paleoart.
- Strange abstract signs - notably its aviform signs or 'Placard-type' signs, named after Le Placard Cave (17,700 BC), in the Charente.
Other decorated caves in the Lot, include Pech Merle Cave (Cabrerets), Roucadour Cave (Thémines), Pergouset (Saint-Géry), Cantal Cave (Le Verdié), and the Cave of Sainte-Eulalie (Espagnac-Sainte-Eulalie).
In 1954, Cougnac Cave was listed as a Historic Monument of France.
Location & Discovery
There are in fact two separate Cougnac caves, approximately 200 metres apart.
The first cave, which we do not deal with, has a large number of stalagmites and stalactites, as well as other concretions like soda straws.
The second is a decorated paleolithic cave.
They are located close to the village of Lavaysse, near Gourdon, in the Lot département of the Midi-Pyrénées region.
The decorated cave was discovered in 1952, by Jean Mazet, Lucien Gouloumes, René Borne, Roger, Maurice Boudet and Alphonse Sauvant.
In 1953, an examination of the cave's Stone Age art was conducted by archaeologists Meroc and Mazet.
Subsequent excavations were conducted by Michel Lorblanchet, who documented the imagery and performed numerous tests, including pigment analysis and also radiocarbon dating on samples of pigment used for certain drawings.
Cougnac Cave Art
Placard-type Signs
In a side passage off the main gallery, in a deep part of the cave, there are six bird-like signs (aviforms), painted in black.
The same strange motifs are found in paleolithic caves across France, such as Le Placard, in the Charente, Pech Merle in the Lot, Cosquer Cave near Marseilles and Chauvet Pont d'Arc in the Ardèche.
Le Placard has twelve of these signs; Pech Merle has three, Cosquer has one (but originally might have had more), while Cougnac has eleven.
Why do these four caves - separated by 600 kms - share the same strange Placard-type signs? It must be that the occupiers of these caves were in contact with each other - possibly for trade or cultural reasons - but there is no clear answer.
See also: What is the Meaning of Cave Art?
Placard-type signs are prehistoric pictographs which appeared before 17,500 BC. They were described by prehistorian Jean Clottes as consisting of four typical components: a vertical rectangle, a horizontal band, and two underlying appendages.
The main gallery leads into the main chamber, where most of Cougnac's rock art is located.
Red Megaloceros Frieze
In the main chamber, the most impressive piece of prehistoric art is a frieze of red ochre figures, along the left-hand wall.
This features three giant deer or megaloceros (now extinct), mammoths (also extinct), several ibex, and what is believed to be a tahr - a large sure-footed wild goat, now limited to Asia.
One ibex is very carefully positioned, so that the shape of the flowstone on the wall creates the illusion of long hair hanging from its belly.
In addition, two large stalagmites in front of the ibex, were coloured with red pigment, thus serving as a frame through which to observe the animal.
In total, Cougnac contains more than 60 animal paintings, and features most of the standard mid-Gravettian animal repertoire, except horses, which were more common during the early Gravettian.
Wounded Men
In addition, the Megaloceros Frieze contains two charcoal drawings of wounded men. Both are painted in black, inside larger animal figures, and only the torso and legs are shown.
One has three spears sticking out of him; the other has seven.
The wounded man theme is exceedingly rare in paleolithic art, but examples can be seen at Pech-Merle and Lascaux, as well as Cougnac.
Abstract Symbols
In addition to the aviforms mentioned above, the cave also contains a range of other abstract signs, including:
- Strange "right-angle" signs, painted in black.
- Pairs, lines or clusters of dots (red and black).
- Open ended oval signs.
- Pairs of red and black lines similar to markings at La Pileta Cave (18,000 BC) in Spain.
These mysterious cave symbols were clearly of some importance in Stone Age culture, but there is still no consensus among archaeologists as to their purpose.
Hand Stencils
There are more than 50 hand stencils at Cougnac.
Handprints are a regular feature of Upper Paleolithic art, with notable Gravettian collections at Gargas Cave in the Hautes-Pyrenees, and Cosquer Cave near Marseille.
For details of the type of paints used by cave artists at Cougnac and elsewhere, see Stone Age Colour Palette.
Dating
In the early 1990s a series of radiocarbon dating tests were performed on samples from Cougnac Cave.
- To begin with, charcoal taken from a black charcoal dot found on the end of the "Megaloceros Frieze", provided a date of 12,000 BC.
- Later, samples of red ochre from a painting of a megaloceros provided dates of 21,000 BC.
- Finally, ochre pigment from a second megaloceros produced a date of 23,000 BC.
These radiocarbon dates, along with other archaeological evidence, revealed the following:
- The oldest art at Cougnac - mostly animal paintings but possibly including the hand stencils - was produced during the era of Gravettian art, around 23,000 BC.
- A second phase of artistic activity - possibly including the wounded men images and the Placard-type signs - took place a few millennia later, around 21,000 BC.
- No further art was produced for about ten thousand years until the final period of Magdalenian art about 12,000 BC, when a new group of modern humans used their hands and fingers to create a series of abstract symbols (including dots) around the cave.
See the World's Oldest Art (from 540,000 BC).
Franco-Cantabrian Art
Cougnac belongs to the region of Franco-Cantabrian art, which includes southwestern France, the Pyrenees, and the northern coast of Spain.
This region served as a sanctuary for northern Europeans fleeing icy temperatures during the Last Glacial Maximum, around 20,000 BC.
The influx of people is believed to have been a trigger for the upsurge in cave art in the region, during the Magdalenian period.
References
(1) "Payrignac, grotte de Cougnac, datations de pigments pariétaux au radiocarbone." (Payrignac, Cougnac cave, radiocarbon dating of parietal pigments) Lorblanchet M. 1993: Bilan scientifique 1992 (SRA DRAC Midi-Pyrénées), p. 99.
(2) "Étude des pigments de grottes ornées paléolithiques du Quercy." (Study of pigments from Palaeolithic decorated caves in Quercy) Lorblanchet M. et al. 1990: Bull. de la Soc. des Études du Lot 2, p. 93.
(3) "Les peintures de la grotte de Cougnac (Lot)." (Paintings in Cougnac Cave) Méroc et Mazet, 1953. L'Anthropologie, p. 490.