Gabillou Cave

Main A-Z Index

CONTENTS

• Gabillou Cave: A Summary
• Location
• Discovery
• Cave Layout
• Gabillou Engravings
• Chamber of the Red Horse
• L'Etranglement
• Chamber of the Hare
• The Sorcerer
• References

Gabillou Cave: A Summary

Gabillou Cave (Grotte de Gabillou) is a small privately owned Paleolithic cave in the Western part of the Dordogne.

Its prehistoric art consists mostly of rock engravings, and dates to the era of Magdalenian art (15,000-10,000 BC).

According to the French scholar Jean Clottes, Gabillou's cave art shares many characteristics with Lascaux Cave, so even though the forms and proportions of the two sites are different, they can be considered twin caves.

The main highlights of Gabillou's cave art are the two engravings known as the "Sorcerer", and the "Hare".

For more about the chronology of rock engraving in France, see: Prehistoric Art Timeline (from 540,000 BC).

Location

Gabillou Cave, also known as Grotte de las Agnelas, is the only decorated cave in the valley of the Isle river, although it is very close to the Vezérès Valley.

The Vezérès Valley is a UNESCO World Heritage Site with 37 paleolithic caves containing some of the greatest paintings and engravings ever made by Ice Age hunter gatherers.

Some of its sites include: La Ferrassie (60,000 BC), Abri Cellier (36,000 BC), Abri Castanet (35,000 BC), Abri du Poisson (23,000 BC), Cap-Blanc (13,000 BC), and Rouffignac Cave (11,000 BC).

In July 1942, Grotte de Gabillou was classified as a historic monument of France.

Discovery

For many decades a house stood in the entrance to the cave. Access to the cave's interior was blocked by a wall.

In 1940, the partial collapse of the wall led to the discovery of the main cave passage along with the parietal art on its walls.

It was reportedly discovered by M. Charmarty and M. Truffier, and the ensuing art finds were announced to the Historical and Archaeological Society of Périgord.

In 1955, the house and land containing the cave was purchased by Jean Gaussen, who in 1964 published a book about the paleoart in the passage.

Back to top

Cave Layout

The cave is accessible only via the basement of a house and and entrance is restricted to researchers with relevant qualifications.

The entrance leads directly into a spacious antechamber, whose walls were destroyed long ago, although a few minor groups of engravings are still visible.

A narrow, twisting 60cm-wide passage extends into the hillside for about 30 metres. Bearing in mind that the term "chamber" refers to a slight widening of a narrow passage, there are three notable chambers in the cave.

These are: the "Chamber of the Red Horse" (Salle du Cheval Rouge), the "Choke Point" (L'Etranglement), and the "Chamber of the Hare" (Salle du Lièvre).

Apart from the few engravings in the antechamber, all the rock art at Gabillou is in the main passage.

Gabillou Engravings

In total, Grotte de Gabillou contains more than 200 engraved drawings. They are dated to the Magdalenian period of Upper Paleolithic art, around 13,000 BC.

They include: 56 horses, 21 reindeer, 18 birds, 12 bison, 8 ibex and some bears and rabbits.

Some of the animal figures are depicted in motion, while others are seated.

In addition, there are two important human figures: one shows a woman giving birth, another - known as the "Sorcerer" - shows a part human, part animal figure, with beard and horns.

Chamber of the Red Horse

Highlights in the Chamber of the Red Horse ("Salle du Cheval Rouge"), include:

• The engravings of a Bison and two Horses, one complete and one depicting just the head and neck.
• An engraving of the head of a deer.
• A beautifully rendered engraving of a horse, infilled with red ochre.
• A wonderful galloping horse, also coloured with red ochre.

Dr. Stéphane Petrognani and Georges Sauvet have compared the horse engravings at the Grotte de Gabillou with those at Lascaux, a few kilometres away. They also point out that Gabillou horses often have clearly defined sensory organs like eyes, ears, mouth and nose.

L'Etranglement

Highlights in L'Etranglement (the Choke Point), include:

• Engraving of a human figure wearing a parka type jacket.
• Engraving of a Horse and an Ibex, with clearly defined eyes and muzzles.
• Engraving of a horse which is almost a bas-relief, due to the deep carving and the use of cracked lines in the surface of the wall.

Back to top

Chamber of the Hare

The Hare Chamber ("Salle du Lièvre"), located half-way along the passage, is the most decorated part of the passage gallery.

At one time, it was only accessible to someone crawling on all fours or worming their way along, on their stomach.

Highlights in the Chamber of the Hare, include:

• Horse Emerging from a Hole
  This sublime horse's head (40cm in length) was firmly incised as though emerging from a hole in the wall. The head has a detailed oval eye, muzzle and jawline, and ends at another fault line in the wall. A second horse (the near bas-relief mentioned above) was engraved in a similar way, also making use of a natural hole in the rock. This suggests that this is a regular way of expressing a highly symbolic idea - that of animals or animal qualities being inherent in the rocks themselves.
• Hare
  This 23 cm image perfectly captures the look of a hare, with its prominent head and large eye and its long ears lying flat against the back. It is given a bulky body, lanky legs and a short tail, while its hindquarters are covered by a series of lines. This masterpiece of paleolithic art - together with a second less detailed hare in the same chamber - are the only known engraved drawings of hares in Franco-Cantabrian art.
• Little Devil
  This small 16cm carnivore, possibly a weasel or ermine, seems to be jumping out of the rock like a jack-in-the-box, hence the name given to it by Abbe Breuil. It has a long neck topped with a cat-like head, with two pricked ears, two small holes for the eyes and a very wide mouth. This creature can be classified as one of the indeterminate or fantastical animal figures in the cave.
• Other Figures
  Gabillou is home to a number of other original images (1 bird, 2 chamois and several composite or fantastical creatures) as well as 21 reindeer - an animal not found in Lascaux.

The "Sorcerer"

At the very end of the passage, in a spot that is not easily accessible, we find the engraving of the "Sorcerer".

The figure faces to the right towards the depths of the cave and has a number of human characteristics: an upright posture, a slender torso, an extended arm with a hand, two well drawn legs and a left foot.

In contrast, the head, which has horns depicted from a semi-frontal viewpoint, the mane, and the tail, are those of a bison.

This is a half-human, half-animal creature, which has been interpreted in several ways.

• As a human wearing a bison hide.
• As a shaman or witchdoctor transformed into animal form.
• As supernatural spirit or animal God

The "Sorcerer" was obviously an important figure. Its remote location, where only one or two people could see it, draws attention to the difference between Gabillou and the larger Lascaux, whose chambers could accomodate far greater numbers of visitors.

Shamanism was a well-known feature of Stone Age culture, and images of these sorcerer-type figures are present in several other caves, including Trois Freres in southern France and Fumane Cave in northern Italy.

Abstract Signs

Gabillou also contains a wide variety of abstract signs, such as:

• Dots
• Open-Angle signs
• Ovals
• Pectiforms
• Penniforms
• Quadrangles
• Triangles, and more

Related Articles

For more about prehistoric cave art in France, see the following:

• Roucadour Cave
  Quercy, Lot
  Noted for engravings of animals and birds.
• Deux-Ouvertures Cave
  Ardèche
  Noted for very fine animal engravings plus a half-human, half-animal figure similar to The Sorcerer at Gabillou.
• Cussac Cave
  Vézère Valley, Dordogne
  Noted for its animal engravings.
• Gargas Cave
  Hautes-Pyrénées
  Over 100 animal engravings including the Panel of the Great Bull and the Panel of the Mammoths.
• Font de Gaume
  Beune Valley, Dordogne
  Famous for its painted engravings.
• Trois Frères Cave
  Ariège
  Best known for The Sorcerer - an anthropomorphic figure wearing deer antlers, with the legs of a man, and the tail of a horse.
• Les Combarelles
  Beune Valley, Dordogne
  Noted in particular for the Drinking Reindeer, an exquisite engraved drawing.

For details of the earliest artworks, see Oldest Art in history.

References

(1) "La grotte à gravures de Gabillou". (Gabillou Cave of the Engravings.) David, Pierre; Hervé, Martine; Gauthier, J.; Malvesin-Fabre, G. (1952). Comptes rendus des séances de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres. 96 (1): 116–118.
(2) "La parenté formelle des grottes de Lascaux et de Gabillou est-elle formellement établie?" (Is the formal relationship of the Lascaux and Gabillou caves formally established?) Petrognani, Stéphane; Sauvet, Georges (2012). Bulletin de la Société préhistorique française. 109 (3): 446.
(3) "Cave Art" Jean Clottes. Phaidon. ISBN 978-0-7148-5723-7.