Pech Merle Cave

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CONTENTS

• Pech Merle Cave: A Summary
• Location and Discovery
• Layout
• How Old is Pech Merle's Art?
• Pech Merle's Cave Art
• Highlights of Pech Merle
• References

Pech Merle Cave: A Summary

Pech Merle is a spectacular example of Franco-Cantabrian art, situated in the Lot department of southwestern France.

It contains some of the most memorable cave painting from the Gravettian period of Upper Paleolithic art, and shares several features with other caves in the region.

Cave art highlights include:

• Panel of the Spotted Horses
  Panneau des Chevaux ponctués)
• The Gallery of the Wounded Man
  Homme-blessé
• The Black Frieze
  Chapelle des Mammoths
• The Hieroglyphic Ceiling
  Plafond des Hiéroglyphes

In addition, Pech Merle is one of the few sites to contain the mysterious 'Placard-type' aviform signs, as well as a famous collection of hand stencils and red dots.

Lastly, it has several well-preserved footprints of Stone Age children.

About 10,000 BC, a rockfall sealed the cave and its contents until the 20th Century.

The Pech Merle Cave was classified as a “Historic Monument” in 1952, and is regarded as a key centre of Stone Age culture in the French Lot.

Location and Discovery

The cave is located in the valley of the river Célé, near the village of Cabrerets, in the Lot. It is named Pech Merle after the hill in which it sits.

The cave's upper level was known to locals since the turn of the century, but the painted chambers located in the deeper areas of the cave were first discovered in 1922, by teenagers Marthe David, her brother André David, and Henri Dutetre, who were encouraged in their searches by Father Amedee Lemozi, the curate of Cabrerets and a keen amateur archaeologist.

In 1949, a search for new galleries in 1949, led by André David - now the cave's owner - uncovered a new chamber known as Combel Gallery.

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Layout

Pech Merle Cave is spacious and dry, and extends for about 2 kilometres in length.

It has two levels upper and lower, but there are paintings only on the deeper level.

About 1,200 metres of galleries are open to the public, of which about 300 metres are decorated.

The galleries average 10 metres in width and between 5 and 10 metres in height.

The main chambers at Pech Merle include:

• Combel Gallery
  Le Combel contains some of Pech Merle's oldest animal drawings.
• Hall of the Paintings
  La Salle des Peintures is an extensive chamber containing most of Pech Merle's unique prehistoric art, including "The Spotted Horses", "The Wounded Man", "The Black Frieze" and "The Hieroglyphic Ceiling".
• Gallery of the Bears
  La Galerie de l'Ours has a narrow passage linking it to La Salle des Peintures, which contains a beautiful red drawing of a bear's head.
• Discs Gallery
  La Galerie des Disques contains the unknown children's footprints.
• Bone Chamber
  L'Ossuaire is decorated with animal paintings, abstract symbols and finger-drawings. At one time it contained 18 large heaps of bones.

How Old is Pech Merle's Art?

Archaeologists believe that Pech Merle's rock art was produced in three phases:

• Phase one occurred during the era of Gravettian art, from 27,000 BC onwards. The red ochre paintings of the cave lion and three horses in the Combel Gallery, as well as the "red fish" and the spotted horses - see below - were created during this phase. This phase also includes the red and black drawings in the "Black Frieze", the Hieroglyphic Ceiling and the hand stencils.


• Phase two ocurred during the period of Solutrean art between 20,000 and 17,000 BC. The main highlights of the second phase are the "Bear's Head" (21,000 BC), the "Wounded Man" (20,000 BC) and the Placard-type signs (17,500 BC onwards).


• The final phase occurred during the Magdalenian period, between 15,000 and 13,000 BC.

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Pech-Merle's Cave Art

The cave art at Pech Merle includes approximately 570 separate images, the majority of which are abstract signs and symbols.

• There are 60 animal images, consisting of: 21 mammoths, 12 horses, 7 bison, 6 aurochs, 6 deer, 2 ibex, 1 lion, 1 bear and 3 indeterminate creatures.
• In addition, there are 12 images of humans - 8 naturalistic, and 4 schematic.
• Most of the animal images are painted in ochre pigments, some are painted and engraved, and a few (e.g. the head of a bear) are engraved only.
• The abstract symbols at Pech Merle include three of the strange aviform signs (also known as Placard-type signs from the type-site of Le Placard Cave) including two next to the painting of the "Wounded Man".
• Aviforms also occur in eleven paintings at Cougnac Cave, also in the Lot.
• Pech Merle also has a large number of black and red dots, as well as a collection of hand stencils.
• Lastly, there are a number of rock engravings - similar to those at Cussac Cave (25,000 BC) in the Dordogne.
• The eminent French archaeologist Henri 'Abbé' Breuil dubbed Pech Merle the "Sistine Chapel of the Lot".

• For more prehistoric art in the Lot region, see: Roucadour Cave Art (24,000 BC).
• For other important Gravettian caves, see: Cosquer Cave (25,000 BC) and Gargas Cave (25,000 BC).

Highlights of Pech Merle

Red Drawings in Le Combel Gallery

In a tiny corner of Le Combel, we find red paintings (with a few blackish lines) of a characteristically short muzzled cave lion and three red spotted horses, surrounded by 17 additional red dots. These images are among the oldest art at Pech Merle, dating to 27,000 BC. See also: Stone Age Colour Palette.

Chapel of Antelopes in Le Combel

This space contains the most mysterious combination of drawings in the Combel Gallery.

There are 5 images in total:

• To the left, the hindquarters of a rhinoceros.
• Above the rhinoceros, a head, neck, and right foreleg of an antelope.
• The composition continues with a second antelope in the same style.
• Then a lion whose figure is seen in profile but whose head faces the viewer.
• Finally a third antelope, whose features merge with the lines that form the lion.

The scene is framed by two red dots on the left, and one red dot on the right. These drawings are also assigned to the Gravettian.

No one knows what this scene means.

The Panel of the Spotted Horses

The most famous parietal art at Pech Merle is the Panel of the Spotted Horses, dating to 23,000 BC.

Measuring 4 metres in length, and exploiting the natural contours of the rock surface, it presents two horses back-to-back and partly superimposed, surrounded by numerous abstract symbols and hand stencils.

The right-hand horse has been painted over a red drawing of a large red fish (it looks like a pike). The remains of the fish are just visible on the back of the horse.

But why do Pech Merle's horses have spots? Some scientists say that new DNA evidence shows that spotted horses did exist in Europe in what is known as the Upper Paleolithic period. So Gravettian artists were simply drawing what they saw around them.

Other scientists counter with the argument that:

• The Spotted horses are at least 10,000 years older than even the oldest horses in the DNA studies
• Gravettian artists were not noted for their naturalism but rather for their stylistic imagery, witness the rather inaccurate renditions of the spotted horses, themselves(!)
• The spotted horses are very similar to the spotted mammoths on the Black Frieze, and to those in Le Combel Gallery
• The spotted horses are very similar to the hyena in the Panel of the Panther, at Chauvet
• Conclusion: the dots on the horses of Pech Merle do not have a descriptive function. Perhaps they have a symbolic meaning as they do among the Bushman/San, the Yolngu and many other cultures, including the aboriginal rock art of central Australia.

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The Black Frieze

The black frieze at Pech Merle measures 7 metres by 2.5 metres and depicts mammoths, bison, aurochs, horse and red dots. It was created in four successive stages:

• A large horse and one other horse
• A group of four bison
• A ring of 11 long-haired woolly mammoths
• A line of four aurochs

The red drawings (horses) belong to the earliest period of Pech Merle, around 27,000 BC. The drawings in black (the other animals) were executed later, around 23,000 to 22,000 BC, probably by the same artist.

The Hieroglyphic Ceiling

On a ceiling in the Hall of Paintings, we see a number of finger-drawings or finger flutings, executed with one, two or three fingers on a clay surface.

These finger markings include a notched circle, and three mammoths drawn on top of the outlines of three women. They are dated to between 24,000 and 22,000 BC.

The Women-Bison Panel

According to archaeologist André Leroi-Gourhan's controversial analysis, the figures on this panel - dated to between 23,000 and 21,000 BC - represent a progressive transformation of women to bison.

The Wounded Man

Pech Merle's "Wounded Man" figure - one of the most famous human figures in paleolithic art - is depicted as being struck by a number of spears.

We do not know what this is meant to represent - the result of a fight between rival tribes, or perhaps the ritual killing of a wrong doer. It's a mystery.

Nor do we know the meaning of the bird-like shape of the 'Placard' sign' next to the prone figure. These Placard signs occur in eleven painted forms at Cougnac, three times at Pech Merle, and seven engraved forms at Grotte du Placard. They are attributed to the Solutrean era, about 17,500 BC.

For more, see: Meaning of Cave Art.

Footprints

In the Discs Gallery, there are footprints of five children of uncertain gender, aged between 7 and 18. They are all dated to 15,000 BC

Prehistoric Cave Painting in the Lot Region

There are numerous paleolithic caves located around the valley of the river Célé in the Cantal and Lot départments in south-western France. These sites include:

• Grotte de la Bigourdane
  Rock shelter with a number of engraved drawings of reindeer.
• Cuzoul des Brasconies
  Extensive cave complex with a large quantity of abstract signs, including black/red dots, plus some poorly preserved animal paintings.
• Cantal Cave
  Large cave with several images of animals including ibexes, along with abstract symbols, finger and hand markings.
• Grotte Carriot
  Large cave which contains a range of animal paintings and engravings. Includes goats, deer, cattle, horses and bison.
• Grotte Christian
  Large rock shelter with painted pictures of horses and bison, plus numerous abstract signs, including dots.
• Cave of the Counterfeiters
  Large cave mostly decorated with abstract symbols and a few poorly preserved animal engravings.
• Grotte Marcenac
  Large cave, whose parietal art includes a variety of animal engravings and paintings, as well as a number of abstract symbols.
• Cuzoul de Melanie
  Rock shelter with petroglyphs of animals.
• Grotte du Moulin
  Small cave best-known for its black paintings of bison.
• Cave Papetier
  Medium sized cave with faded engraved drawings of goats, bison and horses.
• Pergouset Cave
  Large cave with animal rock carvings, as well as images of female genitalia and abstract signs.
• Sainte Eulalie Cave
  A very extensive cave complex containing faded animal engravings and abstract symbols.

Prehistoric Art in France

Other important sites of Stone Age art in France include: the engravings at Abri Cellier (36,000 BC), Baume-Latrone Cave (35,500 BC), and Abri Castanet (35,000 BC), the black drawings of Chauvet Cave (34,500 BC) and the petroglyphs of Grotte des Deux-Ouvertures (c.26,500 BC).

To see how French cave painting fits in with the evolution of Stone Age art in general, see: Timeline of Prehistoric Art (from 540,000 BC).

References

(1) "Genotypes of predomestic horses match phenotypes painted in Paleolithic works of cave art". Pruvost, M. et al. (7 November 2011). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 108 (46): 18626–18630.
(2) "The Meaning of the Dots on the Horses of Pech Merle." Barbara Olins Alpert. MDPI Arts 2013, 2(4), 476-490.
(3) "Spitting images: Replicating the spotted horses of Pech Merle". Lorblanchet, Michel (1991). Archaeology. 44 (6): 24–31.