Bernifal Cave
Tectiforms & ovalized triangles
Magdalenian images of mammoths
CONTENTS
Summary
Bernifal Cave (Grotte de Bernifal) is one of numerous paleolithic caves in the Vézère Valley region of the French Dordogne.
It was occupied by modern humans during the Magdalenian culture, between 13,000 and 10,000 BC.
The cave interior is decorated with a wide range of parietal art, including more than 100 paintings and engravings, as well as abstract pictographs, such as tectiforms and triangle signs.
The cave entrance - a natural hole in the roof - was sealed with rubble around the time the last artists abandoned the shelter, leading the famous archaeologist Denis Peyrony to suggest it had been purposely blocked with rubble.
After this, the cave was untouched for some twelve thousand years, until its discovery in 1902.
In May 1904, Bernifal was declared an historical monument.
In 1979 the Vézère Valley Caves were designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site - one of the most important centres of Stone Age culture in France.
Location
The Grotte de Bernifal sits in a forest location in the valley of the Petite Beune, an offshoot of the Vézère river, some 5 kilometres east of Les Eyzies.
It measures about 90 metres in length.
Other important caves in the vicinity include: Font de Gaume (14,000 BC), Les Combarelles (11,700 BC), Cap Blanc (13,000 BC), and also La Mouthe (occupied from 45,000 BC).
Discovery
Bernifal Cave was discovered in August 1902, by Denis Peyrony (1869-1954). Later the same year it was also examined by Louis Capitan (1854-1929), and Abbé Breuil (1877-1961).
Later, in 1994 and 1995, the cave was investigated by Brigitte (b.1936) and Gilles Delluc (1934-2022).
At the time of its discovery, only six other decorated caves belonging to the paleolithic culture were known in France. They included: three in the Dordogne - Font-de-Gaume, Les Combarelles and La Mouthe - plus Chabot cave (Ardèche gorge), Marsoulas (Haute-Garonne), and Pair-non-Pair (Bordeaux).
The first paintings were first described by Denis Peyrony in 1902.
Later, a survey of the cave art was completed by Abbé Breuil in 1928. He documented a total of 41 engravings and paintings.
Additional finds by archaeologists Alain Roussot, Norbert Aujoulat, and Jean Vertut, raised the number of images to more than 100.
Cave Layout
Bernifal consists of three large chambers connected by passages.
The first chamber, is 22 metres long, up to 8 metres wide, and its ceiling rises to a height of 4-5 metres.
A one-metre-wide passage leads into the second chamber, roughly 12 metres long, 5 metres wide and 5-8 metres high.
A new pasageway, some 15 metres long, leads into the third and final chamber, which is 20 metres long and 6 metres wide.
The walls and ceiling of the cave are noticeably wet and covered with a thick layer of calcite.
The rock art is densest in the second room where the layer of calcite is thinner.
The images are arrayed between 50 and 150 centimetres above the floor surface, and many are deeply carved into the limestone wall.
Cave Art
Bernifal contains a wide range of cave art, which includes a number of cave paintings and rock engravings. Some animal figures are painted and engraved.
The most common animal is the mammoth (24 images), followed by bison, horses, deer and ibex.
The cave painters used the regular Stone age colour palette, which included red and yellow ochre pigments and black manganese pigments.
Animal highlights
- Two mammoths
One mammoth engraving is roughly 90 cm in length by 70 cm high, with a high bulging forehead, trunk, long sharply curved tusks and a hairy belly. Behind it, is a second mammoth, which is 60 cm in length by 40 cm high. The large forehead, eye, tusk, and tail are well defined. The large feet are very visible, and it has hair under the belly of the animal, as well as long hair on its legs. - Painted mammoth
A large engraved mammoth, painted in yellow and black, can be seen in a high and difficult-to-access natural chimney. The painting was not found until the mid-1970s. - Engraving of a pregnant mare
This subject is seen in several Magdalenian caves, such as Lascaux (Dordogne), Bédeilhac Cave (Ariège) and La Pileta (Spain). - Image of a human head
Bernifal's head is depicted wearing a crown of antlers or horns . Aside from the Venus of Laussel, depictions of humans are rare in paleolithic parietal art.
Signs
Bernifal is noted in particular for its collection of over 50 abstract signs and symbols, including tectiforms, ovalized triangles, dots, flabelliforms, half-circles, lines, open angle signs, ovals, penniforms and hand stencils.
Of these, the most significant signs are the cave's 13 tectiforms.
- Tectiforms are roof-shaped signs, for which the cave is the type locale. The term 'tectiform' was first coined by Abbe Breuil and Louis Capitan, when they examined Bernifal in 1902.
- One of these Bernifal tectiforms is particularly unique. It is made up of hundreds of red dots, less than one centimeter in diameter. No other tectiform has this feature .
- It's worth noting that only 4 caves in France contain definitive tectiform signs, and all are located within 8 kilometers of Les Eyzies: Les Combarelles , Font-de-Gaume , Bernifal, and Rouffignac.
- True, other caves in France - such as Le Portel , Enlène , Bara-Bahau and La Mouthe - contain similar signs, as do the Spanish caves of La Pasiega and El Castillo. But the eminent prehistorian André Leroi-Gourhan firmly believed that the term really belonged to the true tectiforms of the Eyzies group. The cave sign expert Genevieve von Petzinger even has a separate category of Spanish tectiforms, to distinguish them from the French specimens.
Speleothems
Bernifal is also noted for its speleothems. These are mineral deposits formed from groundwater within underground caves, such as stalagmites and stalactites.
- A unique feature is an orange coloured circular speleothem, known as 'Le Disque'. The orange colour is caused by extra iron in the water, which forms red/orange iron oxides.
- It has several pillars, formed by stalagmites and stalactites meeting to form a single column.
- The cave also features a formation of thin strands of calcite , known as 'straws', hanging from the roof.
Stone Tools
A quantity of stone tools was also recovered from Bernifal Cave, including blades, flakes, scrapers and points. Many of these are now on permanent display at the Musée national de Préhistoire aux Eyzies-de-Tayac.
NEXT: See Paleolithic Art and Culture.
References
(1) Louis Capitan , Henri Breuil and Denis Peyrony , " The figures engraved in the Paleolithic period on the walls of the cave of Bernifal (Dordogne) ", Reports of the sessions of the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles-Lettres , vol. 47, No. 3 ,1903, p. 219-230.
(2) Brigitte Delluc, Gilles Delluc and D. Vialou, " A study by Abbé Henri Breuil on the cave of Bernifal (Meyrals)", Bulletin of the Historical and Archaeological Society of Périgord (1995) t. 122.1995, p. 21-37.
(3) Plassard F., 2005, "Les grottes ornées de Combarelles, Font-de-Gaume, Bernifal, et Rouffignac. Contexte archéologique, thèmes et style des représentations." Archaeology and Prehistory, Université Sciences et Technologies - Bordeaux I, 2005.