La Mouthe Cave

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CONTENTS

• Upper Paleolithic Art
• Why is La Mouthe Important?
• Location
• Discovery & Excavation
• Stratigraphy
• Cave Art at La Mouthe
• Layout of Parietal Art
• Stone Tools
• Caves of the Vézère Valley
• References

Upper Paleolithic Art

La Mouthe Cave was one of the earliest paleolithic caves to be discovered in France, and the first such cave to be found in the Dordogne.

Archaeological deposits and stone tools recovered from the cave, indicate it was occupied by Neanderthals and later by Cro-Magnons, from at least 45,000 BC, if not earlier.

The cave contains a variety of Upper Paleolithic art, including images of predatory and game animals, as well as a variety of abstract symbols, such as dots and triangles, plus some handprints.

In 1953, La Mouthe was listed as an Historic Monument. In 1979, along with other Vézère Valley Caves, it was designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

Why is La Mouthe Important?

Although not as spectacular as other Vézère Valley sites, like Lascaux Cave or Font-de-Gaume, La Mouthe was exceptionally important for the history of prehistoric art, since it drew attention to Stone Age culture and its cognitive implications.

Remember, certain eminent French archaeologists such as Emile Cartailhac (1845-1921) were still in denial about the paleolithic art found in Altamira Cave in 1879, claiming such works were beyond the capability of prehistoric man.

The discovery of La Mouthe and other caves helped to convince the sceptics that prehistoric man was far more sophisticated than previously thought.

La Mouthe cave was actually the fourth Palaeolithic decorated cave discovered, after Chabot Cave in the Gard (1878), Altamira in Spain (1879), and Pair-non-Pair in the Gironde (1883).

Location

The cave, hollowed out of upper Cretaceous limestone, sits at an altitude of 193 metres, overlooking a small valley.

It is located close to the hamlet of La Mouthe, some three kilometers from Les Eyzies, in the French Dordogne/Périgord.

Its original entrance was an opening some 11 metres wide, with an arch height of around 3 metres.

The cave extends for about 180 metres in length, although there is no cave art to be seen for the first 90 metres.

Discovery & Excavation

La Mouthe was known and used since the late 18th-century, but its art remained undiscovered until early 1895, when the owner's son and some friends found a bison engraving.

They quickly contacted the prehistorian Emile Rivière (1835-1922) - the person who invented the term speleology - who happened to be staying nearby.

Emile Rivière began his exploration of the cave in the summer of 1895. He was followed by a long list of archaeologists, who examined the cave and its contents.

Abbé Breuil in 1900, Marcellin Boule (1901), Emile Cartailhac (1902), Denis Peyrony (1903), Gabriel de Mortillet (1912), Peyrony (1913), Louis Capitan and Breuil (1922). Later, Abbé Glory examined the cave in 1958, and afterwards Brigitte and Gilles Delluc continued the work in 1971 and 1984.

Stratigraphy

From bottom to top La Mouthe's stratigraphy, outlined by Rivière, consists of 4 basic levels.

• Level 1: Mousterian
  Artifacts from the lowest level, are dated to before 40,000 BC; perhaps as early as 60,000 BC.
• Level 2: Aurignacian
  Deposits from this level date to between 40,000 and 30,000 BC.
• Level 3: Magdalenian/Azilian
  This mixed deposit dates to between 15,000 and 7,500 BC.
• Level 4: Neolithic
  This top level dates from about 7,500 to 3,000 BC.

Note: The primitive excavations of E. Rivière attracted severe criticism from Dr. Salmon of la Societé d'Anthropologie (1897) who pointed to the obvious gaps in Rivière's stratigraphy.

Cave Art at La Mouthe

Types of Images

La Mouthe Cave contains 200 separate images, many of which remain indecipherable.

Most of the cave art consists of rock engravings, but there is a little cave painting - mostly in red ochre - some of which is also engraved.

The most common subjects are animals, including images or part-images of bison, horses, reindeer, ibex, rhinoceros, mammoths, felines, wolves, musk ox, and aurochs.

Abstract signs and symbols are also present. These feature: dots (red and black), open-angle signs, penniform symbols, quadrangle signs, triangles and two handprints (positive).

There is also an engraved and painted image of a hut-like object. This mysterious and ill-defined image is somewhat reminiscent of the 'hut' at Lascaux Cave, a few kilometres to the north.

Dating

Using relative dating methods, most of the site's art is attributed to the period between roughly 25,000 BC and 10,000 BC. This includes the Gravettian, Solutrean and Magdalenian cultures.

However, rhinoceros imagery is more consistent with the earlier Aurignacian culture, between 40,000 and 30,000 BC.

See, for instance, the charcoal drawings of rhinoceros at Chauvet Pont d'Arc Cave.

Since La Mouthe was occupied by modern humans from at least 45,000 BC, some of its art is quite likely to have been created before 25,000 BC.

Layout of Parietal Art

The bulk of the figurative parietal art at La Mouthe is found at five locations.

• Hall of the Bulls
  In French: Salle des Taureaux, or Salle des grands boeufs. Located 91 metres from the cave entrance. Here, there are deep engravings of four aurochs (up to 2.9 metres in length) and one horse (1 metre long).
• Hall of the Small Bison
  Salle des petits bisons. 96 metres away. Here, there are 21 engraved drawings, including nine bison and other animals. They include the famous Grotesque Bison.
• Room of the Hut
  Salle de la Hutte. 108 metres away. Here, there are engravings of a wide variety of animals, including the famous large reindeer, plus other indistinct figures. There is also a hut-like image, not unlike a tent.
• Spotted Reindeer Room
  Salle des Rennes tachetés or Salle du Cervidé tacheté. 121 metres away. Here, we see reindeer, mammoth, horses and bison. The large reindeer are spotted with black dots.
• Hall of the Painted Bison
  Salle des Bisons Peint, aka Galerie A. Laborie. 155 metres away. Here, in the final part of the cave, are three bison painted in manganese black.

Paleolithic lamp

In 1899, a grey-coloured sandstone grease lamp (approx 17 X 20 cm) was found (in four pieces) in a Magdalenian fire-pit, or hearth, close to the cave entrance.

One of its ends was fashioned into a short, thick, triangular handle, and on its underside, it was engraved with the head of an ibex (incised in great detail with eyes, nose, mouth and ears), complete with long, curled horns.

Its concave upper surface revealed traces of animal fat, which would have been lit to produce light. It was dated to the Magdalenian culture, around 12,000 BC.

There are only about 300 known Paleolithic lamps, in existence, of which only thirty have a well-defined handle. Of these, half are made from sandstone and the rest from limestone.

Archaeologists believe the sandstone was sourced from Brive, about 40 kilometres away.

Stone Tools

A large number of stone tools were recovered from La Mouthe Cave, by Rivière.

• Mousterian tools
  The Mousterian tool kit includes scrapers, backed knives, truncated tools, denticles, and debitage.
• Aurignacian tools
  Backed knives, nosed or 'muzzle' scrapers, and finely retouched blades.
• Solutrean tools
  Laurel-leaf shaped blades and a shouldered point.
• Magdalenian tools
  Micro blades, single and double burins, chisels, awls, hide scrapers.
• Azilian tools
  Characteristic painted 'Azilian pebble'.

See also: History of Stone Tools.

Caves of the Vézère Valley

The valley of the Vézère river has long been an important centre of Stone Age activity ever since Neanderthal times, around 60,000 BC. In recognition of this, the area has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, since 1979.

Many of the caves and rock shelters in the valley are decorated with cave paintings and engravings, testifying to the extraordinary physical and cognitive skills of their creators. Famous Vézère sites include:

• Cro-Magnon rock shelter
  First finds of fossils of modern humans in Europe.
• La Ferrassie Cave
  Engravings and cupules
• La Madeleine
  Mobiliary art
• Font de Gaume
  Engraved paintings
• Les Combarelles
  Engravings

References

(1) Rivière E., 1897: "La Mouthe cave (Dordogne)." Bulletins and Memoirs of the Anthropological Society of Paris, no. 8, 1897, p.302-329.
(2) Rivière E., 1901: "Engraved Designs in La Mouthe Cave (Dordogne)." Bulletins and Memoirs of the Paris Anthropology Society, V Série, Book 2, 1901. pp. 509-517.
(3) Rivière E., "The engraved and painted walls of the Mouthe cave (Dordogne)." Bulletins and Memoirs of the Paris Anthropology Society, no. 4, 1903, p.191-196.
(4) Daniel R., 1960; "La Mouthe Cave (Dordogne). Contribution to the study of its tools." Bulletin of the French Prehistoric Society, vol. 57, nos. 9-10, 1960, p.627-631.