Palaeolithic Cave Art at Creswell Crags in European Context

309 Pages·2007·3.56 MB·English

by  Paul Pettitt

PALAEOLITHIC CAVE ART AT CRESWELL CRAGS IN
EUROPEAN CONTEXT
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Palaeolithic Cave Art at
Creswell Crags in
European Context
PAUL PETTITT, PAUL BAHN & SERGIO RIPOLL
1
3
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Prologue
PaulPettitt
WhenIorganizedtheWrstbriefsurveyofselectedBritishcavesforpossibleart,
IandtheothermembersoftheteamhadnoideathatwewouldactuallyWndany.
While I agreed with Paul Bahn that it was certainly worth a try, if I were a
gamblingmanI’dhavewageredmoneyonthefactthatnothingwouldbefound.
ThankfullyIamnot,andIhavenever beensopleasedtohavebeensowrong.
Creswellwas,infact,theWrstportofcallonanitinerarythatwouldtakeusonto
CheddarGorge,theGowerPeninsula,andDevon.Mystrategyinvolvedconcen-
trating on caves and gorges that seemed to attract relatively large amounts of
activityintheLateUpperPalaeolithic.Thereis,ofcourse,nocompellingreason
whyart,ifitwastobefound,shouldbefoundatsuchplaces,butintheabsenceof
anyotherguidingprinciplesitseemedlogicalthatifwestoodachanceofWnding
anyitwouldbemaximizedatplaceswhichUpperPalaeolithichunter-gatherers
knewwellandappearedtoreturntooverlongstretchesoftime.TobehonestI
alsofanciedspendingsometimeontheDevoncoast,onGower,andatCheddar,
and of course returning to Creswell which I had not seen for several years. At
CreswellIhadsuggestedthatweconcentrateoureVortsinRobinHoodCaveand
Mother Grundy’s Parlour. These caves seem to have attracted the majority of
activityofalltheCreswellcavesduringthelateUpperPalaeolithic,anditseemed
asensibleenoughpropositionthatifanyofthecavesweretocontainartfromthis
perioditwouldbethey.ItwasBrianChamberswhosuggestedthatwealsolook
inChurchHolewhilewewerethere,andwethereforeoweourdiscoverytohim.
His enthusiasm, knowledge, and friendship subsequent to the discovery are
cherishedbyusall.Itisthereforewithgreatpleasurethatwededicatethisvolume
toBrian,withourgratitudeandbestwishesforalongandenjoyableretirement.
AftertheinitialpublicationofthediscoveryinAntiquityandinthepopular
press,itwascleartousthattwocriticalthingsneedbedone.First,weneeded,
if we could, to demonstrate the antiquity of the art independently of our
stylistic arguments that it was Palaeolithic. Secondly, we needed to show the
arttoBritishandinternationalspecialistsincaveartandPalaeolithicarchae-
ology and gain their critical insights into its authenticity, antiquity, and,
particularly,widercontext.Thuswasconceivedthe‘CreswellArtinEuropean
Context’ conference. Our colleagues Ian Wall from Creswell Heritage Trust
and Andrew Chamberlain from the University of SheYeld joined us in the
vi Prologue
organization of the conference and were of invaluable assistance. We all
agreed that this should be held in the heart of Creswell village, and that it
should involve a series of evening lectures open to the public, so as to
maximize localexposure andparticipation. Thesewere delivered byAndrew
Chamberlain,PaulBahn,andCliveGamble,toswelledaudiences.
Contributionstotheacademicprogrammeoftheconference,almostallof
whicharerepresentedinthepapersthatfollow,werewide-ranging,andIrefer
the reader to the summary by Claire Fisher and Robert Dinnis at the end of
this volume for a summary of the variegated, subtle, intricate, and at times
spicy Xavour of the conference. It was a shame that Michel Lorblanchet was
unable to attend the conference, but Paul Bahn presented his paper and he
was Wnally able to visit Creswell a few weeks later and spend a good deal of
timeontheart.Wearepleasedthathehascontributedtothevolume.Other
rock art specialists attended the conference and made lively and valuable
contributions to the discussions both formal and informal, and we particu-
larly thankAndrewLawsonandJohnCleggfor theirenthusiasm.
Theconferencewould not have beenpossible were it not for a conference
grant from the British Academy, funding from EnglishHeritage and English
Nature, and sponsorship from Stickynewmedia Design, Portsmouth. John
Humble, English Heritage Inspector of Ancient Monuments for the East
Midlands,agreatfriendofthePalaeolithic,hasbeentremendouslysupportive
from the word go. John Barrett, head of the Department of Archaeology at
SheYeld University, was greatly encouraging and Naomi Nathan provided
crucialassistanceinthenitty-grittyofgrantadministration.Wewarmlythank
Lord Renfrew for acting as referee for the conference and Lady Renfrew for
hercontinuingenthusiasmforCreswell.
Wehopedthattheconferencewouldseenotonlysomegeneralconsensus
emergingforthenatureoftheartanditsimportance,butalsolivelycontro-
versy.Withthesubjectofcavearttherewillalwaysbethelatter,andopinions
certainly vary as to exactly how many images we have at Creswell and how
besttointerpretthem.Wewereparticularlystruckbythefriendlybuzzofthe
conference(theall-daybarwithvantageofthestagepossiblyhelpedhere)and
this gave speakers conWdence to Xoat ideas in an informal atmosphere. The
papers in this volume, I hope, give something of a feel for what we experi-
encedinApril2004.Aboveall,wehopedthatotherspecialistsmightnowbe
inspired to survey caves elsewhere in the UK for similar art, and we were
pleased to hear at the conference that others had indeed taken up the
challenge.ThisisperhapsthegreateststatementonecanmakeoftheCreswell
artandtheconferencethisvolumerepresents.Itismerely thebeginning.
The publishers are grateful to English Heritage, for a grant to aid the
publicationofthisbook.
Contents
ListofPlates ix
ListofIllustrations x
ListofTables xvi
1. TheHistoricalBackgroundtotheDiscoveryofCave
ArtatCreswellCrags 1
PaulG.Bahn
2. ThePalaeolithicRockArtofCreswellCrags:Prelude
toaSystematicStudy 14
SergioRipollandFranciscoJ.Mun˜oz
3. VeriWcationoftheAgeofthePalaeolithicCave
ArtatCreswellCrags 34
AlistairW.G.Pike,MabsGilmour,andPaulB.Pettitt
4. 3DLaserScanningatChurchHole,CreswellCrags 46
AlistairCarty
5. ZoologicalPerspectivesontheLateGlacial 53
D.W.Yalden
6. CaveArchaeologyandPalaeontology inthe
CreswellRegion 61
AndrewT.Chamberlain
7. TheStoneAgeArchaeologyofChurchHole,
CreswellCrags,Nottinghamshire 71
R.M.Jacobi
8. CulturalContextandFormofSomeoftheCreswellImages:
AnInterpretativeModel 112
PaulB.Pettitt
9. TheEngravingsofGouy:France’sNorthernmost
DecoratedCave 140
YvesMartin
10. PalaeolithicArtinIsolation:TheCaseofSicilyandSardinia 194
MargheritaMussi
11. TheHorseinthePalaeolithicParietalArtoftheQuercy:Outline
ofaStylisticStudy 207
MichelLorblanchet
viii Contents
12. ATopographicalApproachtoParietalFigures:
TheMonumentalSculpturesoftheRoc-aux-Sorciers
(Vienne,France)ProducedinDaylightattheBack
ofaRockshelterandonitsCeiling 229
Genevie´vePin(cid:1)on
13. DatingMagdalenianArtinNorthSpain:
TheCurrentSituation 247
C´esarGonza´lezSainz
14. RockArtandtheCoˆaValleyArchaeologicalPark:
ACaseStudy inthePreservationofPortugal’s
PrehistoricRupestralHeritage 263
Anto´nioMartinhoBaptistaandAnto´nioPedroBatardaFernandes
15. RewritingtheHistoryBooks:TheMagdalenian
ArtofCreswellCrags 280
ClaireFisherandRobDinnis
Index 287
List of Plates
1. EngravingofdeeroneastwallofChurchHole
2. Closeupofdeer’shead
3. Closeupoftherearportionofthedeerandsetof
engravedverticallinesbelow
4. IncompleteengravingofbovidoneastwallofChurchHolecave
5. TwovulvaeengravedonthewestwallofChurchHole,
oppositethedeerandbovid
6. Engravedvulvaofthreeconverging linesonceiling
ofChurchHole,betweenwallengravingsofdeerandvulvae
7. Part-sculpted,part-naturalbird’sheadonupper wall
ofChurchHole
8. Enigmaticengravingofjoinedpairoflinesonthe
westwallofChurchHoleattherearoftheentrancechamber
9. Engravedgroupofimagesinterpretedeitherasstylized
humanfemalesorlong-neckedbirds
10. GeneralviewofCreswellCragslookingtowardsthewest.
ChurchHolecaveisinthedistanceontheleft
11. GeneralviewofthemaincaveofChurchHole.
Mostoftheengravingscanbefoundinthisarea
12. ChurchHolePanelIII,the‘stag’withengravedlinesemphasized.Antler
tinesaretheinterpretationofS.Ripollbutareprobablynatural
13. Paul B. Pettitt showing a possible means of engraving Panel VII in the
Magdalenian
14. AbriBourdois:capridssculptedinhaut-reliefand
actualsize(photo(cid:1)G.Pinc¸on)
15. CuevadeElCastillo:ibexno.56
16. TheentwinedhorsesofRibeiradePiscosandtheir
immediatesurroundings(photo(cid:1)Anto´nioPedro
BatardaFernandes)