A 36,200-year-old carving from Grotte des Gorges, Amange, Jura, France

Abstract

The earliest European carvings, made of mammoth ivory, depict animals, humans, and anthropomorphs. They are found at Early Aurignacian sites of the Swabian Jura in Germany. Despite the wide geographical spread of the Aurignacian across Europe, these carvings have no contemporaneous counterparts. Here, we document a small, intriguing object, that sheds light on this uniqueness. Found at the Grotte des Gorges (Jura, France), in a layer sandwiched between Aurignacian contexts and dated to c. 36.2 ka, the object bears traces of anthropogenic modifications indicating intentional carving. Microtomographic, microscopic, three-dimensional roughness and residues analyses reveal the carving is a fragment of a large ammonite, which was modified to represent a caniformia head decorated with notches and probably transported for long time in a container stained with ochre. While achieving Swabian Jura-like miniaturization, the Grotte des Gorges specimen displays original features, indicating the craftsman emulated ivory carvings while introducing significant technical, thematic, and stylistic innovations. This finding suggests a low degree of cultural connectivity between Early Aurignacian hunter-gatherer groups in the production of their symbolic material culture. The pattern conforms to the existence of cultural boundaries limiting the transmission of symbolic practices while leaving space for the emergence of original regional expressions.

Figure 1

The Grotte des Gorges carving. Photographs (top), drawing (middle) and µCT surface rendering (bottom) of the Grotte des Gorges figurine.

Figure 2

Site location and geological context of the Grotte des Gorges. Left: Geographic location of the Grotte des Gorges. Right: Vectorized geological map (1:50,000, Sheets ° 196, 1439). Created in QGIS 3.16.1 Hannover (www.qgis.org) from vectors and rasters available on Infoterre BRGM (www.infoterre.brgm.fr).

Figure 3

Natural surface of the figurine. The surface of the Grotte des Gorges figurine is covered with funnel-like openings due to the porous nature of the ammonite mould (left, centre). On the protuberance, two, non-joining, perpendicular, linear depressions (white arrows) with fringed outlines are interpreted as eroded imprints of the fossil. An oblique natural opening (red arrow) is located between the protuberance and the right edge (right).

Figure 4

Traces of grooving. Close-up of the notches arranged radially around the concavity (a) and those present between the protuberance and the left edge of the figurine (white arrows) (b). These modifications result from the to-and-fro movement of an elongated edge. Parallel micro-striations are present inside the notches and suggest the use of a soft, quickly worn cutting edge, such as a limestone flake (c,d). Scales (a,b) = 1 mm.

Figure 5

Traces of grinding and gouging. Grinding was applied to flatten protruding ridges between notches located on the left of the protuberance (a) as well as on the tip of the protuberance (b). Localized gouging applied on the tip of the protuberance created a concavity (b). Scales: general view (left) = 5 mm; (a,b) = 1 mm.

Figure 6

PCA of the textural data. The analysis demonstrates that the surface of the notches stands out in terms roughness while the highly polished area on the protuberance could represent an extreme in variation of the wear recorded for the remainder of the surface including the area below the protuberance interpreted as worked based on microscopic analysis. See Supplementary Tables S4, S5 for details.

Figure 7

Chemical characterization of red particles present inside the notches arranged radially around the concavity of the Grotte des Gorges figurine. Acquisition location (A) and corresponding SEM spectra (right). Close-up view on the thin polygonal particle “a” (B). EDS reveals spectra “a” and “b” are richer in Fe₂O₃ than the spectrum “c” mainly composed of SiO₂, CaO, Al₂O₃, and P₂O₅.

Figure 8

Raman spectra of the red particles present inside the notches arranged radially around the concavity of the Grotte des Gorges figurine. Representative Raman spectra of the red particles observed in the notches (top), compared with the reference spectra of hematite extracted from the RRUFF database (bottom). The position, width and relative intensity of the measured signal matches the reference spectra for hematite.