AR85. 12 February 2006.
Copyright © 2004 by Kevin Sharpe and Leslie Van Gelder.
Presented to le Conservateur
Régional de l’Archéologie, Préfecture de la Région Midi-Pyrénées, France.
Report on Work in Gargas Cave, 2003-2004
by
and
Leslie Van Gelder
for M. Michel Vaginay, Le Conservateur Régional de
l’Archéologie, Préfecture de la Région Midi-Pyrénées
We wish to thank you, M. Vaginay, very much for permission to study the finger flutings in Gargas Cave. The investigations have been most successful and promise to elucidate the human activities in the cave.
Please see the accompanying paper, ‘The Study of Finger Flutings,’ for a description of the methodology we have developed for the study of flutings.
We reconnoitered the flutings and divided the ‘Zone des Crevasses’ into four, the eastern large north-south crevice (which we call the ‘Nicolas Crevice’) the western large north-south crevice (which we call the ‘Marie-Paule Crevice’), the ‘Mermite’ on the northern side of the pathway, and the large area of mostly east-west crevices between the Nicolas and Marie-Paule Crevices on the southern side of the walkway.
In the Nicolas Crevice, we studied the Torti Cluster of flutings (see Figure 1) and the Heather I Cluster (see Figure 2).
Figure 1. The Torti Cluster of flutings, Gargas Cave.
Figure 2. The Heather I Cluster of flutings, Gargas Cave.
Preliminary and partial results suggest that,
a) For the Torti Cluster, of Rugolean flutings, the left hand side was fluted then smeared over either with additional clay or with the residue of the clay remaining after fluting, the one-, two-, and three-fingered vertical flutings and three- and four-fingered horizontals fluting appear to form a deliberate composition that uses the natural hollow in the rock. One person appears to have been the fluter.
b) For the Heather I Cluster, of Rugolean flutings (which continues into the shadow at the bottom of the figure), there appear to be three authors, one a young child (the curved lines to the left and on top), one an even younger child, and the third leaving marks perhaps too small for humans (the straight lines under the curved ones).
On the Mermite, we studied the James I Cluster (see Figure 3) and the Jasper III Cluster (see Figures 4 and 5).
Figure 3. The James I Cluster of flutings, Gargas Cave.
Figure 4. The upper part of the Jasper III Cluster of flutings, Gargas Cave.
Figure 5. The lower part of the Jasper III Cluster of flutings, Gargas Cave.
Initial results suggest that,
a) For the James I Cluster, of Mirian flutings, the vertical flutings were made by an adolescent or adult and start out with fingers well apart as would happen with stretching. The fluter may have had to jump to make them.
b) For the Jasper III Cluster, of Mirian flutings, the flutings are mostly made in broad left semi-circuar sweeps and perhaps by the same person who made the Jasper I Cluster.
In the Marie-Paule Crevice, we studied the Jasper I Cluster (see Figure 6), the James II Cluster (see Figure 7), and the Simone Cluster (see Figures 8-11).
Figure 6. The Jasper I Cluster of flutings, Gargas Cave.
Figure 7. The James II Cluster of flutings, Gargas Cave.
Figures 8-11. The Simone Cluster of flutings, left to right, Gargas Cave.
Initial results suggest that,
a) For the Jasper I Cluster, of Mirian flutings, may have been made by three people and contains many broad, semi-circular left hand sweeps.
b) For the James II Cluster, of Mirian flutings, the vertical flutings were made by an adult and start out with fingers well apart as would happen with stretching. The fluter may have had to jump to make them.
c) For the Simone Cluster, of Rugolean flutings, heavily calcited and therefore partly obscured, the lines are mostly vertical with a curl over top, are made sensitive to the rock shape.
On the southern wall of the zone, we studied the Jasper II Cluster (see Figure 12).
Figure 12. The Jasper II Cluster of flutings, Gargas Cave.
Initial results suggest that,
a) For the Jasper II Cluster, of Mirian flutings, may have been made by an adult or adolescent and contains several broad, semi-circular left hand sweeps.
In the central crevice area, we studied the many flutings of the Pamela Panel (see Figures 13-15), and the Heather II Cluster (see Figure 16).
Figures 13-15. From the Pamela Panel of flutings, Gargas Cave.
Figures 16. The Heather II Cluster of flutings, Gargas Cave.
Initial results suggest that,
a) For the Pamela Panel, of Mirian and Rugolean flutings, almost all the extensive number of flutings (an area of about 20 x 20 meters) were made by two people, a woman and a young child, perhaps male, with the child sometimes on the woman’s right hip.
b) For the Heather II Cluster, of Kirian flutings, excluding the mostly horizontal lines over top, comprises very narrow lines probably too small to be made by human fingers, though they have the rounded cross-section of finger lines.
We also studied the figures that Barrière depicts as animals and that lie throughout the Zone (see Figures 17-22).
Figures 17-22. Several of the fluted figures that Barrière has published as animal drawings. Gargas Cave.
Initial results suggest that,
a) Several of them appear to more figments of Barrière’s imagination (his having worked from photographs) than represented in reality; some he has used graffiti as parts of animals, or lines or dots that appear frequently in the local area.
b) One of them we were unable to locate (it does not appear to be where his map suggests it is).
c) The remaining may well be drawings of animals as he has published them.
A research paper is currently being prepared for publication, detailing the results of our investigations. We also presented our provisional results to the congress of the International Federation of Rock Art Organizations in Agra, India, November-December 2004.
Enclosed is a CD containing this report, the methodology paper, and copies of the photographs we took while in the cave.
We anticipate that we need one more visit to the cave in February-March 2005 to check details on some of our observations, to obtain some further photographs to illustrate several panels of flutings for journal publication, and to document the details of several final sets of flutings noticed when we were leaving the cave on our last visit.