Les Grands Maîtres de la PRÉHISTOIRE : le Génie Magdalénien – Documentaire – BF

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L’époque magdalénienne constitue sans aucun doute l’apogée de l’art pariétal préhistorique. Plusieurs dizaines de grottes ornées (de Lascaux à Altamira, de Ekain au Roc-aux-Sorciers) témoignent du génie des artistes de cette période. Peintres mais aussi sculpteurs, les hommes ont laissé des traces de leur art sur un territoire étonnamment vaste, que le film de Philippe Plailly nous invite à sillonner.

“GRANDS MAÎTRES DE LA PRÉHISTOIRE – LE GÉNIE MAGDALÉNIEN”
Réalisé par Philippe Plailly
Droits Réservés

#documentaire #histoire #préhistoire

The birth of art in prehistory is a complex question. For some, it is the fruit of a
mental revolution which began 40,000 years ago. For others, it is the result of a long
evolution that began with the appearance of the first humans
two million years ago. Gradually,
our ancestors freed themselves from the immediate imperatives of survival. They devote an increasing part
of their time to artistic activities. They decorate their objects
and the sites where they settle. With the Magdalenese,
his ancestors settled in a large part of Europe between 18,000 and 10,000
years before Christ, art developed at an exceptional level. Their masterpieces have spanned
the millennia and provide us with a partial
and mysterious testimony to their culture. If we take into account the composition of Lascaux, with its theme,
its diversity of species, its composition, but also its dates around 18,
19 ten thousand years, we can in a certain way, reasonably, consider
that we are at the roots of Magdalenia. Among the approximately 200
decorated prehistoric caves in Europe, almost two thirds are attributed
to the Magdalenian period, between 18,000 and 10,000 years BC. Through major sites like Lascaux
or Altamira, in Spain, we now know the
painting talents of Magdalenese artists. Their gifts as sculptors and engravers are much less known. However, certain sites such as that
of Capblanc, near Lascaux, demonstrate their exceptional mastery of sculpture. But it is the small village
of Angles-sur-l’Anglin, in Poitou-Charentes,
which most certainly contains the absolute jewel of Magdalenian sculpture. At the foot of the limestone cliffs which border
the river, hides a unique site in the world. In a rock shelter,
a sculpted frieze dating from 15,000 BC adorns the
rock wall for almost 30 meters. The sculpted frieze of Rocco Sorcier, Angle-sur-l’Anglin, with the beauty,
the richness, but above all the technical complexity of its sculpted,
monumental device, is certainly the equivalent of Lascaux in terms of painting. Discovered for the first time in 1927,
the Rocco Sorcier site was at the time completely obstructed
by scree and erosion. It was only from 1947
that Suzanne de Saint-Maturin and her English friend, Dorothee Garode,
two women of character, carried out
the work of clearing thousands of cubic meters of rubble for more than a decade,
mobilizing the forces life of the village. Villages: men, women and children. Geneviève Pinson is the
scientific manager of this unique site. Extract from the excavation notebook
of Suzanne de Saint-Mathurin. Wednesday September 28, 1949. Very extensive excavation work,
extremely rich home. On the side of the embankment, very large lenses
of clayey sand, oily, light yellow, covering numerous small
fragments of limestone. Objects slipped between the stones. Gonesau finds a whole needle
in three fragments, old breakage. Large saguet points exceeding
the usual dimensions, saguet with a pointed base, cousoir,
magnificent flint, shell, etc. The Roc-Au-Sorcier rock shelter
includes two excavated areas: the Taillebourg cave and the Bourdoy shelter,
approximately 15 meters apart from each other. This Lascaux of sculpture offers
teams of archaeologists an immensely rich field of exploration. The Rocco-Sorcerer frieze,
in the form in which it appears to us today,
is an absolutely monumental work in its development developed over its
length and the thickness of the material worked. In this sense, it is the result of a
project, of an intentionality of an absolutely obvious social group. Human groups certainly
stayed there for long periods, gradually
completing this masterpiece. They undoubtedly also chose the site according to its position in a landscape, in a territory,
but also according to the capacity of the wall to be worked. Because the presence of sculptures
in rock shelters and never in deep caves
implied the presence of light. And certainly a link with
daylight, with the group, with human activities. I think that the sculpted ruff
of the roque-sorcerer cannot be dissociated from the whole of social life. At the
foot of the sculpted walls, excavations have revealed
numerous hearths as well as undecorated objects, ornaments,
limestone lamps, paint buckets,
tools made of flint, reindeer antler or mammoth ivory. The link between art and habitat, during the Macdalenian era, is one of the
major questions that this site raises. Suzanne de Saint-Mathurin removed this
bison still in place on the ceiling of the Taillebourg cellar. There are several rings on this bison
, one which affects the head, one which touches the hindquarters
and another on the hindquarters. These rings undoubtedly have two roles:
a symbolic role linked to the works and a functional role linked to the habitat. These rings integrated into the sculptures
would have made it possible to hang objects or attach links. The symmetrical arrangement of the rings
at the top and bottom of the vault also suggests a device
for stretching pots. These flexible and removable partitions would have
served to demarcate different domestic and artistic areas of occupation
in the shelter or to separate certain groups of occupants from each other. The interpretation of decorated sites,
the reasons which pushed our ancestors to create such works,
remains a big question. The interpretation of prehistoric art has
evolved with the ideas of prehistorians and the evolution of archaeological science. At the beginning, at the end of the 19th and 14th centuries,
it was logical that it was art for art’s sake, magic,
totemism that was in force. On the other hand, gradually,
from the 50s and 60s, we began to work on the
archaeological content of the sites, giving space to the work of art in its container. At present,
we are instead moving towards an approach which aims to contextualize
artistic expressions. It appears that
today there are sites which have a great diversity of archaeological remains
and which, in addition, have great manifestations of art on the walls. These are therefore long-term habitats. But who were the occupants
of these sites 15,000 years ago? A man is trying to gather valuable
clues about the lifestyles and environment of our
Macdalenian ancestors from the study of their skeleton. Roberto Maccharelli is a paleoanthropologist
and professor of paleontology at the University of Poitiers. He goes to the Périgueux museum
to select elements from one of the very rare
original skeletons of Magdalena. We see here the burial,
the casting of Chancelade’s burial. This is an almost complete skeleton
of an individual who was buried in the fetal position. I now want to select
elements from the original skeleton for analysis. By carrying out a 3D scan of
specific parts of the skeleton such as the jaw, teeth,
arm or leg bones, it collects information
on the bone structure and morphology of the Magdaléna. These elements allow us to make
hypotheses about their physical capacity and their lifestyle. Alright. Having already carried out 3D scans
of Neanderthal skeletons, he can therefore compare the
distinctive features in terms of evolution over a period of around 10,000 years. The results published
by Roberto Machiarelli show significant modifications in the
structure of the skeleton and dentition. The thickness of Macdalenian bones is
150% less than those of Neanderthals. Differences which reflect a
very significant evolution of lifestyle, physical expenditure,
relationships with the environment. But what face is hidden
behind our artistic ancestors? Using the skull of the
Chancelade skeleton, one of the very rare Macdalenian skeletons
found, Elisabeth Deines, a sculptor internationally recognized
for her Dominid reconstructions, is attempting to scientifically reproduce
a Macdalenian face. A
robot portrait closer to us than to Neanderthals,
mysteriously extinct 28,000 years ago. Traces of Macdoulanian culture can be found
across a very large part of Europe,
ranging from Spain to Ukraine, to the United Kingdom, via France,
Belgium, Germany, Poland and Czech Republic. The population movements at this
time, but also the probable causes of the dissemination of this culture,
could be explained by the climate. Dominique Gentil is a researcher
in the Climate Sciences Laboratory at the CEA. He works on the dating
and chronology of ancient climates. In the Villard cave,
located in Périgord, he is looking for precious clues
to better understand the characteristics of the European climate 15,000 years ago. Stalagmites which grow at most
one millimeter per year, depending on the quantities of water infiltration,
are valuable aids to this science of ancient climates
called paleoclimatology. This stalagmite recorded the
climatic history of 50,000 years, between 80,000 years ago and 30,000 years ago. From 30,000 years ago,
it stopped growing because the climatic conditions were
very cold, there was no longer any infiltration. And this took over
from 16,000 years ago, which corresponds to the
Magdalenian period, and it stopped at around 8,000 years ago. And it also recorded part
of the history of deglaciation from that period. The Stalagmite stalagmites are sawn
according to their growth axis to make an initial dating with uranium 234
and evaluate the period they cover. Then, using a microdrill,
Dominique Gentil pierces the stalagmite at different points,
approximately 3 millimeters apart. The powder collected at each point
allows him to measure the proportion of more or less heavy atoms of oxygen
and carbon contained in the stalagmite. This
proportion varies depending on temperature, humidity,
plant cover and microbial activity in the soil. These elements are dissolved in
infiltration water and are therefore found in stalagmites. This research tells us
that the Macdalenian era was marked by significant warming 15,000 years
before Christ, followed by a sudden cooling of 5
to 10 degrees, between 12,700 and 11,500 years ago. Groups of hunter-gatherers
moved south during periods of glaciation
and moved back to territories further north when the
climate warmed. These successions of cold
and warmer periods also contributed to the destabilization of rock shelters
with falling limestone blocks. Over the millennia,
climatic hazards have harmed our ancestors, but also
the works that have left us. This frieze of Magdalenian horses,
covered with a thin layer of calcite, is still being formed,
as we can see with the drops of water flowing at the moment. And we can expect
that in a few decades, a few hundred years,
or even a little more, it will be completely covered and disappear from our sight. The paintings or sculptures
on the rock walls are the main information we have
left to better understand this civilization. Hence the importance of their preservation. In Angles-sur-l’Anglin, the race against the degradation of certain blocks is underway. Teams of experts are trying to reveal
engravings and pigments from certain collapsed blocks of the wall. These restoration operations
require patience and precision. Now we’re starting
to see something. The polychromy, which we can now guess,
is largely with red lines, for example, an overall red background,
black lines which are quite damaged, and especially very fine incisions
which draw figures which should be studied. Exploring this culture
is like putting together a puzzle. The frequency of certain motifs,
their arrangement, their proportions, are all clues to decoding
the meaning of these works and the context in which they were created. This little shard has a
special story, it comes from the Taillebourg cellar, 20 meters from here. It made it possible to bring together these
two rather enormous blocks. And so, we see a potential
puzzle to bring together all these fragments. Knowing that there are 350 other fragments
which come from the site, which are at the Saint-Germain-en-Laye museum. The animal representations are very
numerous and of great finesse. But we also find other motifs on the walls
of rock shelters. Symbols of femininity which raise
the question of the place of women in Macdalenian society
and which retrace the different states of the female body throughout a life. The young pregnant woman,
the mature woman and the elderly woman who has lost all her curves. Some sites
also include human profiles. Did the Magdalenese
discover the art of portraiture? Throughout the Paleolithic,
human representations are rare, but it should still be remembered
that humans were relatively rare in the landscape at that time
and that it was animals that dominated. Despite everything, we observe that in Magdalenia,
we really have many more human representations with
detail at the level of the head. As if, indeed,
there was an interest, not in the portrait,
but perhaps in getting into the personality of the beings represented. And there, this is perhaps something
that will mark Aline’s Armagne. Some profiles are detailed
and undoubtedly respond to a desire for realistic representation. Other figures appear distorted. Their bizarre profile could be
explained quite simply. The faint glow of the oil lamps
projected distorted shadows of faces onto the walls which the engravers reproduced. Engraved faces are also present in very large numbers on flat stone plaques
found sometimes in the thousands in certain Magdalena shelters. This is the case at the march site where
more than 1,500 platelets were collected. The interpretation of the engraved plaques
deposited or at least discovered in large numbers from a certain number
of sites which are limited caves, is quite open. However, we can identify a
particular way of representing humans and animals by having repeated the
lines several times and many times. These works are much more free
and spontaneous than what is on the walls. They were perhaps carried out
during rituals or perhaps they were educational activities,
learning to draw, to represent. In any case, it is a phenomenon
which greatly marks the Magdalenian. Some archaeologists also think
that these plates were intended to make decorated paving in certain shelters. Doctor Léon Pâle and Marie
de Saint-Péreuse, two figures of
20th century Paleolithic archeology, carried out in the 1970s
a very precise survey of the engraved plaques from the site of the march
which they grouped together in a work. Alright. Following in their footsteps,
archaeologist Nicolas Mellard continues this work of analyzing the engraved motifs. I didn’t know yet. Exactly, I’m going to start
working with this one, I think. The one with the new nose.
Alright. Thank you, thank you. Using new technologies,
he examines these wafers in every detail. 3D microtopography makes it possible to analyze
the traces of engravings and their respective depths with extreme precision. He can try to deduce the tools
used by the sculptor, but also identify almost
erased traces which testify to an older motif. Many plates have
multiple superimposed engravings with
more or less deep tangles of lines. This suggests that these plates
were reused several times, a bit like magic slates
where you erase the previous drawing to compose a new one. The technological reading of the engravings
tells me about the approach that the artist of the story had while he
produced his representations. At these moments, we feel very
close to the gesture of the Macdalenian engraver. At a time when metal did not
yet exist, the Macdalenian sculptor’s tools were
limited to chisels, scrapers, drills and flint blades. Each of these tools had its function. Here we have the blocks. Lucie Schemana and Sylvie Berry attempt
to associate certain particular tools with the marks and incisions on the
sculpted blocks coming from Roc-au-Sorcier. Sylvie, do you think there are
certain tools that could have been used to flatten this area here? We also see it here. You see, there is the shape of the furrow and then
there is an area which is very flattened. It
is probable that there are a number of blades which are the largest and strongest blades
like these ,
on which traces can be observed which indicate a
completely circular movement. Matter, on matter,
and which would obviously have removed matter at this point. We also see
completely oriented streaks where we see that it was a succession of gestures. But given the organization
of the traces, it is very probable, and even obligatory,
that the support was much softer at the time it was worked,
because the tool entered the material. The techniques ranged from the fine mark
left by the tip of a chisel to deeper incisions,
vigorously drawing the contours. In
certain sites, such as an angle on the anglin,
significant removal of materials reveals bas reliefs. The
extremely impressive character and success of the great masterpieces
of prehistoric art, such as the Roco-sorcier and its
sculpted frieze, imply that there were great masters
and that there were also, at the time from prehistory, from the Michelangelos. So people who had
intentions, who had exceptional know-how
and who were capable of transcribing thoughts.
It’s a society. We cannot exclude the hypothesis
that some of the most talented and experienced artists school and create a style
that is found on several sites. When we study the ways of representing
anatomical details, for example, on animals,
we have the impression of being in the presence of
stylistic particularities, that is to say that a human group has its
own way of to feature such an element of a representation. This is the hypothesis that Geneviève Pinson is trying to verify
by comparing the Roc-Au-Sorcier site and the neighboring site
some 200 kilometers away called Chère-à-Calva. It was deposited post-excavation. Using projection methods,
she superimposes patterns found on the rock, on the sorcerer, on engravings
of the calva dear. We’re going to light the horse. Yes, we’re going to light the horse.
There, that’s good. We No, you didn’t see. Did
you see that? Look at. There you have exactly the same thing. That’s beautiful.
That’s beautiful. I’m glad we’re
doing it, though. Can you imagine what that must have been like? In the very beginning, when they carved it,
it must have been beautiful. I didn’t know.
Great. The head, we don’t have it, does
it suddenly look like that? It’s just the same. They’re just the same,
but really the same. Same posture, same horse,
same trick, same everything. Everything is good. It’s true that it’s cool. And no? The same stylistic comparison was
made between faces engraved from the site of the march and found on the wall
of Roc-Au sorcerer, at angle upon angle. You take the profile of the step and we will
paste it on the profile of Roc-Au-Sorcier. So.
Top, nickel. So. You see, we have the profile of the step there,
which fits perfectly into the contour of Roc-Au-Sorcier. Here we dismantle it and move on. We can see a feature re-emerging
at a distance of hundreds or sometimes a thousand kilometers. There is therefore proof that these groups
were in contact, that there were exchanges,
oral tradition and that perhaps it was the stories, the myths,
the particularities, the rituals which were communicated. The development of Maidalenian culture
in Europe is contemporary with a rapid population of Homo sapiens on the margins
of Europe and northern Africa. This is probably one of the reasons
why we can expect to find in Africa,
as for example in Egypt, forms of art which are assimilated
or related by their theme, by their technique. In February and March 2007,
on the slopes of the Greynubien hills, which border the Nile in the
Aswan region, an international archaeological team made a major discovery. The team, led by Doctor D’Huyge,
from the Royal Belgian Museums of Art and History, discovered magnificent
engravings made in the open air on the rock walls. This
site, reported anecdotally by a Canadian expedition
in the 1960s, had not been the subject of any in-depth study. 160 engraved figures have been revealed,
the majority of which are animal representations. All engravings are
noted and listed. The head and horns
of Beauville, are we talking? Is it here?
Yes, it’s there. Just the head and the horns. How are you ? Do
you have enough perspective? Yes, it’s okay. Okay?
Yes. So, you It’s the same for…
It’s the top. Yes.
Just the head. Just the head and the horns. The motifs represented also
provide valuable information on the environment of the occupants of Kurta
15,000 years ago, and in particular on the fauna. Salima Ikram, from the American University
in Cairo, is a specialist in prehistoric animal representations. She identifies with the deputy director
of the mission the bestiary reproduced on the rock. So you think it’s
a hartebeest antelope? Yes, I’m sure of it. But we can check to be
sure if in doubt. Look at these horns which
totally match what is depicted. And there, his ear,
it’s really striking. Here we see the bump. And finally, what’s great here
is the queue. And you know, it’s consistent with this concept
of the fauna of the region, because we found many
bones of hartebeest antelopes. Yes, absolutely. It was their main
source of food. It’s curious that there are
n’t more of them represented. We have a lot of rocks,
but few hartebeest antelopes. The geographical location
in Kurta has not really changed. The landscape is the same and the sites,
the pestrant engravings, in fact, were executed very high on the walls. In the Paleolithic,
it was the same situation. But perhaps it is
significant because the location of the engravings offers a panoramic view of
the valley of an island, of the landscape, of the hunting grounds
of Paleolithic hunters. And perhaps in this sense,
we can say that the rock art of Kurta has something to do with hunting. The prospects of this Kurta discovery are enormous. Obviously, there was older art
in Africa, but Kurta is really the first
open-air, Paleolithic rock art site that we know of. And it’s new. And it is very difficult to understand why it is
so similar to Paleolithic art in Europe.
It’s almost the same thing. It is no coincidence that this site of
Kurta was named Lascaux-sur-le-Nil. This is the masterpiece of Kurta. It is approximately four meters long
and two meters high, with 25 representations of Bovide,
a human figure. It’s a fairly complex composition,
with a lot of superpositions. Do you think it’s a bit reminiscent of Lascaux? Absolutely.
It’s in the style of Lascaux. Among a majority of realistic animal engravings
, a few very stylized human silhouettes were noted. If we have to describe Kurta’s art,
I would say that it is a combination between naturalistic art
and abstract or very stylized art. And there too, it is quite the same
thing as in the Magdalenian. Near the site,
D’Hirquuij and his team are also looking for tools that are excellent
indicators of the profile of Kurta’s occupants. Evidence shows that the occupation of the site took place over a long period,
between 15,000 and 8,000 years ago, as some of the engravings are dated
by hours to the end of the Paleolithic. This is the case of this fish trap,
used by the populations of the Nile 8,000 years ago. Who were the occupants of Kurta? A small clan that
moved along the Nile? Is it possible that they had
contact with migrant groups from southern Europe? When he is not in the field,
D’Hurquuij compiles all the geographical and archaeological data
on the site and its surroundings. This research also focuses
on the detailed comparison of certain motifs noted at Kurta
and the representations of European sites. And so here are three of Kurta’s human figures, very stylized. It’s really the female form,
reduced to the buttocks, so to speak. Here, without head, without arms, without feet. So, very stylized figures which
compare perfectly to what we have, for example, in Dordogne, on the
final Magdalenia site of India. In the final Magdalenian of the Allemande
and in the final Magdalenian of Gönnerstorff, in Germany. These two Late Magdalenian sites
are approximately 12,000 years old. So here is one of
Kurta’s wild bovids. It’s a perfect design,
but especially note the curious way the
back legs are made. And I still dare to compare it to that. And that, in fact, is the famous
jumping cow of Lascaux, with legs which are folded, not in a natural way, but more or less in the same way as at Kurta. I do not believe that these
similarities in art should be explained by direct influence or by
population migrations. No, I believe it is simply
the fact that the human brain works the same way everywhere
and the people of Kurta lived in the same conditions as the Magdalenese. They had the same needs, the same
occupations, the same way of life. And this therefore produced an art which
is comparable to what we have in Europe. During the period when
the Magdalenian was developing in Europe, in Egypt, there is an arrupestre who can be
considered my relative. But this does not mean that there is
cultural continuity between these groups. On the other hand, traces of
Magdalenian culture have been found in northern Europe. In these flat areas,
there are no caves or rock shelters; groups of hunter-gatherers
establish themselves in outdoor camps. This is the case of the Pincevent site,
near Paris, occupied 12,300 years ago. The Magdalenese also lived
in the plains of northern Europe. And the Pincevent site is a good example
of seasonal occupation by Magdalenese groups. We see in particular the
detailed spatial organization of the group in domestic unit, tent, habitat. There is an excellent image
of the transmission of knowledge regarding, for example, flint knapping. On the other hand, there is not yet
much movable art, but perhaps it was on supports
which have not been preserved. In any case,
it is a good example of the northward extension of Magdalenian culture. We currently know of nearly
twenty levels of occupation spread over one to two meters in depth. The superposition of these levels,
separated by a few centimeters of sediment, bears witness to the repeated return
of small groups who came to settle for a few months in a territory
suitable for hunting during seasonal reindeer migrations. Pincevent was only a stopover
for these hunters during their journey. It is estimated that some groups could
cover more than 400 kilometers during seasonal migrations. At that time, sea levels were 100 meters lower than today,
allowing the passage of Magdalenese groups on foot over
previously unoccupied land. The United Kingdom,
still attached to the European continent, is one of these
new explored lands. Cresswell Crags,
a collection of small caves clustered in a river valley,
about 20 miles north of Nottingham, has been known for several decades. Some great Paleolithic ages
had been found there, but it was only in 2003-2004
that the first rock carvings were discovered there by Paul Ban and an
international team of archaeologists. Paul returns to the trail of his
discovery with Brian, the keeper of the Cresswell Caves
for over 30 years. In 2004, there was much
better light outside. I leaned over. I found myself under
the archway like this, looking out,
and suddenly I saw it at the right angle. And in fact, I saw that it was
a bird figure from an engraved bas relief. There, we see the body,
the neck, the beak, the eye. And it looks exactly
like an ibis sitting in his nose. It is unique in Paleolithic art. There are no birds engraved on a
vault, no ibis, anywhere, except here. For 30 years I really dreamed of
discovering an ornate cave in the UK. I didn’t see any reason why there would
n’t be one, but all the books, all the specialists said
it didn’t exist. I actually first came
to Creswell in 1989, as it was a known site with caves. I thought it was interesting
to visit it, so I came with a group. It was a
somewhat gray July day. The site didn’t seem
very impressive. I took a photo of the valley,
walked around, looked through the entrance gates of a few caves. They seemed very
small and uninteresting to me. And then I left it there. But when, in 2003, we began our
research into Palaeolithic art, Creswell Crags emerged as a
priority research site, as portable art had already been found there. And so after 30 years of waiting,
I discovered engravings the first morning I observed the walls. And it’s amazing to think that you have
changed the archaeological history of your country, because all books will
now have to mention that there are decorated caves in Britain. The discovery of Cresswell’s engravings
is of course of great importance at the European level,
because a new country is added to the list of those which have cave art. And above all,
it shows that in the northwest of Europe, England was
part of the Macdalenian world. According to climatologists’ estimates,
the limit of the ice cap was located at this period only
30 kilometers north of Cresswell. Paleontologists deduce that this
site therefore represented the northern limit of the Macdalenian population. As far as the Macdalenian culture may have spread
, most archaeologists agree that its cradle would
be located between northern Spain and south-west France. Sculptured sites, as accomplished
and rich as that of Angles, are rare. This is why it is the subject of
all the attention of scientists. A major objective of archaeologists is
to reconstruct this monumental sculpted frieze as it
originally appeared. Like that, there. Geneviève Pinçon and her team
list all the fallen blocks and note the engraved motifs that adorn them. It’s superb. But
the technological archaeologist of the 21st century can rely on other
recording methods. We carry out a 3D scan
of the engraved fragments. The sculpted wall is also
scanned by laser beams to record it in its smallest details. By compiling all these statements in three
dimensions, we can attempt to virtually assemble the parts together. New excavation campaigns are
planned at the foot of the wall to discover other sculpted blocks
covered over the centuries by sediments. This figure which represents
the hindquarters of a bison, we probably do not know its head. And really, we would like to know
a little more about it and really know if it is a bison, if it is
accompanied by other figures. In fact, we find ourselves here
on a filling of the site which has not been discovered
and which certainly promises and which we would like to know
through further excavations. Using radar,
we probe the ground where we suspect that certain fallen blocks are buried. So knowing what the attainment is. The image that the echo sends back is very
promising, as these lines show. The frieze of Roc-au-Sorcier
waits to reveal other hidden treasures. Faced with these masterpieces of
Magdalenian art, the depth and power of which we clearly perceive. We are extremely sensitive to their
aesthetic quality, even to their sensitivity, but we are missing something. And despite the evolution of our disciplines,
the deepening of our knowledge, we will always miss life,
we will always miss the tradition, the depth of the message
which was associated with these works. We are in front of the set,
it is sumptuous, the actors have left. These works question us about the place
of art in human societies. They also reveal a need
deeply rooted in our origins, that of representing real or imaginary worlds.