Presented in person and online. Zoom details below.

Graphic production and underground area during Gravettien in western Europe: track as a new heuristic approach. 

Gravettian (34 500 – 25 000 CalBP) is the second culture in Upper Palaeolithic to present a graphic production inside deep caves in Europe. For twenty years, the Gravettian cultures were at the center of a dynamic interdisciplinary regional research in the iberian peninsula and in France, aiming at a fine characterization of their behaviours to better grasp and understand the sociocultural changing and continuity processes associated with other cultures and the internal cultural variability of the Gravettian.

In addition to the current studies, this thesis project proposes a new heuristic approach by taking a step back from the iconography alone to consider practices and behaviours developped for graphic production in caves, as potential socio-cultural indicators. This project is centred on animal print, taking equally into account its representation (track motifs) and its relation to real tracks, that being spatial and graphic relations to the animal print in underground areas in parietal graphic production. Several gravettian decorated caves in France and in the iberian peninsula are characterized by the abondance of marks of animal presence, especially bears. Responding to human hand stencils, these motifs are a caracterictic of the gravettian parietal art. These relations establish a new research approach on the relations between humans and animals in spiritual and symbolic realm, especially towards the bear. 

A significant Gravettian site will be the focus of an in situ study : Cussac (Dordogne), in conjunction with other secondary sites that have already been examined. This research doctorate should contribute to improve ichnology reasearch areas with a better characterization of claw marks in caves and the engraved parietal art technology in order to distinguish it from the animal marks. Beyond iconography, this project aims to show gravettian symbolic and spiritual behaviours in a new light, more widely through the physical relations to the animal tracks in underground areas in graphic production through GIS approach. This research project should enhance the question of relationships between humans and animals in an holistic approach.

Speaker bio:
After getting a Master's degree in archaeology (ASE2P) at Toulouse Jean Jaurès University on the relationship between bear scratches and anthropogenic engravings in the Gravettian cave of Cussac (Dordogne, France), Marie Descottes began a PhD thesis in 2023 in the TRACES laboratory, Toulouse. Marie's work focuses on a cross-disciplinary approach between prehistoric art studies and ichnology, mainly in Europe during the Gravettian period.

Join Zoom Meeting: https://anu.zoom.us/j/89310466848?pwd=KwyXKZpSFLBSTbaCCLQGyKH52eLNbo.1
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This seminar is part of the School of Archaeology and Anthropology's 2025 Centre for Archaeological Research (CAR) Seminar series