La Grotte Chauvet - L'Art Des Origines

In a major new addition to the Bradshaw Foundation website the Journey of Mankind genetic map, based on the work of Professor Stephen Oppenheimer, exploring the peopling of the world over the last 160,000 years.

Latest News

[ Back To News Index ]
For more news articles click the
News Index link above.

La Grotte Chauvet - L'Art Des Origines An amazing NEW book on Chauvet has just been released by Dr Jean Clottes and his Associates. ISDN 2-02-048648-2, PUBLISHERS SEUIL CHAUVET VENUS Report concerning the VENUS by John Robinson Coordinator of the Bradshaw Foundation and a member of Dr Jean Clottes' Chauvet team. Photographs by Yanik Le Guillou, a member of the Chauvet Cave Archaeology Team directed Dr Jean Clottes.

The last and deepest of the Chauvet Cave chambers, the Salle du Fond, is the home of the Venus and the Sorcerer. From the ceiling of the chamber, which is nearly 7 m [20 feet] high, a vertical cone of limestone hangs down ending in a point 1.10 m [3ft 6 ins] off the floor.

	It is on this hanging outcrop that the Venus and the Sorcerer are drawn in black charcoal. The black pubic triangle of the Venus is at eye level and seems to be the heart of the composition. It is shaded in with black pigment. The white vulva slit appears to have been done later with a pointed tool and is clearly indicated by a vertical line incised strongly enough to cut through both the black pigment and the yellow surface film of the rock. The legs, with plump thighs, finish in a point with the feet not shown. This Venus is absolutely classical and her proportions, the stylistic elements, the selection of the anatomical elements shown are all characteristically Aurignacian or Gravettian, as known from the small Venus statues of Central and Eastern Europe. Photograph Left: Venus & Sorcerer Chauvet Cave

The Venus is not isolated. Other lines and realistic representations are associated with her, directly on the outcrop. Higher and to the left of the Venus are two felines, a mammoth and a small musk ox. To the right of the Venus is the "Sorcerer" or man-bison. The relation of the Venus to the Sorcerer cannot be simply fortuitous.

The Venus is the earliest of the designs. The feline on the left, the Sorcerer, and the multiple lines on the right, are all painted or engraved later. Their creation entailed a voluntary and selective local destruction of parts of the body of the Venus, the most obvious spot being at one of the upper extremities of the pubic triangle.

Even more surprising is the voluntary absence of any super imposition. Neither the Sorcerer nor the large feline on the left cut across the Venus.

The Venus and the composition in which she occupies a privileged place are in a central topographic situation in the Salle du Fond. However, she is paradoxically peripheral in the over all design that seems centred on a beautiful horse lodged in a small chapel like niche to the left in the middle of the main panel of paintings.

Perhaps the female representation relates directly to the corridor to the chamber, which opens just behind her. Four other female representations limited to just the pubic triangle are in the cave; they are all in the system including the Galerie des Megaceros and the Salle du Fond, indicating each time the entrance to the adjacent cavities.

A cluster of convergent data suggests that the Venus is Aurignacian and that she was created in the first period of the decoration of the Chauvet Cave.

A full report on the Venus can be read the latest INORA No 29 2001 Newsletter on Rock Art Edited by Dr Jean Clottes..

Click here for books by Dr Jean Clottes.

[ Back To News Index ]