MORE 38,000-YEAR-OLD AURIGNACIAN ART DISCOVERED IN FRANCE:

Painted block of stone from Abri

Castanet, figures in red and black

pigment are identified as animals.

Sciencedaily photograph by

Raphaelle Bourillon.

On Saturday, February 11, 2017, I posted about the announcement of a date of 38,000 B.P. confirmation for an engraved block of stone from Abri Blanchard, in France. Now, a Science Daily report confirms another 38,000 year-old date for rock art from nearby Abri Castanet. These come from the Aurignacian culture of 43,000 to 30,000 B.P. (www.anthropark.wz.cz).

Like the previous report of 38,000-year-old art from Abri Blanchard, the team which made the discovery at Abri Castanet was led by Randall White of New York University. They are collapsed rock shelters "once inhabited by some of Europe’s first modern humans. Abri Blanchard and its neighbor to the south, Abri Castanet, sit along a cliff face in the Castel Merle Valley, just beyond the quiet, 190-person commune of Sergeac. Abri Blanchard, perched to the left, and Castanet, to its right, once housed extended families who congregated here in the winter." (archaeology.org)

Examples of art from two, essentially adjacent, rock shelters, dated to the same age, suggest that they might have been done by the same group of people. "'Early Aurignacian humans functioned, more or less, like humans today,' explained New York University anthropology professor Randall White, one of the study's co-authors. 'They had relatively complex social identities communicated through personal ornamentation, and they practiced sculpture and graphic arts.'" (sciencedaily.com)

"In 2007, the team discovered an engraved block of limestone in what had been a rock shelter occupied by a group of Aurignacian reindeer hunters. Subsequent geological analysis revealed (that) the ceiling had been about two meters above the floor on which the Aurignacians lived - within arms' reach. Using carbon dating, the researchers determined that both the engraved ceiling, which includes depictions of animals and geometric forms, and the other artifacts found on the living surface below were approximately 37,000 years old." (sciencedaily.com)

You can see the complete story at

https://wwwlsciencedaily.com/releases/2012/05/120514152952.htm. Another exciting discovery, it pays to keep looking.

REFERENCES:

https://wwwlsciencedaily.com/releases/2012/05/120514152952.htm.

http://www.anthropark.wz.cz/aurig.htm 

http://www.archaeology.org/issues/62-1301/letter-from/200-france-abri-castanet-aurignacian