CLAVIFORM SYMBOLS:

Claviforms, Chauvet Cave, France.

Internet, Public Domain.

Horizontal claviforms, Altamira

Cave, Spain. ca. 35,600 BP. 

Bruno, Cave Art, fig. 144, p. 166.

One of the common symbols in Paleolithic European art is designated a claviform. "Derived from the Latin word for "club-shaped", a standard claviform is defined as a vertical "P-sign", (http://www.visual-arts-cork.com) and is sometimes described by archaeologists as a stylized female figure."Although the earliest claviforms come from Altamira Cave in Spain (34,000 BCE), they are found in approximately 17% of the decorated caves in France, earliest in the French Alps (ca. 20,000 BCE), and later in the southwest (ca. 15,000 - 10,000 BCE)." (http://www.visual-arts-cork.com)

"Such stylized depictions of women are believed to fall in a category somewhere between a drawing and a sign. In fact many signs found in caves can be considered further abstractions of the female drawings. The French call such symbols claviform signs. Claviform signs are female - because they are an abstraction of the form of a woman's body." (Aczel 2009:78)

Roche de Lalinde Cave, France.

Internet, Public Domain.

Combarelles Cave, France.
Internet, Public Domain.

The first thing to notice is that they are not all the same, indeed, if we take the claviform as an abstracted female form, they represent two different philosophies; in the commonly accepted breakdown there are men who are more interested in the upper torso and men who are more interested in the posterior. Yes, they might all represent the female form, but they seem to focus on two different aspects of that form. Some of the depictions place the bulge on the upper portion of the torso, others place it on the lower portion, implying a focus on either the upper or lower attributes of the female anatomy.

Gonnersdorf Cave, Germany.

Internet, Public Domain.

Petersfels Cave, Germany.

Internet, Public Domain.

Many small portable examples are also found, carved out of bone or ivory.

             

Pech Merle, stylized female figure.

Aczel, Amir D., The Cave and the

Cathedral, 2009.

These signs also seem, as one would expect, to have developed over the passage of time, with a progressive abstraction of the shape of the female torso "in caves in the department of Lot, that is Pech Merle and Cougnac, which lie east of Les Eyzies, there is an abundance of claviform signs. At Pech Merle, which was dated to several periods that spanned thousands of years of artistic work, one finds realistic depictions of the entire female form in its early period of around 20,000 years ago." (Aczel 2009:184)

This process of abstraction, from realism to a symbol or sign, is a commonly recognized phenomenon in Art History. As Aczel described it: "such stylized depictions of women are believed to fall into a category somewhere between a drawing and a sign. In fact, many signs found in caves can be considered further abstractions of the female drawings of Pech Merle." (Aczel 2009:78)

I have pointed out before that the normal progression of a subject in art is to begin with realism and evolve through steps into abstraction. Then a cultural change makes the previous imagery/style irrelevant to the artist and the process starts over again with new examples of realism. I can think of few examples that illustrate that principle better than the case of the claviform signs.

NOTE: I find it ironic that the obviously feminine-shaped symbol was named for a weapon instead (I think Freud might have had something to say about this).

Some images in this posting were retrieved from the internet with a search for public domain photographs. If any of these images are not intended to be public domain, I apologize, and will happily provide the picture credits if the owner will contact me with them. For further information on these reports you should read the original reports at the sites listed below.

REFERENCES:

Aczel, Amir D.

2009 The Cave and the Cathedral: How a Real-Life Indiana Jones and a Renegade Scholar Decoded the Ancient Art of Man, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, NJ.

Bruno, David,

2017  Cave Art, Thames & Hudson, London.

http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/prehistoric/abstact-signs.htm#claviform.