A rare, and very interesting, case of human burials in a decorated cave in Europe is represented by the Grotte de Cussac.
Grotte de Cussac was “discovered in September 2000, in the south-western Dordogne region” (Visual Arts Cork). “However, unlike previously examined caves, the Grotte de Cussac cave has more than 800 stylized engravings of animal and human forms that were created between 25,000 and 30,000 years ago.” (Cowie 2020)
In this cave human remains have been deposited in cave bear wallows (depressions or nests for hibernating cave bears) dug in the clay floor of the cave. These are apparently secondary depositions of remains, not primary burials.
“The cave’s human remains appear to represent one of very few associations of parietal works and human burials in Paleolithic Europe. At least five people, four adults and a teenager, were deposited in the cavities, with bones dated by Carbon 14 measurement to approximately 25,000 years in age.” (Wikipedia)
We need to be very careful here in stating that there is an association between the human remains and the rock art in the cave. Especially since a lack of human remains in most other decorated caves in Europe suggests that the cultures of that time and place did not do that sort of thing (however this is not to say that the clan/group that lived in the area of Grotte de Cussac did not). What we can say definitively is that there is an association between the human remains and the hibernation nests of cave bears, which suggests an association with the cave bears themselves. Perhaps (and this is admittedly a stretch) the people saw the cave bear’s hibernation and awakening as a return to life from death and placed their loved one’s remains in the bear’s nest to attempt to resurrect them.
“The human remains are divided between three sectors of the downstream branch network. The bones occupy the bottom of bear wallows dug in clay soil, and are distributed over 100 m, with the first located 175 m from the current entry. None of them is directly associated with an engraved panel. A fourth concentration of bones was found recently in a lair of bears at the foot of the Grand Panel. They have not yet been examined, and it is not known if they are human or animal remains.” (Hitchcock, translated from Aujoulat et al. 2018) The identification of this fourth concentration of bones will be very interesting.
“The human remains – had been deliberately placed in former bear hibernation nests (long after the bears stopped using the cave), a practice which hadn’t been documented before. In two of the sites, the bear nests (which form hollowed areas on the cave floor) show signs of being covered with red ochre before the remains were placed there. There is also evidence the bodies had been arranged in a particular way, and moved after death. In some instances, the remains of more than one individual are intermingled.” (University of Wollongong)
“The use of red ochre in the ancient Cussac Cave burials demonstrate symbolic behavior in deep-prehistory and so does the otherworldly cave art. In addition to these ritualistic aspects of the burials in most of the studied depositions, ‘no crania were present but teeth were,’ indicating the crania were deliberately taken, which is thought to have been an act of ‘looking after the deceased.’ However, even with all these answers a set of more complex questions has arisen. – Why were only these six individuals buried in the Grotte de Cussac cave? And why had only teenagers and adults been buried, but no children? And perhaps the biggest question: Where on earth is everyone else that died around the cave 25,000 and 30,000 years ago?” (Cowie 2020) Notice this 2020 report mention six burials without specifying whether it refers to burial sites or individual human remains, so this perhaps represents further discoveries since the previously cited sources were published. Another report modifies this somewhat. “The only cranium present out of a minimum number of six individuals belongs to the complete skeleton in Locus 2, which possibly represents the first ‘phase’ of the complex funerary behavior.” (BurDen 2018)
Mammoth and rhino, Grotte de Cussac, France. Internet photos; Mammoth - ifrao.com, Rhino - Donsmaps.com.
The cave art itself is also somewhat unique consisting of a large number of engravings of images of animals and a number of humans. All in all the Grotte de Cussac seems to represent an outlier when compared to other decorated caves in the region with petroglyphs instead of paintings, the presence of a number of human figures, and the presence of the burials. I will attribute the seeming confusion or contradictions in the various reports to the fact that the French government is exceedingly protective of this cave. Very little study has been allowed and then under very strict conditions – probably a good thing.
NOTE: 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:
Bur.Den.
2018 Bur.Den. Researchers Involved in Groundbreaking Study of Gravettian Funerary Behavior in the Cussac Cave, Dordogne, June 18, 2018, https://burpph.wordpress.com/
Cowie,
Ashley
2020 Grotte de Cussac And The Mystery Of The Cave Bear Nest Burials, 17 June 2020, https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/grotte-de-cussac-0013869
Hitchcock,
Don
2018 Cussac Cave - Grotte de Cussac, 3 September 2018, https://donsmaps.com/cussac.html
University
of Wollongong
2020 French Cave Reveals Secrets of Life and Death From The Ancient Past, June 16, 2020, https://phys.org/news/2020-06-french-cave-reveals-secrets-live.html
Visual Arts
Cork
Cussac Cave Engravings, http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/prehistoric/cussac-cave.htm
Wikipedia
Grotte de Cussac, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grotte_de_Cussac
SECONDARY REFERENCES:
Aujoulat, N., Geneste J., Archambeau, C., Delluc M., Duday,
H., Gambier, S.,
2002 La grotte ornée de Cussac - Le Buisson-de-Cadouin (Dordogne): premières observations, Translation Don Hitchcock, available at https://donsmaps.com/cussac.html
Posts
Have you found online collection of all the images anywhere?
ReplyDelete