Brittany:prehistoric art comes to Plougastel

Engraved horse heads from Plougastel-Daoulas, in Finistère, and dated around 14,500 years old • NICOLAS NAUDINOT/ CAMILLE BOURDIER / CEPAM / TRACES / PLOS ONE / CNRS PHOTOTHEQUE

A magnificent aurochs head surrounded by rays, a mixture of figurative and abstract styles:this engraving made 14,000 years ago by Paleolithic men intrigues researchers. She was discovered in Brittany, near Plougastel-Daoulas, in a rock shelter, the Rocher de l'Impératrice, which emerged under uprooted trees after a strong storm in 1987. It took 30 years for her story to be revealed to the General public. The place, private, was only acquired in 2010 by the departmental council of Finistère. Nicolas Naudinot (Nice-Sophia-Antipolis University, CNRS-Cepam) and his team began excavating this 10 m long and 3 m deep shelter in 2013. The researcher, who had studied sediments discovered in 1987, had had the intuition that the site would be interesting. He was not mistaken. There are unearthed, in the archaeological layers, 45 engraved shale tablets.

Also read:Neolithic, new era, new symbols

These engravings are the oldest graphic testimonies discovered in Brittany. They essentially represent horses and aurochs:the "radiant" head has no known equivalent in Paleolithic iconography in Europe. These drawings belong to the Azilian culture, which developed at the end of the Palaeolithic between Magdalenian hunter-gatherers and Neolithic farmers. This culture was considered a revolution in Western Europe, as it was believed that people were abandoning naturalistic figurative art in favor of an abstract form of expression. But the discovery of Brittany reveals that these changes are more gradual. On the other hand, the carving of the tools found at the rock of the Empress shows a technique typical of the Azilian. The excavations, financed by the department of Finistère, the Drac de Bretagne and the municipality of Plougastel-Daoulas, should resume this summer.