Ancient Art Work

Abri Castanet, in southern France, close by the Chauvet site, where the oldest known cave paintings were thought to exist, is the place where multiple images, both engraved and painted – featuring geometric figures, female sexual organs and animals have been found – and are now believed to be the earliest known wall art ever discovered.

National Academy of Sciences radiocarbon dating of the engravings show clearly that these artistic images were created 37,000 years ago, rendering them slightly older than the Chauvet art works, artists in both cases almost certainly from what is known as the 28,000 year old Aurignacian culture.

The Abri Castanet site has apparently been recognized for some time as one of the oldest Eurasian sites to feature evidence of human symbolism such as pierced animal teeth and shells, beads of both ivory and soapstone, as well as limestone slabs holding engravings and paintings.

These artworks have been traced to being the work of some of the first modern humans to have left Africa, the engravings – made on a 3,307-pound limestone block with ochre – and found in a rock shelter thought once occupied by Aurignacian reindeer hunters. Included among those engravings are images of the female vulva, along with other so-called zoomorphic and geometric images.

These images differ widely from the Chauvet examples – located deep underground, well away from living areas – Castanet art works all close to the objects used in everyday life.  In some ways, these finds lead to more questions than answers, considering that the dominant motif appears represent female sexual organs, though other interpretations are possible, of course.

Other artwork found at the site clearly does represent female sexual organs, which is something shared with other European sites – The Venus of Hohle Fels being an ivory figurine found in a south-western Germany cave, depicting large projecting breasts and a pronounced vulva between the  open legs – at least 35,000 to 40,000 years old.

There may well have been a shared cultural tradition at those times, in which an emphasis was placed on sexual attributes, though it remains unclear whether it was men or women who actually created the depictions, or even if they were used for ritualistic occasions. The significance of such graphic representation, and the role it played human society of the time, is a mystery still to be solved.