{"id":6412,"date":"2016-03-25T16:36:17","date_gmt":"2016-03-25T20:36:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/?p=6412"},"modified":"2018-08-24T14:07:11","modified_gmt":"2018-08-24T18:07:11","slug":"friday-march-25-2016-part-1-game-of-caves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/?p=6412","title":{"rendered":"Friday, March 25, 2016 [part 1] \u2014 Game of Caves"},"content":{"rendered":"

My appoint\u00adment at Gar\u00adgas was for ear\u00adly in the after\u00adnoon, so I was able to have a pleas\u00adant and leisure\u00adly break\u00adfast. In place of the stan\u00addard French baguette, there was a much more chewy local loaf known as qua\u00adtre-banes<\/em>, which I thought superb, per\u00adfect with the fresh coun\u00adtry but\u00adter and jam. The cui\u00adsine of Hautes-Pyr\u00e9nees, like many oth\u00ader aspects of its cul\u00adture, is more close\u00adly in tune with that of the Basque Coun\u00adtry and Cat\u00adalo\u00adnia than with north\u00adern France (and indeed, the slang expres\u00adsion nordiste <\/em> is used by the locals with obvi\u00adous dis\u00addain). Beans and spicy sausages, coun\u00adtry soups, hard rather than soft cheeses, bread that you can get your teeth into. After break\u00adfast, I still had plen\u00adty of time to reach the caves on foot. From Lom\u00adbr\u00e8s, I walked down the road to the vil\u00adlage of Aventig\u00adnan (about three times larg\u00ader than Lom\u00adbr\u00e8s), then along a minor road to the cave\u2019s recep\u00adtion cen\u00adter, lit\u00adtle more than 4km.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The road to the caves start\u00ading at Aventignan.<\/p><\/div>\n

Only two cars passed me, and there was noth\u00ading much along the way but emp\u00adty fields until the hills and for\u00adest start\u00aded. The weath\u00ader was cool and over\u00adcast. Often, when I\u2019m walk\u00ading, music pops into my head in sur\u00adpris\u00ading\u00adly com\u00adplete form, and this time it was the Shepherd\u2019s Song from Canteloube\u2019s Chants d\u2019Auvergne<\/em>, sung in Old Occ\u00adi\u00adtan, the lan\u00adguage of South\u00adern France before it was con\u00adquered, re-edu\u00adcat\u00aded, and reg\u00adi\u00adment\u00aded by the nordistes<\/em>. The dialect of the Auvergne was con\u00adsid\u00ader\u00adably dif\u00adfer\u00adent from the Gas\u00adcon spo\u00adken in this region, but it nev\u00aderlthe\u00adless puts across the South\u00adern mood:<\/span><\/p>\n

As ga\u00efr\u00e9 d\u00e8 buon t\u00e8ms?
Dio lou ba\u00efl\u00e8ro l\u00e8r\u00f4,
L\u00e8r\u00f4 l\u00e8r\u00f4 l\u00e8r\u00f4 l\u00e8r\u00f4 ba\u00efl\u00e8ro l\u00f4.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Pas\u00adtr\u00e9 lou prat fa\u00ef flour,<\/em>
\n Li cal gor\u00adda toun troupel.<\/em>
\n Dio lou ba\u00efl\u00e8ro l\u00e8r\u00f4,<\/em>
\n L\u00e8r\u00f4 l\u00e8r\u00f4 l\u00e8r\u00f4 l\u00e8r\u00f4 ba\u00efl\u00e8ro l\u00f4.<\/em><\/p>\n

Pas\u00adtr\u00e9 couci fora\u00ef,<\/em>
\n En obal io lou bel riou!<\/em>
\n Dio lou ba\u00efl\u00e8ro l\u00e8r\u00f4,<\/em>
\n L\u00e8r\u00f4 l\u00e8r\u00f4 l\u00e8r\u00f4 l\u00e8r\u00f4 ba\u00efl\u00e8ro l\u00f4.<\/em><\/p>\n

(\u201cShep\u00adherd across the riv\u00ader, your work there is hard. Look, the mead\u00adows here are in bloom. You should watch your flock on this side\u2026. Shep\u00adherd, the water divides us, and I can\u2019t cross it\u201d). Noth\u00ading at all like French. Incom\u00adpre\u00adhen\u00adsi\u00adble to all but a few sur\u00adviv\u00ading speak\u00aders of the Old Tongue, but the melody con\u00adveys such a won\u00adder\u00adful sad\u00adness and yearn\u00ading that it would be under\u00adstood emo\u00adtion\u00adal\u00adly in Tokyo. In fact, it resem\u00adbles many Japan\u00adese folk melodies.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The for\u00adest approach\u00ading the caves.<\/p><\/div>\n

I soon reached the recep\u00adtion cen\u00adter, which boast\u00aded a caf\u00e9, which was closed, and a small muse\u00adum. It was here that I con\u00adfirmed my reser\u00adva\u00adtion. A staff archae\u00adol\u00ado\u00adgist was busy explain\u00ading how stone-age tools were used to some chil\u00addren, so I chose to walk up to the cave entrance and wait there for Alexan\u00addre Gay, who was to be my guide into anoth\u00ader world.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now is the time to explain why I had picked this par\u00adtic\u00adu\u00adlar cave. Oth\u00aders are more famous, more spec\u00adtac\u00adu\u00adlar, and eas\u00adi\u00ader to get to. <\/span><\/p>\n

Grad\u00adu\u00adal\u00adly, most of the pre\u00adhis\u00adtoric art caves are being closed off from pub\u00adlic view. The mere pres\u00adence of human beings is destroy\u00ading the cave art, because the increase in the lev\u00adel of car\u00adbon diox\u00adide caused by human breath\u00ading pro\u00admotes the growth of a nasty green slime of bac\u00adte\u00adria and algae on the cave walls. The famous art of Las\u00adcaux and Chau\u00advet have been near\u00adly destroyed, and these caves are now sealed off. The French gov\u00adern\u00adment has spent a for\u00adtune cre\u00adat\u00ading repli\u00adca \u201ccaves\u201d for tourists. But I have lit\u00adtle inter\u00adest in view\u00ading these repli\u00adcas. Good pro\u00adfes\u00adsion\u00adal pho\u00adtog\u00adra\u00adphy and the appro\u00adpri\u00adate tech\u00adni\u00adcal reports will give me more infor\u00adma\u00adtion, and no repli\u00adca can pro\u00advide the real\u00adi\u00adty<\/em> of expe\u00adri\u00adence I seek. Gar\u00adgas is not one of the more famous ones, and it is not con\u00adve\u00adnient\u00adly locat\u00aded. Unlike many of the caves, its exis\u00adtence has been known for cen\u00adturies, and in fact it has vis\u00adi\u00adtor grafit\u00adti from cen\u00adturies past. Most of all, it has only a small amount of the ani\u00admal art that peo\u00adple asso\u00adciate with such caves. <\/span><\/p>\n

But Gar\u00adgas specif\u00adi\u00adcal\u00adly has fas\u00adci\u00adnat\u00aded me since I ran across Claude Bar\u00adri\u00e8re &<\/span> Ali Sahly\u2019s L\u2019art par\u00adi\u00e9\u00adtal de la Grotte de Gar\u00adgas<\/em> in a two-vol\u00adume Eng\u00adlish trans\u00adla\u00adtion pub\u00adlished by Oxford\u2019s British Archae\u00ado\u00adlog\u00adi\u00adcal Reports. In the many years since I read it, the cave has haunt\u00aded me. There are many ways in which it is pro\u00adfound\u00adly dif\u00adfer\u00adent from oth\u00ader pre\u00adhis\u00adtoric cave sites. First, and for\u00admost, are its hands. Hand sten\u00adcils, formed by plac\u00ading a hand against a stone sur\u00adface and then spray\u00ading pig\u00adment onto it by con\u00adtrolled spit\u00adting \u2014 a slow process, but very pre\u00adcise \u2014 are scat\u00adtered through\u00adout Europe, and can also be found in Africa, Indone\u00adsia, Aus\u00adtralia, and South Amer\u00adi\u00adca. But Gar\u00adgas has far more than any oth\u00ader site. In fact, it accounts for half of all the hand sten\u00adcils in Europe. The sig\u00adnif\u00adi\u00adcance of the hand-sten\u00adcils is unknown. They exhib\u00adit great pecu\u00adliar\u00adi\u00adties. Many of them appear to have fin\u00adgers miss\u00ading. This trig\u00adgered var\u00adi\u00adous the\u00ado\u00adries based on anthro\u00adpo\u00adlog\u00adi\u00adcal par\u00adal\u00adlels, such as the cus\u00adtom in some places of chop\u00adping off a fin\u00adger to sig\u00adni\u00adfy mourn\u00ading of a deceased loved one. Oth\u00aders sug\u00adgest\u00aded that fin\u00adgers were being lost to frost\u00adbite. But the num\u00adber of sten\u00adcils at Gar\u00adgas show\u00ading miss\u00ading fin\u00adgers far exceeds the prob\u00ada\u00adbil\u00adi\u00adties of these kinds of expla\u00adna\u00adtions. For\u00adtu\u00adnate\u00adly, some\u00adone even\u00adtu\u00adal\u00adly demon\u00adstrat\u00aded that one needs only to bend a fin\u00adger under\u00adneath one\u2019s hand while spray\u00ading the paint to achieve the \u201cmiss\u00ading fin\u00adger\u201d effect. Hand sten\u00adcils of this type are much, much old\u00ader <\/em>than most of the fig\u00adu\u00adra\u00adtive art that is known in pre\u00adhis\u00adtoric caves. The famous ani\u00admal paint\u00adings at Las\u00adcaux were made around 20,000 years ago, and are asso\u00adci\u00adat\u00aded with the Solutre\u00adan archae\u00ado\u00adlog\u00adi\u00adcal cul\u00adture [archae\u00adol\u00ado\u00adgists des\u00adig\u00adnate sim\u00adi\u00adlar com\u00adplex\u00ades of arti\u00adfacts as \u201ccul\u00adtures\u201d, but this should not be tak\u00aden to mean a \u201ccul\u00adture\u201d as nec\u00ades\u00adsar\u00adi\u00adly an eth\u00adnic enti\u00adty]. The art at Altami\u00adra is between 17,000 and 13,000 years old, and is asso\u00adci\u00adat\u00aded with the Mag\u00addalanean cul\u00adture, and the images at Trois-Fr\u00e8res are push\u00ading to the edge of the Neolith\u00adic. Gar\u00adgas con\u00adtains some ani\u00admal art, and it too dates from around 15,000 years ago and is iden\u00adti\u00adfi\u00adably Mag\u00addalanean. But the hand-sten\u00adcils at Gar\u00adgas date from more than 27,000 years ago, and are asso\u00adci\u00adat\u00aded with the Gravet\u00adt\u00adian cul\u00adture. This was before the last Glacial Max\u00adi\u00admum. It is impor\u00adtant to remem\u00adber that when the best rep\u00adre\u00adsen\u00adta\u00adtion\u00adal art was made at Gar\u00adgas, the artists were near to work done by artists who were near\u00adly as far back in time from them as they are from me<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Visitor<\/a>

Vis\u00adi\u00adtor pho\u00adtog\u00adra\u00adphy is not per\u00admit\u00adted at Gar\u00adgas. This and the next pho\u00adtos come from tech\u00adni\u00adcal papers<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

The hand-sten\u00adcils at Gar\u00adgas are very sim\u00adi\u00adlar to ones found across the plan\u00adet in Sulawe\u00adsi, Indone\u00adsia. Recent re-dat\u00ading using \u201cU\u2011series\u201d Uranium\/Thorium dat\u00ading tech\u00adniques have con\u00adfirmed that these were made 39,900 years ago. As in Europe, Asian hand-sten\u00adcils tend to pre\u00addate ani\u00admal art by sev\u00ader\u00adal thou\u00adsand years at the same loca\u00adtions. The idea that art \u201corig\u00adi\u00adnat\u00aded\u201d in Europe is long aban\u00addoned from seri\u00adous con\u00adsid\u00ader\u00ada\u00adtion. Pari\u00adetal art in Aus\u00adtralia, Asia, and Africa can be dat\u00aded to the same time depth, or earlier. <\/span><\/p>\n

Anoth\u00ader thing that is unique about Gar\u00adgas: It is the only Euro\u00adpean cave in which art co-exists with clear signs of human habi\u00adta\u00adtion. In the famous caves in the Dor\u00addogne, for instance, there are caves near\u00adby that were inhab\u00adit\u00aded, but the art-caves were func\u00adtion\u00adal\u00adly sep\u00ada\u00adrate enti\u00adties. At Gar\u00adgas, all the art is inside the cave, well beyond the lim\u00adits of nat\u00adur\u00adal light, and had to have been made and seen by portable illu\u00admi\u00adna\u00adtion (prob\u00ada\u00adbly fat-lamps sim\u00adi\u00adlar to the ones used by the Innu\u00adit), but there was con\u00adsis\u00adtent, long-term habi\u00adta\u00adtion at the cave mouth. Why Gar\u00adgas should be unique in this way remains a mystery.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"16-03-25<\/a>\"16-03-25<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

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A small group gath\u00adered below the cave entrance, at a place with a fine view of the val\u00adley below. M. Gay arrived, and after a brief talk led us into the upper cave. It is now only acces\u00adsi\u00adble through a locked door. For about an hour, Alexan\u00addre led us through about 500 metres of gal\u00adleries. The upper cave is nar\u00adrow and wind\u00ading, but does not require any spe\u00adcial skill to pass through. It con\u00adtains some of the fig\u00adu\u00adra\u00adtive art. The nat\u00adur\u00adal fea\u00adtures of this cave, includ\u00ading a vari\u00adety of rock pil\u00adlows, sta\u00adlagtites and sta\u00adlag\u00admites, cre\u00adat\u00aded an appro\u00adpri\u00adate atmos\u00adphere of sus\u00adpense as we pro\u00adgressed. We came at last to an arti\u00adfi\u00adcial tun\u00adnel that had been con\u00adstruct\u00aded to con\u00adnect the upper cave with the lower.<\/span><\/p>\n

The low\u00ader cave is much big\u00adger and wider and con\u00adtains the two main cham\u00adbers and a small side-cham\u00adber called the Cham\u00adbre du Camarin<\/em>. Most of the cave art is here, includ\u00ading all of the hands. There seem to be at least three phas\u00ades of devel\u00adop\u00adment in the fig\u00adu\u00adra\u00adtive art. Ani\u00admals rep\u00adre\u00adsent\u00aded include Bovi\u00addae, Bison, Mam\u00admoth, Hors\u00ades, Ibex, and pos\u00adsi\u00adbly birds. For the most part, it con\u00adsists of etch\u00adings into the stone, some\u00adtimes com\u00adbined with paint\u00ading. This is the sort of thing that does not come off well in pho\u00adtographs, and only see\u00ading the real thing in situ<\/em> con\u00adveys its artis\u00adtic qual\u00adi\u00adty. I was not pre\u00adpared for the emo\u00adtion\u00adal pow\u00ader of this art, hav\u00ading long assumed that it must be infe\u00adri\u00ador to the famous stuff. At one point, we were asked to crouch on the ground to look up at one engrav\u00ading that could only be viewed from this angle.<\/span><\/p>\n

But is the hands I was most inter\u00adest\u00aded in. They had come to rep\u00adre\u00adsent, for me, a direct con\u00adnec\u00adtion to oth\u00ader human beings across a vast gulf of time. And despite all the prepa\u00adra\u00adtion for the event, the real\u00adi\u00adty of it drained me emo\u00adtion\u00adal\u00adly. They are not mere\u00adly pret\u00adty, but shock\u00ading, in some\u00adthing like the way that the ghost\u00adly shad\u00adows of vapor\u00adized humans on the walls of Hiroshi\u00adma are shock\u00ading. These are not arti\u00adfacts, like the ani\u00admal draw\u00adings, the mobile art, or the lith\u00adic finds. They are shad\u00adows of human beings, of real peo\u00adple who thought and felt and loved and hat\u00aded and cried and died. Their pres\u00adence in the cave was pal\u00adpa\u00adble, as if they were por\u00adtraits of my own fam\u00adi\u00adly on a bed\u00adroom dress\u00ader. And these peo\u00adple strug\u00adgled to stay alive in a way per\u00adfect\u00adly famil\u00adiar to me \u2014 the hunt\u00ading of large mam\u00admals in a cold cli\u00admate, much like the world that still exists in north\u00adern Cana\u00adda. It is not very long since I spoke and shared a whiskey or two with peo\u00adple who would have rec\u00adog\u00adnized the inhab\u00adi\u00adtants of Gar\u00adgas as \u201cfolk just like us.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Gay has devot\u00aded all his life to the Gar\u00adgas caves. He had an appoint\u00adment to attend to, so we agreed to meet on the fol\u00adlow\u00ading day at his home pour un ap\u00e9ri\u00adtif<\/em>. <\/em>He con\u00adve\u00adnient\u00adly lives in Loubr\u00e8s, a short walk from the fro\u00admagerie<\/em>. It was a con\u00adver\u00adsa\u00adtion I eager\u00adly looked for\u00adward to.<\/span><\/p>\n

But what to do next? It was still mid-after\u00adnoon, and I might as well see some of the coun\u00adtry\u00adside. M. Uchan had men\u00adtioned that there was a medieval church or some sig\u00adnif\u00adi\u00adcance, and some roman ruins anoth\u00ader four kilo\u00adme\u00adters to south. This would put me in the val\u00adley to east of the one Lom\u00adbr\u00e8s was in, sep\u00ada\u00adrat\u00aded by a wall of steep, forest\u00aded hills. The topo\u00adgraph\u00adi\u00adcal maps indi\u00adcat\u00aded that there was a foot\u00adpath over the hills, in fact a frag\u00adment of the medieval trail of pil\u00adgrim\u00adage known as El Camino de San\u00adti\u00ada\u00adgo<\/em>. There seemed to plen\u00adty of time to find this trail, cross the hills, find the Roman bridge that was sup\u00adposed to cross the lit\u00adtle riv\u00ader Larise, and then make my way back to Lombr\u00e8s. <\/span><\/p>\n

The best-laid schemes o\u2019 mice an\u2019 men gang aft agley.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My appoint\u00adment at Gar\u00adgas was for ear\u00adly in the after\u00adnoon, so I was able to have a pleas\u00adant and leisure\u00adly break\u00adfast. In place of the stan\u00addard French baguette, there was a much more chewy local loaf known as qua\u00adtre-banes, which I thought superb, \u2026<\/p>\n

Read more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,949],"tags":[1128,1125,1127,1122,1131,1126,1119,1130,1129,1123,1124,1121,1120],"class_list":["post-6412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-blog","category-ak-blog-2016","tag-art-parietal","tag-aventignan","tag-canteloube","tag-cave-paintings","tag-chambre-du-camarin","tag-chants-dauvergne","tag-gargas","tag-gravettian","tag-grotte-de-gargas","tag-hautes-pyrenees","tag-lombres","tag-prehistorica-art","tag-prehistory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6412"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6412\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9842,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6412\/revisions\/9842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}