In this rainy #FridayPaleoArt we are going to look for rock art in the deep blue #Mediterranean sea

Cave: #Cosquer
Place: Calanque de Morgiou in Marseille, France
Motif: black bison
Chronology: #Solutrean

The cave is located in the Calanque de Morgiou, a few kilometers from Marseille. But it is located 37m below current sea level, so it can only be accessed by diving. 20,000 years ago the sea was about 5 km from the cave, so access it would be easier for Paleolithic groups.

In 1985, after 160m of underwater travel, the extraordinary discovery of this cave was made by a professional diver named Henri Cosquer, who gives its name to this cave.

Research about the awesome cave art that this cave contains did not begin until 1991, being studied since then by the prestigious prehistorian Jean Clottes among others.

http://www.aranzadi.eus/fileadmin/docs/Munibe/200503009022AA.pdf

The rock art motifs of the Cosquer cave are grouped into two well differentiated chronological periods, the Gravettian and the Solutrean. In the oldest one, the negative hands stand out, most of which do not have all the fingers.

In the Solutrean period we find a great variety of painted and engraved animals, among which we find horses, goats, deer and marine animals like pinguins (), but we are going to focus on an impressive specimen of black bison.

This figure has been painted with charcoal in a very detailed way, being able to appreciate details of the fur and even the sex. It was made on a curvature of the wall, thus providing dynamism to the figure when observed from a specific point and with the movement of firelight.

For obvious reasons, the site is not visitable, but is being built a facsimile of the cavity for 2022, so soon we will looking closely the rock art of the Cave Cosquer. #GrotteCosquer @grotte_cosquer



A. Torres ( @Torres_Riesgo)

End of thread!!!