jan 1, 25000 BC - 25,000 BCE - Pech-Merle Cave Paintings near the village of de Cabrerets France the "Wounded Man"

Description:

Quote from Cork Uni (link below) -

An important site of Franco-Cantabrian cave art, Pech-Merle is situated some 20 miles east of Cahors, in the Midi-Pyrenees region of France, and contains some of the most spectacular examples of prehistoric art in the world. Dating to 25,000 BCE, Pech-Merle's parietal art ranks with the Abri Castanet Engravings (35,000 BCE), the Chauvet Cave Paintings (30,000 BCE) and the engraved drawings at Grotte des Deux-Ouvertures (c.26,500 BCE) as the oldest art in France. It is particularly famous for its polychrome cave painting known as "The Dappled/Spotted Horses of Pech-Merle" which is accompanied by numerous hand stencils. Other highlights include "The Black Frieze" and the "Wounded Man" with its abstract signs of the Aviform or Placard type. Archeologists believe that the cave's rock art was completed in three phases: the first two occurred during the eras of Gravettian art and Solutrean art, between about 25,000 and 17,000 BCE; the third phase occurred about 13,000 BCE, during the later era of Magdalenian art, exemplified by the wonderful Altamira Cave paintings in Spain. To see how Pech-Merle's cave art fits in with the evolution of Stone Age art, see: Prehistoric Art Timeline (from 2.5 million BCE).
The cave art at Pech Merle consists of some 570 separate images. Unusually, and unlike Chauvet, Lascaux and Altamira, there are more abstract pictographs here, than animal pictures. Only about 60 animal images have been identified: 21 woolly mammoths, 12 horses, 7 bison, 6 aurochs, 6 reindeer, 2 ibex, 1 lion, 1 bear and 3 indecipherable creatures. In addition, there are 12 images of humans - 8 relatively naturalistic, and 4 schematic. The abstract art includes: a number of aviforms or Placard-type signs - including two next to the picture of the "Wounded Man". These signs occur in three paintings at Pech-Merle, eleven paintings at Cougnac Cave (c.23,000 BCE), and in seven engravings at Le Placard Cave (17,500 BCE). There are also a large number of black and red dots, and other abstract symbols. As well as paintings and pictographic imagery, there are numerous engravings - similar to the contemporaneous Cussac Cave Engravings (c.25,000 BCE) - and some prehistoric sculpture, including a bison carved in natural relief.

Note: For details of similar prehistoric art in the Lot region, see: Roucadour Cave Art (24,000 BCE) and Cougnac Cave (23,000 BCE).

For other Gravettian cave decorations, see: Cosquer Cave Paintings (25,000 BCE) and the compelling Gargas Cave Hand Stencils (25,000 BCE).

The great masterpiece of the early phase of art at Pech Merle (Gravettian) is the dappled or spotted horse panel - four metres in length, carbon-dated to roughly 25,000 BCE. It features two horses back-to-back and partly superimposed, as well as numerous red and black hand stencils and other abstract imagery. This period of activity also features the series of dots, circles, hand stencils and crude finger drawing on the large "hieroglyph ceiling." (For a comparison, please see the El Castillo cave paintings in Cantabria, which include a number of hand stencils and abstract symbols.)

The main highlights of the second phase (Solutrean) are the painting of the "Wounded Man", and the cave's 40 black drawings (c.20,000 BCE), notably the two dozen or so grouped on the famous "Black Frieze" or Chapel of the Mammoths. This assemblage includes images of 11 mammoths, 5 bison, 4 horses, 4 aurochs and a quantity of abstract markings. Colour pigments used were predominantly black manganese oxide and red ochre. (For details of the colour pigments in Stone Age cave painting, see: Prehistoric Colour Palette.)

The final phase of parietal art at Pech-Merle, undertaken during the Magdalenian period, involved a number of rock engravings, including the famous engraved drawing of a bear in The Bear's Passage, dating to about 11,000 BCE.

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