Art by firelight? Using experimental and digital techniques to explore Magdalenian engraved plaquette use at Montastruc (France).

ABSTRACT: Palaeolithic stone plaquettes are a type of mobiliary art featuring engravings and recovered primarily from Magdalenian sites, where they can number from single finds to several thousand examples. Where context is available, they demonstrate complex traces of use, including surface refreshing, heating, and fragmentation. However, for plaquettes with limited or no archaeological context, research tends to gravitate toward their engraved surfaces. This paper focuses on 50 limestone plaquettes excavated by Peccadeau de l'Isle from Montastruc, a Magdalenian rockshelter site in southern France with limited archaeological context; a feature common to many art bearing sites excavated across the 19th and early 20th Centuries. Plaquette use at Montastruc was explored via a programme of microscopy,

SUBMITTER: Needham A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9020732 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature