The Lamp of Lascaux - Le Brloir

deLascaux


The Lascaux Lamp, found buried in the floor of the Shaft at Lascaux by l'Abb
Glory, is a superb piece of workmanship.




The Lamp of Lascaux - Le Brloir de Lascaux, was
found buried in the floor of the Shaft at Lascaux by
l'Abb Glory, and is a superb piece of workmanship. It
is from the Magdalenian culture, 17 000 BP. It can be
viewed in the National Prehistory Museum in Les
Eyzies-de-Tayac. Shaped like a large spoon made of
red sandstone, 8 3/4 inches long by 4 3/16 inches wide
and 1 1/4 inches thick, the lamp is finely polished and
symmetrical. Its shallow oval cup serves as a
receptacle for fuel. The upper surface of the handle is
decorated with two abstract signs of chevrons fitted
into each other, such as are found painted or engraved
in various parts of the cave. When the lamp was
discovered, it still contained sooty substances
grouped in a circle at the bottom of the cup on a
magma of fine dust.These particles were tested and
determined to be the remains of a juniper wick used
for ignition.



An oil lamp (a deer fat
lamp), found in the
sediments in the floor of
the Shaft at Lascaux
cave in Montignac,
Dordogne, Aquitaine,
France. Magdalenian
culture, 17 000 BP. It can
be viewed in the National
Prehistory Museum in
Les Eyzies-de-Tayac.

The red sandstone lamp
was found by Abb
Andr Glory at Lascaux. Andr Leroi-Gourhan, said in 1982 that Abb Glory
was the man who best knew Lascaux.

Photo: Smhur, 25th September 2009
Permission: Creative Commons 3.0 Unported
Source: Original on display at Le Muse National de Prhistoire, Les Eyzies-
de-Tayac






The lamp is just as
beautifully completed on
the back as the front. Note
the layers of sandstone
symmetrically circling the
bowl of the lamp.

This is a masterwork.

Photo: Don Hitchcock
2008

Source: Original on display at Le Muse National de Prhistoire, Les Eyzies-
de-Tayac






Another photo of
the lamp showing
the carbonaceous
deposits in the
bowl at the time of
discovery.

Photo: Ministry
of Education,
Culture and Sport
Source:
http://ceres.mcu.es
/pages/ImageServl
et






A
relativ
ely
recent
photo
graph
of the
lamp.

Photo:
Beau
ne and White (1993)






Another photograph of
the lamp.

Photo:
http://www.musee-
prehistoire-
eyzies.fr/pages/page_id1
9271_u1l2.htm





This is by no means the only lamp found at Lascaux. Beaune and White
(1993) say that many were found lying together in groups at Lascaux, 70
altogether. This is a staggering figure.




Text below from Eshleman (2003)

Glory's most spectacular find in the Shaft was a lamp (bruloir ) in a ground
layer below the tail of the rhinoceros. "Shaped like a large spoon made of red
sandstone, 8
3
/
4
inches long by 4
3
/
16
inches wide and 1
1
/
4
inches thick, the
lamp is finely polished and symmetrical. Its shallow oval cup serves as a
receptacle for fuel. It has a capacity of two fluid ounces. The upper surface of
the handle is decorated with two abstract signs of chevrons fitted into each
other, such as are found painted or engraved in various parts of the cave."

When the lamp was discovered, "it still contained sooty substances grouped in
a circle at the bottom of the cup on a magma of fine dust" These particles were
tested and determined
to be the remains of a
juniper wick used for
ignition.


Alain Roussot and
Andr Glory at
Lascaux, 1953

(Note that in this photo
Andr Glory is using a
translucent medium
directly on the surface
of the cave, in order to
trace the image -
Don)

Photo: http://albuga.free.fr/fr/prehistoire/Bara-
Bahau/agrandissement.html#02_P1290060.JPG



Abb Glory in the apse.

Abb Glory worked in
Lascaux's engraved areas -
the Passageway, the Apse,
the Nave, and Chamber of
Felines - from 1953 to 1962,
identifying some 1433
figures. Standing, or lying on
his back on scaffolding,
Glory used over 140 square
metres of tracing paper,
recording the chaos under it,
which then had to be
deciphered and identified.

His work was rechecked and
nearly always found to be
accurate by some of the
contributors to the only book that examines in detail Lascaux's engravings:

Lascaux inconnu, Leroi-Gourhan et Allain (1979).

It appears that the apse was originally painted with large animals and that to
reach the ceiling (anciently formed by a whirlpool of water) saffolding had to be
used.

When the Magdalenians were in Lascaux, this ceiling was nine feet above the
floor. Since the cave's discovery in 1940, this floor had been lowered four feet.
The south, west and north walls of the Apse are circular. To the east it opens
into the end of the Passageway and the beginning of the Nave.

Right above the original floor line are the remains of several large black
aurochs, one after the other. Their head turn towards the enlarged opening in
the west wall leading to the Shaft. Above the aurochs are traces of painted
stags, including a composition of five on the south wall. On the ceiling,
seeming to make use of the bulging, circular limestone formation, are two
large horses, one red, the other yellow.

Photo and text: Eshleman (2003)


Le brloir de Lascaux
Glory (1961)

Translated by Don Hitchcock


This is a very important paper which deserves wider distribution.
The stratigraphy of the basement of the Shaft at Lascaux is not significantly
different from that of the upper galleries of the cave. There would have been
occasional extra depositions of handfuls of soil or loose stone from time to
time as people used ropes or rope ladders to climb in and out of the Shaft,
dislodging dirt and stones as they did so.

These deposits fell to the bottom of this eight metres deep hole, but did not
take on the appearance of layers, but simply increased the thickness of the
deposits. Carbon 14 analyses, in progress at the moment, will not make much
difference to
the coupe of
the
excavations
at the Shaft:



A drawing
indicating
some of the
layers found,
and a
photograph
of the dig in
progress,
with the lamp in situ.

This sort of historical data is invaluable.

Photo: Glory (1961)



Layer 1
Dark brown clay, compacted. Soil from the discovery of the cave in 1940.
Thickness: 0.05 metres. (50 mm)

Layer 2
Homogeneous sandy clay, loose and sterile. Thickness: 0.10 metres. (100
mm )

Layer 3
Complex archaeological layer, including various soil beds formed as lenses of
brown clay enclosing flint, mineral colourants, abundant and voluminous
charcoal fragments, some animal bones, limestone plaques blackened with
burnt wood. The earth surrounding it is a sandy clay. Thickness 0.15 to 0.20
metres. (150 to 200 mm)

Layer 4
Light coloured bed of sandy clay. Thickness: 0.05 to 0.10 m. (50 to 100 mm)

Layer 5
Paleosol very thin, existing only in places, revealed by a linear brown horizon,
dotted with rare carbonaceous granules. Thickness 0.005 to 0.01 m. (5 to 10
mm)

Layer 6
Sub-soil of clay platelets with the interposition of beds of white sand brought
by water. Thickness about 3 metres.

The subsoil of the upper galleries offers, with more precision, the same
superposition of layers which are thinner and more packed, but with some
important differences:

Layer 1, at the entrance, the Hall of the Bulls, the Passage, and the Nave, is
replaced by a stalagmite layer of which carbon at the base has been dated to
8 200 BP.

This rests directly on a sterile layer, Layer 2, 0.06 to 0.08 metres thick. (60 to
80 mm)

Layer 3, 0.03 to 0.05 metres thick (30 to 50 mm) is compact and laminated.
Over a thickness of 10 mm, we counted with a binocular microscope a dozen
varves, that is, a dozen different soils successively compacted by the passage
of people in twelve periods of occupation followed by eleven periods of
absence. The granules of charcoal, which were incorporated, were dated at
17 000 BP in a Dutch laboratory. While awaiting the results of ongoing
analyses, we date, by extrapolation, the similar layer of the Shaft layer 3 at
17 000 years. A first analysis in Chicago in 1951 gave an age of 15 566 years
BP.

This, then, is the basis of this soil formation No. 3. On the 8th of July 1960, at
a depth of 300 mm and 370 mm from the left (north) rock face, appeared on
the pale yellow background of the working surface, veined with brown and
black streaks, a flat section of a dark red patch.

I thought that this indicated the presence of a small amount of red ochre, such
as I had already found there, at the foot of the famous painted panel of a
wounded bison threatening a prone man, perhaps used on this panel.

In order to avoid damaging it, I excavated it from below, and realised that it
was a small baton in sandstone, and tried to follow the outline with my
fingertips in order to know its length. Thus was laid gently on the palm of my
hand an oblong object which I carefully extricated from its coating.

It was what is commonly called a lamp. The bottom of the bowl still contained
black fragments of combustion, which apparently had not suffered
displace
ment,
despite
its
unexpect
ed mode
of
extractio
n.



(left) The lamp, seen in profile, shows the curvature of the cup and the black
smudge on the outer edge of the cup.

(right) The top view of the lamp shows the stain on the margin, the disposition
of the carbonaceous deposits and the three engraved signs.

Photo and text: Glory (1961)



The whole upper part of the object left a strong imprint on the roof of the pit in
the ground which had sheathed it. I had a photographic record taken by a
Prigueux professional photographer. We had the chance to have a fresh
artefact, on which one could immediately obtain some scientific details, difficult
to detect on an object that has lost its dehydrated dust layer. M. Moreau,
Deputy Director of the Biological Station of Eyzies, kindly allowed us access to
his laboratory to perform tests and optical micrographs. We completed the
taking of photographs in colour and black
and white prints.





This is the cast of the top of the lamp.

Photo: Glory (1961)



We completed all the measurements including weighing, the study of the
engraving on the lamp, and putting the carbonaceous matter into a test tube in
order to control the rate of its dehydration before examination in our laboratory
at Bugue. We replaced the lamp in its first earth mould; then with our
assistant, J.-L. Villeveygoux, we replaced the earth in the hole made in the
sediments, in order to place the lamp exactly at the former level and closely
examine its context in the soil.

It is curious to note that if we had proceeded at the outset in this way, we
might unwittingly destroyed our research opportunities. Would we have
thought about not touching the surface of the object with a brush , which would
have destroyed the carbonaceous layer of the surface and scattered the ashes
in the spoon? Even worse, if we had used the method of compressed air, as
used in some other excavations, we would have destroyed all the fragile
evidence of combustion.

The object is in the form of a racket, that is to say an oval cup extended by a
handle which has a more or less semi-cylindrical cross-section. The flat of the
handle is decorated with three sets of engravings: a long axial barbed arrow,
with the barb near the cup, though not touching the arrow itself, is framed on
either side and at the extremes by two similar stylised motifs; two pairs of
slanted lines, chevrons truncated at the angle, are followed by two others on
the other side at the end of the handle, with the larger chevron partly
extending inside the other. In each case, one of these chevrons is twice the
length of the other of the pair. L'abb Breuil saw two horns and two ears of
stylised animal heads. (presumably with the shorter chevron forming the ears,
and the longer the
horns - Don )





Drawing and
measurements of the
artefact.

Photo: Glory (1961)



I know we can compare these drawings to five drawings of stylised heads of
ibex engraved on a chisel-pusher or ciseau-poussoir, (used for pressure
flaking of flint - Don ) of deer antler from Gourdan (Haute-Garonne), but they
are from the final Magdalenian. One could also evoke very similar chevrons on
a Lortet baguette in the Museum of National Antiquities, interpreted by l'abb
Breuil as artes (mountain ridges) or as the tails of fishes. If you put these
drawings of Lascaux in context, I am inclined to see the characteristics of the
feathers on darts used for hunting. Similar signs were engraved on horses in
the Apse and also painted on horses in the axial Gallery; so far prehistorians
have identified them as arrows.



Its dimensions are:

total length: 224 mm
maximum width: 106 mm
neck width: 47 mm
total thickness: 32 mm
spoon: 84 mm x 75 mm
depth: 17 mm.
weight in July, not dehydrated: 560 grams.


Ciseau-poussoir in deer antler. Magdalenian.

Schematic engraving of the head of a horse and some ibex seen from the
front. Grotte de Gourdan (Haute-Garonne) 147 x 27 mm

Photo: Chollot (1962)



Lortet baguette.

Engraved bone from the
middle Magdalenian,
discovered by Edouard
Piette in 1902 at Lortet,
Hautes-Pyrnes. The
two sides are decorated
with nested chevrons.

Length 84 mm, width 12
mm, thickness 11 mm.

Photo:
http://www.culture.gouv.f
r/
Source: Saint-Germain-
en-Laye; muse
d'Archologie nationale



Material

This lamp has been fashioned from a block of fine sandstone, without visible
inclusion of hematite, quartz grains and mica flakes. It seems that this
sandstone was selected for its purity, delicacy, and malleability. These
Permian formations are exposed at the fault of Saint-Basile-de-Meyssac near
Brive, at Terrasson, not far from Montignac.

In the same outcrop, the consistency and colour of the rock come in a number
of variations, as we were able to see later at the surface exposure of the rock,
at Meyssac and at Gollonge-la-Rouge. One can not take the first stone which
one finds, one must select from a number of possible raw pieces of stone. It is
possible, too, that pebbles of a good size, worn and flattened by erosion, were
collected and selected from Quaternary alluvium or in the present bed of the
Vzre.

Geometry

It would have been easier and more traditional to carve a circular cup, the
technique of which, long known in the typical Aurignacian, and was
successfully applied to batons with cups. Lamps in the same form of a racket
from Scilles, Marsoulas (Haute-Garonne), Goual (Lot), Laugerie-Haute
(Dordogne), have substantially circular cups or spoons. Others, from Laugerie
Haute, Mouthiers, Bois du Roc (Charente), were equipped with oval shaped
cups, which should not be confused with the lamps from la Mouthe (Dordogne)
and Grand Moulin
(Gironde) which are
ovoid ( egg shaped -
Don ). Is this a
conventional layout,
functional or artistic?








Lamp designs fall
into three main
categories. Open-
circuit lamps (top)
consist of largely unaltered slabs of rock. When the lamp is lit, melted fat runs
off through natural crevices in the rock. Closed-circuit lamps (middle) have
carved depressions to contain the runoff. Carved-handle, closed-circuit lamps
(bottom) also have bowls shaped fuel chambers but are more finely finished
and have formed extensions for easier handling. Burn marks indicate that the
wick was placed away from the handle.

Photo and text: Beaune and White (1993)



Objects described as lamps definitively appear only late in the Upper
Paleolithic. The earliest uncontested lamp comes from the Gravettian at
Laugerie-Haute. It is possible that two Aurignacian artefacts from La Ferrassie,
one Gravettian artefact from Arcy-sur-Cure, and one from Saint-Jean-de-
Verges are lamps (de Beaune 1993). Gravettian lamps carved from mammoth
femur are found at Kostenki I (Hoffecker 2005).

Text above from: Smith
(1979)






The lamp from La
Mouthe. This was the first
lamp ever identified as
such.

Photo:
http://www.hominides.co
m/html/art/art_mobilier.php




Phot
ogra
ph
from
Rivi
re
(189
9) sh
owing the ibex engraved on the underside of the lamp.

Photo: Rivire (1899)



This lamp appears to have been carved from a pebble of Permian sandstone
which is abundant in the basin near Brive, about 40 km as the crow flies from
Les Eyzies. It may well be that the Vzre or any of its tributaries have rolled a
fragment of this rock, which may have been picked up in the river near Les
Eyzies, or in its vicinity and carved for use as lamp cup, while one of its ends
was ground down and rounded to serve as a short, thick, triangular handle (4
cm long). The total length of the lamp is 171 mm, handle included. The cup
has been carved in a regular circular shape, and , measures 106 mm
longitudinal diameter and 104 mm transverse diameter, with 34 mm as its
greatest depth, in the centre. Finally, its thickness is 45 mm. The edge is also
thicker at the opposite end to the handle and has no grooves.

Its general color is dark gray, except in the interior of the cup there is a sooty
black appearance of fat, or materials which have been burned for lighting the
cave.

The outside of the lamp face on which it rests is convex, except in its central
part, which is almost flat. It presents an engraving reminiscent in an
astonishing way, but in much smaller than those which adorn the walls of the
Grotte de la Mouthe. Indeed, this drawing represents the head seen in profile,
of an ibex, a remarkable detailed head: nose, mouth, eyes, ears, horns of a
considerable length (they measure up to 12 cm for one and the other 13 cm)
and strongly curved in a semicircle.

The oval head measures 35mm in length and its greatest width is 23 mm. Two
lines are drawn to indicate a fairly long neck. The body and legs of the animal
are not drawn.


A modern photo of the
base of the lamp from
Grotte de la Mouthe.

Photo:
http://www.slideshare.
net/extremecraft/01-
paleolithic










Lamps carved in
sandstone. They would
have had fat or oil in the
depression, with a twist
of moss or string for a
wick.

Although their age is
Magdalenian, they are
otherwise unidentified, but many of similar type were recovered from La
Madeleine. Some lamps have had a lot of care lavished on finishing them off,
others are very much a case of utility before beauty.

Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008
Source: Originals on display at Le Muse National de Prhistoire, Les Eyzies-
de-Tayac



Nature of the wick

The wick must, by definition, have the property of absorbing melted fat by
capillary attraction and of conveying it to the free end without being consumed
too rapidly itself. The form and structure of this wick influence its efficiency. Of
the different wicks tested, lichen and moss and then juniper appeared to be
the easiest to use. Palaeolithic samples sent to the wood laboratory in Zrich
by the Dellucs and ourselves showed the presence of conifers, juniper, and a
grass (in one case) and of non-woody residues, but it should be borne in mind
that juniper is never completely consumed and so is preserved better than
other plants.

Text above: Beaune (1987)





The (exterior ) oval bowl of the lamp of Lascaux is an almost perfect
geometrical figure, of which the carving, according to craftsmen, has been
done directly into the mass of sandstone. It was only then, according to its
outline, that the edge of the rim would have been created, and the cup itself
excavated by pecking and scraping, of which there are still many traces. This
logical method has allowed the artist to place the handle axis in the extension
of the minor axis of the bowl and draw the two sides as an identical curve.
When, on a transparent film, by folding, we superimpose the two sides of the
handle, you realise that all points of the two curves coincide.

Some colleagues, like M. Delporte, believe that the eye of the palaeolithic
artist was better than the eye of a modern technician, and that for the sake of
beauty of form, he obtained an astonishing precision. According to sculptors
and skilled artisans whom I interviewed, this geometric regularity on a hard
sandstone block could only be obtained by using a measuring device, like a
wooden ruler or notches in bones, or the use of a reversible pattern. The two
theories are not opposed, as the manual skills of a true craftsman are always
complemented by superior visual ability, the one controlling the other during
the operation. There are several examples in Lascaux, in the engravings of
signs, which might be called geometric motifs: four poles stacked at equal
intervals, a series of symmetrical barbs.

As an experiment, we drew, without points of reference, a sketch of the lamp
of Lascaux, then we retouched the edges until the eye judged it to be a
sufficiently symmetrical drawing, and obtained a precision equal to that of
Lascaux, which indicates that the artist was able to complete the task without
a measuring instrument.

Shaping

The layout of the shape, the release of the shape by pecking, seeking smooth
contours and a balanced keel by scraping, polishing the surfaces and the
reductions of ridges, are the various operations that study of the shaping has
revealed with this object.

1. The plot of the contour has disappeared during shaping, but we can still see
the influence of the burin on the piece on the straight line at the end of the
arrowhead near the cup and by the bold line of the shaft of the arrow. This
outline could also have been marked by a sequence of pecked points.

2. The object has kept the trace of two pecking operations: a final pecking,
closely spaced, on the edge of the cup, partially offset by polishing, and a last
minute pecking, deeper, overriding the polishing, at the bottom end of the
handle.

3. Obliquely oriented scrapings, orderly and measured, on the periphery of the
cup to give a visually pleasing contour, explain the smooth profile of the keel,
and the impeccable success of the semicylindrical, slightly ellipsoidal, cross
section of the handle.

4. The polishing was applied to three kinds of surfaces: the flat parts, the
rounded parts and the angular parts. The upper flat surface has been flattened
in two stages, for the plane of the cup is not an extension of that of the handle;
the discrepancy is a difference of 2 degrees. Both operations were done on a
very planar grinding stone, because the crown of the rim is smooth and
distortion-free. The plane of the handle shows a slight elevation of the top left
edge, to the cup, of approximately 2 mm, which may indicate that the piece
was ground back and forth on the grindstone, the workpiece held parallel to
the body.

The inside of the bowl has a perfect polish. The internal curvature, near the
handle, is steeper as a result of more abrasion. The rest of the contour has the
same concave curve. The bowl is shallow (17 mm), and is fairly open. It has a
capacity of approximately 60 millilitres. The circular rim has an average width
of 12 mm. , The left portion ranges from 11 millimetres to 12 millimetres while
the right is 13 mm.

(Note that Glory's text contains a typo which gives the bowl of the lamp a
capacity of 60 centilitres, which is 600 cubic centimetres, or 600 ml, or well
over two cupfuls, which is too large by a factor of 10. Simple mathematics on
the dimensions of the bowl will attest to this. If we take the radius of the bowl
to be an average of 4 cm, and depth on average 1.2 cm, we get a volume of
60 cc, or 60 ml.

If we look at the excellent summary of ice age lamps by Beaune and White
(1993), we find a similar typo with an error of a factor of ten the other way - the
text says 'The largest bowls can hold about 10 cubic centimeters of liquid'
which is too small by a factor of 10 - Don)

5. The end of the handle has not been broken. Its steep angle (approximately
60) represents the natural surface of the original stone, which does not seem
to have undergone the erosive action of water. The lamp would thus have
been carved from a block of sandstone found on the surface. The angular
portions have not been overlooked. The entire outer rim of both the cup and
the handle was rounded, for ease of grip.

Finally, the projection of the inner profile shows a recess of the keel, the
bottom of the handle, slightly concave towards the middle of the total length of
the object (Diagram, No 2, C). Is it an artistic or functional requirement?
Placed on a plane surface, the keel rests at two points of balance, one located
under the end of the handle (Diagram, No 2, A), the other under the cup, B.
The void formed, a geometric arc with its maximum at C is located almost next
to the geometric centre of the lamp, D. We measured the centre of gravity of
the object and it is located in EF, 20 mm ahead of the arrow C, although it
would have been shifted to the left without the arc cut out of the keel of the
handle.

The latter has had the advantage of pushing the centre of gravity towards the
junction of the handle and the cup, giving the handle and the cup about the
same weight. This becomes obvious when the lamp lies on the open palm of
the hand. By a curious coincidence, this is also the ritual gesture of the
Egyptian Pharaoh presenting an analogus object to the deity.

Mr. Dunand, director of excavations at Byblos, (Gebal, Gubla, a Mediterranean
city in Lebanon now called Jubayl, the oldest continuously inhabited place in
the world, founded 7 000 BP - Don ) with no hesitation told us that he saw the
lamp of Lascaux as similar to the natron cups, incense burners with handles
from the New Kingdom in Egypt , and in Phoenicia during the Persian period;
the open hand supports the bottom of the cup while the extended handle rests
on the forearm.

(Natron is a naturally occurring combination of sodium carbonate and sodium
bicarbonate. Natron occurred in great quantities in antiquity on the banks of
several ancient lakes, mainly those of the Wadi Natrun in Egypt, but was also
found elsewhere. Natron was mainly used for purification purposes, both in
daily life and in the religious sphere. Numerous rituals are known in which
natron played an important role, including mummification. It was also used to
make incense, glass and glazes - from
http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/2479706 )

Workshop and period

A number of models of similar design in pink sandstone have already been
described in the literature in Charente (Bois du Roc, Mouthiers), Dordogne
(Laugerie-Haute), in Lot (Coual), Haute-Garonne (Grotte des Scilles,
Marsoulas), but none has survived in such good condition. The lamps from
Charente and from Dordogne are shaped so that they suggest a centre of
manufacture in the Corrze region or in the Dordogne in the zone to the East,
North East, from Chtre to Terrasson.




Ice Age lamps have been found primarily in southwest France (left). Lamps
appear in all eras of the Upper Paleolithic (40 000 to 11 000 years ago); more
of them have been recovered from the later periods. Surprisingly, most larnps
have been retrieved not from deep caves but from open air sites and from
under rock shelters (right).

Photo and text:Beaune and White (1993)




Lamp carved in pink
sandstone from Abri
Lachaud, probably made
from the same pink
sandstone as the Lascaux
lamp.

Abri Lachaud is the third of
the Pouget (or Pouzet) abris,
at Terrasson, Dordogne, half
way between Montignac and
Brive on the Vzre.

Abri Lachaud is a small
Proto - Magdalenian cave
behind a large collapsed
shelter on the side of a
steep hill overlooking the
valley of the Vzre, less than thirty kilometres from Lascaux.

Cheynier (1953) suggests that the lamp was probably broken ritually.

Photo: Cheynier (1953)






The perfection of this Lascaux pink
sandstone lamp's size, the choice of
material, the selection of the block
used, the search for a finished
objet d'art, are not the work of an
amateur, but a professional who had
to have a rather unusual talent in
working sandstone to be successful
in making a second lamp of the
same style as the first.

Indeed we found, in sifting through
the rubble of the first excavations of
the Shaft, a scrap of red sandstone
30 millimetres long, the lower left
edge of another cup. The width of
the rim which also widens , the curvature of the edge of the bowl, with the
same thickness, juxtaposed so perfectly to the first find, that the dimensions
would be very similar.

Photo and text: Glory (1961)



Objects in pink sandstone appear in the typical Aurignacian, to be followed by
the Solutrean at the Grotte de Thvenard near Brive in Corrze (fouilles
Bouyssonie). However the handle cross section, and the raquette shape found
here are Solutrean like those of Laugerie-Haute in the Dordogne, displayed at
Muse Maury, near Les Eyzies (these displays are probably now in the Muse
national de Prhistoire at Les Eyzies - Don ). This type exists in the
Magdalenian (without harpoons) especially at the Magd. III of Bois du Roc,
Mouthiers in Charente, at Marsoulas and at Lespugue in Haute-Garonne.




The principal
Quaternary lamps
1 La Mouthe
(Dordogne) Emile
Rivire. Sandstone.
The reverse carries
an engraving of the
head of an Ibex.
Height 170 mm,
width 120 mm.
2 Grotte du Coual
(Lot). Flix
Bergougnous. 250
mm x 150 mm.
Sandstone.
3 Grotte des Scilles,
at Lespugue (Haute
Garonne) Comte de
Saint-Perrier.
Sandstone. 190 mm.
On the bottom a
rudimentary horse's head.
4 and 5 Anval (Puy de Dme), Dr Baudon. Trachyte, 140 mm and 130 mm.
6 Grotte de Thvenard (Corrze). Abbs Bardon and Bousyssonnie. Red
sandstone. 130 mm. Lightly engraved ruminant.
7 Grotte des Fadets (Charente). Collection Maret. Red sandstone. 50 mm.
8 Bois du Roc (Charente). Fermont. - Engraving of a stylised fish. Sandstone.
170 mm.
9 Mouthiers (Charente). Trmeau de Roche-Brune. Sandstone. 140 mm.
10 Pair-non-Pair (Gironde). Daleau. Limestone 110 mm.
11 Grotte de la Mairie, Teyjat (Dordogne). Bourrinet. Bottom of a lamp of
sandstone with the head of a Reindeer. 130 mm.
12 Grotte des Harpons, at Lespuge. Comte de Saint-Perrier. Limestone. 60
mm.

Photo and text: Vir (1934)




Lamp from
the grotte
des Scilles
(Haut-
Garonne)
Middle
Magdalenia
n. MAN. fine
grained
slightly
micaceous
soft red
sandstone.
Length 200 mm. max width 108.2 mm. bowl diameter 101.6 mm. depth 22
mm.

Photo and text: Beaune (2003)




Lamp from the grotte de La Mairie, Teyjat
(Dordogne). Upper Magdalenian. MAN. no
52456. Limestone. Diameter 102 to 108
mm, height 105 mm, diameter of bowl 82.3
mm, depth 30.8 mm, Drawings after
Bourrinet (1908), (in Capitan et al. (1908)) ,
photos S. A. de Beaune.

Photo and text: Beaune (2003)




The lamp from Grotte du Pilier, also known as the lamp from Codon, since the
Grotte du Pilier is part of this cave complex. The cave is near Domme on the
left bank of the Dordogne, and the lamp is also called the Domme lamp. There
is a reindeer head engraved on the right margin of the lamp.

The lamp of Pilier / Codon / Domme has been made from Late Cretaceous
limestone, selected from a hard grained sample.

Its color is sandy yellow tinged with pink on the sides of the upper face, in
three places. On the underside, the two colours are divided into two irregular
zones of substantially equal area. The general shape is hexagonal, with one
side removed; the bowl is slightly eccentric in the longitudinal direction; the
upper and lower surfaces are not absolutely flat, especially the lower, which is
rather curved.

Dimensions. - The greatest length, nearly axial, reached 120 mm and the
width varies from 85 to 115 mm, the thickness, variable, does not exceed 48
mm. The cup, almost circular, has diameters between 55 mm and 58 mm,
while the depth at the centre reaches 14mm. The weight is 1035 grams.



Photo and text: Bastin et al. (1940)



Usage

Without much discrimination, European inventories grouped, whole and
broken, 70 scoops, stemmed cups, grooves in shell, cups with spouts, plates
with a depressed centre, etc.., under the generic name and misnomer of
'lamps'. The responsibility lies with Alphonse Trmeau Rochebrune who in
1865 discovered in the Grotte de Mouthiers (Charente) the first cut red
sandstone, for which the edge of the curve opposite the handle bore traces of
charcoal.

Since then, D. Peyrony noted black residue and traces of fire in the bottom of
limestone cups from La Madeleine, R. Saint-Perier saw black marks on the
edge of a curved sandstone fragment from Isturitz, Dr. Cheynier, on the edge
of a large shell fossil at the site of Badegoule (Dordogne). There were found to
be areas reddened by fire on hollowed limestone blocks at Pair-non-Pair.
These indications are few in number, whereas the other fifty articles classified
as 'lamps' have no signs of the action of fire.

As for the 140 pieces of limestone covered with charcoal ash found by MM.
Breuil, White, and ourselves in the earth at Lascaux, are these lamps? The
dark matter of the la Mouthe lamp was analysed by the chemist Berthelot and
published in the Academy of Sciences in Paris on October 28, 1901, three
years after the discovery by E. Rivire. Berthelot recognised burnt
carbonaceous material which he interpreted as residues of fat of animal origin.
This is a very real possibility, but difficult to analyse in the laboratory, because
fats or liquids compounded usually of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen oxidise
quickly in the soil and disappear over time.

Wood,
resins,
herbs, plant
or animal
fats, when
consumed,
leave black
carbonaceo
us remains,
a thin skin
or film of
carbon
deposits,
and
small
clusters
of
amorpho
us
carbona
ceous
materials
such that
a
microsco
pic
examinat
ion may
be able
to interpret their condition and conformation. The top left edge of the rim of the
Lascaux lamp was covered by a flat, black film, hard and very thin, not
overflowing either on one side or the other. However there was a dark-stained
smudge extending for a few millimetres on the outer rim of the cup (visible on
the photos shown here).

Photo and text: Glory (1961)



Microphotograph of the carbon
deposits on the left margin, x40.

The deposits on the lamp were
examined under a binocular
microscope on 8th August, 1960,
work which was attended by M.
Moreau, Deputy Director, M.
Gouillard, technician, M. and
Mme. Lacorre, and M. J.-L.
Villeveygoux. We extract from the
laboratory notes the following
essentials: 'At 20x magnification,
we found a polymorphous
blackened material, with flat blisters and a few granules, cracked in every
direction in a tightly polygonal network. At 40x magnification, the deposited
film surface was dotted with small white crystals (calcite?), and could be seen
to be a thin film superimposed on the pink sandstone.'

Photo and text: Glory (1961)



A former fluid, now a solidified stain, was deposited on the sandstone. It either
came from seepage from a wick, contact from a resinous stick, or perhaps
from dirty fuel. At the bottom of the bowl, the carbonaceous materials occurred
in the form of small isolated pellets of filamentous vegetable fibres, and were
grouped around the centre of the cup on a mass of fine soot. The entire loose
mass, which apparently had not been displaced since the last time it was lit,
broke away with a feather-like touch, and was placed in a test tube ready for
analysis at the Technical Institute for Wood.

The inside of the cup did not have any trace of the direct action of fire, but was
sprinkled with grains of charcoal, and the peripheral ridge was bordered by a
strong black mark. After the removal of the film, the margin of the sandstone
remained impregnated with carbon. Beneath the lamp, the ancient deposit,
sprinkled with granules of charcoal, had no evidence of heated earth.

Based on this data, three interpretations are possible: lamp, incense or smoke
burner, smoke or incense burner and light:

a) A horizontal wick made of plant fibres, placed on the left edge of the rim,
could shed light if the other end were immersed in some fat soaked plant
remains at the centre of the bowl. An axial wick could also rest on its support
of a clump of vegetable matter, fuelled by the dripping of fat suspended above
the burner (a method used by some Eskimos, according to M. Leroi-Gourhan).
The marginal stain is the result of the cleanup of a spill, exacerbated by the
holder of the lamp hitting the lamp against the wall, which would explain the
crack in the cup and the occurrence of fragmentation of all the cups at
Lascaux.

b) Aromatic twigs bundled in groups may have been dropped onto a
foundation of hot coals in the bowl. The resins and tars which would emanate
from this combustion stained the rim, this staining occurring while draining the
hot residues from the cup.

c) Short sticks of aromatic plant fibres could both shed light and emit fragrant
vapours for incense or smoke, either placed on the edge of the rim or placed
in the centre of the bowl.

Conclusion

Based on known ethnographic and archaeological materials, the defence of
the thesis of the object being an incense/smoke burner seems more logical
than a lamp, but it is not necessary to go into that fully here. The
carbodendrology (identification of the fibres used) does not seem to settle the
debate, because we can identify the fibre as a fuel for lighting. The fibres can
be considered as the source of coals, on which resinous particles were burnt
for smoke. However, the case for an incense/smoke censer includes the
following considerations:

1) The number and perfection of engravings and paintings at Lascaux required
fairly extensive lighting in all the rooms above the Shaft. Excavations there
have uncovered no sandstone lamps, but many limestone flakes covered with
cinders of charcoal, which have an artificial cup. Beside this sandstone brloir,
was found an apparatus specially designed to illuminate the bottom of the
Shaft, made with these limestone flakes, which we might call 'candlesticks'.
The description is irrelevant here, as well as another type of lighting used in
the Middle East and found at Lascaux.

2) The 70 'lamps' catalogued in the inventory of Lascaux, if they were all
lamps, would not suffice to explain the problem of lighting in the painted caves,
the inhabited caves, the rock shelters, or the archaeological sites, whose
number exceeds several thousand throughout Europe. This object, if it had
been customary, should have much more diffusion.

3) The perfection of the carving and the rarity of these objects, of the type
raquette and navette (racket and shuttle (la Mouthe, le Grand Moulin) shaped
lamps) barely numbering ten across the whole of Europe, establishes them as
a ritual
vessel.


The lamp
from
Grand
Moulin.

Curiously
, its
length
and width
are
exactly
those of
the lamp
from
Grotte du
Pilier,
being
120 mm x 85 mm.

The thickness is variable, between 5 and 7 mm.

The almost circular cup measures 85 mm in its large diameter, and 68 mm in
its small diameter, and has a depth of 18 mm.

Photo and text: Ferrier (1942)



4) None of these objects have a notch or groove in the edge, to stabilise the
wick.

5) The location of discovery of the two 'lamps' at the foot of the famous
disemboweled Bison panel, hidden in a hard to reach Shaft, looks like a secret
spot reserved for initiates.

6) In the absence of any remains of meals, nor of tool making or the
production of material for painting, the deposition of this brloir or burner laid
flat on the floor does not seem to have a utilitarian function.

Instead the quality of the piece, its freshness from a lack of constant use, the
orientation of the 'lamp' near the painting of Rhinoceros, the burnt vegetable
fibre, and its abandonment in a secluded place, militate in favour of a
ceremonial use.

The burner is covered with earth fallen from the top of the Shaft, and has thus
escaped the notice of those who frequented these places thereafter.

Abb Glory.


References
1. Bastin, A., Chassaing, J., 1940:
Dcouverte d'une lampe palolithique
Domme (Dordogne) Bulletin de la Socit
prhistorique franaise, 1940, tome 37, N.
10-12. pp. 219-229.
2. Beaune, S., 1987: Palaeolithic Lamps and
Their Specialization: A Hypothesis Current
Anthropology, Vol. 28, No. 4. (Aug. - Oct.,
1987), pp. 569-577.
3. Beaune, S., 2003: De la domestication du
feu aux premires lampes, Nouveauts
Lychnologiques, 2003.
4. Beaune, S., White R., 1993: Ice Age
Lamps Scientific American, March 1993.
5. Capitan L., Breuil H., Bourrinet P.,
Peyrony D., 1908: La grotte de la mairie
Teyjat (Dordogne) Fouilles d'un gisement
magdalnien., Paris, F. Alcan, 1908.
6. Cheynier, A., 1953: Stratigraphie de I'abri
Lachaud et les cultures des bords
abattus Archivo de Prehistoria Levantina ,
IV, 1953
7. Chollot, M., 1962: Arts et techniques de la
prhistoire, Paris: Ed. Albert Moranc, 1962.
8. Eshleman, C., 2003: Juniper fuse: upper
paleolithic imagination & the construction of
the underworld Wesleyan University Press,
paperback, 356pp, ISBN-13:
9780819566058, ISBN: 0819566055
9. Ferrier, J., 1942: Les Lampes du
Palolithique en GirondeBulletin de la
Socit prhistorique franaise, 1942, tome
39, N. 3-4. pp. 124-128.
10. Glory, A., 1961: Le brloir de
Lascaux Gallia prhistoire, Tome 4, 1961.
pp. 174-183.
11. Leroi-Gourhan, A., Allain J.,
1979: Lascaux inconnu, Centre National de
la Recherche Scientifique, 1979, 381 p.
12. Rivire E., 1897: La grotte de la Mouthe
(Dordogne), Bulletins de la Socit
d'anthropologie de Paris, IV Srie. Tome 8,
1897. pp. 302-329
13. Rivire E., 1899: La lampe en grs de la
grotte de La Mouthe (Dordogne), Bulletins
de la Socit d'anthropologie de Paris, IV
Srie. Tome 10, 1899. pp. 554-563.
14. Smith, R., 1979: An individual-based
comparative advantage model: Did
economic specialization , Rutgers The
State University of New Jersey - New
Brunswick
15. Vir, A., 1934: Les Lampes du
Quaternaire moyen et leur
bibliographie, Bulletin de la Socit
prhistorique franaise, 1934, tome 31, N.
11. pp. 517-520