Stone Lamps of the Palaeolithic

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)

These minimalist lamps from
Lascaux Cave are of the open-
circuit type. They would have been
picked up, used, and then
discarded, without any thought
being given to them.

Photo: Don Hitchcock 2014

Source: Original on display at Le
Musée National de Préhistoire, Les
Eyzies-de-Tayac
 This sandstone
lamp from
Solvieux, broken
in four pieces,
shows a shallow
depression for the
grease and wick.
It is dated to the
early
Magdalenian, and
comes from
couche A in
locality 3 of
Solvieux.

Photo: Don Hitchcock 2014

Source: Original on display at Le Musée National de Préhistoire, Les Eyzies-de-Tayac

Back
view
of the
lamp
above.

Photo:
Don

Hitchcock 2014

Source: Original on display at Le Musée National de Préhistoire, Les Eyzies-de-Tayac

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.com/html/art/art_mobilier.php

Photograph from Rivière (1899) showing the ibex engraved on the underside of the lamp.

Photo: Rivière (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 Vézère 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
Three views of a lamp
from Jamblancs, early
Magdalenian.

Photo: Don Hitchcock

2008, 2014
Source: Originals on
display at Le Musée
National de
Préhistoire, Les
Eyzies-de-Tayac
 Lamp carved in limestone.
It would have had fat or oil
in the depression, with a
twist of moss or string for a
wick.

This lamp was 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, 2014
Source: Originals on display at
Le Musée National de
Préhistoire, Les Eyzies-de-Tayac
Lamps from la Madeleine.

Photo: Don Hitchcock 2014

Source: Originals on display at Le
Musée National de Préhistoire,
Les Eyzies-de-Tayac
Lamps from la
Madeleine.

Photo: Don Hitchcock

2014
Source: Originals on
display at Le Musée
National de Préhistoire,
Les Eyzies-de-Tayac
Lamp from la
Madeleine.

Photo: Don
Hitchcock 2014
Source: Originals
on display at Le
Musée National de
Préhistoire, Les
Eyzies-de-Tayac
Lamp from la
Madeleine.

Photo: Don
Hitchcock
2014
Source:
Originals on
display at Le
Musée
National de
Préhistoire,
Les Eyzies-de-
Tayac
 Lamp from Gabillou.

Photo:
http://www.chaa.be/wp-

content/uploads/2012/09/Pr%C3%A9histoire-Bestiaire-Slides.pdf
 Lamp
from
Gabillou.

Photo:
Don
Hitchcock
2015
Source:
Original,
Musée

d'Aquitaine à Bordeaux
Lamps from Gabillou.

Photo: Don Hitchcock 2015

Source: Original, Musée d'Aquitaine à Bordeaux
 Lamp from Gabillou.

Photo: Don Hitchcock

2014
Source: Original, le Musée
National de Préhistoire,
Les Eyzies-de-Tayac

Although labelled in the

museum as being from Grand
Moulin, Lugasson, this is not
the famous and well made lamp
from there (see the foot of this
page), and is instead from
Gabillou. Note that Wikimedia
Commons labels it as Lampe à
graisse découverte à Mouthiers-
sur-Boëme, which again is a
mislabelling, that lamp may be
seen below.

It turns out to be from Gabillou,

as might be expected from its
form and material, length 200
mm, width 170 mm, thickness
80 mm.

Catalog: 2000.13.4
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2015
Source: Original, Musée d'Aquitaine à Bordeaux
 This is the Lampe à graisse
(lamp using fat as a fuel)
discovered at la Chaire à
Calvin, Mouthiers-sur-Boëme

Photo: Don Hitchcock 2015

Source: Original, Musée
d'Aquitaine à Bordeaux

The Chaire à Calvin,

Mouthiers-sur-
Boëme lamp was
discovered by F.
Benoist, probably
during excavations
that began around
1870 in Mouthiers.
He gave it in 1871 to
the Museum of
Bordeaux.

The lamp is made of

a yellowish sandstone
with siliceous
cement, of medium
sized quartz grains mixed with mica flakes. The reverse seems to match the general shape
of the original pebble, while the obverse was significantly shaped, perhaps after cleavage of
the pebble.

The object measures 86 mm by 71 mm, and its thickness in the middle is 22 mm. On the
obverse is an almost perfectly circular cavity, polished, 45 mm in diameter, and with a
maximum depth of 9 mm in the centre of the depression. It has a flattened rim all around
the bowl. The reverse is flat on its largest surface. On this are deep incisions and fine
streaks crossing them whose meaning is unclear. No traces of combustion are evident. The
regularity of the bowl is surprising for the time.

Photo and text: Roussot et de Beaune-Romera (1982)

These two undamaged lamps in coarse limestone are from the excavations of l'Abbé Labrie
at Fontarnaud. The first (left ) has an approximately circular shape (140 mm x 120 mm); the
other (right ) is somewhat elongated (143 mm x 110 mm). Both have a height of 75 mm.
Both rest on an irregularly flat base. The bowl of the first, almost circular, measures 75 mm
in its largest diameter, 65 mm in its smallest, with a greatest depth of 14 mm. The bowl of
the second has diameters of 90 mm and 70 mm, with a maximum depth of 15 mm.

Both lamps have a pink tint penetrating several millimetres inside the first, and on almost
the entire extent of its outer surface, about a quarter of the upper part and on the edges of
the bowl. The second only has the same tint on half of its outer surface, on the edges, and
on the inside of the bowl. It was impossible to determine if fat was burned in the bowls, but
one can assume that heat from burning fat was the reason for the dominant pink colour.

Text: Ferrier (1942)

Photo: Don Hitchcock 2015
Source: Original, Musée d'Aquitaine à Bordeaux

(left) Lamp from Laugerie Haute, Maury's excavations

(right) Lamp from Laugerie Haute East, Peyrony's excavations

Photo: Don Hitchcock 2014

Source: Originals, le Musée National de Préhistoire, Les Eyzies-de-Tayac
(left) Lamp from Laugerie Haute East, Magdalenian

(right) Lamp from Laugerie Haute, Middle Magdalenian, Peyrony's excavations

Photo: Don Hitchcock 2014

Source: Originals, le Musée National de Préhistoire, Les Eyzies-de-Tayac

Lamp from la Faurélie, Upper Magdalenian.

The discovery of a new Magdalenian lamp by J. Tixier in the rock-shelter of La Faurélie II
(Dordogne) increases the inventory of carved lamps with handles - of which only thirty are
known.

The La Faurélie lamp is the only example of such a type of lamps to be entirely pecked and
not smoothed by abrasion; in addition, its triangular handle is not free and its general shape
is oval, which makes it an original document.

However, only its shape allows it, for the moment, to be considered as a lamp, since no sign
of use is perceptible inside or around the bowl.

Photo: Don Hitchcock 2014

Text: De Beaune (1984)
Source: Original, le Musée National de Préhistoire, Les Eyzies-de-Tayac

More information about the La Faurélie lamp may be

found here, on the page devoted to the site of La Faurélie
and its tools.
 This early Magdalenian
lamp is from Couche A,
locality 4 of Solvieux.

Photo: Don Hitchcock

2008, 2014
Source: Original on display
at Le Musée National de
Préhistoire, Les Eyzies-de-
Tayac

Lamps from la Madeleine. Since la Madeleine is an abri, these would have been the
ordinary lamps people had around the place, always in the one position, perhaps in a niche
on the wall - they would not have needed handles.

Photo: Don Hitchcock 2014

Source: Original on display at Le Musée National de Préhistoire, 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 Zürich 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 Lamp of Lascaux - Le Brûloir de Lascaux

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

Photo: http://www.american-buddha.com/lascaux.4a.htm

The Lamp of Lascaux - Le Brûloir de Lascaux, was found buried in the floor
of the Shaft at Lascaux by l'Abbé 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 Abbé André Glory at Lascaux. André Leroi-
Gourhan, said in 1982 that Abbé Glory was the man who best knew Lascaux.

Photo: Don Hitchcock 2014

Source: Original on display at Le Musée National de Préhistoire, 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 Musée National de
Préhistoire, 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/ImageServlet
A relatively recent photograph of the lamp.

Photo: Beaune and White (1993)

Another photograph of
the lamp.

Photo:
http://www.musee-
prehistoire-

eyzies.fr/pages/page_id19271_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

André Glory at
Lascaux, 1953

(Note that in this

photo André 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
 Abbé Glory in the apse.

Abbé 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 brûloir 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 displacement, despite its
unexpected mode of extraction.

(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 Périgueux 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'abbé 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'abbé Breuil as arêtes (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 referred
to above.

Engraved bone from the

middle Magdalenian,
discovered by Edouard
Piette in 1902 at Lortet,
Hautes-Pyrénées. The
two sides are decorated
with nested chevrons.

Length 84 mm, width 12

mm, thickness 11 mm.

Photo:

http://www.culture.gouv.fr/
Source: Saint-Germain-en-Laye; musée d'Archéologie 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 Vézère.

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? 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 Corrèze region or in the Dordogne in the zone to the
East, North East, from Châtre 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 Vézère.

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 Vézère, 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 Thévenard near Brive in Corrèze (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 Musée Maury, near Les Eyzies (these
displays are probably now in the Musée national de Préhistoire 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
Rivière. Sandstone.
The reverse carries
an engraving of the
head of an Ibex.
Height 170 mm,
width 120 mm.
2 Grotte du Coual
(Lot). Félix
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 Dôme), Dr Baudon. Trachyte, 140 mm and 130 mm.
6 Grotte de Thévenard (Corrèze). Abbés 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). Trémeau de Roche-Brune. Sandstone. 140 mm.
10 Pair-non-Pair (Gironde). Daleau. Limestone 110 mm.
11 Grotte de la Mairie, à 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: Viré (1934)

 Lamp
from the
grotte
des
Scilles
(Haut-

Garonne) Middle Magdalenian. 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
Trémeau 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. Rivière. 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 carbonaceous remains, a thin skin or film of carbon deposits, and
small clusters of amorphous carbonaceous materials such that a microscopic examination
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 brûloir, 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 brûloir 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.

Abbé Glory.

References

1. Bastin, A., Chassaing, J., 1940: Découverte d'une lampe paléolithique à Domme
(Dordogne) Bulletin de la Société préhistorique française, 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 premières lampes, Nouveautés
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 à
Teyjat (Dordogne) Fouilles d'un gisement magdalénien., 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 préhistoire, Paris: Ed. Albert Morancé,
1962.
8. De Beaune S., 1984 - La lampe de La Faurelie II, Anthropologie, Elsevier Masson,
1984, 88 (1), pp.89-97.
9. Eshleman, C., 2003: Juniper fuse: upper paleolithic imagination & the
construction of the underworld Wesleyan University Press, paperback, 356pp,
ISBN-13: 9780819566058, ISBN: 0819566055
10. Ferrier, J., 1942: Les Lampes du Paléolithique en Gironde, Bulletin de la Société
préhistorique française, 1942, tome 39, N. 3-4. pp. 124-128.
11. Glory, A., 1961: Le brûloir de Lascaux Gallia préhistoire, Tome 4, 1961. pp. 174-
183.
12. Leroi-Gourhan, A., Allain J., 1979: Lascaux inconnu, Centre National de la
Recherche Scientifique, 1979, 381 p.
13. Rivière E., 1897: La grotte de la Mouthe (Dordogne), Bulletins de la Société
d'anthropologie de Paris, IV Série. Tome 8, 1897. pp. 302-329
14. Rivière E., 1899: La lampe en grès de la grotte de La Mouthe (Dordogne), Bulletins
de la Société d'anthropologie de Paris, IV Série. Tome 10, 1899. pp. 554-563.
15. Roussot A., de Beaune-Romera S., 1982: Quelques lampes paléolithiques peu
connues du Sud-Ouest de la France, Bulletin de la Société préhistorique française,
1982, tome 79, N. 10-12. pp. 369-382.
16. Smith, R., 1979: An individual-based comparative advantage model: Did economic
specialization …, Rutgers The State University of New Jersey - New Brunswick
 17. Viré, A., 1934: Les Lampes du Quaternaire moyen et leur bibliographie, Bulletin de
la Société préhistorique française, 1934, tome 31, N. 11. pp. 517-520.

Dejo el siguiente enlace con bibiliografía sobre lámparas francesas para quien quiera
profundizar en el tema.

Fuentes:

- The Lamp of Lascaux - Le Brûloir de Lascaux, Fuente principal - Don´s Maps.

- Ice Age Lamps (Beaune-White1993)

- Innovation and Technological Knowledge in the Upper Paleolithic of Northern Eurasia

- Note sur des fragments d'une lampe aurignacienned'Isturitz (Basses-Pyrénées)

- Découverte d'une lampe paléolithique à Domme (Dordogne)

- Une nouvelle Lampe paléolithique (Saint-Cirq-Madelon)

1 La Mouthe (Dordogne) Emile Rivière. Sandstone. The reverse carries an engraving of the
head of
an Ibex. Height 170 mm, width 120 mm.
2 Grotte du Coual (Lot). Félix 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 Dôme), Dr Baudon. Trachyte, 140 mm and 130 mm.
6 Grotte de Thévenard (Corrèze). Abbés 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). Trémeau de Roche-Brune. Sandstone. 140 mm.
10 Pair-non-Pair (Gironde). Daleau. Limestone 110 mm.
11 Grotte de la Mairie, à 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.