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The Monsters of Pergouset

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 December 2008

Michel Lorblanchet  and
Ann Sieveking
Michel Lorblanchet
Affiliation:
Le Roc des Monges46200 Saint-SozyFrance
Ann Sieveking
Affiliation:
Peartree Farm, Gray's Lane Wissett, Halesworth Suffolk, IP19 OJR
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Extract

The last underground room at Pergouset is engraved with a variety of signs and a series of unreal, or distorted, animal figures that are presented as variations on several themes. These fantastic creations are the Pergouset monsters. A few similar depictions are known mostly from nearby caves, but as a group the Pergouset monsters are unparalleled in Franco-Cantabrian art. The engravings of Room IV contrast with the conventional Upper Palaeolithic animal depictions found in the three preceding rooms but the use of particular tricks of depiction, as much as the style of certain figures, makes it likely that the same artist drew both conventional figures and monsters. Conditions in the cave suggest that few, if any, visitors reached this last room. In the light of these circumstances the authors consider possible explanations for the occurrence of the monster engravings and their implications.

Type
Articles
Information
Cambridge Archaeological Journal , Volume 7 , Issue 1 , April 1997 , pp. 37 - 56
Copyright
Copyright © The McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research 1997

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