{"id":"LEROIGOURHAN1971-001","label":"Coucoulu salmon-engraved rib blade","people_or_site":"Grotte du Coucoulu, Calviac-en-Périgord (Magdalenian horizon)","country_current":"France","historic_region":"Dordogne valley, Périgord; Magdalenian","macroregion":"Europe / Southwest France","local_name":"","source_term":"spatule aux poissons (fish spatula)","source_language":"French","object_description":"Thin blade cut from a reindeer rib, 22.8 cm long and about 3 mm thick, curved in both directions by the natural shape of the rib. One end narrows to a neck and a small expanded tip carved as a fish's tail; one face is engraved with a salmonid, the tail of a second fish, and a row of circles and short strokes. The neck end was broken and has been rejoined.","function_summary":"Not recorded.","attestation_type":"archaeological_find","source_key":"leroigourhan1971_coucoulu_spatule","source_type":"journal_article","source_url":"https://www.persee.fr/doc/galip_0016-4127_1971_num_14_2_1385","page_or_plate":"Leroi-Gourhan 1971, pp. 253–254 (dimensions, context, refit), p. 255 figs. 2–3, pp. 256–259","map_confidence":"low","plot_status":"candidate_only","coordinate_basis":"Commune anchor for Calviac-en-Périgord, Dordogne (44°51′55″N 1°17′38″E); no published coordinate for the Grotte du Coucoulu was found.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"A salmon or trout swims down this long, thin blade of reindeer rib, drawn with its fins, its spotted flank and a lateral line bristling with tiny barbs. In front of its jaw sits the tail of a second fish, laid head to tail beneath the first, and the narrow end of the blade is itself carved as a fish's tail. André Leroi-Gourhan, who published it, wondered whether the row of circles and strokes at the far end showed spawning: the hen fish sweeping a nest in the gravel, the cock circling, the round eggs. Magdalenian carvers made a whole family of these fish-tailed blades across southwestern France and northern Spain, and he counted this one, from a cave at Calviac in the Dordogne, among the most remarkable.","pull_quote":"Le poisson est, sans doute possible, un salmonidé.","pull_quote_translation":"The fish is, beyond any doubt, a salmonid.","pull_quote_cite":"André Leroi-Gourhan, Gallia Préhistoire 14(2) (1971), p. 256","term_gloss":"","cls":"unknown","class_label":"Function not recorded","color":"#6B7884","is_candidate":true,"flags":[],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"f_archaeology":true,"archaeology_kind":"object","date_display":"c. 17,000–12,000 BC","date_qualification":"Middle Magdalenian horizon, later Magdalenian not excluded; object not directly dated.","date_basis":"cultural_phase","date_confidence":"low","date_citation":"leroigourhan1971_coucoulu_spatule, Leroi-Gourhan 1971 p. 253","sources":[{"citation":"André Leroi-Gourhan, 'La spatule aux poissons de la grotte du Coucoulu à Calviac (Dordogne)', Gallia Préhistoire 14(2) (1971): 253–259","url":"https://www.persee.fr/doc/galip_0016-4127_1971_num_14_2_1385"}],"source_citations":"André Leroi-Gourhan, 'La spatule aux poissons de la grotte du Coucoulu à Calviac (Dordogne)', Gallia Préhistoire 14(2) (1971): 253–259","source_display":"André Leroi-Gourhan, 'La spatule aux poissons de la grotte du Coucoulu à Calviac (Dordogne)', Gallia Préhistoire 14(2) (1971): 253–259","date_citation_display":"Leroi-Gourhan 1971 p. 253","object_display":"Thin blade cut from a reindeer rib, 22.8 cm long and about 3 mm thick, curved in both directions by the natural shape of the rib. One end narrows to a neck and a small expanded tip carved as a fish's tail; one face is engraved with a salmonid, the tail of a second fish, and a row of circles and short strokes. The neck end was broken and has been rejoined.","function_display":"Not recorded.","confidence_display":"low","attestation_label":"archaeological find","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"grotte coucoulu","display_name":"Coucoulu salmon-engraved rib blade","image":{"full":"assets/objects/LEROIGOURHAN1971-001_coucoulu-fig2-persee.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/LEROIGOURHAN1971-001_coucoulu-fig2-persee_thumb.jpg","alt":"Black-and-white photograph of a long, slightly curved bone blade on a black ground, its surface engraved with the outline of a fish, narrowing at the left end to a small tail-shaped tip.","credit":"André Leroi-Gourhan, Gallia Préhistoire 14(2) (1971), fig. 2 (photograph A. Leroi-Gourhan), via Persée","source_page":"https://www.persee.fr/doc/galip_0016-4127_1971_num_14_2_1385","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"The Coucoulu blade, engraved with a salmonid; the fish-tail neck is at the left."},"slug":"leroigourhan1971-001-grotte-du-coucoulu-calviac-en-perigord-magdalenian-horizon"}