{"id":"PEUR2026-008","label":"Brassempouy serpentiform ivory blade","people_or_site":"Grotte du Pape, Brassempouy","country_current":"France","historic_region":"Landes / Grotte du Pape; Middle Gravettian reassessment","macroregion":"Europe / Southwest France","local_name":"","source_term":"pendeloque","source_language":"French","object_description":"Mammoth-ivory blade (MAN 47137 A), 78 x 32 x 6 mm, tapering away from a rounded end pierced by one large hole; three raised serpentiform motifs cover the decorated face.","function_summary":"Not recorded.","attestation_type":"archaeological_find","source_key":"man_joconde_50010008079","source_type":"museum_catalog_record","source_url":"https://pop.culture.gouv.fr/notice/joconde/50010008079","page_or_plate":"Joconde 50010008079 / MAN 47137 A; Piette 1907, L’Art pendant l’Âge du Renne, pl. LXXV figs. 1 and 1a; Delporte 1967, pp. 7-8; Simonet 2021, pp. 130-132","map_confidence":"low_medium","plot_status":"candidate_only","coordinate_basis":"Grotte du Pape cave entrance, Brassempouy (Wikidata Q18005444 / OpenStreetMap node 4316746244); the museum record places the object near the entrance to the cave chamber.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"Three raised serpentiform motifs drive down this mammoth-ivory blade. Found near the entrance to Grotte du Pape, it comes from the same cave, and the same ivory-working tradition, as the Dame à la capuche and Brassempouy’s other ivory women, about 30,000 years ago. The museum first catalogued it as Aurignacian; the later synthesis of the site’s old ivory collections instead places it in the Middle Gravettian. The men who dug it out around 1890 called it an amulet with undulating decoration; its great terminal perforation and tapered form mark it as a striking early bullroarer.","pull_quote":"trois motifs serpentiformes sculptés occupent toute la surface disponible","pull_quote_translation":"three sculpted serpentiform motifs occupy all the available surface","pull_quote_cite":"Musée d’Archéologie nationale, Joconde 50010008079 / MAN 47137 A","term_gloss":"pendeloque = pendant; the museum’s present object classification.","cls":"unknown","class_label":"Function not recorded","color":"#6B7884","is_candidate":true,"flags":["snake"],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":true,"f_archaeology":true,"archaeology_kind":"object","date_display":"c. 29,500–26,500 BC","date_qualification":"Old-collection attribution; object not directly dated.","date_basis":"corpus_attribution","date_confidence":"low","date_citation":"man_joconde_50010008079, Joconde 50010008079 / MAN 47137 A; Delporte 1967 pp. 7–8; Simonet 2021 pp. 130–133","sources":[{"citation":"Musée d’Archéologie nationale, inv. 47137 A (Joconde 50010008079); Édouard Piette 1907, L’Art pendant l’Âge du Renne, pl. LXXV figs. 1 and 1a; Henri Delporte 1967, Zephyrus 18:5-41, pp. 7-8; Simonet 2021, PALEO Hors-série, pp. 130-132","url":"https://pop.culture.gouv.fr/notice/joconde/50010008079","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20260613062953/https://pop.culture.gouv.fr/notice/joconde/50010008079"}],"source_citations":"Musée d’Archéologie nationale, inv. 47137 A (Joconde 50010008079); Édouard Piette 1907, L’Art pendant l’Âge du Renne, pl. LXXV figs. 1 and 1a; Henri Delporte 1967, Zephyrus 18:5-41, pp. 7-8; Simonet 2021, PALEO Hors-série, pp. 130-132","source_display":"Musée d’Archéologie nationale, inv. 47137 A (Joconde 50010008079); Édouard Piette 1907, L’Art pendant l’Âge du Renne, pl. LXXV figs. 1 and 1a; Henri Delporte 1967, Zephyrus 18:5-41, pp. 7-8; Simonet 2021, PALEO Hors-série, pp. 130-132","date_citation_display":"Joconde 50010008079 / MAN 47137 A; Delporte 1967 pp. 7–8; Simonet 2021 pp. 130–133","object_display":"Mammoth-ivory blade (MAN 47137 A), 78 x 32 x 6 mm, tapering away from a rounded end pierced by one large hole; three raised serpentiform motifs cover the decorated face.","function_display":"Not recorded.","confidence_display":"low to medium","attestation_label":"archaeological find","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"grotte pape","display_name":"Brassempouy serpentiform ivory blade","image":{"full":"assets/objects/PEUR2026-008_piette1907_pl75_fig1.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/PEUR2026-008_piette1907_pl75_fig1_thumb.jpg","credit":"Édouard Piette, L’Art pendant l’Âge du Renne (1907), pl. LXXV figs. 1 and 1a; drawing by J. Pilloy; Bibliothèque municipale de Périgueux scan via Pôle d’interprétation de la Préhistoire","license":"Public domain (published 1907)","source_page":"https://www.pole-prehistoire.com/en/86-francais/fr-decouvrir/portail-documentaire/bibliotheque-numerique/136-l-art-pendant-l-age-du-renne-edouard-piette?start=3","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"Piette’s face and profile of the Brassempouy ivory pendant, its terminal hole opening onto three raised serpentiform motifs.","additional":[{"full":"assets/objects/PEUR2026-008_piette1907_pl75_full.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/PEUR2026-008_piette1907_pl75_full_thumb.jpg","credit":"Édouard Piette, L’Art pendant l’Âge du Renne (1907), pl. LXXV; drawing by J. Pilloy; Bibliothèque municipale de Périgueux scan via Pôle d’interprétation de la Préhistoire","license":"Public domain (published 1907)","source_page":"https://www.pole-prehistoire.com/en/86-francais/fr-decouvrir/portail-documentaire/bibliotheque-numerique/136-l-art-pendant-l-age-du-renne-edouard-piette?start=3","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"Piette 1907 Plate LXXV: Brassempouy ivory objects; the serpentiform pendant is figs. 1 and 1a at upper left."}]},"slug":"peur2026-008-grotte-du-pape-brassempouy"}