Brassempouy serpentiform ivory blade

Source term: pendeloque

pendeloque = pendant; the museum’s present object classification.

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.

trois motifs serpentiformes sculptés occupent toute la surface disponible

three sculpted serpentiform motifs occupy all the available surface

Musée d’Archéologie nationale, Joconde 50010008079 / MAN 47137 A

Particulars

Object

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

Not recorded.