The Bullroarer Atlas

PEUR2026-008 - archaeological find

Brassempouy serpentiform ivory blade

Landes - Grotte du Pape; Middle Gravettian reassessment - Europe - Southwest France

Archaeological datec. 29,500–26,500 BCOld-collection attribution; object not directly dated.

Function not recorded Candidate only

Piette’s face and profile of the Brassempouy ivory pendant, its terminal hole opening onto three raised serpentiform motifs.
Piette’s face and profile of the Brassempouy ivory pendant, its terminal hole opening onto three raised serpentiform motifs. · Public domain Image source
Piette 1907 Plate LXXV: Brassempouy ivory objects; the serpentiform pendant is figs. 1 and 1a at upper left.
Piette 1907 Plate LXXV: Brassempouy ivory objects; the serpentiform pendant is figs. 1 and 1a at upper left. · Public domain Image source

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 belongs to Brassempouy’s remarkable ivory-working world of ornaments, figurines and shaped tools, 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. Its intended use is unrecorded, but the great terminal perforation and tapered form make it a striking early bullroarer candidate.

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
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.
Source
Musée d’Archéologie nationale / Joconde record 50010008079, inventory 47137 A: carved and perforated ivory, 7.8 x 3.2 x 0.6 cm, found near the entrance to the Salle de la Caverne du Pape and catalogued Aurignacian as a pendant; Delporte 1967, Zephyrus 18:5-41, pp. 7-8, identifies it with de Laporterie’s 'amulette à décor onduleux.' Simonet 2021, PALEO…
Source location
Page references

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

Source confidence
low to medium Grotte du Pape cave entrance, Brassempouy (Wikidata Q18005444 / OpenStreetMap node 4316746244); the museum record places the object near the entrance to the cave chamber.

Discussed in: The First Mystery

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