Monday, February 22, 2010

Swimming Reindeer



In a half-term week spent dodging big squally showers, this was the best thing we saw.

It was found in Montastruc, SW France and is the oldest sculpture in the British Museum.

It is 13,000 years old.

And we'd have missed it if we hadn't have made a sideways glance to the left as we were leaving.*

It is made from mammoth tusk and depicts two swimming reindeer.

No-one knows exactly why it was made, or what it was for.

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"The presence of antlers on both animals and the characteristics of the female coat show them as they appear in autumn when they cross rivers on migration to their mating grounds and winter pastures.
Was the sculpture left at Montastruc to bring good luck or ward off evil spirits? Could it be an apology to the reindeer for having to kill some of them or a representation of autumn, made in the hope that the reindeer mating would be successful, ensuring human and animal survival?
Was the sculpture a group totem, a shaman’s wand or the focal point of a story based on a journey in or between real and supernatural worlds? Such questions cannot be answered with certainty but the reindeer do suggest a religious impulse to be at home with nature at a deeper level."
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Oh bless you dear Scientist, it is a work of art then.

A tiny, beautiful thing made at the onset of winter by a hunter in Ice Age France, now admired by thousands in a world and time entirely beyond his imagining.

Roy Harper - 'Frozen Moment' (1985)

*We had been to see the Staffordshire Hoard - which is very lovely, but not so much a hoard here as a bijou pile, since most of it is still in the Midlands.

Multimedia reindeer here.

15 comments:

  1. Went to see the 'hoard' a couple of weekends ago - yes scraps and crumbs mostly isn't it. But, got lost on the way around the museum, and discovered so much more than the Egyptian rooms. We ended up at Warriors of the Plain. Very good - but the scalps reworked into totem clothing left my two a bit green-faced

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  2. Cool. You can't beat 13,000 year old art. Wonder what we're producing at the monent which will still be around 13,000 years hence.

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  3. Very good.

    The BM was 'the family firm' - my mum and dad met when they both worked there, my aunty and a cousin or two were there too, and we'd trou around a regular route a lot. There are bits I always try and do - mildenhall and sutton hoo, and the lovely parthenon gallery which shouldn't be there.

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  4. It’s great isn’t it – contemplating prehistory. All the societies that might have been and gone, whole languages and legends that we’ll probably never know. There must be civilizations out there (I always think Siberia, but more likely Africa) waiting to be unearthed.

    This has reminded me of something that I think I’ll post, cheers Davy.

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  5. Dear boy, would love to download another Roy Harper but cannot connect to server (or some such nonsense). Is it just me?

    wv = swedelid. Is this a new kitchen appliance I need to investigate?

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  6. Hey Tog, you're welcome.

    And I think it's just you CF.

    I have a swedelid next to my smeg.

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  7. it's a quiet marvelous cut through on the way to ec1 in through the front and out the back but hell i miss the tearooms just the other side of museum street. even sadder that it's still there just rotting away. and if i can't tie my shoes in the morning i'll blame you - like homer it seems that every new thing io learn seems to push one old thing out of my poor worn out noggin
    x

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  8. Art? it can't be Art! THOSE kind of "people" surely couldn't have comprehended ART could they? ;) ... gotta love scientists. 13,000 years later and I'm sitting in my living room watching my dog chew on a reindeer antler, I kid you not. Life is weird. xoxo

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  9. And that's a big bone. So to speak.

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  10. Got it at last. Muchas gracias - estupendo!

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  11. It's only one chord you know. 'Frozen Moment'. See what he did there?

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  12. the funny bone thingy is on the history of the world in a hundred objeccts over on radio 4 if you fancy hearing a bit more rattling on. I've somehow missed the whole lot so far.
    be good - we're off for a mudlark
    x

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  13. You're wading about in a low-tide river in search of precious objects?? Crikey.

    The little 'multimedia reindeer' link at the end of the post connects to the prog Miss Ally mentions.

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