The bear in prehistoric art

Palaeolithic mobiliary art

The record of the thoughts and beliefs of hunter-gathers during the Upper Palaeolithic (approximately 38,000 to 11,000 BCE) is fragile and often fleeting. However, the artists who expressed themselves in unobtrusive works of art, or more spectacularly on the walls of caves, offer us an incredible opportunity to understand the complexity of the intellectual and spiritual life of their contemporaries who lived tens of thousands of years ago.

By focusing on the bear in prehistoric art, we aimed to reveal the diversity and astounding visual quality of palaeolithic art, from statuettes made from bone or reindeer antlers to engraved stone plaques and cave paintings. The artefacts reveal the extraordinary complexity of this art, shedding light on the similarities and major differences between these two types of visual expression practiced by prehistoric people, and the ties that bound these impressive and fascinating animals with the people who lived alongside them and hunted or feared them.

The bear in Palaeolithic art

Bears are depicted throughout the Upper Palaeolithic, although most figurative representations are attributed to the Magdalenian period (19,000 to 11,000 BCE). Like all animals in Palaeolithic art, the bears are not represented in a very realistic way, but rely on the use and exaggeration of specific anatomical characteristics. Visitors learn to recognise them by looking for identifying criteria or conventions. Moreover, bears occupy a unique place in these works left behind by Prehistoric man. Although animals or even men are occasionally depicted with the bears, they mostly appear with other bears. They are so unobtrusive or hidden that researchers often have to seek them out and decode them on cave walls.

Learn more :

Website of the Musée d'Archéologie nationale - domaine national de Saint-Germain-en-Laye