On this very rich site in the Pyrénées, like elsewhere in south-west France, the Magdalenians decorated lots of bone instruments. This tool fragment, 12.5 cm long and possibly used for working leather, was carefully engraved on both sides. On the side we see here, we can make out the head of a bison with its tongue sticking out, accompanied, on the left, by abstract marks like those often found with representations of animals in decorated caves.
Photo © RMN-Grand Palais (MAN)/Daniel Arnaudet
Photo © RMN-Grand Palais (MAN)/Daniel Arnaudet
Vist the site : Étiolles, Palaeolithic encampments