Young male reindeer engraved on bone
La Madeleine, Dordogne, France.
Bone
Length: 7.1 cms
The British Museum
Palart.419
The drawing of two reindeer is on a piece of bone selected and prepared to provide a surface high and wide enough to position two animals standing one behind the other. The complete animal is slightly to the fore of the rump of the one broken by ancient damage. It is a young male perfectly scaled down. The outlines are accurately drawn with confident, deep lines whereas the contours and textures of the pelt are expertly hachured. The antler stumps suggest the depiction is indicative of early summer when the antlers begin to grow. The only unnatural marks are the diagonal lines on its chest and shoulder. The single lines are sometimes interpreted as spears, the parallel pair as a wound but the reindeer are calm if alert so this is unlikely to be a hunting scene. As a way of making a human connection to particular beasts could the signs be a means of integrating with nature or communicating with it as a spiritual helper?