Cut out and engraved fish
El Pendo, Cantabria, Spain
Bone
Length: 19.8 cms
Museo de Prehistoria y Arqueología de Cantabria, Santander
1739
Although damaged at what may be the used end this shaped and decorated rib bone is thought to have been some sort of spatula of unknown function. The ambiguity of its purpose is increased by the possibility that this remarkably patterned piece is also the figurative representation of an inedible, bony fish.
The elongated outline of the body tapers and then curves out to form the tail. The edges were carefully shaped by scraping and then polished but the end assumed to be the head is damaged possibly by ancient use. On one side the bone is simply scraped and polished whereas on the opposite side the centre of the bone is decorated with incised diagonal lines that cross to form lozenges in a net pattern. The tail has two groups of three curvilinear incisions. On the back a line of diagonal incisions suggest the dorsal fin and two separate groups of lines on the lower edge may be the pelvic and anal fins. The more horizontal lines behind the damaged area might indicate the gill cover.
Assuming that the figurative interpretation of the pattern is correct, it has been suggested that the fish represented is a Bowfin. These fish come to the surface to breathe air and are consequently found in shallow, fresh water. They are predatory on other aquatic life and have particularly bony skeletons with a texture like cotton wool and pins that make them inedible. How such a fish might have become so interesting as to warrant many hours of delicate, skilful work is puzzling. Perhaps the image conjured up a warning or its habits were considered to be those of a messenger of an underworld. Alternatively, the net pattern might be an expression of entoptic phenomena. These are visual effects experienced during rapid eye movement sleep or during conscious by drugs, sensory deprivation, pain, fatigue, meditation or pathological conditions such as migraines and epileptic seizures.
Such speculations aside, many depictions of fish are known from the last Ice Age and when they can be identified, the majority represent edible species such as salmon and trout that also have useful skins. A small representation cut out of bone from Lespugue, Haute Garonne, France, shows a flat marine fish, probably a sole although the site is some 200 kilometres from both the Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts.
Close