Swimming reindeer
Montastruc, Bruniquel, France.
Mammoth ivory
Length: 20.7 cms
The British Museum
Palart.550
The largest known late last Ice Age ivory sculpture and one of the great masterpieces of the era represents a pair of reindeer. Made on the tip of a mammoth tusk the sculptor has used the tapering shape of the material to advantage by showing a larger male with his sex clearly indicated behind a female with her six nipples sculpted in relief between her back legs (fig.xx). As both animals have antlers there is no doubt that they are reindeer and the scene is set in autumn. This is clear because the only female deer which have antlers are reindeer. The antlers of both sexes grow during the summer and are at their finest during the autumn. After rutting in late November and early December, the males shed their antlers but the females keep them until later in the spring as they are used assertively to ensure a sufficient share of scarce winter food. The engraved detail on the face and body of the female confirms the autumn-winter scene by showing the texture of the thick pelt and indicating its colour variations (fig.xx).
Estimating from the sculpture, the tip segment selected for use originally had a circumference of about twelve centimetres and probably came from a young or female mammoth (fig.xx). This selection reduced the amount of material the sculptor had to remove to create the piece but also imposed restrictions on how the animals could be posed. The shape and size of the tusk segment would not easily allow the three dimensional sculpture of standing animals with their antlers fully sculpted in the round. By depicting the stag behind the hind, extending their legs forward and backward and raising the heads so that the antlers are laid back on the bodies, the sculptor has made the most effective use of the form and volume of the material. The pose also adds to the autumn scene as it shows the animals swimming as they do when they cross lakes and rivers on their migrations to their mating grounds and winter pastures. This is a time when human communities also had to up sticks, follow the reindeer and move to their winter camps where they would endure the harshness of the season. Journeys bring new encounters, surprises and difficulties. They are often the source of stories, sagas, histories, myths and legends which happen in the real world or the imaginary realms of the supernatural. The reindeer sculpture may be a prop, prompt or illustration of such a story used to explore and bind communities or express their faith and develop their hope through something beyond their existence. Reindeer were a walking larder and source of raw materials. Their hunters had no choice or qualms about killing them but the paintings, drawings and sculpture suggest a more complex relationship expressed or perhaps negotiated through art.
Close