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The Wolverine pendant of Les Eyzies is a bone
British Museum 2011. Retrieved 13 September 2011. Between 7 February - 26 May 2013 it was displayed in the exhibition at the British Museum ''Ice Age Art: Arrival of the Modern Mind''
The pendant is made from a shaped bone, about 1.5 mm thick. There is a hole at one end to enable it to be worn on a string as a pendant or part of a necklace. It may also have been suspended on other things, such as posts. Both sides are smooth. The pendant has an engraving of a
Redrawn images of other Paleolithic representations of wolverines
{{Commons category, Room 2, British Museum Prehistoric objects in the British Museum Art of the Upper Paleolithic Mammals in art Bone carvings
The Wolverine pendant of Les Eyzies is a bone pendant
A pendant is a loose-hanging piece of jewellery, generally attached by a small loop to a necklace, which may be known as a "pendant necklace". A pendant earring is an earring with a piece hanging down. Its name stems from the Latin word ' ...
decorated with an engraved drawing of a wolverine
The wolverine (), (''Gulo gulo''; ''Gulo'' is Latin for " glutton"), also referred to as the glutton, carcajou, or quickhatch (from East Cree, ''kwiihkwahaacheew''), is the largest land-dwelling species of the family Mustelidae. It is a muscul ...
, probably from the cave of Les Eyzies
Les Eyzies (; oc, Las Aisiás) is a commune in the Dordogne department in Nouvelle-Aquitaine in southwestern France. It was established on 1 January 2019 by merger of the former communes of Les Eyzies-de-Tayac-Sireuil (the seat), Manaurie and ...
, Dordogne
Dordogne ( , or ; ; oc, Dordonha ) is a large rural department in Southwestern France, with its prefecture in Périgueux. Located in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region roughly half-way between the Loire Valley and the Pyrenees, it is name ...
, France. The pendant is from the late Magdalenian period and around 12,500 years old. It now forms part of the Christy Collection in the British Museum
The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...
(Palart 102), where it is normally on display in Room 2.Bone pendant decorated with an engraved drawing of a wolverine.British Museum 2011. Retrieved 13 September 2011. Between 7 February - 26 May 2013 it was displayed in the exhibition at the British Museum ''Ice Age Art: Arrival of the Modern Mind''
Features
The pendant is made from a shaped bone, about 1.5 mm thick. There is a hole at one end to enable it to be worn on a string as a pendant or part of a necklace. It may also have been suspended on other things, such as posts. Both sides are smooth. The pendant has an engraving of a wolverine
The wolverine (), (''Gulo gulo''; ''Gulo'' is Latin for " glutton"), also referred to as the glutton, carcajou, or quickhatch (from East Cree, ''kwiihkwahaacheew''), is the largest land-dwelling species of the family Mustelidae. It is a muscul ...
featuring a distinctive bear-like face, pointed nose, small ears, heavy body and hairy paws. It appears to be walking to the left. There is a diagonal line across the animal's shoulder which may be a spear. The pendant is broken and it is possible that the missing piece showed another figure.
No longer widespread, at the time of the last Ice Age the wolverine was a competitor with humans for food sources. They were also a useful source of fur - especially as the fur is naturally resistant to frost.
See also
*Prehistoric art
In the history of art, prehistoric art is all art produced in preliterate, prehistorical cultures beginning somewhere in very late geological history, and generally continuing until that culture either develops writing or other methods of rec ...
References
Further reading
*Sieveking, Ann. ''A catalogue of Palaeolithic art in the British Museum.'' London: British Museum Publications, 1987.External links
Redrawn images of other Paleolithic representations of wolverines
{{Commons category, Room 2, British Museum Prehistoric objects in the British Museum Art of the Upper Paleolithic Mammals in art Bone carvings