La Chaire a Calvin is a rock shelter near the village of Mouthiers-sur-Boëme in the

Département In the administrative divisions of France, the department (french: département, ) is one of the three levels of government under the national level (" territorial collectivities"), between the administrative regions and the communes. Ninety ...

of Charente, situated in the valley of the Gersac stream. The shelter is on a cliff which faces south east. The rock face of this rock-shelter has a sculpted frieze dated to the Magdalenian period; approximately 15000 years BP. This site was studied by Pierre David from 1924 onwards, who discovered the frieze in 1926. It was further studied by Bouvier in the 1960s.

Archaeology

This site contains the remains of

rhinoceros A rhinoceros (; ; ), commonly abbreviated to rhino, is a member of any of the five extant species (or numerous extinct species) of odd-toed ungulates in the family Rhinocerotidae. (It can also refer to a member of any of the extinct species ...

red deer The red deer (''Cervus elaphus'') is one of the largest deer species. A male red deer is called a stag or hart, and a female is called a hind. The red deer inhabits most of Europe, the Caucasus Mountains region, Anatolia, Iran, and parts of we ...

, beaver,

wolf The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the gray wolf or grey wolf, is a large canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, and gray wolves, as popularly un ...

Saiga Antelope The saiga antelope (, ''Saiga tatarica''), or saiga, is a critically endangered antelope which during antiquity inhabited a vast area of the Eurasian steppe spanning the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains in the northwest and Caucasus in t ...

tarpan The term tarpan (''Equus ferus ferus'') refers to free-ranging horses of the Russian steppe from the 18th to the 20th century. It is generally unknown whether those horses represented genuine wild horses, feral domestic horses or hybrids. The las ...

reindeer Reindeer (in North American English, known as caribou if wild and ''reindeer'' if domesticated) are deer in the genus ''Rangifer''. For the last few decades, reindeer were assigned to one species, ''Rangifer tarandus'', with about 10 sub ...

and aurochs, as well as

fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...

, hare and indeterminate birds. The remains of Saiga Antelope were the most numerous animal remains discovered, they have been dated to around 16 000BP. The only human remains discovered are a single molar, discovered in 1933 and attributed to the Magdelenian. Artifacts found include bone needles, squared bone spear head; a shellfish necklace and some pearls. Stone artifacts include bladelets, chisels and scrapers. The

lithics Lithic may refer to: *Relating to stone tools **Lithic analysis, the analysis of stone tools and other chipped stone artifacts **Lithic core, the part of a stone which has had flakes removed from it **Lithic flake, the portion of a rock removed to ...

industry Industry may refer to: Economics * Industry (economics), a generally categorized branch of economic activity * Industry (manufacturing), a specific branch of economic activity, typically in factories with machinery * The wider industrial sector ...

associated with the site appears to be Magdelenian, although it is not sure from which stage of the Magdelenian, at least one point which may be

azilian The Azilian is a Mesolithic industry of the Franco-Cantabrian region of northern Spain and Southern France. It dates approximately 10,000–12,500 years ago. Diagnostic artifacts from the culture include projectile points (microliths with ro ...

was found in bed 1. Burins and end-scrapers are very common. Some

bone tools In archaeology, a bone tool is a tool created from bone. A bone tool can conceivably be created from almost any bone, and in a variety of methods. Bone tools have been documented from the advent of ''Homo sapiens'' and are also known from ''Homo ...

have also been recovered, including needles and spear-heads. Perforated beads were discovered which indicate some long-distance exchange with contemporary groups.

The Parietal Art

The frieze is the only example of parietal art still visible in Charente. The frieze includes depictions of an aurochs without its head, a pregnant tarpan, and a mating scene of

s. Some traces of orange-red paint were found when the frieze was discovered. Pierre David published a description of the frieze in 1928 and 1929.

In History

John Calvin, a

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...

reformer, preached on a rock platform near this shelter when he was living in Angouleme in 1520.

References

* :fr:La Chaire-à-Calvin

External links

French Ministry of Culture information site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chaire a Calvin, La Rock shelters Magdalenian Prehistoric sites in France