THE SWISS MAGDALENIAN PORTABLE ART AND SUPRA-REGIONAL PARALLELS
Authors: I.M. Braun 
Published: November 2021

The Upper Paleolithic in Switzerland is so far only known by the Magdalenian (ca. 18000 12000 BP). Only in seven of the about fifty Magdalenian sites known in Switzerland pieces of portable art were found (Braun, 2019). The most well-known Swiss site where portable art was found is the Kesslerloch. According to Hneisen (1993) Swiss Magdalenian portable art can be divided into two groups: engravings and figurative sculpture. Some of them are decorated either with signs or animal figures. The engravings are mostly on rein-deer antlers, but also on bones, stone and jet. The majority of the engravings are on objects of utility as btons percs, spear points and other tools. In addition to figurative themes such as animals and a possible animal-human representation, there are mainly signs and other ornamental patterns (Bosinski, 1982 Braun, 2019 Hneisen, 1993). The term figurative sculptures is used to describe objects of utility, some of which are sculpted, such as spear thrower ends decorated with horse heads, so-called spindle-shaped sculptures and very stylized female statuettes. Apart from a musk ox head from the Kesslerloch, no other animal sculptures have yet been found in Switzerland. The figurative sculptures are less frequent than the engravings (Bosinski, 1982 Braun, 2019 Hneisen, 1993). Numerous works of portable art in Switzerland are similar to works of portable art of Southwest France and of the French Pyrenees, as f.i. the sculptured spearthrowers (Bandi, Delporte, 1984 Bosinski, 1982 Braun, 2019 Garrod, 1955 Leesch et al., 2019 Stodiek, 1993). But there are also characteristic features which are typical of Swiss and South German portable art, as f.i. the use of jet. Fig. 1. Kesslerloch. Spear thrower ends decorated with horse heads (Guyan, 1944). Электронная библиотека ИА РАН: https://www.archaeolog.ru/ru/el-bib 9 Bandi, H.-G., Delporte, H. (1984). Propulseurs dcors en France et en Suisse. Elments de Pr- et Protohistoire europenne. Hommage Jacques-Pierre Millotte, 203211. Annales littraires de lUniversit de Besanon. Paris: Les Belles Lettres. Bosinski, G. (1982). Die Kunst der Eiszeit in Deutschland und der Schweiz Bonn: Habelt. Braun, I. M. (2019). Ausgewhlte Beispiele der Kleinkunst des Sptglazials aus der Schweiz und berregionale Parallelen. In Floss, H. (Ed.), Das Magdalnien im Sdwesten Deutschlands, im Elsass und in der Schweiz (pp. 277296). Kerns: Tbingen. Garrod, D. A. E. (1955). Paleolithic Spear-Throwers. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, 21, 2135. Guyan, W. U. (1944) Eine Speerschleuder vom Kesslerloch. Zeitschrift fr Schweizerische Archologie und Kunstgeschichte, 6, 7584. Hneisen, M. (1993). 4.7. Die Kunst des Jungpalolithikums der Schweiz. In Le Tensorer, J.-M., Niffeler, U. (Hrsg.), SPM I Die Schweiz vom Palolithikum bis zum frhen Mittelalter. Band 1: Palolithikum und Mesolithikum (pp. 187199). Basel: Schweizerische Gesellschaft fr Ur- und Frhgeschichte. Leesch, D. Bullinger, J., Mller, W. (2019). Vivre en Suisse Le Magdalnien. Basel: Archologie Schweiz. Stodiek, U. (1993). Zur Technologie der jungpalolithischen Speerschleuder Eine Studie auf der Basis archologischer, ethnologischer und experimenteller Erkenntnisse. Tbingen: Archaeologica Venatoria (Tbinger Monographien zur Urgeschichte, Band 9).