Vers une caractérisation du gisement magdalénien d’Isturitz (Pyrénées-Atlantiques) à travers sa production artistique
Authors: Rivero Olivia 
Published: May 2017

This paper presents the results of the microscopic analysis of over 150 engraved pieces of mobiliary art from the Middle Magdalenian layers of the Saint-Périer and Passemard collections from Isturitz Cave (Saint-Martin d'Arberoue, Pyrénées-Atlantiques) kept in the Museum of National Antiquities (Musée d’Archéologie Nationale, Saint-Germain-en-Laye). These bone and lithic items were analyzed focusing on the engravers’ gestures, through the identification of technical indices. In order to do so, several experimental pieces were replicated and subsequently studied using both scanning electron microscope and binocular microscope. This has allowed us to identify various indices indicating the direction of the lines, as well as their order of execution. In some cases, specific marks associated with the a lack of proficiency in the use of the tool could be recognized. These same indices have also been identified during the study of the archaeological material. This approach has allowed us to reconstruct the chaîne opératoire implemented for making and decorating these objects, as well as to identify some diagnostic criteria enabling to ascertain the engravers’ level of expertise to be ascertained. The chaîne opératoire employed in the execution of the engraved motifs shows a high level of homogeneity in both the order of engraving the different parts of the figures and the direction of the lines. In With regards to the degree of expertise, the unskillful unskilled engravers are recognized recognizable by the accidents related to a lack of control of the tool when performing certain movements, such as curved lines, or their difficulty to in returning to a groove in order to deepen it. These artisans also drew clumsily and their motifs lack proportionality. By contrast, skillful engravers made the decorations without any kind of errors when tracing the lines, The objects made by theise engravers show certainbear witness to control of their control of movements, and also are sometimes example ofattest to artistic or technical innovation. The apprenticeship of the engravers during the Middle Magdalenian period can thus be addressed through this case study. Some objects seem to be the product of either skillful or unskillful unskilled engravers and craftspeople featuring an intermediate degree of apprenticeship are also involved. The artistic ensemble from Isturitz is particularly remarkable, not only for its abundance and diversity, but also because of a number of technical and formal innovations. We can consider the studied assemblage as a ‘ serial production’, i. e. the execution of works representing analogous themes on the same mattermaterial, and deploying similar techniques and formal conventions. Works by the same author have also been identified. In addition, it is essentially a production was essentially created by experienced artists. All the data provided by this study of the portable art from Isturitz allow us to speculate on the function of the site during the Middle Magdalenian, and to specify the characteristics of the its occupation. The nature of the relationships that Isturitz maintained with neighbouring local sites can therefore thus be better understood. The location of the Isturitz cave at the crossroads between the three most populated areas in the Middle Magdalenian (the Cantabrian region, the Pyrenees and the Aquitaine region), the proximity of siliceous raw material sources (Flysch and Chalosse), and the abundance and diversity of the archaeological record explain why, throughout the history of research, the site has been considered a place of aggregation used for periodic gatherings. The insights gained from the technical analysis of the portable art help testing modify this proposal hypothesis. Therefore, the paper advocates that Isturitz was a long-term intermittent habitat settlement, where the production of portable art during the Middle Magdalenian would have played a paramount role. Indeed, the homogeneity of the chaînes opératoires implemented to achieve the createion of artistic creations artefacts shows that we are not dealing with a set of objects brought to the site by artists from different groups and mastering different procedures and traditions. Instead, this consistency is a reflection of a coherent process, conducted mainly by highly experienced artists, sharing the same know-how.