The decoration of Fumane Cave in the picture of the Aurignacian art

In the Aurignacian layers of the Fumane Cave (Venetian Pre-Alps), the excavations have shown five rocky fragments detached from the walls, at the time of the discovery, they were partially covered by concretions, that consist of the traces of paintings made with the red ochre (a schematic human with the head surmounted by two horns, a four-legged animal, three motifs of difficult interpretation). At the basis of the Aurignacian layers, two spots of sediment intensely blushed for the presence of ochre are dated around 35,500 B.P. (new datings C-14 achieved at the Laboratory of Oxford by the ABOx pre-treatment method). In the setting of the aurignacian art, these datings can explain the "primitive" character of these realizations, for the same reason as the function of the inhabited cave. (C) 2009 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.