Exhibited at Creswell Crags visitor centre is a small
fragment of rib bone (species unknown) on to which the image of a horse has
been engraved. The artist had certainly studied his subject with anatomical
awareness. This object is a remarkable and rare surviving example of upper
paleolithic art. The highly polished nature of the bone suggests it had been
handled many times, perhaps as a personal possession.
The significance of the image would have been highly
relevant to its hunter gatherer owner, quite possibly a totemic or lucky
talisman. At some point it was left at the back of the western chamber of the
Robin Hood Cave at Creswell Crags. There it lay for 12,500 years until its
discovery in 1876.
A series of grooves and vertical lines have scored across
the flank of the horse. It has been speculated that these may represent spears.
However, in later Neolithic times archaeological evidence shows a practice of
putting objects, such as pottery, and spiritual places such as tombs beyond use
by smashing or infilling.
Hence, the scored lines could equally be a precursor of this
type of behaviour, essentially marking the end of the totem’s usefulness. Once
can imagine this being done during a lean period of hunting, consigned to a
spiritual repository within the cave, or simply discarded.
I set out to recreate the paleolithic horse at the same
scale as the original. It just over 7 centimetres in length. Not having a
convenient animal rib bone, I used a fragment of naturally cast antler which
had been bleached from several months of being kept outdoors.
For this first attempt, I was keen to capture the likeness
of the image so I used a metal tool. Our paleolithic ancestors would have used
finely flaked flint.
Whilst carving two factors readily came to mind. In slightly
subdued tungsten light I found etching the detail extremely hard on the eyes.
Half way through, I resorted to using a magnifying glass. The inferences I drew
from this was that the paleolithic artist had good eyesight, making him (or
her) more likely to be young. Eyesight generally deteriorates with age and
certainly, someone in their forties, as I am, would be considered to be long
lived in the stone ages. But also as a diurnal species, human eyes have evolved
to be most efficient in daylight hours. To carve in this scale and detail just
by firelight in a cave would have been a strain on the eyes.
All this suggests an impression of our paleolithic ancestor
sitting at the cave entrance in the afternoon, scratching with the fine edge of
a microlith flint, absorbed in thoughts of the hunt and with moving images of
his quarry guiding his hand.
Cresswell Crags remained in use, possibly seasonally, for
several thousand years. As well as habitation, it is also a natural kill zone
where animals could be funnelled and dispatched with greater ease than in an
open area.
On a quiet midweek, Creswell Crags and the caves hewn into
the limestone rock is a superb place to re-imagine these scenes of daily life
over ten thousand years ago, when Britain was just emerging from the last great
ice age. A few weeks later, I was guiding a group of clients on a walk in the White
Peak. Our route took us through several limestone dales and the similarity of
the natural features sprang out.
With such a relatively close distance to Creswell Crags with
a similar climate and environment I could not dismiss the image of wolf, bear, giant
deer and hyaena also roaming in the heart of the Peak District, followed by
bands of nomadic hunter gatherers.
Stu Westfield
Ranger Expeditions
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