Volp Caves – Investigations at a key site for the contextualisation of Palaeolithic Rock Art

• Applicants: Privatdozent Dr. Andreas Pastoors; Professor Dr. Thorsten Uthmeier
• Subject Area: Prehistory and World Archaeology
• Term: since 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 522090020

This project sets itself the task of restoring the dynamics of the static archaeological finds through spatial analyses of human activities in multi-layered structured painted caves from the end of the last Ice Age. Painted caves are ideal for this purpose not only because of the preservation of original footprints in the still untouched cave floor, which connect the activity zones with each other, but also because the central question of the social context of their use and their significance for the reconstruction of late glacial rituals and beliefs has remained completely unanswered until today. Methodologically, in addition to state-of-the-art digital documentation tools, a new approach to the study of footprints is used in which indigenous trackers of the San from Namibia are included as equal experts in the knowledge process. As an example, the Volp Caves system (Tuc d’Audoubert, Les Trois-Frères/Enlène) in south-west France, discovered more than 100 years ago, is being studied, which is one of the most important multi-layered structured painted caves in the world and contains unique cultural evidence dating back some 17,000 years. The 12-year research project has two main objectives: (1) In the Volp caves, the identification of activity zones, their spatial location as well as the reconstruction of the connections between the individual activity zones (on-site) and (2) within the Magdalenian of the Pyrenees, the integration of the Volp caves as multi-layered structured painted caves into the regional subsistence system (off-site). It is expected that the comprehensive analyses of the two multi-layered structured painted caves Tuc d'Audoubert and Les Trois-Frères/Enlène will generate high-resolution data that will allow insights into the utilisation concepts of the two painted caves. The approach of integrating the Volp caves into the regional subsistence system is connected with the methodological-theoretical examination of the high diversity of the entirety of painted caves, from which impulses for the debate on the significance of painted caves can be expected. The individual projects will be carried out in close cooperation with internationally renowned experts, scientists from French institutions and other universities with a focus on prehistory/palaeoecology, and with the involvement of young scientists (doctoral students with a position in the project), who will be jointly supervised by the universities of Toulouse and Erlangen-Nürnberg.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants