Social context of Mesolithic rock engravings in the Fontainebleau sandstone region (Paris Basin, France): Contribution of the experimental study
© Alexandre Cantin, Emilie LesvignesAnthropogenic engravings were made within more than 2000 small natural cavities found in the sandstone boulder fields of the central Paris Basin, in an area of 1800 km2 to west of the town of Fontainebleau. These engravings consist mainly of clustered rectilinear grooves arranged in vertical parallel series or organized in grids. These dominant classes of motifs form a unique type of rock art attributed to Early Mesolithic hunter-gatherers (~9500–6300 BCE in northern France) on a growing body of evidences. Here, we approach the social context in which these abundant symbolic manifestations were produced by developing an experimental study guided by two main questions: what efforts (i.e difficulty of work and working time) and know-how were required for these engravings? On what occasions were they made?
