Shamanism

There are many discoveries of prehistoric art in caves and rock shelters. Whether paintings, engravings or sculptures, a fascination for technique and their ornament has developed among archaeologists, prompting them to understand the particular interest in representing animals in very specific places. In fact, it is noticeable that men preferred deep and difficult to access places to decorate the walls or that they used a technique of overlapping drawings. All this information leads to many questions and hypotheses about the artistic aim of the Palaeolithic man.

In 1996, Jean Clottes and D. Lewis-Williams talk about shamanism in Palaeolithic art. Shamanism is a set of practices with a state of trance, specific to certain societies in Central Asia and the Arctic. For Jean Clottes, the cave represents a place of passage between two worlds: that of men and another parallel world. It is likened to a sanctuary in which rituals run by a shaman take place. This one, through the various overlapping paintings and engravings, enters a state of trance and hallucinations allowing him to connect man with nature. This art would be used to create a magical and fantastic atmosphere that could be identified as religious.

The major representation of Palaeolithic art concerns animals such as buffalo, aurochs, horses... What frequently leads to a question: are there not human representations? There are only a few, about a hundred. On the other hand, composite creatures called anthropozoomorphs, therianthropes or even sorcerers are related to this rather rare theme. They are creatures combining a human side with an animal side, giving them a fantastic look. This kind of representation can be found as early as the Aurignacian, notably in the cave of the Three Brothers at Montesquieu-Avantès in Ariège,

where the famous little sorcerer with a musical arch and the composite being, which dominates the Sanctuary hall by several meters, are represented. The little wizard is a buffalo man who seems to be dancing while holding a kind of instrument in his nostril. Maybe a nasal flute? If this is true, it would be the first musical performance. The composite being also resembles a sorcerer mixing various animals: a galloping ponytail, owl's eyes, an eagle's beak, wolf's ears, antlers of reindeer but also a human sex rejected backwards and a beard.

These representations are major in the questioning of shamanism in the Paleolithic. And even though Jean Clottes studied and demonstrated his hypothesis with great care, it is still very controversial by other prehistorians who see it as a mere overflowing imagination. These unusual representations can be supplemented by footprints and various instruments found during Palaeolithic times, markers of a hypothetical musical presence at that time.