Paris (AFP)

A sandstone plaque engraved with horses and other herbivores at the end of the Paleolithic era was discovered on a dig site in Angouleme (Charente), announced Wednesday Inrap (National Institute of Preventive Archaeological Research) ).

A surprise for archaeologists because this piece is dated about 12,000 years before our era, which corresponds to the period known as the Azilian. But "Azilian art is often considered a break, it marks an abandonment of the figurative in favor of abstraction," says Inrap.

"Finding horses and other animals drawn at this time of the recent Azilian is exceptional," said Valérie Feruglio, prehistorian specialist in prehistoric art.

In the summer of 2018, figurative representations were found on shale plates engraved from the ancient Azilian site (around 14,000 years before our era) from the Empress Rock in Plougastel-Daoulas (Finistère).

"But here it shifts 2,000 years the persistence of figurative representations" in Azilian art, adds Valérie Feruglio.

The authors of the engravings of Angouleme are still nomadic Homo sapiens, who live by hunting and collecting. They are experiencing a "climate transition", with the end of the ice age and the transition to a temperate climate, says Miguel Biard, archaeologist at Inrap, in charge of the excavation site of Angouleme. "It upsets their way of life."

The plaque was found during preventive excavations of the Inrap conducted in the district of the station of Angoulême between April 9 and November 23, 2018.

These searches on prescription of the State had already revealed three successive prehistoric occupations. Some 200,000 cut flints and 400 arrowheads had been found in this area, a hunting site for prehistoric men.

The engraved plaque is made of locally sourced siliceous sandstone and is 25 cm long, 18 cm wide and about 3 cm thick.

Present on both sides, the engravings combine figurative and geometric motifs (including stripes). The silhouettes of the finely drawn herbivores intermingle and the expert eye of the specialists is needed to determine the animals concerned.

The most visible engraving, that of a horse without a head, occupies half of the surface of the first face. Very fine incisions suggest the coat. Legs and hooves are very realistic. There is also another horse, a deer, recognizable by the shape of his hooves but also without a head. And maybe an auroch.

On the other side, the incised lines are particularly fine, suggesting the posterior half of a horse.

This discovery will be presented to the public in Angoulême during the National Days of Archeology (JNA) from June 14 to 16.

? 2019 AFP