Portable Art Recording Methods

Introduction

Although much less well known than rock or cave art, Paleolithic portable art is comprised of graphic and symbolic manifestations represented on objects and on portable raw materials in contrast with parietal or wall art, which is, by definition, “immobile”), which were left by human groups during the Upper Paleolithic period (between 45,000 cal BP and 15,000 cal BP in Europe). The first European portable art was recovered in the 1860s, very early in the history of prehistoric archaeology. Some pieces, such as the mammoth engraved on ivory at La Madeleine (Dordogne, France), played a determining role in the debate on the existence of an “antediluvian” art. For nearly a century, discoveries proceeded at a steady pace, enriching public and private collections; however, the excavation methods often practiced at that time rarely took into account the archaeological contexts of the objects. Documentation is often reduced to the object itself and any new study must begin with a...