Carved figure of a face from the Amiens-Renancourt 1 site in France Stephane Lancelot/Inrap
A miniature statue dating back 27,000 years from northern France may give us clues to how ancient hunter-gatherers of the time styled their hair.
The statuette was unearthed in 2021 from an open-air site about 140 kilometres north of Paris called Amiens-Renancourt 1, but has only just been described by scientists.
It has long hair that appears to be braided with a gridded pattern, which could represent hair netting or a unique hairstyle. This differs from statuettes found across central and eastern Europe, where the hairstyle or headpiece is shorter and covers most of the head, says at the University of Li猫ge in Belgium, who wasn’t involved in the study.
The statuette鈥檚 unique hairstyle may reflect the fashion of the time and area. 鈥淭his could be a cultural particularity that would never have been highlighted other than through these rare human representations,鈥 says team member at France鈥檚 National Institute of Preventive Archaeological Research.
Radiocarbon dating of rock layers at Amiens-Renancourt 1 suggests the figurine is around 27,000 years old, making it part of the Gravettian period, which lasted from 33,000 to 26,000 years ago across Europe. After this period, hunter-gatherer populations left north-western Europe for nearly 10 millennia due to the very cold and dry conditions of the last glacial maximum, says Touz茅.
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鈥淭he presence of ornamentation or a sophisticated hairstyle emphasises the care devoted to the carving of this statuette,鈥 says at Ghent University in Belgium, who wasn’t involved in the research.
Other excavations at the site unearthed several scrap fragments and more than a dozen additional figurines, including Venus figurines that represent women. 鈥淚t appears that the site had a workshop dedicated to [statuette] production,鈥 says Touz茅.
But questions remain about the statuette and what it might reflect about the people who made it. 鈥淭houghts and myths from prehistoric times leave few traces,鈥 says Paris. 鈥淎nd when we do have traces, such as this statuette, their meaning remains enigmatic.鈥
Journal reference:
Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports
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