MOBILIARY ART · MIDDLE MAGDALENIAN · MAS-D'AZIL

Fawn spear-thrower

Animals carved on a hunting tool

This tool helped launch projectiles further and was decorated with animal figures.

Museum documentation · free public access, no account required.

Image of Fawn spear-thrower — **DECLARED VISUAL RECONSTRUCTION · AI-GENERATED IMAGE · TRACEKEEPERS**
Generated reconstruction · Declared visual hypothesis
Declared visual reconstruction, created for museographic contextualisation; not a photograph of the original nor does it constitute documentary evidence.

History and context

Carved from reindeer antler, the spear-thrower measures around 32 centimetres and combines a functional hook with an animal turning its head towards a form expelled beneath the tail. Its carving requires understanding volume, balance, and the stress the object would receive when propelling a dart.

The nickname "fawn with birds" summarises a traditional reading. An ibex, a doe giving birth, or a symbolic scene have also been seen. The museum preserves the ambiguity: we observe anatomy and composition, not the narrative that explained them.

Evidence and interpretation

Support, hook, carving, and provenance are observable. Species, sex, "birds", birth, and ritual function are debated interpretations; institutional sources disagree even on the exact year of discovery.

Catalogue facts

Date: Middle Magdalenian
Location: Mas-d'Azil Cave · Ariège, France
Material and measurement: Reindeer antler · ≈32 cm
Function: Spear-thrower with hook · open iconography

A SHARED TOPIC, DIFFERENT MOMENTS

Objects connected through time

Follow a topic across the collections. A shared tag is a way to compare objects, not proof that one culture influenced another.

The order uses the midpoint of each approximate date range; ranges can overlap. Spacing does not represent elapsed time. Swipe, scroll or use the arrows. With the sequence focused, use ← / →, Home or End.

THE CURRENT OBJECT

Its date is not sufficiently established to place it on the timeline. We keep it here, separate from the dated objects.

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Middle Magdalenian

Fawn spear-thrower

Prehistory

Cultural period without numerical interval for the object.

Current record

Antler1 dated object

≈15,000 years · Magdalenian
Bilateral harpoon
Prehistory
Approximate catalogue age; editorial reference 2026 for ordering only, not calibrated dating.
Read the record

1 / 1In the centre: Bilateral harpoon

You can scroll the first group without JavaScript. The other topics are also available below.

Tools

Current object, without a comparable date: Fawn spear-thrower.

Swanscombe handaxe · ≈425,000–375,000 years · Prehistory
Bilateral harpoon · ≈15,000 years · Magdalenian · Prehistory
Engraved stone from Çakmaktepe · PPNA · site proposal: ≈9600–8800 BCE, provisional · Prehistory
Grinding stone from Çakmaktepe · PPNA · ≈9600–8800 BCE, provisional proposal for the site · Prehistory
Nahal Hemar Knives · 8th millennium BCE · Pre-Pottery Neolithic B context · Prehistory
Gebel el-Arak knife · 3600–3200 BCE · Naqada II C–D · Ancient Egypt
Nippur Cubit · III millennium BCE · usually towards 2650 BCE; approximate · Sumer
Carnelian beads · ca. 2600–1900 BCE · Indus civilisation
Rubber before the stadium · c. 1600–1200 BCE for the oldest specimens · Maya worlds
Maya's cubit · 1330–1295 BCE · end of the 18th dynasty · Ancient Egypt

Without a comparable date (not part of the chronological order):

Bone needle · No individual dating published on this record · Prehistory
Canal and field · IV–III millennium BCE · Sumer
Copper and stone · ca. 3100–2700 BCE · Ancient Egypt
Early metallurgy · c. 1900–1500 BCE · Ancient China
Iron changes the frontier · 3rd–2nd centuries BCE · Gojoseon and early Korea
Ishango, without genealogical shortcut · More than 20,000 years; context ca. 25,000–20,000 BP · Batwa / Twa histories
Jenne-jeno contexts · ca. 250 BCE–1400 CE · Mande Worlds
Soma stones · Rigvedic strata; later ritual tradition · Vedic and later Indian worlds
The quarry remained visible · Mainly 6th–5th centuries BCE · Gojoseon and early Korea
The unfinished gesture · 1947 · Batwa / Twa histories
The workshop inside the ditch · 4th century BCE–3rd century CE, peak in Middle and Late Yayoi · Yayoi Japan

Hunting

Current object, without a comparable date: Fawn spear-thrower.

Without a comparable date (not part of the chronological order):

Tools in relation · ca. 1947 · Batwa / Twa histories

Animal imagery

Current object, without a comparable date: Fawn spear-thrower.

Lion-man · ≈40,000 years · Aurignacian · Prehistory
Before the San · ≈25.500–23.500 BCE · San histories
Before the name San · ≈25.500–23.500 BCE · San histories
Altamira · Assemblage ≈36,000–13,000 BP · bison ≈18,400–15,300 cal BP · Prehistory
Lascaux · ≈23,500–21,000 cal BP · debated contextual estimate · Prehistory
Zaraysk Bison · ≈23,000–21,000 years · Prehistory
Rondelle de Mas-d'Azil · ≈18,000–16,000 years · Prehistory
Lamp from La Mouthe · ≈20,500–13,000 years · Magdalenian framework · Prehistory
Engraved stone from Çakmaktepe · PPNA · site proposal: ≈9600–8800 BCE, provisional · Prehistory
Cueva de las Manos · Sequence ≈9300–1300 BP · Prehistory
Cylinder seal · c. 3500–3100 BCE · Sumer
Queen's Lyre · ca. 2600–2500 BCE · Sumer
The goat from PG 1237 · ca. 2600–2400 BCE · Sumer
Indus seals · ca. 2600–1900 BCE · Indus civilisation
Queen of the Night · 19th–18th centuries BCE · Sumer
Bull-leaping · c. 1600–1450 BCE · Greek worlds
Stag Vessel · 14th–13th centuries BCE · Hittites
Before the Scythians and Sakas · Final Bronze–Initial Iron, ca. 1200–600 BCE · Scythians and Saka
Ivory in Nimrud · 9th–8th centuries BCE · Phoenicians
Lamassu of Khorsabad · Reign of Sargon II · 721–705 BCE · Sumer
The Tello Obelisk · c. 800–500 BCE · Pre-Inca cultures
Ashurbanipal Hunt · 645–635 BCE · Sumer
Banquet under leopards · Around 480–470 BCE · Etruscans and Rome
The oldest knotted carpet · 5th–4th centuries BCE · Scythians and Saka
The silver amphora of Chertomlyk · 4th century BCE · Greek worlds
Thoth in the form of a baboon · 664–30 BCE · Ancient Egypt
Poroina Mare Rhyton · Second half of the 4th century BCE · Thracians
Borovo · 4th century BC C.; 350–300 BCE in the ISAW catalog. · Thracians
Leipzig Fish Plate · Last third 4th–early 3rd century BCE · Greek worlds
Dove of the Amarejo · 3rd century BCE · Iberians
Chão de Lamas pectoral · 3rd–2nd centuries BCE · concealed in the early 1st century BCE · Iberians
Fibula from Lancia · ≈300–100 BCE · Iberians
Horse fibula · 2nd century BCE · disputed chronology · Iberians
The dismantled cauldron · 2nd–1st centuries BCE · Celtic worlds
Kalathos of Alcorisa · 2nd–1st centuries BCE · Iberians
Egyptian oil lamp with a fish, held in Laon · 3rd–4th centuries CE · Ancient Egypt
Laon lamp with fish · 3rd–4th centuries CE · Etruscans and Rome
Gold rhinoceros · ca. 1220–1290; found in 1933 · Bantu-speaking worlds
Zimbabwe birds · main period of Great Zimbabwe, c. 12th–15th centuries · Bantu-speaking worlds

Without a comparable date (not part of the chronological order):

Bhimbetka · Mesolithic–historical and medieval period · Prehistory
Eland Cave · Regional tradition of ≈4,000 years · up to historical period · Prehistory
Game Pass Shelter · Regional rock art chronology · panel not dated in isolation · San histories
Kakadu · Regional corpus ≈20,000 BP–contemporary era · Prehistory
Leang Karampuang · Minimum 51,200 years · dating published in 2024 · Prehistory
Sierra de San Francisco · Broad tradition with direct dates ≈5290–295 BP · Prehistory
Tassili n’Ajjer · Corpus ≈6000 BCE–first centuries CE · Prehistory
The Thracian Horseman · Roman era · diffusion especially in the 2nd–3rd centuries CE · Thracians
Trumpet from Numantia · No individual dating published on this record · Iberians

Bone and antler carving

Current object, without a comparable date: Fawn spear-thrower.

Hohle Fels flute · ≈35,000–40,000 years · Prehistory
Bilateral harpoon · ≈15,000 years · Magdalenian · Prehistory
El Miradero spatula-idols · ≈4000–3800 cal BCE · Prehistory

A closer look

About 1 min to read · 1 section. Further reading and sources · free access. Editorial review recorded: September 5, 2026.

The perforations pointing to a missing part

At the base of the spear-thrower, three perforations are preserved. The site interpretation proposes they served to attach it to a wooden handle, now lost: what we see could be only part of a composite instrument. Its delicate form also poses a tension between efficacy and fragility. That it can launch a dart does not prove it withstood repeated hunting. The proposal of a ceremonial use stems from that functional problem, but remains a hypothesis and not an observable property of the adornment.

Heritage · Grotte du Mas-d'Azil · Le Faon aux oiseauxAccess recorded: September 5, 2026.

Location and territory

LOCATED SITE

Grotte du Mas-d'Azil · FranceMarker of the cave and its site museum.

Where it is held

Musée de la Préhistoire du Mas-d'Azil

Item or group in the record · Documented collection

The holding institution is documented; public display may change. Check its official record before visiting.

Sources and references

Open the institutional record and expand the object

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