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MIDDLE MAGDALENIAN · ≈18,000–16,000 YEARS

Rondelle de Mas-d'Azil

Two humans, two bear paws and a horse in seven centimetres

A small engraved disc shows people and animals, but we do not know what it was used for.

Museum documentation · free public access, no account required.

Image 1 of 3 · Main image
CONTRIBUTED RECREATION · VISUAL INTERPRETATION

Reconstruction · Declared visual hypothesis

Recreation supplied to the project. Not an archaeological photograph nor a metric facsimile. Materials, finish, proportions and visible details may differ from the original. Enlarged faces belong to this same recreation. They do not certify the hole size nor the exact tracing of the original motifs.

Image 1 of 3 · Main image
Supplied recreation: Interpretation of the two sides of a perforated rondelle, on black background.
CONTRIBUTED RECREATION · VISUAL INTERPRETATION

Reconstruction · Declared visual hypothesis

Recreation supplied to the project. Not an archaeological photograph nor a metric facsimile. Materials, finish, proportions and visible details may differ from the original. Enlarged faces belong to this same recreation. They do not certify the hole size nor the exact tracing of the original motifs.

Explore in 3D

Load the model only when you want to explore it. Drag or use the arrow keys to turn it; + and − zoom. Closing it releases its memory.

Digital reconstruction supplied by the user; file metadata declares Tripo. Not an archaeological scan nor a metric replica. Display scale indicative, not a measurement of the original; supplied geometry preserved intact. Interpretation of the Mas-d'Azil rondelle. Its two sides, thickness and motifs are not presented as metric record nor as proof of a concrete function.

History and context

Piece MAN 48120 was cut from a scapula and today measures 7.8 centimetres. The inventory describes two humans, two bear paws and a horse: a fragmentary composition that forces one to examine both sides and the edge losses.

Amulet, token, spinning element, musical toy or spindle whorl are mutually incompatible proposals. None should obscure the main datum: image, support and breakage survived; the associated action did not.

Evidence and interpretation

Iconography, material, measurements, Piette's excavations and chronology are documented. Function and narrative are unknown.

Catalogue facts

Date
≈18,000–16,000 years
Location
Mas-d'Azil · Ariège, France
Inventory
MAN 48120
Material and measurement
Bone/scapula · 7.8 × 3.7 × 0.2 cm

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.

Bone6 dated objects

2 / 6In the centre: Rondelle de Mas-d'Azil

Also connected, without a comparable date (3)

These objects are not placed after the others: an unknown date does not mean a more recent object.

A closer look

About 3 min to read · 7 sections. Further reading and sources · free access. Editorial review recorded: .

A paw could represent an entire presence

The Musée d'Archéologie nationale catalogue compares this fragment with other bear representations: a plaque from La Madeleine brings together paws and a salmon, while a perforated baton from Massat shows a head. Not all animals had to appear complete. That selection of parts broadens the way of looking at the rondelle: what was engraved matters, but also what may have been lost with the edge. The catalogue interprets some compositions as attacks; they are readings of fragmentary images, not preserved narratives from their authors.

An image needs its inventory number

Several pieces from Mas-d'Azil circulate on the internet with the same name. The one in this record is fragment MAN 48120, not the complete disc known as the cow and calf rondelle. That second object was found in the Péquart excavations, decades after Piette's. Moreover, the museum distinguishes on its faces an adult aurochs and a bison calf: the traditional name does not replace the study of the animals represented either.

Thickness also matters

It is worth looking at this piece from the edge, not just approaching the engravings. The original is a very thin sheet of shoulder blade: barely two millimetres thick. That changes our impression of an object which, enlarged on screen, may look like a thick, heavy medal. The lines on both faces were made on that delicate support. In this record, the documentary photograph allows one to check what part survives; a recreation must not silently complete the missing strokes.

It could be made without a pair of compasses

How do you obtain a disc from a flat bone? An experimental study published in EXARC compared different ways of cutting rondelles. Marks produced by freehand work resembled certain archaeological remains more closely than those obtained with a compass. The conclusion is not that all were made the same way, but that a fairly regular shape does not require supposing an instrument that has not been found. Discarded cut-offs help reconstruct the work as much as the finished piece.

Spinning it does not resolve its use

The same study tested different functions, including image spinning and use as a spindle whorl. That a replica works in one way demonstrates a possibility, not what its prehistoric owner did. To advance, the wear from tests must be compared with traces on the original. That is why an animation of alternating images is useful as a visual experiment, but does not justify presenting this rondelle as the first cartoon.

The fragments that tell how they were made

At Las Caldas, Asturias, roughed-out discs preserved in different manufacturing phases have been studied. Some show the bone cutting; others, the perforation or a still incomplete decoration. Seen together they allow us to follow decisions that a finished piece no longer reveals so clearly. Comparison with specimens from the Pyrenean area helps study shared techniques and changes throughout the Magdalenian. It does not imply that this specific fragment travelled between those caves.

Why the Piette collection matters

Édouard Piette gathered numerous objects from Pyrenean caves and donated his collection to the museum in 1904. He requested that its organisation and a dedicated gallery be preserved. The historic display is therefore part of the history of these pieces: it shows how prehistoric art was classified at that time. Today we can appreciate that collection and review its interpretations at the same time. Preserving an old display case does not oblige us to keep all the explanations that accompanied it intact.

Location and territory

Physical world map with routes of human evolutionPresent-day world coastline from Natural Earth in an equirectangular projection. The overlaid markers let you explore each milestone.Map base: Natural Earth 1:110m · public domain · present-day reference coastline

LOCATED SITE

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

Where it is held

Musée d'Archéologie nationale

Item or group in the record · Documented collection

Inventory 48120.

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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