A History of the World in 100 Objects: Swimming Reindeer

Friday, January 13th's object was the carved Swimming Reindeer.

© Trustees of the British Museum

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This sculpture of two swimming reindeer is one of the oldest works of art in the British Museum. It was carved from the tip of a mammoth tusk during the last Ice Age. These types of art, unlike the cave paintings, could be carried around. These Ice Age artists were fully modern people with the same mental abilities as humans today.

This work is approximately 13,000 years old and was found in Montastruc, France.

© Trustees of the British Museum

A question has arisen.. What is the point of Ice Age artwork?

Some believe it could be a charm of sorts to help grant a successful hunt. The reindeer, while swimming, could represent migration or a vulnerable time for them against human hunters. The reindeer are also depicted as they appear in autumn, the time when their meat, skin and antlers are the best for food and other materials.
Jill Cook, Curator, British Museum, wrote:

The two reindeer found at Montastruc in 1867 form a figurative sculpture of remarkable naturalism carved with considerable skill and artistry.

Examining the work closely, it is possible to see, gesture by gesture, just how the artist shaped, polished then engraved the animals using flint knives and engraving tools.

Comparing the figures with living reindeer reveals how accurately they are depicted and we are reminded that human society at this time was part of nature. The artist could contour the bodies and shade the skins from knowledge acquired by hunting and butchering reindeer, their main source of food and materials.

Evaluating the aesthetics and spirituality of unknown artists in an extinct culture is much more difficult. While it may make us examine the works closely to collect evidence, we have to recognize that we could not reconstruct Christianity from an image of the Crucifixion although we might be able to construct a view of the society which commissioned it.

Nevertheless, when we see the reindeer in the Museum, we see it as a work of art which touches us deeply and provides a thread connecting us to a spark of human imagination across a 13,000 year time barrier

For more information, please visit BBC's website.

-VB