Walking the Hedge

… a snippet of the start of something. Raw and unedited.

Abbé Henri Breuil sketched diligently by the dim gas-light, in a high alcove deep within a cave system. What he drew there and in other caves, what theories he later published about his discoveries, would help shape not only modern archaeology but also modern Paganism.

The Abbé was a man obsessed, crawling through narrow passages and scaling walls, only to lie upon the floors of caverns humanity had not set foot upon for thousands of years. All to draw the images he found there within. The most ancient of art in European history called to him. Cave art; depictions of bison and horses, lions and hand prints. And, in only a few instances, images of the human form mingled with that of an animal. The experts call these part-human, part-animal figures therianthropes.

The Trois-Frères cave was just one of many ancient cave systems Breuil would visit in his lifetime. In fact, it is far from the most famous of caves he worked in. Discovered in southern France, the art in this cave dates back to the mid-Magdalenian period of about 14,000 B.C.E. This cave features some 280 engraved images… Continue reading →