Ibex and the Pyrenees. II - Inventory of representations of the Pyrenean Paleolithic. Offered to Jean Clottes, Honorary General Curator of Heritage.

An emblematic animal of the Pyrenees, the ibex has inhabited both sides of the Pyrenees since ancient times. By adapting to this environment, a typically Pyrenean form, Capra pyrenaica pyrenaica, appeared several millennia ago. Consumed during prehistory, the ibex became, during the Late Paleolithic, an essential figure in the prehistoric bestiary. Many of its representations are world-famous: painted ibexes from the Salon Noir (Niaux cave, Ariège) or sculpted on sperm whale teeth (Mas d'Azil cave, Ariège). This second volume of the book "Ibex and the Pyrenees" is devoted to these prehistoric representations and offers a detailed inventory for the French and Spanish Pyrenees, completely new and richly illustrated. It also presents Paleolithic sites outside the Pyrenees where the ibex is well represented. Beyond its iconographic interest, accessible to all audiences, this inventory is intended to become a working tool for researchers and teachers; it has therefore been structured with this objective in mind and is doubled as an evolving online database. It brings together more than a hundred French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Belgian and Australian specialists and is, like the first volume, dedicated to Jean Clottes, a prehistorian from Ariège, honorary general curator of Heritage at the Ministry of Culture and international specialist in decorated caves.