Le Rozel, Neanderthals and a very old symbol in sand.

There's an archaeological dig near where I live on a headland over looking a favourite beach.   I remember thinking how they 'd smashed the shit out of the picturesque hillside when the dig was first 'accelerated' back in 2012.  But years later and looking for something interesting to do with my visiting in-laws I took them to take a look.

Following signs we approached the dig from the top and seeing us, one of the team invited us down and gave a guided tour of the site and their work.  

For the last 14 years a team of students and volunteers led by archaeologist Dominique Cliquet have found more than 5000 prehistoric footprints on the site.  According to evidence and supposition, it was occupied intermittently by Neanderthal groups from 140,000 to 40,000 years ago.  The site is now a south-facing cove by the sea, but then it was a sheltered hollow in a rocky ridge standing amongst high sand dunes miles from the coast.  At first flint tools and evidence of their manufacture were found, then remnants of hearths and prey animal processing.  It seems the ground in the cove was dampish and clay-y.  When a Neanderthal group vacated, dry sand could blow in from the dunes and fill any imprints made.  Then the student explained this year they had uncovered something more unusual and we were shown a form scraped/sculpted into the earth, into sand, measuring several square metres and then left... 80,000 years ago.

This grabbed my attention.  A few days later I returned to the site and painted the archaeological team from above as they worked.  After seeing my painting they accepted my request to make more pictures of what was their final week of the season.  That week I sketched and painted the team construct an armature about the object so it could be taken away.

After meticulous and painstaking work dusting the ancient form free they precisely recorded it using digital photography and 3D modelling.  But now re-exposed the form would be lost if left.  They began improvising a method to extract the object based on years of on site technical experience.  Resin was drip seeped into the sand cementing the grains together before a latex and glass fibre skin was made upon the surface.  Then a fibre-reinforced plaster and timbre grid was constructed.   

Whilst I drew and painted the film maker, David Geoffroy, who had been present throughout the summer continued his work capturing the action on camera.  You can watch his previous film about the site here. 

Who doesn't love sculpting forms in the sand on a day at the beach?  The beach, or sand, or earth pit is a universal(?) site for all our earliest sculptural play...  

Lately, I've been using AI to help me reorganise and rebuild my various websites after a host service transfer.  I think of the Cap du Rozel Neanderthal sand form as an early hominid silicon symbol.  The flint spear heads and axes are silicon tools.  The fast developing AI maelstrom is a contemporary silicon symbol-tool.  

Earlier this week, I 'accidently' watched a video short about the restoration of a Tokyo metro Stat Wars poster.  An experienced team of artisan/artist restorers massaged, bathed and airbrushed the old movie poster into a large glass frame for sale... the price was $40,000.  

The team of archaeologists, averaging 15 interchangeable bodies had an annual budget of about 90,000 euros for all their material expenses over the the 4-5 month dig season.  Twice this year I've heard news stories of high-profile thefts from French museums. If this Neanderthal object entered the 'gallery market' I'm sure it could fetch a remarkable price. But that would destroy the spirit of this mostly volunteer dig... and could make the site a target for ignorant and destructive gold digging. 

I ran this text by an on-line chatbot in it's 'sand box'.  I enjoyed the banter-y exchange it reflected but I explained and rejected most of it's modifications (not the re-paragraphing).

I am beginning to work on pictures that draw from these studies and observations.