Hi Thierry

Maybe there you can find some informations:

W. Szafrański 1960; W sprawie tzw. "pramonoteizmu" w paleolicie, "Światowit", 23: 151-160.

http://www.archeo.uw.edu.pl/swarch/Swiatowit-r1960-t23-s151-160.pdf

I. Wunn 2001; Cave bear worship in the Palaeolithic, "Cadernos Lab. Xeolóxico de Laxe", 26: 457-463.

http://ruc.udc.es/bitstream/2183/6536/1/CA-26-33.pdf

J. Jahunen 2001; Tracing the bear myth in Northeast Asia, "Acta Slavica Iaponica", 20: 1-24.

http://src-hokudai-ac.jp/publictn/acta/20/asi20-001-janhunen.pdf

Best Regards

Maciej Wawrzczak

Hello Thierry,

I'm attaching to this a recent article on a possible bear-claw pottery motif among the Pueblo groups of the SW United States. The author makes a good case (at least I think so) for the identification. Bear paws also figure prominently as rock art symbols in the southwestern US and northern Mexico. There are very early colonial references to indigenous bear hunting in the mountains of northwestern Mexico; I can dig out the reference if you are interested.

I'm also attaching a study on the range of the Black Bear in Mexico; maybe that can be of interest also?

Saludos, Michael

Dear Thierry:

The article by Wunn (2001), posted by Maciej, argues strongly against cave bear worship in Early and Middle Paleolithic Europe, but it is important to note that these periods predate the presence of anatomically modern Homo sapiens in this region, and Wunn's discussion concerns whether or not Homo sapiens neanderthalensis (or Homo neanderthalensis, if you prefer) worshiped these animals.

From the Upper Paleolithic period (ca. 50,000-10,000 years ago), when modern humans (Homo sapiens sapiens) lived in Europe, there is evidence to support the notion of a cave bear cult. The most intriguing data are from Chauvet Cave in France, where in addition to painted depictions of cave bears, there is a chamber where the skull of a cave bear (Ursus spelaeus) was placed prominently on a block of stone in the center of this space, suggesting some sort of ritual activity.

Following are some web pages with images of the Skull Chamber at Chauvet, paintings of cave bears from the same cave, and texts discussing related themes.

http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/chauvet/damon-de-laszlo.php

http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/chauvet/bear_skull_altar.php

http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/chauvet/red_bears.php

http://archeologie.culture.fr/chauvet/en/salle-crane/notice/skull-chamber

http://archive.archaeology.org/1103/features/werner_herzog_chauvet_cave_primer.html

https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21028093-900-bear-dna-is-clue-to-age-of-chauvet-cave-art

The photograph of the bear skull "altar" was taken from the second of these sources, and the painted bears from the third. You may click on the images for a closer look, or go to these web pages and see them there.

Hello Thierry,

though I mentioned Bear imagery in SW US rock art earlier, from an ethnographic/ethnohistoric perspective the northern Plains groups are perhaps even more interesting when it comes to (Grizzly) Bear "associations" on a spiritual level. There is a illuminating discussion of Bear symbolism in the very recent book "Crow Indian Rock Art: Indigenous Perspectives and Interpretations" by Timothy McCleary (2015, Left Coast Press, Walnut Creek, CA).

Salut, Michael

I thought of the Inuit when I first read your question. My understanding is they have historically carved polar bears out of ivory, bone, and soapstone.

http://firstpeoplesofcanada.com/fp_groups/fp_inuit5.html

http://www.rhinoresourcecenter.com/pdf_files/131/1314140232.pdf

Prehistoric Art: The Symbolic Journey of Humankind by Randall White

One of the oldest sculptures from Upper Paleolithic Europe is an ivory figurine from the Hohlenstein-Stadel Cave in Germany, dated at ca. 40,000 years ago. It is usually interpreted as a lion-man (or lion-woman), a hybrid feline-human creature. I think that it could just as well have represented a cave bear (Ursus spelaeus) or some other species of the same genus. Compare the figurine with the standing skeleton of a juvenile cave bear, and the artist's representation of an adult cave bear, below.

The first two images that appear below are from Wikimedia Commons. The third is from the first link in the list I posted here yesterday.

These animals inhabited the sacred caves where humans painted the walls and deposited sculptural works. The bears' claw marks sometimes appear under, over, or combined with the marks made by people. It would have been natural for the bears to have acquired a profound symbolic significance in the minds of the humans that shared the landscape with them.

Hi again Thierry,

most likely you have seen this already, but just on the off-chance you have not:

Michel Pastoureau, L'Ours : Histoire d'un roi déchu, Éditions du Seuil,‎ 2007.

Here's more on cave bears and aesthetic expression. One of the oldest musical instruments known is a flute made from the femur of a juvenile cave bear, from around 40,000 years ago, found in a cave in Slovenia. Thus a modified body part of this species may have served as a vehicle for the aesthetic language we call music. People are still arguing about who made it, a modern human or a Neanderthal. See:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paleolithic_flutes

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divje_Babe_Flute

The image is from Wikimedia Commons:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fl%C3%BBte_pal%C3%A9olithique_(mus%C3%A9e_national_de_Slov%C3%A9nie,_Ljubljana)_(9420310527).jpg

I dont think people are arguing over who made it anymore- rather what animal gnawed on it...

http://rsos.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/2/4/140022

Thank you, Sheila. The authors of the article you provide seem to have done a very thorough job assembling and interpreting the osteological evidence. There is also a lot of information for understanding the behavior and chronology of the various species inhabiting caves during the Paleolithic. So the paleolithic inhabitants of Europe were apparently just tooting on swan bone and mammoth ivory flutes, not on bear bone flutes. The similarity of gnawed bones to bone flutes brings to mind some interesting speculative hypotheses on the origins of flutes.

Who ever demonstrated that hiennas did not played flute ? (Sorry to find that funny...)

Quite a long time ago I have mentioned such cult and indications for bear-connected ritual during the Palaeolithic od Europe. See the attached article with further older literature.

Il y avait probablement un tabou sur le nom de l'ours:  https://www.researchgate.net/publication/278623581_L%27Oreille_de_l%27Ours?ev=prf_pub et https://www.academia.edu/3225683/2013._LOreille_de_lOurs._-_Mythologie_fran%C3%A7aise_250_10-14...

Article L'Oreille de l'Ours.