paleolithic artistry

France. Archeologists discover intricately engraved (often ivory) disks, that date to the Ice Age. These “rondelles” bear the marks of sophisticated Paleolithic artistry. Carved with spellbinding precision, they date back 11,000 to 18,000 years.

Each rondelle, barely larger than a coin, is etched with detailed wildlife—a leaping deer, a swirling mammoth trunk—that capture prehistoric life in frozen motion. When spun, these delicate carvings mysteriously came alive. A primitive zoetrope, they melded art, life, and myth with magic.

Deep with symbolic meaning, these mesmerizing artifacts, allow us to glimpse the dawn of humans fascination with illusion and storytelling—a journey that would eventually lead to the grandeur of the cinema. These discs capture one of humanity’s earliest dances of symbolic expression, under a Paleolithic moon.