Est ce qu'on a toujours été proche des animaux ?

Animals held a central place in human history, first as a source of food (meat) and materials (hides, bones, fat, tendons) to make clothing, blankets, oil, and tools.

The Caours site near Abbeville in Somme, excavated since 2005 by INRAP, dates to the Eemian period (130,000 to 115,000 years ago) and reveals a Neanderthal butchery with bones from deer, fallow deer, roe deer, aurochs, and rhinoceros.

• Massive animals like aurochs and rhinoceros were butchered at the kill site • Neanderthals then transported the most nutritious parts to their camp • Bones bear cut marks made with flint tools

These discoveries attest to very ancient hunting practices and show that every part of the carcass was used, revealing a strictly utilitarian relationship with animals.

From the Upper Paleolithic onward (40,000 years ago), Homo Sapiens experienced unprecedented social and cognitive development, and animals now occupied a prominent place in the human imagination.

• The wildest or most dangerous animals (mammoths, rhinoceroses, lions, bison, aurochs) cover the walls of dozens of caves • Their recognizable forms can be traced in just a few gestures, becoming symbols • A simple curve can suggest the back of a mammoth or bison, as in Pech-Merle cave

In Paleolithic art, animals are the primary subject, making up the vast majority of representations, and often appear to float on the walls without context or landscape.

These representations are not naturalistic scenes but convey a deeper meaning corresponding to narratives explaining the world through myths.

INRAP archaeologists discovered a bird engraving in Bergerac, Dordogne, dating to the Aurignacian period (35,000 to 31,000 years ago), incised on the calcareous crust of a flint block.

The beak and eye are rendered realistically, while the central striations clearly evoke the wing plumage of a sparrow or partridge.

• The world's oldest rock painting, located on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, depicts a wild boar and dates to over 45,000 years ago • The first temple humanity built, 11,500 years ago on the hill of Göbekli Tepe in Turkey, is covered with animal representations (vultures, serpents, felines)

From the very beginning and across all continents, Sapiens had animals on the mind, demonstrating the universality and antiquity of this symbolic preoccupation.

The great process of domesticating nature began roughly 10,000 years ago in the Near East (Neolithic). Successive selections and breeding by herders resulted in genetic modification, producing animals that were more docile or hardy according to need.

Among domesticated animals, cattle, sheep, and goats are the most represented and provided most of the meat diet. Though smaller than the aurochs, cattle remained very imposing.

• Bulls and their horns were omnipresent in the Neolithic, notably at the heart of houses at Çatal Höyük in Turkey in the seventh millennium • Some dwellings are decorated with sculptured bovine skulls • The bull becomes an important symbol for early Neolithic farmers

At Aubevoye in Eure, INRAP discovered in 2003 a 6,000-year-old zoomorphic vessel, likely a ritual deposit before the village's foundation, expressing a relationship of closeness between human and animal.

During antiquity, animals were represented on more varied supports. At Naves in Corrèze, INRAP discovered the remains of several carnyx, Gallic war trumpets, one of which was complete with a finely crafted boar's head.

• This third-century BCE instrument illustrates an obvious decorative role, the carnyx mouth resembling an animal's mouth • The sound reconstructed through a replica evokes an animal's cry • This motif may have taken on an identity character for the Celtic world

On a mosaic discovered at Uzès in Gard, dated to the first century, an owl, duck, eagle, and fawn are finely represented in color alongside geometric patterns, embodying the beauty of an idealized wild nature.

• The owl on Athenian coins embodies wisdom and the goddess Athena • The eagle is associated with power in the Roman world • The lion is placed as guardian of gates, as at Mycenae

The emotional bond between humans and animals has existed at least since the first domestication in history, that of the dog from the wolf, roughly 14,000 years ago.

The Egyptians habitually mummified their animals, particularly cats, thousands of whose mummies have come down to us, preserving the emotional bond in the afterlife.

• At the Gondole site near Clermont-Ferrand, eight Gallic riders from the first century BCE are buried with eight horses in a large rectangular pit • The presence of horses demonstrates the status of these men as cavalry rather than mere infantry • This may reveal a practice of ritual sacrifice to accompany a powerful chief

• At Aulnat, a first-century child burial contains the skeleton of a puppy with a bronze collar and bell, unique remains showing the family pet • At Poitiers, a small exotic monkey from the third century was buried in a small wooden coffin, a particularly rare case with only two other known examples in France

Long considered by modern science as beings without consciousness, animals are being reevaluated in a new light through innovative ethology work and a transformation of our society.

• There is discussion of recognizing animals a better legal status so they are no longer mere objects • Practices are being banned to ensure animal welfare • The human-animal relationship becomes a primary concern again

Historians and archaeologists are developing new approaches: archaeozoology has become a discipline in its own right, and authors like Éric Baratay write history from the animal's perspective.

• Thousands of species are threatened by the climate crisis • Meat consumption has become an important issue for greenhouse gas emissions • Our relationship to the animal world and its exploitation are gradually transforming