Tall Gogotte

An impressive skull of an Edmontosaurus, a large herbivorous dinosaur that lived during the Late Cretaceous period, 68-66 million years ago. The three rows of sixty or more teeth on either side of the jaw, known as the ‘dental battery’, mark the Edmontosaurus as part of the Hadrosauridae, or duckbill family of dinosaurs. It belongs to the flat-skulled, or solid-crested, Hadrosaurinae, which replaced the older hollow-crested hadrosaurs. Edmontosaurus was one of the last non-avian dinosaurs to ever exist, living shortly before the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event. The Edmontosaurus was named in 1917 by Lawrence Lambe, after a partial specimen from Edmonton in Alberta, Canada. The existence of large Edmontosaur bone beds...

A skull of a juvenile Triceratops prorsus from the Maastrichtian, late Cretaceous period (68-65 million years ago). The triceratops roamed the plains of what is now North America a...

An exceptionally rare and important Sardinian bronze figure of a warrior. The highly stylized figure is depicted standing, holding a club resting on his shoulder in the right hand an...

A gilded wooden head of an ibis. The bird’s head starts with its long thin neck and extends into the large pointed beak, forming a near-horizontal silhouette. The ridges down the beak and the circular eyes are deeply incised. The ibis was sacred to the Egyptian god Thoth, god of wisdom and writing, who was often depicted with the head of an ibis. Representations of the ibis in copper alloy are some of the most numerous sacred animal statuettes, alongside the cat, falcon, and Apis bull...

Glazed ceramic bowl with a convex wall and everted rim. With a cobalt blue inscription in the centre which reads, “baraka li-sahibihi” (blessing to its owner). Ceramics such as t...

A Gogotte Formation - The Hand Fontainbleau, France Oligocene Period Measurement Inc Stand. Gogottes are beautiful and beguiling mineral formations. They are rare and entirely natura...

A magnificent example of a gogotte formation composed of thick swirls and folds of sparkling sandstone. Discovered in the Oligocene sand dunes of Fontainebleau, France, formed circa 30 million years before present or later. The incredible, almost otherworldly appearance of gogottes may easily be mistaken for the work of a most talented artist. In fact, these sandstone sculptures are entirely natural in origin. They have been found in multiple locations but those from Fontainebleau, such as the present example, are the most remarkable. Thirty-five million years ago, a sea covered what is now the forest of Fontainebleau, and dunes of exceptionally fine and homogenous sand formed. As silica-rich water filtered through this sand, it turned into stone. The flow of water finely modelled the sandstone into the aesthetic concretions we now know as gogottes. These are rare and are only found sporadically several metres deep into the ground. They owe their sparkling white appearance to the extreme and unmatched purity of the Fontainebleau sand, sometimes reaching a composition of 99.9% silica. Each of them is unique – a masterpiece slowly fashioned by the hands of Nature. The intriguing name of “gogotte” was coined by French geologist Claude Guillemin (1923- 1994), who was inspired by the children’s book series Babar the Elephant. In one of the books, a group of monsters called Gogottes are shown hiding behind rocks. These rocks reminded Guillemin of the sandstone concretions...

A Gogotte Formation Of natural form, dating from the Oligocene period (30 Million years ago). Beguiling natural mineral formation, they are the result of calcium carbonate binding w...

A Gogotte Formation Of natural form, dating from the Oligocene period (30 Million years ago). Beguiling natural mineral formation, they are the result of calcium carbonate binding w...