Cave Chauvet, France: unique rock paintings

2024 Author: Harold Hamphrey | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:06

Rock paintings inside caves, made in prehistoric times, are the subject of research by scientists around the world. Such painting is considered the progenitor of art, and amazing creations look like two-dimensional images. Today we will talk about the most impressive masterpieces left by primitive man in a cave in the south of France, in the valley of the Ardèche.

Cave Chauvet closed to the public

The country's historical monument, included in the UNESCO World Heritage List, is closed to public access, as any change in air humidity will negatively affect the state of ancient drawings. Only a few archaeologists, strictly observing the restrictions, are allowed for several hours inside the underworld, the drawings of which tell about the life and life of ancient people.

A unique find in the south of France

The unique Chauvet cave (grotte Chauvet), exceeding 800 meters in length, was discovered in 1994 by three speleologists who discovered a half-buried entrance to an unexplored natural masterpiece. The scientists who descended by means of a ladder intothe cave gallery, which was preserved by fragments of stones many millennia ago, was stupefied by a unique spectacle: they discovered rock paintings, well preserved and masterfully executed. The researchers said that this unnamed creation of nature surpasses all previously known underground complexes of this kind in terms of size and number of images.

Features of drawings and methods of their application

The Chauvet Cave (France), named after one of the scientists who discovered it for mankind, was cut off from the outside world by fallen stones since the Ice Age, as a result of which the rock paintings have been perfectly preserved. The underground world consists of three spacious halls connected by long corridors. In two grottoes, drawings are made in red ocher, and engravings and black figures are observed in the last one.

More than 400 images were painted on the walls, and scientists were surprised by the fact that the primitive inhabitants of the cave painted not only the animals they hunted, but also formidable predators like a lion and hyenas. As scientists have established, there are a huge number of images of rhinos, which were not inferior in strength and power to a mammoth.

An extinct animal weighing about three tons, on whose head a high horn more than a meter long flaunted, was herbivorous, but very vicious, and this is evidenced by the scene of the battle of rhinos in the Chauvet cave. After research, this drawing is recognized as the oldest in the world.

The Greatest Artists

EatAnother feature that specialists paid attention to: before applying the paint, a person carefully cleaned and leveled the wall, and the images were made so skillfully that speleologists are surprised at his skill. The correct balance of shadow and light, as well as the use of proportions, are of great interest to scientists who have established the age of the rock paintings - approximately 35-37 thousand years, however, the exact date is still a matter of fierce debate.

Specialists who have studied rock art, said that the primitive man who painted this can rightly be called a great artist. Ancient images found in France are perfect works of art that show perspective and a variety of angles.

Rock painting that made a buzz in the academic world

The rock paintings in the Chauvet cave are excellent examples of painting of the early Paleolithic period, but they do not look simple and schematic at all, although, according to the classification of the famous scientist A. Leroy-Gourhan, the paintings in the cave should have been plain spots and lines. The French archaeologist and paleontologist, who said that art developed from the primitive to the complex, did not expect rock art to appear so late.

The well-explored Chauvet Cave, whose drawings turned all theories about the development of art upside down, made scientists think about the illegality of any invented frames and classifications.

Primitive or high level ancient artists?

French researchers suggested that primitive people were familiar with perspective and chiaroscuro, and unusual angles baffle many experts. As a rule, the figures looked static, and the rock finds perfectly convey the dynamics and character of animals, which is very unusual for the Paleolithic era, and radically change the idea of primitive people.

For example, the depicted horses in the Chauvet Cave are running, not standing still, lions are hunting bison, and formidable bears are about to pounce on a person. Moreover, primitive artists very harmoniously included drawings in the general space of the dungeon. It turns out that initially the artistic abilities of ancient people were at a high level.

Unique cave drawings

This is surprising, since the primitive people of the later era did not leave behind any traces of their stay, except for dark spots from torches. The rock paintings are also interesting in that you can see images of unknown animals on them, about which history is silent. They are of great interest to zoologists. For example, the extinct woolly rhinoceros is adjacent to a relative completely devoid of hair. And the lions depicted on the walls lack the usual mane.

There are practically no drawings with people in the cave, although there are strange figures that do not resemble a person, but a fantastic creature with a bison's head.

But, perhaps, three-dimensional images made in the deepening of the mountainbreeds, can be called the most significant. They are of great interest to specialists and are made using methods that are not used anywhere else. Scientists claim the so-called Paleolithic animation, which is an outlined image, as if layered on top of each other, and when the light of torches fell on the image, it "came to life".

Research scientists

Specialists, interested in the age of the drawings, reconstructed history and found out that the Chauvet cave became the object of the activity of an ancient man about 37 thousand years ago, and earlier it was inhabited by bears that exceeded the weight of modern brown ones. Perhaps that is why a huge number of discovered bones belong to a formidable predator, although some researchers claim that it was he who was worshiped by the inhabitants who professed the cult of the animal.

By the way, Chauvet Cave, whose photo of rock art will not leave anyone indifferent, was not always inhabited. It has been empty for about two millennia, and scientists attribute this fact to geological changes on our planet, in particular, to rock falls.

Twenty-two years of studying the underground halls of scientists, and more than 350 studies have been carried out to establish the dating of the drawings by various methods, including radiocarbon dating. True, according to experts, even these analyzes are not enough to establish the true age of the images.

Secrets of the Dungeon

Cave Chauvet, recognized as the most significant prehistoric monument inworld of art, keeps many secrets, because, as it turned out, people did not live in it, but only created paintings. A bear skull on a huge stone indicates that the dungeon was used as a place of animal worship and magical rituals. Scientists interpret the finds in different ways, but so far they cannot give definite answers.

Copy of the cave

In 2015, an important event took place in the cultural world: a copy of the famous cave appeared in France, the entrance to which is closed, and about 350 thousand people visited the unique structure in a year. Fifty-five million euros have been spent on an artificial grotto that faithfully reproduces spacious halls, ancient paintings and even stalactites.

Becoming the cradle of fine art in Europe, the cave, whose images copy the original source down to the smallest detail, is waiting for everyone to touch the mystery of past eras.