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For Lascaux in the Corrèze department, see Lascaux, Corrèze. Lascaux is a commune in the Corrèze department in central France.
Cave painting at Lascaux.
Cave painting at Lascaux.

Lascaux is the setting of a complex of caves in southwestern France famous for its cave paintings. A cave is a natural underground void large enough for a human to enter This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. Cave paintings are Paintings on Cave walls and ceilings and the term is used especially for those dating to Prehistoric times The original caves are located near the village of Montignac, in the Dordogne département. Montignac is a commune in the Dordogne department in Aquitaine in southwestern France. Dordogne (Dordonha is a department in central France named after the Dordogne River. In the context of the political and geographic organization of France and many of its former colonies a department (département depaʁtǝmɑ̃ is an Administrative division They contain some of the most well-known Upper Paleolithic art. The Upper Paleolithic (or Upper Palaeolithic) is the third and last subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age as it is understood in Europe Africa These paintings are estimated to be 16,000 years old. They primarily consist of realistic images of large animals, most of which are known from fossil evidence to have lived in the area at the time. FOSSIL is a standard protocol for allowing serial communication for Telecommunications programs under the DOS Operating system. Lascaux was added to the UNESCO World Heritage Sites list in 1979. United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization ( UNESCO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations established on November 16 A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a site (such as a Forest, Mountain, Lake, Desert, Monument, Building, complex Year 1979 ( MCMLXXIX) was a Common year starting on Monday (link displays the 1979 Gregorian calendar)

Contents

History

The cave was discovered on 12 September 1940 by four teenagers, Marcel Ravidat, Jacques Marsal, Georges Agnel, and Simon Coencas, as well as Ravidat's dog, Robot. Events 1213 - Albigensian Crusade: Simon de Montfort 5th Earl of Leicester, defeats Peter II of Aragon at the Year 1940 ( MCMXL) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full 1940 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Public access was made easier after World War II. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including By 1955, the carbon dioxide produced by 1,200 visitors per day had visibly damaged the paintings. Carbon dioxide ( Chemical formula:) is a Chemical compound composed of two Oxygen Atoms covalently bonded to a single The cave was closed to the public in 1963 in order to preserve the art. After the cave was closed, the paintings were restored to their original state, and are now monitored on a daily basis. Rooms in the cave include The Great Hall of the Bulls, the Lateral Passage, the Shaft of the Dead Man, the Chamber of Engravings, the Painted Gallery, and the Chamber of Felines.

Lascaux II, a replica of two of the cave halls - the Great Hall of the Bulls and the Painted Gallery - was opened in 1983, 200 meters from the original. Reproductions of other Lascaux artwork can be seen at the Centre of Prehistoric Art at Le Thot, France.

The images

The cave contains nearly 2,000 figures. Many are too faint to discern, while others have deteriorated. Over 900 can be identified as animals, and 605 of these have been precisely identified. There are also many geometric figures. Of the animals, horses predominate, with 364 images. The horse ( Equus caballus) is a hoofed ( Ungulate) Mammal, one of eight living species of the family Equidae. There are 90 paintings of stags. A deer is a Ruminant Mammal belonging to the family Cervidae. Also represented are cattle and bison, each representing 4-5% of the images. A smattering of other images include seven felines, a bird, a bear, a rhinoceros, and a human. Among the most famous images are four huge, black bulls or aurochs in the Hall of the Bulls. The aurochs or urus ( Bos taurus primigenius) was a very large type of cattle that was prevalent in Europe until its Extinction in 1627 There are no images of reindeer, even though that was the principal source of food for the artists. [1]

The four black bulls are the dominant figures among the 36 animals represented in the Hall of the Bulls. One of the bulls is 17 feet long -- the largest animal discovered so far in cave art. The bulls appear to be in motion. [2] The most famous section of this cave is the great hall of the bulls, where there are bulls, horses, and stags.

A painting referred to as "The Crossed Bison" and found in the chamber called the Nave is often held as an example of the skill of the Paleolithic cave painters. The crossed hind legs show the ability to use perspective in a manner that wasn't seen again until the 15th century.

Of the non-figurative images, one researcher has speculated that the painted dots are maps of the night sky, since the patterns correlate with various constellations. [1]

Popular culture

References

  1. ^ Gregory Curtis, The Cave Painters: Probing the Mysteries of the World's First Artists, Knopf, New York, NY, USA, 2006. 1-4000-4348-4, pp. 96-97
  2. ^ Gregory Curtis, The Cave Painters: Probing the Mysteries of the World's First Artists, Knopf, New York, NY, USA, 2006. 1-4000-4348-4, p. 102
  3. ^ Dixon, Dougal; Ice Age Explorer (Time Machine, No. 7); published 1985 by Bantam Books; p. Bantam Books is a major US publishing house owned by Random House and is part of the Bantam Dell Publishing Group 106

Further reading

See also

External links

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