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Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Lascaux Cave


In Southwestern France, there lies a cave system that depicts some of the earliest Paleolithic Cave art, dating back about 17,000 years. Lascaux Cave was discovered in France’s Dordogne River Valley in September 1940 by teenagers, who were frolicking in the woods when their dog disappeared down a hole.

Lascaux Cave
Image Source

Source

The Unicorn


The Lascaux Cave has over 2000 figures depicted on the walls, 900 of those being various breeds of animals. The most famous section of the animal paintings is the “Great Hall of Bulls”, where stags, equines, and bulls are depicted. One of the bulls is 18 feet long, making it the largest cave art representation of an animal.

Due to the high levels of CO2 deteriorating the paintings caused by foot traffic and the humidity from the visitor’s breath, the cave was closed for visitors. Lascaux II was opened to the public in 1983 and rivaled the popularity of the original cave.

The debate over the ideology and reasoning for the cave painting continues, as many of these famous paintings were found at sites not meant to be seen by wanderers or tourists.


1 Comment:

Bob Johnson said...

Again, awesome work, very informative.

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