A combined “whoa” spilled softly from our mouths as we stepped into the famed Lascaux Cave and gazed in wonder at the horses, aurochs and deer painted by Cro-Magnon people 21,000 years ago.
Our entire group stood in awe, our heads on swivels as we took in the dozens, nay hundreds, of animals sauntering and galloping across the walls and ceiling. They were not just simple outlines, but fully painted with shadings of fur, showing dimension and even movement. That they had existed here, hidden underground for 21,000 years, had us grasping at the concept of passing time.
Even though I knew beforehand that we would see a life-sized replica cave, not the original, I had not expected the experience to seem so real, so moving.
When I studied this auroch’s eye, the detail of the snout and lips, and the shading on the throat, he seemed ready to snort and run at any moment. Aurochs, large wild oxen, are now extinct.
We had booked a tour of Lascaux IV, called the International Centre for Cave Art. Emma, our guide, gestured to the hillside above the centre and said the entrance to the original cave – really, a network of caves – is nearby, but hidden in the thick forest. (Photos in the replica cave are not allowed, but Emma promised we could take as many as we wanted in the museum later, where further replicas are displayed.)
The original Lascaux Cave, discovered in 1940, had been closed in 1963 to protect the fragile prehistoric paintings from the human damage that comes from body heat, humidity and exhaling carbon dioxide, not to mention many other contaminants. Now, even scientists are allowed only limited access to monitor and stabilize the cave environment, she said.
I was surprised. I thought the closure had come in the last 20 years or so, not as long ago as 1963, when I had been four years old. But then I had to correct myself. Sixty-three years does not constitute “long ago” in this context.
Emma explained the four Lascaux Caves:
- Lascaux I: the original. The entrance had collapsed at the end of the last Ice Age, helping to preserve the cave until its discovery in 1940. By the early 1960s, after a million people had visited, bacteria, fungi and algae had grown on the walls. In 1963, the cave was closed, and remains closed, to visitors.
- Lascaux II: the first replica, opened in 1983. It displays the first two rooms – about 40 percent of the original cave. It can still be visited but tours are in French only.
- Lascaux III: an international traveling exhibit with replica sections of the cave and artifacts.
- Lascaux IV: opened in 2016. This replica cave, the one we visited, shows all the artwork. (One six-metre-deep shaft and a last section that requires crawling are not in the replica cave, but they are shown in the museum.)
“We’ve learned from our mistakes,” she said. “When we find a new cave, we don’t open it to the public.”
This black-and-yellow deer is more detailed than others, with its many-pointed antlers, dainty hooves, and dewclaws.
From the angular concrete and glass centre, we descended to the replica cave. I’ve been in many caves, and this really did feel real, likely because it replicates the temperature, humidity, and echoey effect of the original.
Emma said scientists employed 3D laser scanning to make the cave’s shell in sections. Once all the fibreglass sections were assembled, 36 artists replicated the original paintings, using the same pigments as their Cro-Magnon counterparts.
As we slowly made our way through the caves, I tried to imagine the work environment for those Cro-Magnon painters. Lighting alone presented a challenge: the sun shone in just a few metres, and of course they had no flashlights or electricity. The underground caverns would have been pitch black.
I learned later that in the late 1800s, some people questioned the cave’s art, saying Cro-Magnons couldn’t have created sufficient light to work deep in the caves. But the naysayers retreated after the red sandstone “Lascaux Lamp,” plus a hundred less-fancy lamps, were discovered.
The lamps, which we saw later in the museum, were carved stone with a shallow bowl that held animal grease. So, by flickering grease lamp, the painters would have ground their pigments, using manganese for black, different ochres for red and yellow, and mixing colours to create brown. Their painting tools included sharp stones for etching the outlines, brushes, stamps, their fingers, leather stencils, and even hollow bird bones to blow paint.
Most caves with prehistoric paintings show outlines of animals, not filled in like here, Emma said.
Neanderthals overlapped in time with Cro-Magnons, even interbreeding, before the Neanderthals died out. Cro-Magnons were the first modern humans, aka homo sapiens.
In the museum, we wandered at our leisure and took photos of the cave painting recreations. The fibreglass shells were artfully suspended from hundreds of metal rods.
Horses, aurochs and deer are the most common animals painted, with horses predominating. Cro-Magnon people used reindeer for everything but, interestingly, none are represented on the walls. Other animals included bear, ibex, bison, and some felines.
Emma pointed out a unique animal with two long twisted horns that doesn’t, and didn’t, exist – an imaginary animal. Cro-Magnon people had the same brains as us and could imagine, she said. That animal is nicknamed the Uniquorn.
She also pointed to an auroch 5-metres-6-cm long – bigger than the real animal would have been and the biggest painted auroch in Europe. Horses generally have big behinds and bellies, but short legs. Deer have huge antlers with more than normal points.
“Artists used their own vision,” she said.
Only one human is shown in the cave. It has a bird’s head and four fingers per hand.
“Today in our art, humans are very important, but not for them. When humans are shown, there’s not much detail.”
The original cave was discovered on Sept. 8, 1940 by 18-year-old Marcel Ravidat, an apprentice mechanic, who found what appeared to be a foxhole. Other caves had been discovered in the 1930s, and legends about tunnels and treasure abounded. Marcel returned four days later with rope, shovels and three friends: Jacques Marsal, Georges Agnel and Simon Coencas. They enlarged the hole, slid down the rope, and gazed, no doubt in wonder, at the animal paintings.
“He found a treasure, but not what was expected,” Emma said.
Marcel later said his dog, Robot, had run off and the four teens had been searching for him. Robot allegedly sniffed out the foxhole. But that story has always been suspected as an excuse, said Emma, since they had gone onto private property. None of the boys ever explained fully.
Only Simon, who died five years ago, saw the replica cave. George returned to Paris. Marcel and Jacques became guides at the cave.
The middle horse shows movement – its five heads illustrate it’s nodding its head up and down. We saw the same animation technique used at the Coa Valley in Portugal. These horse contours are engraved, with detailed manes, hair on the bellies, and hoofs.
Nobody knows for sure, of course, but it’s believed the painted animals were used to tell stories, not necessarily related to the hunt. The artists may have practised their painting elsewhere and created their masterpieces inside, just like more-recent artists created paintings for cathedrals. In fact, the cave has been dubbed “the Sistine Chapel of Prehistory.”
“Are the paintings linked to spirituality, or myths or legends?” I asked.
“That’s the main theory,” Emma said.
Based on the reindeer bones found inside, the Lascaux Cave paintings are considered 21,000 years old. Cro-Magnon people probably used the cave for about 500 years, although they may not have painted all that time. The paint itself, being mineral based, cannot be used to determine age.
Dots, lines and rectangles sprinkled amongst the animals are thought to be signs, some sort of communication.
“The signs are still a mystery,” she said. Maybe so people didn’t get lost in the caves?
My favourite painting showed five deer heads, muzzles pointed up. The drawings ended where their necks met an irregular band of ridges on the rock wall. Emma held her light at an angle from below and said to imagine it was a lamp flame. As flickering light fell along the ridges, they would appear to move, like water. The painters chose that particular spot to make it look like the animals were swimming across a river, with moving water under their necks.
Incroyable.
Les Eyzies
The village of Les Eyzies huddled below the limestone cliffs where many caves and prehistoric paintings have been discovered.
We stayed overnight in the adorable village of Les Eyzies, which is surrounded by dozens of other caves and rock shelters. Lascaux is far from the only cave in the Vézère River valley of south-central France. These limestone caves (called “grottes” in French) and rock overhangs (called “abris”) offered shelter and rock canvasses to Cro-Magnon and Neanderthal people.
How fleeting our lives here on earth have been compared to the span of time between us and these prehistoric artists. I examined pamphlets about the Abri Cro-Magnon, Grotte de Font-de-Gaume, Grotte du Grand Roc, and Troglodyte Village of La Madeleine with longing.
But, we were on a road trip with a schedule, so we couldn’t linger longer. (How’s that for fleeting time?) We chose, instead, to visit the National Museum of Prehistory, snuggled right into the cliff that overlooks the village. It appeared to be a curious blend of modern architecture and ancient caves in the rock.
Inexplicably, it opened late the next morning, throwing our fleeting time into disarray. While waiting for the museum to open, we had a quick visit through the nearby Pôle International de la Préhistoire.
Prehistory Interpretation Centre (Pôle International de la Préhistoire)
The Pôle centre offered lots of interesting facts that I dutifully noted in my journal.
The Pôle International de la Préhistoire offered a quick overview of the Vézère River valley’s history – Prehistory Lite, if you will. And entry was free.
Humans have lived in the area for nearly 450,000 years, enjoying and using the caves and overhangs, with good hunting, fishing and clean water nearby. Sedimentation and rock falls sealed off many caves, thus preserving them. La Micoque, an archeological site, bears the oldest traces of human occupation. The museum walked us through all the prehistoric ages (Neolithic, Bronze, Iron etc.), then the Romans, and the early Middle Ages to modern times.
The valley boasts 147 prehistoric sites, with 25 decorated caves; 15 sites are on the UNESCO World Heritage list.
We watched a short video of how to carve a spearpoint from a reindeer antler. I hadn’t realized before that they didn’t simply sharpen an antler point but instead carved the entire blade from the wide part of the antler and popped it out. Perhaps I’ll get to use that information in a trivia quiz one day.
National Museum of Prehistory
The museum’s top floor encompassed a terrace and the original museum (left) that was built right into the cliff face. Bill (right) and the oversized sculpture of a Neanderthal man looked out over Les Eyzies and the Vézère River valley.
We walked back to the National Museum of Prehistory just as it opened. A long line of people filed in slowly. Once we got in, we scooted up to the top floor and had it all to ourselves.
There, we found an outdoor terrace built into the limestone cliff with a splendid view down onto Les Eyzies. We inspected the oversized sculpture of a primitive man. In the Middle Ages, info panels told us, people had used this level for storage and animal pens. We craned our necks to look up at the cliff face; we could see holes that had been used to anchor ladders and footbridges to get to caves even higher on the cliff. The place reminded me of the monasteries of Meteora, Greece, where monks had also become experts at living on cliffs.
The old stone building at the end of the terrace had started out as a 16th-century castle, then became the original museum when it opened in 1913. We perused the small exhibits of tools and carvings inside.
The newer modern section of the museum, which opened in 2004, had been built in below the terrace in a pleasing combination of modern and prehistoric.
Madeleine’s Bison is a small carving, made from reindeer antler, that came from the Madeleine Shelter.
We made our way down to the floors below, enjoying the fascinating exhibits: stone tools in flint, sandstone and quartz; a skeleton of a domestic dog from 15,000 years ago; a polished jade axe; a steppe bison skeleton; ivory ornaments; traces of a hearth; spears; hooks made from bone.
Many artefacts came from the Madeleine Shelter (a UNESCO World Heritage Site), a mere 15 minutes drive up the river. I hadn’t realized how important it was – that shelter had given its name to the entire Magdalenian period of civilization, from 17,000 to 12,000 years ago.
The most famous artefact is Madeleine’s Bison, a charming little sculpture that could have fit into my hand. The bison has turned its head to lick its hind quarters – probably an itchy bug bite. I loved the detailed head and carved lines to show its long hair.
It felt wrong to gaze into glass cases at the skeletons of a young child (also from the Madeleine Shelter) and a Neanderthal newborn. They were displayed respectfully, but should they be displayed at all? (I feel the same way looking at mummies, but maybe that’s just me.)
The newborn skeleton is the most complete in Western Europe. Buried about 40,000 years ago, it’s considered one of the last Neanderthals, before they were replaced by homo sapiens.
“In Europe, the Neanderthals were the first to bury their dead, showing the existence of symbolic thinking and a certain social structuring,” said the museum pamphlet.
The Lascaux Lamp, displayed in a window so visitors could see both sides, was surrounded by other prehistoric tools.
Aside from Madeleine’s Bison, my two other favourite items were:
- The Lascaux Lamp, which burned grease. It’s a round shallow dish with a wide handle, carved from pink sandstone. Markings on the handle are also seen on the cave walls.
- A chunk of stone with several aurochs carved in relief. It came from a rock shelter wall that collapsed about 20,000 years ago. It’s significant because the carvings are similar in style (proportions, perspective and anatomical details) to the Lascaux paintings.
Our visits to the Lascaux Cave, these museums, and Les Eyzies had me pondering time, long after we returned to Portugal. Where do we fit along the timeline of human evolution? We’re a mere second, a dot, not even a full breath. Insignificance weighed upon me.
“Prehistory” may be the time before written records, but I couldn’t help thinking those Cro-Magnon artists had indeed written their history in their paintings, recording their culture, their pastimes, and what they held dear. It was just a different form of “written record.” As a writer, I certainly hold words dear. But are those paintings and carvings any less important than words?
Other places to ponder the passage of time
Who can resist a woolly mammoth?!
The Lascaux Cave gets most of the tourist love and, indeed, that’s what had drawn us to the area. But along the way, we discovered there are so many more wonderful prehistoric sites to explore.
- Abri Cro-Magnon is where Cro-Magnon man was first discovered in 1868, when the skeletons of 14 adults and children were found.
- Grotte de Font-de-Gaume has fewer paintings than Lascaux but a wider variety of animals, including bison, ibex, mammoths, horses, reindeer, aurochs, bear, felines, wolf, and woolly rhinoceroses.
- Abri de la Madeleine is, like Lascaux I, not open to the public, but the Troglodyte Village of La Madeleine right next to it lets you see how people used to live there.
- Pataud Shelter, occupied by reindeer hunters 35,000 to 20,000 years ago, shows an excavation site and archeologists’ techniques.
We left Les Eyzies vowing to return. I hope we’ll have time.
