THE RICHEST and perhaps most beautiful collection of prehistoric rock art in Western Europe was unveiled last week in a cavern in southern France. Some 300 paintings and at least as many engravings between 18 000 and 20 000 years old were discovered on Christmas Eve in a cave at Combe d’Arc in the gorges of the Ardèche.
Prehistorians say the find is exceptional not just because of the number and variety of animal images, but for the sheer size of its four main halls and smaller interconnecting galleries, and the care the cavers took to leave the floor undisturbed. The cave will probably become known as the “Chauvet cave” after its discoverer, Jean-Marie Chauvet, a security guard at the regional archaeology department.
Scientists say the discovery has shifted the centre of prehistoric art from the southwest of the country, site of the Lascaux cave, to the southeast where another fabulous collection of images was recently discovered in the Cosquer cave near Marseilles.
“The aesthetic and artistic quality of the art is exceptional,” says Jean Clottes, France’s leading rock art specialist and president of the rock art committee of the International Council of Monuments and Sites. “It’s very great art.”
About a dozen species of animals are represented at Combe d’Arc. Among the animals commonly hunted at the time and also depicted in other caves are horses, aurochs, bison, wild sheep and reindeer. But here there are also pictures of mammoths, cave lions and cave bears as well as handprints, tracings and symbols. Some of these symbols are similar to those found elsewhere but others are unique.
Scientists were surprised to find hyenas, panthers and owls, animals which have never before been found in rock art. Pictures of rarely painted rhinoceroses also decorate the walls.
The engravings and pictures painted with ochre, charcoal and haematite are organised into about 50 groups, with some measuring up to 4 metres. According to Clottes, much of the art appears to be the work of one artist “who was more talented” than the artists at Cosquer. Paint was spread by hand to give texture to the drawings which unusually also have perspective. The outlines of the animals were often scraped into the surface of the rock. Some are so anatomically precise that they show not just the species but also the sex of the animal.
Some of the images were drawn over scratch marks made by the extinct giant bear, and bear bones are scattered around the cave. One of the most remarkable things about the site, says Clottes, is the discovery of a bear’s skull on a rock placed in the middle of one gallery.
He suggests this could have been some sort of altar, possibly evidence that the site may have been used by a shaman. “Maybe it wasn’t the magic of the hunt that was important but the spirits of these animals,” he says.
Jean-Philippe Rigaud, director of the Quaternary Institute at the University of Bordeaux, says that because the floor of the cave has not been disturbed, it should provide many clues to the nature of the environment outside the cave when the paintings were made.
Analysis of animal bones and pollen grains will give a good idea of the species that lived and grew in the area. “The environment in the region was colder and more barren,” says Rigaud, something like the cold steppes of northern Russia.
Tools, the remains from torches and fires, and painting materials were found as well as arrangements of rocks and bones. Footprints cover the floor of the cave.
Clottes suggests that researchers may eventually be able to tell whether the occupants “danced, brought children or ate meat inside” the cave.
Chauvet and two companions found the cavern after feeling a draught coming out of the ground while they were exploring the gorges. After clearing away rock and debris from the entrance, they lowered themselves through a rock chimney. The Stone Age people who used the cave did not have make so much effort. According to scientists there used to be entrances at each end of the cave.