The cave paintings inside the caves, made in prehistoric times, are the object of study 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 a primitive man in a cave in the south of France, in the valley of the Ardeche River.
Chauvet Cave, closed to visitors
The country's historical monument, inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List, is closed to public access, since 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 underground kingdom, 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 a length of 800 meters, was discovered in 1994 by three cavers who discovered a half-buried entrance to an unexplored natural masterpiece. Scientists who went down the stairs to the cave gallery, which was preserved by fragments of stones many millennia ago, were stunned by a unique sight: they discovered cave paintings, well preserved and expertly executed. Researchers said that this nameless creation of nature is superior in size and number of images to all previously known underground complexes of this kind.
Features of drawings and methods of their application
Chauvet Cave (France), named after one of the scientists who discovered it for humanity, was cut off from the outside world by fallen stones from the time of the Ice Age, as a result of which the rock paintings were perfectly preserved. The underworld consists of three spacious halls connected by long corridors. In two grottoes, the drawings are executed in red ocher, and in the latter, engravings and black figures are observed.
More than 400 images are 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 is a huge number of images of rhinos, not inferior in strength and power to the mammoth.
An extinct animal weighing about three tons, with a tall horn more than a meter in length on its head, was a herbivore, but very vicious, and this is precisely what the scene of the rhinoceros battle in the Chauvet cave testifies to. After research, this drawing is recognized as the oldest in the world.
"The greatest artists"
There is another feature that experts have noticed: before applying the paint, the person thoroughly cleaned and smoothed the wall, and the images were made so skillfully that cavers were 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 cave paintings - about 35-37 thousand years, however, the exact date still causes fierce debate.
Experts who studied cave art said that the primitive man who painted it can rightly be called a great artist. Ancient images found in France are perfect works of art in which perspective and a variety of perspectives are visible.
Rock art that made a fuss in the scientific world
The cave paintings in the Chauvet cave are excellent examples of paintings from the early Paleolithic period, but they do not look at all simple and sketchy, although, according to the classification of the famous scientist A. Leroy-Guran, the paintings in the cave should have been simple spots and lines. The French archaeologist and paleontologist, who stated that art developed from primitive to complex, did not anticipate the appearance of cave paintings so late.
The well-researched Chauvet cave, whose drawings turned all theories about the development of art upside down, made scientists think about the illegality of any invented framework and classifications.
Primitive or high level of ancient artists?
French researchers have suggested that primitive people were familiar with perspective and chiaroscuro, and unusual perspectives baffled many experts. As a rule, the figures looked static, and the cave finds perfectly convey the dynamics and character of animals, which is very unusual for the Paleolithic era, and fundamentally change ideas about primitive people.
For example, the horses depicted in the Chauvet cave run, but do not stand still, lions prey on bison, and formidable bears, look at that, attack the man. Moreover, primitive artists very harmoniously included drawings in the overall space of the dungeon. It turns out that initially the oldest people had artistic abilities at a high level.
Unique cave paintings
This is surprising, since the primitive people of the late era did not leave behind any traces of their stay, except for dark spots from the torches. The cave paintings are also curious in that they can be used to consider images of unknown animals about which history is silent. They cause incredible interest among zoologists. For example, the extinct woolly rhinoceros here is adjacent to a relative who is completely devoid of hair. And the lions depicted on the walls do not have the usual mane.
There are practically no drawings with people in the cave, although there are strange figures that resemble not a human being, but a fantastic creature with a bison head.
But, perhaps, three-dimensional images made in the deepening of the rock can be called the most significant. They are of great interest to specialists and performed using methods that are not used anywhere else. Scientists claim the so-called Paleolithic animation, which is a contour image, as if layered on top of each other, and when torchlight hit the image, it “came to life”.
Scientists research
Experts interested in the age of the drawings reconstructed the history and found out that the Chauvet cave was the object of activity of an ancient man about 37 thousand years ago, and earlier it was inhabited by bears that were superior in weight to modern brown ones. Perhaps this is why the huge number of bones found belongs to the formidable predator, although some researchers claim that it was he who was worshiped by residents who professed the cult of the animal.
By the way, the Chauvet cave, whose photo of rock paintings will not leave anyone indifferent, was not always inhabited. About two millennia, it was empty, and scientists attribute this fact to the geological changes of our planet, in particular, to the collapse of rocks.
Scientists have been studying underground halls for twenty-two years, and more than 350 studies have been conducted to date the drawings with various methods, including radiocarbon. True, according to experts, even these analyzes are not enough to establish the true age of the images.
Secrets of the dungeon
Chauvet Cave, recognized as the most significant prehistoric monument in the art world, holds many secrets, because, as it turned out, people did not live in it, but only created pictures. And the bear’s skull on a huge stone indicates that the dungeon was used as a place for animal worship and magic rituals. Scientists interpret the findings differently, but so far they cannot give definite answers.
Copy of the cave
In 2015, an important event took place in the cultural world: in France, a copy of the famous cave appeared, the entrance to which is closed, and about 350 thousand people visited the unique building during the year. Fifty-five million euros were spent on an artificial grotto accurately reproducing spacious halls, ancient drawings and even stalactites.
The cave, which has become the cradle for the fine art of Europe, whose images copy the original source down to the smallest detail, is waiting for everyone to touch the secret of past eras.