News flash, on your travel bucket list, should be the prehistoric cave paintings, drawings, and engravings in the southwest of France. Truth be told, there are many caves all over, some bigger than others. There is a small one outside of Bourg, France north of St. Emilion. But in reality, the two most famous are Rouffignac and Lascaux, which I had the good fortune to just visit and I highly recommend them as a go-to place in your future travels. Just imagine being on an everyday stroll or walk in the woods and noticed this gaping hole in the ground. Curiosity consumes you and after walking a few feet inside you suddenly see an intricate drawing of animals all over the place. You quickly realize that these works of art have been here for a long time and you are not the first human to walk into that cave. It is almost like landing on the moon. Chills run up and down your spine.
The cave Rouffignac is an ornate cave located in the heart of Perigord, in the town of Rouffignac-Saint-Cernin-de-Reilhac, between Bergerac and Sarlat, a small medieval city I also recommend visiting, in the department of Dordogne ( France ). The site is home to more than 250 engravings as well as line drawings dating from the Upper Paleolithic (Magdalenian, more than 13,000 years). The cave has been known for centuries and was described in 1575 by François de Belleforest, so it had been discovered over 400 years before. More than 8 kilometers long, this cave is one of the largest ornate caves in Europe. The visit, in an electric railway, makes traveling 4 kilometers round-trip in the main galleries. Scientists have determined that by controlling the number of visitors on a given day there is no risk of deterioration of the artwork. This is also because manganese oxide was used in drawing the drawings, which come from Romaneche, 450 Km away. Manganese oxide is basically black rock and because it is not a vegetable paint of sorts it's not going to deteriorate to any degree. In order to provide the open railway cars to see the artwork, the cave had to be dug out because 13,000 years ago the cave was only about 3 or 4 feet high and the artists had to lay on their back to draw the pictures. Research has identified innumerable traces of claws and burrows left by cave bears before human intervention. About 13,000 years ago ( Magdalenian ), these galleries were decorated with 158 mammoths associated with woolly rhinos, bison, horses, and ibex. The figures are deeply engraved or painted black. Four human figurations and tectiform signs are also present. Scientists believe the artwork was done by no more than 5 individuals over a period of weeks but not longer than a year. So they lay dormant with no human visitors for thousands of years.
The cave of Lascaux, located in the town of Montignac in Dordogne, in the Vézère Valley, France, is one of the most important caves decorated with Paleolithic by the number and aesthetic quality of his works. It is sometimes nicknamed "the Sistine chapel of the parietal art " or "Sistine Chapel of the Perigordian " according to an expression attributed to Henri Breuil
According to the most frequently told version, on September 8,1940, Marcel Ravidat discovered the entrance of the cavity during a walk on the commune of Montignac in the Dordogne with his comrades Jean Clauzel, Maurice Queyroi, and Louis Périer. During this walk, his dog Robòt pursues a rabbit that takes refuge in a hole located where a tree had been uprooted: an opening about 20 cm in diameter opens at the bottom of this hole, impossible to explore without a work of disobstruction. By throwing stones to try to bring out the rabbit, Marcel Ravidat finds that the hole communicates with a large cavity. As it is located 500 meters from the castle of Lascaux, he thinks it is the exit of an underground.When he walked in he was overwhelmed with the art that he saw and told others, within days most of the town had visited.
Unfortunately, as early as 1955, the first signs of deterioration are noted. They are due to an excess of carbon dioxide induced by the visitors' breathing, which causes an acidification of the expired water vapor corroding the walls. In 1957 the government set up a first system intended to regenerate the ambient air and to stabilize the temperature and hygrometry. The visits, however, continue to follow one another at the fast pace of more than 1,000 tourists a day, releasing about 2,500 liters of carbon dioxide and 50 kg of water vapor in a cavity whose volume is relatively low, of the order of 1,500. In 1960, the "green disease" appeared: carbon dioxide emissions from visits, a temperature too high and artificial lighting allow the dissemination of algae colonies on the walls. The enrichment of the atmosphere with carbon dioxide generates the "white disease", a veil of calcite deposited on the walls and on certain works. In 1963, microorganisms continued to proliferate despite the introduction of ozone filters. On April 17, 1963, André Malraux, then Minister for Cultural Affairs, decided to ban Lascaux access to the general public. A few years ago, an exact replica of the caves was open through the use of lasers and the reproduction is an exact copy of the original. Guided tours are conducted daily and you have to make an appointment. What I found so interesting is the abdominal areas of the animals are painted or etched around holes in the wall. It is obvious the intent was to provide as close to a three-dimensional depiction as possible. You can see the bellies of the animals protruding on the opposite side and it is obvious the artists were highly talented and trying to reproduce the animals as close as possible. At Lascaux, many of the animals are painted in color and the paint is what would deteriorate due to atmospheric changes.
Both caves are impressive and to me, it is important to visit both as you get to see differences in technique and style which in or itself is significant given the time period the works were done. It still is amazing to think that a few artistic individuals 20,000 to 30,000 years ago did these major works of art never to be seen again for tens of thousands of years.
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