One of the places on our “must visit” list has long been the famous Lascaux Cave in the Dordogne Valley of southern France. If you studied art history, you probably spent time learning about Lascaux, Magdalina and other notable European sites containing Paleolithic cave art. Of these, Lascaux is perhaps the most renowned.
Lascaux Cave is truly one of the world’s great treasures. Discovered in the early fall of 1940 by four teenage boys exploring the hills near the town of Montignac in south central France, the cave contains tall frescos of cattle, deer, aurochs and horses painted in masterful strokes and vivid colors some 15,000-17,000 years ago. Exploration of its vast interior has revealed about six hundred paintings and almost 1,500 engravings. Subject matter of the cave paintings and engravings are mostly animals, birds, rhinoceros and bison as well as cattle, deer and horses, along with hundreds of “signs”, quadrilateral shapes and dots and other patterns we’ll probably never decipher.
Sadly, or perhaps inevitably, the beauty of Lascaux attracted large numbers of tourists by the late 1950s and the heavy traffic endangered the paintings. The cave was closed to the public in 1963 and, in 1983, a replica of the Hall of the Bulls was opened so that tourists would still be able to view the magnificent drawings, albeit reproductions. Paintings in the original cave have since received extensive restoration but still face environmental challenges brought on by visitors and maintenance personnel entering the cave.
One of the Internet’s first websites was that of the Lascaux Cave, a marvel of graphics-enhanced information and still one of my favorites. It includes numerous photos taken in each of the rooms along with extensive history and archaeological information. The discussion of the deterioration of Lascaux in 1963 and what the French government did to create the replica is particularly interesting. A time-line illustrates Lascaux’s place in time within the collection of known Paleolithic cave art sites, and active links along the line take you to Cosquer, Chauvet, La Ferassie, Cap Blanc and other caves in the Dordogne Valley.
The multi-language website and “faux cave” represent wonderful innovations on the part of the French government. Together they preserve one of the world’s most treasured art galleries and allow untold numbers of visitors to experience and enjoy the work of the true masters of Paleolithic cave art.