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A Visit to the Chauvet Cave

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A Visit to the Chauvet Cave a visit to the chauvet cave Photo by official Chauvet Cave guide In February 1995 invited Alec Campbell, myself and our I read in Time wives to visit the Chauvet Cave. Magazine about the discovery of On June 3rd this year, Alec, myself and an exciting new our wives, Judy and Deborah arrived Palaeolithic cave in at Vallon Pont d’ Arc in the Ardeche, southern France where the Chauvet Cave is located. - the Chauvet Cave- Reaching the cave involved a stiff featuring exquisite climb up some 1000 feet above a river paintings of rhinos, flowing at the base of a deep gorge. lions, mammoths The original entrance to the cave was and aurochs. Some blocked by a rock fall some 25,000 of these paintings years ago. The current entrance is a are thought to be a very low profile, tiny opening sealed a staggering 32,000 with a 4-foot metal door not far from years old. Dr Jean the original entrance. Kitted out in Clottes , who heads overalls, helmets with headlamps, up the scientific team studying the harnesses and special rubber shoes Top: Vallon pont d’Arc is Chauvet Cave, has described it as one to guard against contamination, we named after the huge natural of the most valuable archaeological began our descent single file, down arch over the river, not far from the Chauvet Cave. Inset: sites on earth. The cave will never be through a dark and narrow tunnel, The small shelter where we open to the public, unlike Altamira then continuing down a ladder about were equipped with overalls, and Lascaux, where so much priceless 25 feet to the base of the cave. Here lamps and harnesses. Above: information from the past was Jean flicked a switch and lights came Group photo outside entrance trampled by tens of thousands of on revealing a cave of incredible to the Cave (Left to right): visitors and lost forever. You can beauty, with large areas of the roof Jean Clottes, Deborah, Alec, DC, Judy and a U.S. journal- imagine my enormous surprise and being covered by veils or curtains ist. delight, therefore, when last year Jean of pure white and reddish streaked 8 trust for african rock art newsletter – OCTOber 2005 stalactites. The effect was as if we were entering images drawn mainly in black, of life-size heads of an extraordinary cathedral, filled with a sacred horses, so strong and life-like that they stood out in presence - perhaps of souls or spirits. The skulls 3D from the wall. The rest of this wonderful panel and bones of ancient animals lay everywhere. featured a turbulent mass of horses, reindeer, The silence was total with every sound we made aurochs, and two fighting rhinos, all caught in accentuated, but then within the silence, a perpetual movement. In the next chamber a pride thousand distant voices like the sound of the stars of huge cave lions was skillfully drawn, using only in the midnight sky. The atmosphere should have a few adeptly placed lines to convey the power and been spooky, but instead it was intimate. strength of these beasts. We moved from chamber to chamber through The final chamber, the inner sanctum, was the 500 meter depth of the cave, at times dominated by a panel about 25 feet wide featuring through narrow passages, and at times crawling a mass of spectacular images that included through tunnels, with our torches illuminating mammoths, rhinos and lions all powerfully on the gallery after gallery of the most extraordinarily move. The centre of the panel featured a small beautiful paintings. The initial galleries revealed alcove at the back of which was a beautiful horse. red paintings of bears and a spotted leopard, as Had someone, perhaps a great shaman, perhaps well as dots, hand prints and strange geometrics. generations of shamans, once sat in this alcove as Engraved images followed of horses, aurochs ( the Master of Ceremonies? prehistoric ox which finally became extinct about 6000 years ago) and rhinos, as well as an owl on a Jean told us about one chamber containing a stalactite, and lions. These cave lions were twice child’s footprint, perfectly preserved in the mud the size of lions we know today. Our torch beams for 30,000 years ago. What, I wondered, had a revealed heads of bison and other animals drawn child been doing right at the back of this immense some 25,000 years before the great Pyramids, and cave? The paintings were clearly not made purely one chamber depicted a Megalaceros, or Giant for art’s sake, and the positioning of the greatest Deer with 12 foot long antlers - the biggest deer number of images at the furthest end of the that ever lived. cave suggests a ritual or deep spiritual purpose. Almost certainly these paintings must have been Jean led us to a chamber featuring what looked made by shamans, who would have occupied a like a sort of altar, on top of which was a skull special status in society. Meanwhile they must which must have belonged to a huge cave bear. also have been some of the greatest artists of The scene sent prickles up my spine as I learned their day, which would suggest that the art had a that the skull had been carefully placed there by special significance and the caves were important the Aurignaceans. The scientific team had found destinations, to which perhaps people travelled evidence of a fire having been made (with the from long distances. charcoal dated around 32,000 years ago) and it was hard to escape the conclusion that some form One of the tantalizing questions for me was what of ceremony or perhaps sacrifice had taken place. relationship may have existed between the artists Had a shaman deliberately placed the skull on the and the animals represented? Just as the San of rock for ritual purposes? southern Africa revered the eland for it magical powers, so the Aurignaceans revered the cave Moving back to join the main ‘passarelle’ we lions, bears and rhinos. Looking at these paintings approached the major, big panels of paintings. I thought of all the precious mythologies that have On my left in an alcove, I saw the most exquisite disappeared through time, and yet one priceless drawing of a female rhino with a long curved horn. legacy had survived: this remarkable art. This was followed almost immediately by powerful Below left: Detail of lions from Le Panneau Des Lions. Courtesy of Jean Clottes Below right: Wonderful image of a rhino. Courtesy of Jean Clottes trust for african rock art newsletter – october 2005 .
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