Chauvet Cave

Information about Chauvet Cave

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Drawings of horses from Chauvet Cave


The Chauvet Cave or Chauvet-Pont-d'Arc Cave is located at N 44° 21' and E 4° 29' 24", near Vallon-Pont-d'Arc, in the Ardèche département, in southern France. It became famous in 1994 when a trio of speleologists found that it contained the fossilized remains of many animals, including those that are now extinct, and, even more significantly, that its walls were richly decorated with Paleolithic artwork. The Chauvet Cave was soon regarded as one of the most significant pre-historic art sites, along with Lascaux, Altamira, and Cosquer.

Features

The gorges of the Ardèche region are home to numerous caves, many of them having some geological or archaeological importance. The Chauvet Cave, however, is uncharacteristically large and the quality, quantity, and condition of the artwork found on its walls has been called spectacular. It appears to have been occupied by humans during two distinct periods: the Aurignacian and the Gravettian. Most of the artwork dates to the earlier, Aurignacian, era (30,000 to 32,000 years ago). The later Gravettian occupation, which occurred 25,000 to 27,000 years ago, left little but a child's footprint, the charred remains of ancient hearths and carbon smoke stains from torches that lit the caves.

The soft, clay like floor of the cave retains the paw prints of cave bears along with large, rounded, depressions that are believed to be the "nests" where the bears slept. Fossilized bones are abundant and include the skulls of cave bears and the horned skull of an ibex.

Hundreds of animal paintings have been catalogued, depicting at least 13 different species, including those which have rarely or never been found in other ice age paintings. Rather than depicting only the familiar animals of the hunt that predominate in Paleolithic cave art, i.e. horses, cattle, reindeer, etc., the walls of the Chauvet Cave are covered with predatory animals: lions, panthers, bears, owls, rhinos and hyenas. Typical of most cave art, there are no paintings of complete human figures, although there is one possible partial "Venus" figure that may represent the legs and genitals of a woman. Also a chimerical figure may be present; it appears to have the lower body of a woman with the upper body of a bison. There are a few panels of red ochre hand prints and hand stencils made by spitting pigment over hands pressed against the cave surface. Abstract markings—lines and dots—are found throughout the cave. There are also two unidentifiable images that have a vaguely butterfly shape to them. This combination of subjects has led experts in pre-historic art and cultures to believe that there was likely a ritual, shamanic, or magical aspect to these paintings.

The artists who produced these unique paintings used techniques not often observed in other cave art. Many of the paintings appear to have been made only after the walls were scraped clear of debris and concretions. This left a smoother and noticeably lighter area upon which the artists worked. Similarly, a three dimensional quality is achieved by incising or etching about the outlines of certain figures. This visually emphasizes some of the animals and allows torch light to cast shadows about the edges.

History

The cave was named after Jean-Marie Chauvet, who discovered it on December 18,1994, together with Christian Hillaire and Eliette Brunel-Deschamps.

The researchers found that the cave had been untouched for 20,000-30,000 years.

The cave contains the oldest known cave paintings, supposedly dated at about 32,000 years old. However, there is controversy over that dating, and three archaeologists (C. Züchner, P. Bahn, and P. Pettitt) believe that the age of the paintings has been exaggerated for publicity purposes (see "Antiquity"; Mar 2003, Vol. 77 Issue 295, p134, 8p).

See also

References

  • Dawn of Art: The Chauvet Cave by J.M. Chauvet, E.B. Deschamps and C. Hillaire (1996) Harry N. Abrams, Inc., New York. English translation by Paul G. Bahn from French edition La Grotte Chauvet ISBN 0810932326 (cloth)
  • Clottes, Jean (2001). Return To Chauvet Cave, Excavating the Birthplace of Art: The First Full Report. Thames & Hudson, 226. 

External links

Coordinates:

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Ardèche

Coat of arms of the Ardèche department
Location

Administration
Department number: 07
Region: Rhône-Alpes
Prefecture: Privas
Subprefectures: Largentière
Tournon-sur-Rhône
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Motto
Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité
"Liberty, Equality, Fraternity"
Anthem
"La Marseillaise"


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Speleology is the scientific study of caves and other karst features, their make-up, structure, physical properties, history, life forms, and the processes by which they form (speleogenesis) and change over time (speleomorphology).
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For other uses of the term, see Fossil (disambiguation)


FOSSIL is a standard for allowing serial communication for telecommunications programs under the DOS operating system.
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extinction is the cessation of existence of a species or group of taxa, reducing biodiversity. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of that species (although the capacity to breed and recover may have been lost before this point).
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Paleolithic is a prehistoric era distinguished by the development of stone tools. It covers virtually all of humanity's time on Earth, extending from 2.5 million years ago, with the introduction of stone tools by hominids such as Homo habilis
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Lascaux is the setting of a complex of caves in southwestern France famous for its cave paintings. The original caves are located near the village of Montignac, in the Dordogne département.
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State Party  Spain
Type Cultural
Criteria i, iii
Reference 310
Region Europe and North America

Inscription History
Inscription 1985  (9th Session)
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The Cosquer cave is located in the Calanque de Morgiou near Marseille, France, not very far from Cap Morgiou. This cave, the entrance of which is located underwater nowadays, was discovered by Henri Cosquer in 1991.
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Oceanic crust      0-20 Ma
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Aurignacian is the name of a culture of the Upper Palaeolithic located in Europe and southwest Asia. It dates to between 32,000 and 21,000 BC. The name originates from the type site of Aurignac in the Haute Garonne area of France.
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Gravettian was an industry of the European Upper Palaeolithic. It is named after the type site of La Gravette in the Dordogne region of France. It dates from between 28,000 and 22,000 years ago and succeeded the Aurignacian.
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U. spelaeus

Binomial name
Ursus spelaeus
Rosenmüller, 1794

The Cave Bear (Ursus spelaeus
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ibex, also called steinbock, is a type of wild mountain goat with large recurved horns that are transversely ridged in front. Ibex are found in Eurasia, North Africa, and East Africa.
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species is one of the basic units of biological classification. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring.
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ice age is a period of long-term reduction in the temperature of Earth's climate, resulting in an expansion of the continental ice sheets, polar ice sheets and mountain glaciers.
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predation describes a biological interaction where a predator organism feeds on another living organism or organisms known as prey.[1] Predators may or may not kill their prey prior to feeding on them.
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Chimera (Greek (Chímaira); Latin Chimaera) is a monstrous creature of Lycia in Asia Minor, which was made of the parts of multiple animals. Chimera was one of the offspring of Typhon and Echidna and sister of such monsters as Cerberus and the Lernaean Hydra.
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Red ochre and yellow ochre (pronounced /'əʊk.ə/, from the Greek ochros, yellow) are pigments made from naturally tinted clay. It has been used worldwide since prehistoric times.
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Graffiti
  • Graffiti Art
  • Stencil Art
  • Spray paint art
  • Screen printing
  • Guerrilla art
  • Woodblock graffiti
WikiProject Graffiti A stencil
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pigment is a material that changes the color of light it reflects as the result of selective color absorption. This physical process differs from fluorescence, phosphorescence, and other forms of luminescence, in which the material itself emits light.
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Abstract art is now generally understood to mean art that does not depict objects in the natural world, but instead uses color and form in a non-representational way.
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ritual is a set of actions, often thought to have symbolic value, the performance of which is usually prescribed by a religion or by the traditions of a community.[1][2]
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Shamanism refers to a range of traditional beliefs and practices concerned with communication with the spirit world. There are many variations in shamanism throughout the world, though there are some beliefs that are shared by all forms of shamanism:

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Magick, in the broadest sense, is any act designed to cause intentional change.[1] The spelling with the terminal "k" was repopularized in the first half of the 20th century by Aleister Crowley when he introduced it as a core component of Thelema.
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Etching is the process of using strong acid to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio in the metal (the original process - in modern manufacturing other chemicals may be used on other types of material).
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December 18 is the 1st day of the year (2nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 0 days remaining.

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