Log in David Alexander 6 years agoPosted 6 years ago. Direct link to David Alexander's post “Something older has just ...” Something older has just come to light, in ASIA: What does anyone here think? ttps://www.npr.org/2018/11/07/664850289/indonesian-caves-hold-oldest-figurative-paintings-ever-found-scientists-say • (6 votes) drszucker 6 years agoPosted 6 years ago. Direct link to drszucker's post “I think we know very very...” I think we know very very little about our past. And we seem to forget faster than we can rediscover it. But when new knowledge, new sites, new wonders come to light, it is truly amazing. In this case, when I look at those painted hands, and then I look at my own as I type this, the thousand generations that separate us seems to collapse, and that long ago artist is among us once again. (8 votes) Julia Francesca Day 7 years agoPosted 7 years ago. Direct link to Julia Francesca Day's post “One of the major theories...” One of the major theories of cave paintings like these in regard to function is for echolocational purposes. Some paintings have been found to be in the parts of caves with the loudest acoustics, so some people theorize that the paintings were used to help people find their way around the caves, having their voices lead them to major points around the cave. Has anybody else heard this theory? It's the one I heard in the music conservatory. • (6 votes) David Alexander 6 years agoPosted 6 years ago. Direct link to David Alexander's post “I don't doubt that you he...” I don't doubt that you heard this in conservatory, and I find it very interesting. Have you ever looked for a published source? There's something here: http://www.human-resonance.org/chauvet.html Does that look like what you were taught? (2 votes) DragonArtt a year agoPosted a year ago. Direct link to DragonArtt's post “did you know that the cav...” did you know that the cave of Lascaux was discovered by some teenagers that were hiking? • (3 votes) David Alexander a year agoPosted a year ago. Direct link to David Alexander's post “On 12 September 1940, the...” On 12 September 1940, the entrance to the Lascaux Cave was discovered on the La Rochefoucauld-Montbel lands by 18-year-old Marcel Ravidat when his dog, Robot, investigated a hole left by an uprooted tree (Ravidat would embellish the story in later retellings, saying Robot had fallen into the cave.) Ravidat returned to the scene with three friends, Jacques Marsal, Georges Agnel, and Simon Coencas. They entered the cave through a 15-metre-deep shaft that they believed might be a legendary secret passage to the nearby Lascaux Manor. The teenagers discovered that the cave walls were covered with depictions of animals. Galleries that suggest continuity, context or simply represent a cavern were given names. Those include the Hall of the Bulls, the Passageway, the Shaft, the Nave, the Apse, and the Chamber of Felines. They returned along with the Abbé Henri Breuil on 21 September 1940; Breuil would make many sketches of the cave, some of which are used as study material today due to the extreme degradation of many of the paintings. Breuil was accompanied by Denis Peyrony, curator of Les eyzies (Prehistory Museum) at Les Eyzies, Jean Bouyssonie and Dr Cheynier. (This was found at Wikipedia on 26th July, 2023) (4 votes) Hapax Legomenon 3 years agoPosted 3 years ago. Direct link to Hapax Legomenon's post “"...and the climate was v...” "...and the climate was very cold." I'm not sure this is correct. The paper linked at the end puts temperatures around Lascaux as having greater variation but approximately the same mean as modern ones in the upper Paleolithic. At least at the same time as the paintings. Correct me if I'm wrong! • (3 votes) dadasheck 4 years agoPosted 4 years ago. Direct link to dadasheck's post “Near the end of the secti...” Near the end of the section, Hall of Bulls, what does the author mean when she wrote " it seems that the pure process of drawing and repetitive re-drawing held serious (perhaps ritual) significance for the makers." • (3 votes) Moneva, Tina 10 months agoPosted 10 months ago. Direct link to Moneva, Tina's post “How did they manage to ma...” How did they manage to make the cave drawings without any source of light? and could it be possible that they are abstract for that reason? • (2 votes) Ramon Yambo 5 months agoPosted 5 months ago. Direct link to Ramon Yambo's post “The article mentioned tha...” The article mentioned that “ Some researchers believe that ‘master’ artists enlisted the help of assistants who mixed pigments and held animal fat lamps to illuminate the space.” So it seems that they had a light source to do their work. (3 votes) Dorit Rubinstein 7 years agoPosted 7 years ago. Direct link to Dorit Rubinstein's post “Have any remains of burni...” Have any remains of burning materials been found to explain what kind of lights they used to do the painting? • (2 votes) David Alexander 7 years agoPosted 7 years ago. Direct link to David Alexander's post “I looked here: https://en...” I looked here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lascaux but couldn't find anything to answer even one of your questions. (2 votes) mansari3107 6 years agoPosted 6 years ago. Direct link to mansari3107's post “What have some historians...” What have some historians said the images are of? • (1 vote) CARLO HAGOPIAN 5 years agoPosted 5 years ago. Direct link to CARLO HAGOPIAN's post “how can rhinoceros be dep...” how can rhinoceros be depicted on the walls of this cave in France when rhinos' habitat is in Africa? • (1 vote) drszucker 5 years agoPosted 5 years ago. Direct link to drszucker's post “The rhinos' habitat is no...” The rhinos' habitat is now in Africa, that doesn't mean it wasn't once also in Europe. (4 votes) 1serenity.reynolds 9 years agoPosted 9 years ago. Direct link to 1serenity.reynolds's post “There are theories that t...” There are theories that the creation of the Hall of Bulls might have been a "group effort" because of the scaffolding found as well as the simple fact that the paintings were so high up on the walls of the cave. Could one Paleolithic person do all this work on their own? • (1 vote)Want to join the conversation?
FAQs
Why is Lascaux closed? ›
The Lascaux cave became a popular tourist site after World War II. But it had to be sealed off to the public in 1963 because the breath and sweat of visitors created carbon dioxide and humidity that would damage the paintings.
Why is Lascaux so famous? ›Lascaux Cave is one of many caves in the Dordogne region of France and it contains many prehistoric paintings. It is important because these paintings are thought to be some of the earliest and most detailed human paintings.
What do the Lascaux cave paintings tell us? ›The Lascaux cave paintings in southeast France capture the style and subject matter of many of our ancestors' early artistic work. Archeologists interpret these and other discoveries of Ice Age rock art as evidence of the emergence of a new, distinctly human consciousness.
How old is Lascaux and why is it so important? ›The 15,000- to 17,000-year-old paintings, consisting mostly of animal representations, are among the finest examples of art from the Upper Paleolithic period. First studied by the French archaeologist Henri-Édouard-Prosper Breuil, the Lascaux grotto consists of a main cavern 66 feet wide and 16 feet high.
Why can't you visit Lascaux caves? ›The original decorated cave is closed to the public since 1963 in order to preserve his exceptionally rare works. However, the International Center for Cave Art Lascaux IV offers a faithful reproduction.
Why was Lascaux 2 opened in 1983? ›Unfortunately, intense tourist activity led to major damage to the frescoes. In 1963, André Malraux, then Minister for Cultural Affairs, decided to close the cave to the public for good. To enable visitors to rediscover the Lascaux frescoes, the Lascaux II copy opened to the general public in 1983.
Are there any humans depicted in the Lascaux caves? ›Although there is one human image (painted representations of humans are very rare in Paleolithic art; sculpted human forms are more common), most of the paintings depict animals found in the surrounding landscape, such as horses, bison, mammoths, ibex, aurochs, deer, lions, bears, and wolves.
What is a fun fact about Lascaux caves? ›The amazing prehistoric paintings in Lascaux Caves were discovered by a 17 year old boy - and his dog! In 1940, Marcel Ravidat's dog, Robot, fell down a hole, and when Marcel went after him, he discovered cave paintings that turned out to be the oldest artwork ever found in the world!
What is the most common animal in Lascaux cave? ›There are some 6,000 representations of animals at Lascaux. Images of horses are by far the most numerous, followed by equal numbers of stags and aurochs, and then by ibexes and bison.
What does the word Lascaux cave mean? ›Definitions of Lascaux. noun. a cave in southwestern France that contains Paleolithic paintings. example of: cave. a geological formation consisting of an underground enclosure with access from the surface of the ground or from the sea.
What is the oldest art in the world? ›
'” At least 45,500 years ago, a human hand had painted the pigs in ochre, making them the oldest known examples of figurative art by at least several thousand years—and, by some standards, the oldest artwork in the world (1).
What is the most famous section of the Lascaux cave? ›The most famous section of the cave is The Hall of the Bulls where bulls, equines, aurochs, stags, and the only bear in the cave are depicted. The four black bulls, or aurochs, are the dominant figures among the 36 animals represented here.
What is the reasoning behind the closure of the Lascaux caves? ›Visitors Caused Microbiotic Contamination
This imbalance forced the Lascaux Cave to close its doors to the general public for good. The funguses were subsequently treated with fungicides and antibiotic compresses, and UNESCO placed the site on its 'World Heritage in Danger' list.
Lascaux Cave is famous for its prehistoric cave paintings, dating from c. 17,000 to c. 15,000 BCE. There are close to 600 paintings mostly of animals, such as horses, deer, aurochs, ibex, bison, and even some felines.
What are the two primary techniques used at Lascaux? ›The two dominant forms of expression in Palaeolithic parietal art, drawing and engraving, occupy an important place in cave and shelter iconography.
Can you visit the Lascaux caves today? ›The Lascaux cave: open all year round
Except for a few days of closure in January, the cave art center and the Lascaux cave located in Montignac-Lascaux welcome you all year round.
The Lascaux cave was closed to the public in 1963 after the carbon dioxide, heat and humidity of nearly 2,000 visitors a day began damaging the paintings.
Why were the caves at Lascaux and Altamira eventually closed to the public? ›The paintings date back 22,000 years and were discovered in 1876 by a local archaeologist and his daughter. For more than 20 years afterwards, the images were dismissed as fakes. In the years that followed they were damaged by the breath of human visitors and the caves were eventually closed to the public.
Why is Chauvet Cave closed to the public? ›The law of 1930 on sites and that of 1913 on historical monuments were the first weapon for preservation. The cave was listed on 13 October 1995. Control of the property was also a significant element. It was jointly decided not to open the cave to the public but rather to guarantee safety.