History: Art: Paleolitic. The start. Part 2

Lascaux (clic here Wiki) is the setting of a complex of caves in southwestern France famous for its Paleolithic cave paintings. The original caves are located near the village of Montignac, in the Dordogne département. They contain some of the best-known Upper Paleolithic art. These paintings are estimated to be 16,000 years old. They primarily consist of realistic images of large animals, most of which are known from fossil evidence to have lived in the area at the time. In 1979, Lascaux was added to the UNESCO World Heritage Sites list along with other prehistoric sites in the Vézère valley.^[1]

Cueva de Lascaux (clic aquí wiki)

Historia

La cueva fue descubierta el 12 de septiembre de 1940 por cuatro adolescentes: Marcel Ravidat, Jacques Marsal, Georges Agnel, y Simon Coencas, acompañados de Robot, el perro de Marcel. El acceso público se facilitó tras la Segunda Guerra Mundial. Hacia 1955, el dióxido de carbono producido por los 1.200 visitantes que la cueva recibía al día dañó la misma visiblemente. La cueva fue cerrada al público en 1963, para así preservar el arte. Después del cierre, las pinturas fueron restauradas a su estado original y actualmente se está realizando un seguimiento diario.

Lascaux


Cave of Niaux

Cave of Niaux

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The Cave of Niaux is located in Niaux in the Ariège département of south-western France. Like Lascaux it contains many prehistoric paintings of superior quality, in the case of Niaux from the Magdalenian period.

From the very beginning of the XVIIth century the cave was of great interest for tourists who left numerous traces on its walls. People, visited the cave, did not imagine that the paintings of the "Salon Noire" were so old. Only in 1906 thanks to captain Molar and his sons who made a plan of the cave and discovered the paintings of the "Salon Noire". Niaux attracted the specialists' attention. In 1907 it was investigated by H. Breuill and E.Cartailhac. But discovery of the "Salon Noire" paintings was only the beginning. In 1925 J. Mandeman found a gallery with some black paintings and called it Cartailhac Gallery. Later it was established that the paintings had been emerging on the cave walls during a long period between 11500 and 10500 years BC.

The main entrance to the Niaux cave used for visitors is now further up the hillside than it once was. In ancient times, there would have been several lower, smaller entrances.

The visits to the cave are strictly regulated in order to maintain an even temperature of 12 degrees C and thus preserve the wall drawings of bison, horses and ibex. July through September there are 11 visits per day of up to 20 people with 45 minutes between each group, including a tour in English at 12:30pm. Three visits per day the rest of the year (no English tours). The caves are not lit up, visitors are handed torches, approximately 1 torch pr. 2 visitors, another measure to protect the paintings. Furthermore there is always the risk for one or two of the torches running out of battery during the visit, small children and anyone afraid of darkness should not go on this tour, once the tour has started there is no turning back. The walk to the paintings lead through both big caves and narrow passages. The cave floor has been left in its natural state: wet, very uneven and slippery in places so sturdy walking shoes are essential.

It is recommended to book ahead. However, outside the ticket office a sign indicates how many spaces are left (if any) in the day's scheduled tours. If you arrive in the morning you might be able to reserve a spot in a tour in the afternoon. But don't count on this in July and August.

Trois-Frères Cave

The Cave of the Trois-Frères is a cave in southwestern France famous for its cave paintings. It is located in Montesquieu-Avantès, in the Ariège département.

One of these, called "The Sorcerer" is as familiar as any art in the more famous cave of Lascaux. The cave also contained two finely modelled bison. The cave is part of a single cave-complex with the Tuc d'Audoubert, both galleries formed by the Volp River.

The cave art appears to date to approximately 13,000 BC.

The cave is named for the three sons of comte Bégouen who discovered it in 1910. (In French: trois frères means "three brothers".) The drawings of the cave were made famous in the publications of the Abbé Henri Breuil.

The Sorcerer - (Trois Frères)


Tassili

The cave paintings found at Tassili-n-Ajjer, north of Tamanrasset, Algeria, and at other locations depict vibrant and vivid scenes of everyday life in the central North Africa during the Neolithic Subpluvial period (about 8000 BC to 4000 BC). They were executed by a hunting people in the Capsian period of the Neolithic age who lived in a savanna region teeming with giant buffalo, elephant, rhinoceros, and hippopotamus, animals that no longer exist in the now-desert area. The pictures provide the most complete record of a prehistoric African culture.

Earlier inhabitants of central North Africa have left behind equally significant remains. Early remnants of hominid occupation in North Africa, for example, were found in Ain el Hanech, near Saïda (ca. 200,000 B.C.); in fact, more recent investigations have found signs of Oldowan technology there, and indicate a date of up to 1.8 million BC (Sahnouni 1998.) Later, Neandertal tool makers produced hand axes in the Levalloisian and Mousterian styles (ca. 43,000 B.C.) similar to those in the Levant. According to some sources, North Africa was the site of the highest state of development of Middle Paleolithic flake-tool techniques. Tools of this era, starting about 30,000 B.C., are called Aterian (after the site Bir el Ater, south of Annaba) and are marked by a high standard of workmanship, great variety, and specialization.