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Chauvet Cave Through the Eyes of a Sculptor
Visit to the Chauvet Cave in 1999 by John Robinson
Standing by the Altar in the light of a helmet torch, one tends to only see the skull, plus, you are looking down on the top of the rock from a standing position. Sitting down I was looking at the side of the rock, with less light, because I was further away, the real skull almost disappeared. Through the glasses it really did look like a gigantic Bear skull.
The reason the rock looks like a skull through the binoculars is because at the base of one of the faces, there is a second rock sticking out that looks like the nose bone of the skull, leaving the large rock to resemble the cranium.
The rock itself is quite unique. I hadn’t seen anything else like it in the rest of the cave. The walls of the caverns are smooth being water worn. The rest of the formations are smooth and covered in calcite. The Altar is different, being a straight sided and flat topped. If it was not for the fact that you can see where it came from on the ceiling, you would say it had been quarried.
The other thing about the rock is its position in the chamber. It is right in the middle of the roundish calcite covered floor, backed by the grey clay bench area that almost looks like an auditorium set behind the altar. If this is all in place by chance then one really does marvel at such a fortunate accident. To add to the whole extraordinary resemblance, the skull has been exactly orientated to the shape of the rock by whoever put it there.
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As I sat looking into the dark recesses of the cave, I tried to imagine what it would have been like 30,000 years ago. Slowly a scene started to formulate in my mind’s eye. The Chauvet Clan was coming towards me, walking to the sound of a drum, their pine torches burning brightly. They filed past me, led by an Old Woman with grey hair. There were about twenty of them. men, children, and women, one carrying a baby. They were bare headed and warmly dressed in fitted skins. Their faces were modern, and their hair black. As they passed the Horse panel the held their burning torches high so they could see the paintings.
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These Clan members did not know that some of the paintings were already 5,000 years old. They did know that the first ones had been done on the orders of the Great One, who had led the Clan away from the Salt Sea, up the river that flowed from the Land of Ice.
It was He who had taught the Clan to follow the migrating herds of Bison. It was He who had decreed that the Cave by the great Lion Arch over the river was to be the sacred Sanctuary of their Clan, where sacred rituals would be performed to enhance man's courage and women's fertility.
At night around the fire, the Clan had listened again and again to the Old Woman telling them stories about the Great One, and the wonderful things that He had done. How He had found the Cave and planned the Sanctuary. How He had ordered the paintings to be started, and planned the ceremonies that must be followed to select the Chief and Initiate the Women. It was He who had made the Laws of the Clan, which if followed faithfully, would ensure their survival. Now it was time to choose the new Chief, the strongest hunter, killer of the Bear, and his Wife, who would be blessed by the Bison Sorcerer, so the Clan would prosper and grow.
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