Chauvet Cave

The cave paintings and rock art of Chauvet

The Chauvet Cave is located near the Vallon-Pont-d'Arc in the Ardèche region of southern France. The Cave Paintings of Chauvet date to 30,000 to 32,000 years ago. In the Chauvet Cave hundreds of animal paintings have been found making Chauvet Cave one of the world's most important rock art sites.

Chauvet Cave Through the Eyes of a Sculptor

Visit to the Chauvet Cave in 1999 by John Robinson

Jean led us to the first large wall of red Dots. What is their meaning?

No one knows, but they give you a wonderful sense of communicating with the makers, especially as you can occasionally make out that the Dots have fingers. It seems as though the daubers first put the red paint on their palms and then looks like they slapped their hands against the wall. Some people were a bit careless and got paint all over their hand, thus leaving imprints of their fingers as well.

	The paint must have been quite fluid as there are occasional paint runs, which makes it all very human. Another great panel of dots is thought to be by one artist, as the handprints all seem to be the same. This panel to the left has a vague resemblance to a great Bison, but it could be just a coincidence.

Still following, Jean led us over a jumble of stalagmites and rocks into a recess. Here on the floor was a small trolley that ran on rails. “Lie down in the trolley John and pull yourself in” Simple?. No. To begin with the trolley contained a large puddle, a definite designer fault, and secondly Jean had not released the brake! However with much pulling and grunting I managed to get the trolley to the ends of its rails. “Look to the left” was Jean’s next command.

I looked and found myself staring into the eyes of the most beautiful Bear. The red outline is pure and graceful. I was about two feet from the painting and absolutely bowled over. “There is another one behind it”, Jean called. I turned and saw another red Bear. What a pair. How did the artist draw such wonders in such a confined space, and why?

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