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.

Books & Publications on the Chauvet Cave

	Chauvet Cave The Art of Earliest Times by Jean Clottes (Author), Paul Bahn (Translator) • Hardcover: 226 pages • Publisher: University of Utah Press • Language English • ISBN-10: 0874807581 • ISBN-13: 978-0874807585 • Product Dimensions: 13.8 x 10.9 inches

Return to the Chauvet Cave Excavating the Birthplace of Art: The First Full Report by Jean Clottes • ISBN 0-500-51119-5 • Thames & Hudson The discovery of the Chauvet Cave in December 1994 by speleologists Jean-Marie Chauvet, Eliette Brunel and Christian Hillaire was a remarkable event. The incredible age of the paintings, which dated back 35,000 years, and their exceptionally high quality were the source of both astonishment and admiration, and the images of mammoths, rhinoceroses, lions, bears, horses and bison have since been seen all around the world.

Several years ago, a team of specialists from many different disciplines, led by Dr Jean Clottes, began the first detailed scientific study of the cave. This collaborative project has been amazingly fruitful and the cave has slowly revealed many of the secrets of its origins: its dating, the traces left by animals and humans, the artistic techniques that were used, and the themes of the paintings and engravings. New light has also been cast on this unique art by art historians and ethnologists.

All of these discoveries are published together here for the first time, accompanied by hundreds of colour illustrations, allowing the public to share not only this new knowledge but also the thrill and fascination of looking back into an ancient world, so many thousands of years old.