Red Ice News

The Future is the Past

Lascaux Cave Art - 16,000 years old
New to Red Ice? Start Here!

Lascaux Cave Art - 16,000 years old

Source: en.wikipedia.org

Lascaux 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 most well-known Upper Paleolithic art. These paintings are estimated to be 16,000 years old.

Related: Egypt's Oldest Known Art Identified, Is 15,000 Years Old

Aratta Civilisation of Ukraine Dating to 22000 BCE - Presentation by Dr. Tim & Heatherlee Hooker (Video)

Göbekli Tepe in Turkey: A 12,000-year-old Temple Complex

Neurology and the Passion for Art (Video)

35,000-year-old ivory carving found: Busty sculpture could be world's oldest

World’s oldest ritual discovered. Worshipped the python 70,000 years ago

The Mysterious Origins of Man (Video) & Humans Walked On Modern Feet 1.5 Million Years Ago, Fossil Footprints Show

Million-year-old human tooth found in Spain

The cave was discovered on 12 September 1940 by four teenagers, Marcel Ravidat, Jacques Marsal, Georges Agnel, and Simon Coencas, as well as Ravidat's dog, Robot.



he cave was closed to the public in 1963 in order to preserve the art. After the cave was closed, the paintings were restored to their original state, and are now monitored on a daily basis. Rooms in the cave include The Great Hall of the Bulls, the Lateral Passage, the Shaft of the Dead Man, the Chamber of Engravings, the Painted Gallery, and the Chamber of Felines.



The cave contains nearly 2,000 figures, which can be grouped into three main categories -- animals, human figures and abstract signs. Notably, the paintings contain no images of the surrounding landscape or the vegetation of the time. Most of the major images have been painted onto the walls using mineral pigments although some designs have also been incised into the stone. Many images are too faint to discern, while others have deteriorated.



Over 900 can be identified as animals, and 605 of these have been precisely identified. There are also many geometric figures. Of the animals, equines predominate, with 364 images. There are 90 paintings of stags. Also represented are cattle and bison, each representing 4-5% of the images. A smattering of other images include seven felines, a bird, a bear, a rhinoceros, and a human. Among the most famous images are four huge, black bulls or aurochs in the Hall of the Bulls. There are no images of reindeer, even though that was the principal source of food for the artists.



The most famous section of the cave is The Great Hall of the Bulls where bulls, equines and stags are depicted. But it is the four black bulls that are the dominant figures among the 36 animals represented here. One of the bulls is 17 feet (5.2 m) long -- the largest animal discovered so far in cave art. Additionally, the bulls appear to be in motion.



A painting referred to as "The Crossed Bison" and found in the chamber called the Nave is often held as an example of the skill of the Paleolithic cave painters. The crossed hind legs show the ability to use perspective in a manner that wasn't seen again until the 15th century.



In recent years new reseach has suggested that the Lascaux paintings may incorporate prehistoric star charts. Dr Michael Rappenglueck of the University of Munich argues that some of the non-figurative dot clusters and dots within some of the figurative images correlate with the constellations of Taurus, The Pleiades and the grouping known as the "Summer Triangle". Based on her own study of the astronomical significance of Bronze Age petroglyphs in the Vallée des Merveilles and her extensive survey of other prehistoric cave painting sites in the region -- most of which appear to have been specifically selected because the interiors are illuminated by the setting sun on the day of the winter solstice -- French researcher Chantal Jègues-Wolkiewiez has further proposed that the gallery of figurative images in the Great Hall represents an extensive star map and that key points on major figures in the group correspond to stars in the main constellations as they appeared in the Paleolithic.



Source: wikipedia.org/wiki/Lascaux

More Images: Lascaux Google Image Search

Comments

We're Hiring

We are looking for a professional video editor, animator and graphics expert that can join us full time to work on our video productions.

Apply

Help Out

Sign up for a membership to support Red Ice. If you want to help advance our efforts further, please:

Donate

Tips

Send us a news tip or a
Guest suggestion

Send Tip

Related News

Ancient Sparta: The First Self-Conscious Ethnostate? Part 1: Educating Citizen Soldiers
Ancient Sparta: The First Self-Conscious Ethnostate? Part 1: Educating Citizen Soldiers
Martin Shkreli Has Been Sentenced to Seven Years in Prison
Martin Shkreli Has Been Sentenced to Seven Years in Prison

Archives Pick

Red Ice T-Shirts

Red Ice Radio

3Fourteen

Con Inc., J6 Political Prisoners & The Pedophile Problem
Kim Coulter - Con Inc., J6 Political Prisoners & The Pedophile Problem
Why European Culture, Art and Beauty Matter
Gifts - Why European Culture, Art and Beauty Matter

TV

Jailed For Memes W/ Dries Van Langenhove & Zionists To Ban TikTok W/ Sam Parker - FF Ep251
Jailed For Memes W/ Dries Van Langenhove & Zionists To Ban TikTok W/ Sam Parker - FF Ep251
No-Go Zone: Just Let Them Rob You & Don't Fly, Stay In The Pod
No-Go Zone: Just Let Them Rob You & Don't Fly, Stay In The Pod

RSSYoutubeGoogle+iTunesSoundCloudStitcherTuneIn

Design by Henrik Palmgren © Red Ice Privacy Policy