One of the

World’s Artistic

Archaeological

Wonders

17 kya

Lascaux Cave

Lascaux Cave Landscape

southwestern France

near the Vézère River

(say, VIS-air)

Lascaux Cave

A Teenage Discovery in 1940

Painted

Gallery

Painted Gallery

Entrance

(stag)

Painted Gallery

back wall

(bison)

Great Hall ofGreat Hall of the Bulls

Great Hall of the Bulls

Main Gallery

Main Gallery

Black Cow Panel & quadrangular signs

Main Gallery’s end & shaft

Scene of Dead Man,

Shaft of the Dead Man

Visiting scholars at Lascaux Cave 1940

Abbé Henri Breuil: “…a new cave-art sanctuary has been found…”

Lascaux Cave – post WWII Tourist Attraction

Excess carbon dioxide,

from visitors’ breath, caused deterioration of paintings by 1955…

…condensation on walls corroded on rock faces, leading to moss and algae.

Great Hall of the Bulls at Lascaux

Lascaux closed to the public in 1963

Conservation at Lascaux

Culture Gouv, France; Photo: MCC/DRAC Aquitane/Grotte de Lascaux

2001 colonies of microrganisms , mushrooms, bacteria developed on rock edges and floor.

* fungicides, antibiotics IMMEDIATELY used to contain the problem.

1980 Life Size Copy of Lascaux Under Construction

Construction of cement shell across a wire mesh.

This created the skin of the lifesize replica of Lascaux Cave.

The shell corresponds exactly in shape to the interior of the original.

Projecting images from original

onto replica wall of Lascaux Cave

Lascaux II - open to the public since 1983

Cosquer Cave, France 30 kyaCave entrance was not underwater

between 19-29 kya (drop in sea levels during late Pleistocene)

Bradshaw Foundation

Cosquer Cave

http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/cosquer/

“It is interesting to see how the same information can lead to such completely different results.”

Lawrence Robbins 1983:58