Chauvet cave
Cueva de Chauvet
- Date
- 18 de diciembre de 1994 · confidence high
- Place
- Vallon-Pont-d'Arc, Ardèche, France
- Credited to
- Jean-Marie Chauvet, Éliette Brunel, Christian Hillaire; study by Jean Clottes
- People
- 👤 Eliette Brunel Deschamps👤 Jean-Marie Chauvet1953–
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What was discovered
Three cavers found a sealed cave with more than 400 figures of lions, rhinoceroses and bears from 36,000 years ago, the oldest known figurative paintings at the time. Their mastery showed that art did not evolve from crude to refined.
Coordinates of the cave. Even older paintings have since been dated in Sulawesi (Indonesia, more than 45,000 years) and in Ardales cave (Neanderthal).
What it led to
- Revision of Leroi-Gourhan's stylistic chronology
- Exemplary management: never opened to the public, replica Chauvet 2
- Documentary 'Cave of Forgotten Dreams' (Herzog)
Built on
- Altamira and Lascaux
- Speleology of the Ardèche
Made possible
- Radiocarbon dating of charcoal pigments
- Digital replicas of caves