The Chauvet Pont-d’Arc cave is not open to the public, but work on an exhibition project near Vallon Pont d’Arc is advancing (www.lagrottechauvetpontdarc.org). The original cave itself is estimated to date from 36,000 BC and has held, since its discovery in 1994, untold treasures of cave painting. In total, researchers have so far found 425 animal images whose uniqueness makes what was previously familiar look as if it were “already discovered”. The opening of a faithfully reproduced cave nearby will take place in 2013, in 2014 at the latest. Already more than 21,000 connoisseurs are working to have the original cave admitted to the UNESCO World Heritage list.
Cave bears, lions, panthers, mammoths and rhinoceroses are the images that were drawn on the cave walls in the Palaeolithic. Unlike other, more recent karst caves, these animals really were highly dangerous for our ancestors. In more recently dated caves, visitors therefore find more game animals such as horses, cows and ibex. Geologically, too, much has happened in the cave over the millennia: for around 20,000 years the cave was shielded from environmental influences by external deposits. And so the karst grotto developed into a geological museum with the most varied crystalline forms.
The region was steppe-like then, when Homo sapiens approached… Until then Neanderthals had lived here. At that time the climate changed extremely. Northern France, Britain and Scandinavia were covered by an ice sheet. The Mediterranean lay about 120 metres lower than today. And accordingly the fauna and flora were adapted to the conditions of the time. Mammoths, woolly rhinoceroses, cave bears, aurochs and panthers lived in this area at that time. But the inhabitants then were nomads and hunted only to make a living. The caves served for mystical gatherings and were therefore “decorated” with drawings of threats.
Two phases characterise the cave paintings
A total of 82 charcoal drawing panels have been discovered so far. According to the carbon-14 measurement, the karst cave was open to the mystical artists twice in the past: from 32,000 to 30,000 BC and from 27,000 to 24,500 BC. The main works were created in the first phase. The forms of the animal images and their richness open up to researchers many previously unknown ways of depiction. The works show that the drawings already contain a high form of illustration. For example, in the Coliboaia cave in Romania and also in the Nerja cave in Spain there are precursor drawings that could be dated to 43,000 BC.
Interview with Werner Herzog (video source: ARTE TV)
The cave remains reserved for specialists only. Led by Jean Clottes (until 2006) and now Michel Geneste, the karst cave serves a team of several experts as a research object. This group brings together specialists in cave painting, fossil fauna, specialists in the study of remains, geologists, hydrologists, palaeontologists and conservators. By special invitation, art experts, ethnologists and prehistory researchers also observe the cave and pass on their experience to the experts. Exploration of the cave is carried out in two campaigns: in spring the researchers may enter the cave for four weeks, in autumn for two weeks. In the meantime laboratory work and tests of course continue. And the conservators too work in a team of three under the direction of Dominique Baffier and measure, for example, the development of temperature and humidity, the CO2 content and the radon share.
The reconstructed cave “lives”
Because of the inestimable value of this cave, the French government has so far forbidden public access, but interested visitors will soon be able, thanks to the expertise of local and international authorities, to see a “facsimile” of the cave at Vallon Pont d’Arc. 50 million euros are currently budgeted for the construction, coming from the Rhône-Alpes region, the Ardèche département, the French state, Brussels and Kléber Rossillon. Together with the research team, the architects developed an exhibition area of about 1,850 square metres that closely matches the 3,000 square metres of the original cave with its paintings, engravings, stalactites and the geological and archaeological conditions.
Film about the Chauvet cave by Werner Herzog (video source: ARTE TV)
Through interactive models and moving images, visitors discover on 1,385 square metres the secrets of our ancestors at life size; 850 square metres of this are available for a permanent exhibition. Five further smaller, protected exhibition areas outside give reason to extend the visit. With its construction the whole site adapts perfectly to the region and the local conditions. This makes exploring the cave real fun even for non-cavers…