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Information about Lascaux

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Cave painting at Lascaux.
Lascaux is the setting of a complex of caves in southwestern France famous for its 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, dating back to somewhere between 15,000 and 13,000 BCE. They consist mostly of realistic images of large animals, including aurochs, most of which are known from fossil evidence to have lived in the area at the time. They were added to UNESCO World Heritage Sites list in 1979.

History

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. Public access was made easier after World War II. By 1955, the carbon dioxide produced by 1,200 visitors per day had visibly damaged the paintings. The 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.

Lascaux II, a replica of two of the cave halls - the Great Hall of the Bulls and the Painted Gallery - was opened in 1983. Reproductions of other Lascaux artwork can be seen at the Centre of Prehistoric Art at Le Thot, France.

The images

The cave contains nearly 2,000 figures. Many 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, horses 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 in the Hall of the Bulls. There are no images of reindeer, even though that was the principal source of food for the artists. [1]

The four black bulls are the dominant figures among the 36 animals represented in the Hall of the Bulls. One of the bulls is 17 feet long -- the largest animal discovered so far in cave art. The bulls appear to be in motion. [2] The most famous section of this cave is the great hall of the bulls, where there are bulls, horses, and stags.

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.

Of the non-figurative images, one researcher has speculated that the painted dots are maps of the night sky, since the patterns correlate with various constellations.[1]

Popular culture

  • In Dougal Dixon's Ice Age Explorer, the seventh book in the Time Machine series, the reader has to travel back to the last ice age and identify the animals painted in these caves.[3].
  • The Lascaux Cave paintings were featured in the Carmen Sandiego episode, The Cave Art Caper.
  • The area around Lascaux and the caves themselves form the setting for the fifth book in the "Earth's Children" series by Jean M. Auel, entitled "The Shelters of Stone".

References

1. ^ Gregory Curtis, The Cave Painters: Probing the Mysteries of the World's First Artists, Knopf, New York, NY, USA, 2006. 1-4000-4348-4, pp. 96-97
2. ^ Gregory Curtis, The Cave Painters: Probing the Mysteries of the World's First Artists, Knopf, New York, NY, USA, 2006. 1-4000-4348-4, p. 102
3. ^ Dixon, Dougal; Ice Age Explorer (Time Machine, No. 7); publsihed 1985 by Bantam Books; p. 106

Further reading

  • Gregory Curtis, The Cave Painters: Probing the Mysteries of the World's First Artists, Knopf, New York, NY, USA, 2006. 1-4000-4348-4
  • David Lewis-Williams, 'The Mind in the Cave: Consciousness and the Origins of Art', Thames and Hudson, 0-500-28465-2

See also

External links

  • Lascaux Cave Official Lascaux Web site, from the French Ministry of Culture.
  • Lascaux Cave some info on the cave and more links
Coordinates:
cave is a natural underground void large enough for a human to enter. Some people suggest that the term 'cave' should only apply to cavities that have some part which does not receive daylight; however, in popular usage, the term includes smaller spaces like sea caves, rock
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Motto
Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité
"Liberty, Equality, Fraternity"
Anthem
"La Marseillaise"


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Cave or Rock Paintings are paintings on cave or rock walls and ceilings, usually dating to prehistoric times. The earliest known rock paintings are dated to the Upper Paleolithic, 40,000 years ago, while the earliest European cave paintings date to 32,000 years ago.
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Commune of
Montignac

Location
Longitude 01° 09' 44" E
Latitude 45° 04' 03" N

Administration
Country  France
Arrondissement Sarlat-la-Canéda
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Dordogne

Coat of arms of the Dordogne department
Location

Administration
Department number: 24
Region: Aquitaine
Prefecture: Périgueux
Subprefectures: Bergerac
Nontron
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Administrative divisions of France

Main article

Regions
(incl. overseas regions)
Departments
(incl.
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Upper Paleolithic (or Upper Palaeolithic) is the third and last subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age as it is understood in Europe, Africa and Asia. Very broadly it dates to between 40,000 and 10,000 years ago, roughly coinciding with the appearance of "high"
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B. primigenius

Binomial name
Bos primigenius

Subspecies

Bos primigenius primigenius
  (Bojanus, 1827)
Bos primigenius namadicus
  (Falconer, 1859)
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For other uses of the term, see Fossil (disambiguation)


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United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

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Org type: Specialized Agency
Acronyms: UNESCO
Head: Director General of UNESCO
Koïchiro Matsuura
 Japan
Status: Active

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A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a specific site (such as a forest, mountain, lake, desert, monument, building, complex, or city) that has been nominated and confirmed for inclusion on the list maintained by the international World Heritage Programme administered by the UNESCO
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19th century - 20th century - 21st century
1940s  1950s  1960s  - 1970s -  1980s  1990s  2000s
1976 1977 1978 - 1979 - 1980 1981 1982

Also: 1979 by Smashing Pumpkins.

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September 12 is the 1st day of the year (2nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 0 days remaining.

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19th century - 20th century - 21st century
1910s  1920s  1930s  - 1940s -  1950s  1960s  1970s
1937 1938 1939 - 1940 - 1941 1942 1943

Year 1940 (MCMXL
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Allied powers:
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...et al. Axis powers:
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Carbon dioxide is a chemical compound composed of two oxygen atoms covalently bonded to a single carbon atom. It is a gas at standard temperature and pressure and exists in Earth's atmosphere in this state.
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Lascaux II is a reconstruction of the Caves at Lascaux, 200 meters from the original. It contains representations of the Great Hall of the Bulls and the Main Hall. It was opened in 1983 because of the carbon dioxide wearing down the paintings on the wall.
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Dougal Dixon (born 1947) is a Scottish geologist and author. He is best known for his illustrated works of fiction, which largely concern "anthropologies of the future;" his own visions of how human beings and animals might evolve in millions of years' time.
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For other uses, see Time Machine (disambiguation).
Time Machine was a series of children's novels published by Bantam Books from 1984 to 1989, similar to their more successful Choose Your Own Adventure line of "interactive" novels.
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Bantam Books is a major U.S. publishing house owned by Random House and is part of the Bantam Dell Publishing Group. It was formed in 1945 by Walter Pitkin, Jr., Sidney B. Kramer, and Ian and Betty Ballantine.
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prehistoric art is all art produced in preliterate cultures (prehistory), beginning somewhere in very late geological history.

Paleolithic

The earliest possible artwork yet discovered, the Venus of Tan-Tan comes from between 500,000 and 300,000 BCE, during the Middle
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This is a list of notable archaeological sites sorted by country. For one sorted by continent and time period, see the list of archaeological sites sorted by continent and age.

Afghanistan

  • Buddhas of Bamyan
  • Haji Piyada mosque in Balkh

Albania


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This is a list of notable archaeological sites sorted by country. For one sorted by continent and time period, see the list of archaeological sites sorted by continent and age.

Afghanistan

  • Buddhas of Bamyan
  • Haji Piyada mosque in Balkh

Albania


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The following is a partial list of caves.

Africa

Ethiopia

  • Sof Omar Caves

South Africa

Main article: List of caves in South Africa
  • Blombos cave
  • Boesmansgat
  • Cango Caves
  • Sterkfontein
  • Sudwala Caves

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Cave or Rock Paintings are paintings on cave or rock walls and ceilings, usually dating to prehistoric times. The earliest known rock paintings are dated to the Upper Paleolithic, 40,000 years ago, while the earliest European cave paintings date to 32,000 years ago.
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geographic coordinate system enables every location on the earth to be specified by the three coordinates of a spherical coordinate system aligned with the spin axis of the Earth.
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