CHAUVET CAVES

By : Marta Serrano y Paula Sepúlveda

The description of the

caves

the chauvet caves is 400 metres long

it have 5 chambers, 3 galleries and 5 panels.

some of them are the:The Chamber of the Skull, The Gallery of Crosshatches, The End Chamber, Panel of Bison, Panel of Rhinoceroses, The Cactus Gallery, The Gallery of Hands, The Hillaire Chamber and Panel of Felines

The Chauvet cave is situated next to the famous Pont d'Arc, above the old river bed upon which the Ardèche flowed before the archway opened up and changed its course. It contains a vast array (more than 1000) and unique collection of cave paintings dated between 32,000 - 36,000 years old which makes them some of the oldest cave paintings in the world.

Discovered in 1940, the cave contains nearly two thousand figures, which can be grouped into three main categories—animals, human figures, and abstract signs. Over nine hundred images depict animals from the surrounding areas, such as horses, stags, aurochs, bison, lions, bears, and birds—species that would have been hunted and eaten, and those identified as predators. This types of animals inhabited the surroundings of the chauvet caves

the paintings don’t have pictures of the vegetation so we don’t how it was .

the paintings are inside the cave and there are different galleries, chambers, and panels with paintings.

the paintings were done approximately between 22.000 and 18.000

climate of the cave since the caves were discovered in winter, the weather was cold in the caves ,they discover stalactites in the cave so it's a cold weather but now the climate it's hot because we are in spring .

analysis of the

paintings.

the paintings of the chauvet caves are polychrome, they use red, black and sometimes white colour. They made the colours by mixing: blood from the animals and mineral dust with egg or fat of the animal to give it the right consistency.

the paintings are very realistics and somes represents solitaries figures and others represent groups of figures, in the cave are also abstracts signs.

they have a meanings ,There are panels of positive impressions and templates hands in red ocher made by direct printing. abstract symbols , lines and dots, are found throughout the cave. There are also two unidentifiable images that have a vaguely butterfly . This combination of issues has led experts in art and prehistoric cultures to believe that could be paintings of ritual or magical kind , shamanic . There are also paintings of magic mushrooms that suggest it must have been a shamanic culture

.

general conclusion

the people that lived in the cave fed of the hunting of animals. they were obsessed with animals because they thought that if they painted the animals on the walls the spirit of the animal stayed there and they would hunt the animal. they were ecologically-minded because they use all the parts of the animals that they hunt and they don’t contaminate.

they need they animals because was their food and they makes tools, clothes and other things with parts of the animals

they needed to represent their way of life because they felt that like this they were in contact with the gods and they could bring good luck.

We resemble Paleolithic people in some things like some feelings and our instincts but we differ from them in other things like lifestyle, the tools we have, the way we dress and the difference most important is that we have the most developed mind than they had.