The Lascaux Cave

• Published in: Memoirs of the Society for American Archaeology
• Main Author: Movius, Hallam L.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 1951
• Subjects: Tundra
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0081130000000952; https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0081130000000952

The Lascaux Cave, one of the most important single sites of upper Palaeolithic art ever discovered, is located near Montignac (Dordogne), 16 miles up the Vézère River from the famous town of Les Eyzies. It was found in September 1940 by two French schoolboys out rabbit hunting. Called the “Versailles of Prehistoric Man,” Lascaux ranks among the world's oldest and most remarkable art galleries. It has been completely sealed off from the outside world since late upper Pleistocene times, and it is now generally believed that the majority of the paintings are upper Perigordian (Gravettian) in date—Phase 2 in the upper Palaeolithic art sequence of western Europe. That they were produced during a time of climatic amelioration, possibly the one known as the Achen retreat, is borne out by the fact that the animals depicted belong much more to a steppe and forest type of fauna, than they do to a colder tundra group. For example, there are no mammoths and no reindeer shown, but there are many horses, a considerable quantity of cattle, bison and several ibexes.