To enter the Caverne du Pont d'Arc, a copy of the Chauvet cave, is to dive 36,000 years ago to the origins of art to meet the women, men and children of the Chauvet-Pont cave. 'Bow.

 

It is to discover a jewel of Humanity Listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2014

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Cave lions on the prowl. Motionless. Ready to pounce on maddened bison. Unique in parietal art, this incredible hunting scene in the Chauvet-Pont d'Arc cave dates back 36,000 years!

 

425 drawings and paintings including exceptional animal frescoestwice as old as Lascaux, the southern Ardèche cavity is unique in the world.

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Initially named the decorated cave of the Combe d'Arc, from the name of the locality, the decorated cave of the Pont d'Arc or Chauvet-Pont d'Arc cave, more simply known as the Chauvet cave, from the name of its_cc781905-5cde-3194- bb3b-136bad5cf58d_inventor, is a decorated cave paleolithic discovery en 1994 located in France in the municipality of Vallon-Pont-d'Arc, in the department ofArdeche, in region Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes.

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The site contains a thousand paintings and engravings, including 447 representations of animals of 14 different species.

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Many direct datings by the method du carbon 14  on charcoal, dating U-Th  on calcite floors, from thermoluminescence  traces of fire on the walls or cosmogenic dating by the 36Cl  at the level of the porch gave consistent results which indicate that the cave underwent two phases of occupation, one at theAurignacian (37 to 33,500 years PA in calibrated age), the other au Gravettian (31 to 28,000 years ago PA in uncalibrated age).

 

The scientific community almost unanimously admits that the works in the cave date from theAurignacian  and that they are therefore among the oldest in the world.

 

The diversity and mastery of techniques (engraving, preparation of the walls by scraping, digital or charcoal drawing often followed by une fades  by crushing the color with the fingers to obtain various shades, contour clipping, use of mixed techniques) which they bear witness to have profoundly called into question the idea of un_cc781905-5cde-3194-bb3b -136bad5cf58d_prehistoric art  evolving very slowly and in a linear and upward fashion.

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