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Published: August 29th 2017
Geo: 45.3397, 1.3647
This morning we visited Rouffignac Cave (also known as the Cave of the Hundred Mammoths) in the Dordogne region. The cave contains over 250 engravings and cave paintings, and is accessed via an electric engine train that drives around 2 kilometres into the cave.
The Rouffignac cave was already mentioned in 1575 by Francois de Belleforst, where in his
Cosmographie Universelle he cites "paintings and animal traces" in the cave. It was only in 1956 that two prehistorians from the Pyrenees rediscovered and confirmed the cave art. During the Second World War the cave had served as a hide-out for the French Resistance. The artistic representations in the cave were mainly executed as engravings or black contour drawings. The animal representations can be subdivided into:- 158 mammoths, 28 bisons, 15 horses, 12 ibex and 10 wooly rhinoceros. The mammoths make up 70%!o(MISSING)f all animals represented in the cave. The presence of cave bears in the Rouffignac cave is attested by scratch marks on the walls and also by their huge resting places against the walls of the cave.
Really enjoyed visiting this cave. After leaving Rouffignac Cave, we headed for the world
famous Lascaux Cave.
In September 1940, four young friends were chasing their dog near Lascaux when the dog disappeared down a hole in the ground caused by a tree having fallen over. After running home and grabbing torches, they entered the hole and found it led to a cave with walls covered in depictions of animals. The cave complex was opened to the public in 1948.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.
In 1983 an identical replica cave (Lascaux 2) opened in an adjoining cave to the original cave to minute specifications, even using the same pigments originally used in the Lascaux cave paintings. The cave contains nearly 2,000 figures, which can be grouped into three main categories: animals, human figures and abstract signs. The most famous section of the cave is The Great Hall of the Bulls where bulls, equines, and stags are depicted. The four black bulls are the dominant figures among the 36 animals represented here. One of the bulls is 17 feet (5.2 m) long, the largest animal discovered so
far in cave art. Additionally, the bulls appear to be in motion.
Most of the major images have been painted onto the walls using mineral pigments, although some designs have also been incised into the stone.
I read the story of the finding of the Lascaux Caves as a boy, and now I have finally viewed the cave.
On the way home from Lascaux we called in to see La Roque de St Christophe, a series of rock shelters overhanging the road. Not much room to drive through in some places.
A very interesting day.
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