Some of the most celebrated cave painting sites in France are closed to the public, you can only see reproductions. But at Pech Merle you see the real thing and stand a few metres from where 30,000 years ago a Cro-Magnon man or woman placed their hand on a cave wall and drew around it with manganese oxide (black) or iron oxide (red). To prevent deterioration of the paintings, visitors are limited in numbers and time and you have to reserve in advance.
The spotted horses are the most celebrated, but there are bison, aurochs (oxen), and the most commonly drawn animal, mammoths. There is a fine head of a bear, scratched with flint. The first drawings found were a red human hand and the head of a stag.
I think being inside a mountain must add to the atmosphere, say compared to being in a reproduction in a building as at Lascaux. We saw where the discoverers first entered the cave in 1925. They were three teenagers, two brothers and their sister. At that period it was considered indecent for a girl to go into a cave with boys, even her own family, so she hid her involvement. She died young in childbirth and it was only when her brother, in his old age, revealed the true story that she received the honors that she deserved.
The paintings are thought to be part of some ritual. They are present in some parts of the cave system but not others. Some experts believe this may be due to the acoustics. To illustrate this, the guide played a recording of the opening lines of Bohemian Rhapsody! I can't help but feeling that Freddie Mercury would have prospered in whatever age he had been born into!
Lucky you!!! I am FASCINATED with cave paintings. So other-wordly, glad you got to see them. I spent a week around Les Eyzies once and visited quite a few caves. It's amazing how many there are! Makes me wonder about the ones we haven't found yet.
