The Cave of Forgotten Dreams, located in southern France, is a stunning example of prehistoric art that has captivated researchers and visitors alike. This ancient cave, known as Chauvet Cave, houses some of the oldest and most well-preserved cave paintings, dating back over 30,000 years. Exploring the Cave of Forgotten Dreams offers a unique glimpse into the lives of our ancestors and their artistic expressions.
The artwork found within the cave showcases a variety of animals, including horses, lions, and bears, painted with remarkable detail and skill. These paintings not only provide insights into the creatures that inhabited the region but also reflect the social and spiritual beliefs of early humans. The intricate designs and techniques used in the Cave of Forgotten Dreams challenge our understanding of prehistoric cultures and their artistic capabilities.
Visiting the Cave of Forgotten Dreams is not just an exploration of art; it's a journey through time. The cave itself is a natural wonder, with its stunning rock formations and unique geological features. Preservation efforts ensure that this treasure trove of history remains intact for future generations to appreciate and study.
In conclusion, the Cave of Forgotten Dreams is more than just a site of ancient art; it is a testament to human creativity and the enduring spirit of storytelling through images. Whether you are an art enthusiast, a history buff, or simply curious about our distant past, a visit to this extraordinary cave is an experience you won't forget. Discover the magic of the Cave of Forgotten Dreams today!
**Hashtags:** #CaveOfForgottenDreams, #PrehistoricArt, #ChauvetCave
**Keywords:** Cave of Forgotten Dreams, Chauvet Cave, prehistoric art, cave paintings, ancient human history, early human creativity, rock art, animal depictions, archaeological significance, cave exploration
The artwork found within the cave showcases a variety of animals, including horses, lions, and bears, painted with remarkable detail and skill. These paintings not only provide insights into the creatures that inhabited the region but also reflect the social and spiritual beliefs of early humans. The intricate designs and techniques used in the Cave of Forgotten Dreams challenge our understanding of prehistoric cultures and their artistic capabilities.
Visiting the Cave of Forgotten Dreams is not just an exploration of art; it's a journey through time. The cave itself is a natural wonder, with its stunning rock formations and unique geological features. Preservation efforts ensure that this treasure trove of history remains intact for future generations to appreciate and study.
In conclusion, the Cave of Forgotten Dreams is more than just a site of ancient art; it is a testament to human creativity and the enduring spirit of storytelling through images. Whether you are an art enthusiast, a history buff, or simply curious about our distant past, a visit to this extraordinary cave is an experience you won't forget. Discover the magic of the Cave of Forgotten Dreams today!
**Hashtags:** #CaveOfForgottenDreams, #PrehistoricArt, #ChauvetCave
**Keywords:** Cave of Forgotten Dreams, Chauvet Cave, prehistoric art, cave paintings, ancient human history, early human creativity, rock art, animal depictions, archaeological significance, cave exploration
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00:30Don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe!
00:01:00See you in the next video!
00:01:30This is the Ardèche River in southern France.
00:01:38Less than a quarter of a mile from here, three explorers set out a few days before Christmas in 1994.
00:01:49They came along this way.
00:01:52They were seeking drafts of air emanating from the ground, which would point to the presence of caves.
00:02:01Eventually, they sensed a subtle airflow and began clearing away rocks, revealing a narrow shaft into the cliff.
00:02:11It was so narrow that a person could barely squeeze through it.
00:02:17They descended into the unknown.
00:02:20They were about to make one of the greatest discoveries in the history of human culture.
00:02:35At first, the cave did not appear to contain anything special, aside from being particularly beautiful.
00:02:50But then, deep inside, they found this.
00:03:07It would turn out that this cave was pristine.
00:03:12It had been perfectly sealed for tens of thousands of years.
00:03:18It contained by far the oldest cave paintings, dating back some 32,000 years.
00:03:26In fact, they are the oldest paintings ever discovered, more than twice as old as any other.
00:03:48In honor of its leading discoverer, Jean-Marie Chauvy, the cave now bears a special name.
00:03:55The Cave of Chauvy
00:04:12In honor of its leading discoverer, Jean-Marie Chauvy, the cave now bears the name Chauvy Cave.
00:04:25This is the road in the Aldèche Gorge leading to the cave.
00:04:31It is early spring.
00:04:34We have been given an unprecedented endorsement by the French Ministry of Culture to film inside the cave.
00:04:43From the first day of its discovery, the importance of the cave was immediately recognized and access was shut off categorically.
00:04:55Only a small group of scientists is allowed to enter.
00:04:59They are archaeologists, art historians, paleontologists and geologists, among others.
00:05:08They are here to perform their studies together during a few short weeks at the end of March and the beginning of April.
00:05:17This is one of the rare times anyone, with the exception of two guards, is allowed inside the cave.
00:05:36The cave is like a frozen flesh of a moment in time.
00:05:42The reason for its pristine condition is this rock face.
00:05:47Some 20,000 years ago, it came tumbling down in a massive rock slide, sealing off the original entrance to the cave and creating a perfect time capsule.
00:06:12A wooden walkway leads to the entrance of Chauvet Cave.
00:06:23The narrow tunnel through which the discoverers crawled has been widened and locked with a massive steel door like a bank vault.
00:06:36Once we pass through this door, it will be locked behind us, so as not to compromise the delicate climate inside.
00:06:49For this, our first exploration into the cave, we are using a tiny, non-professional camera rig.
00:07:02In this first narrow holding room, we are fitted with sterile boots and given safety instructions.
00:07:12We have this. Once you've set this on the rope, you don't touch it.
00:07:21Jean-Claude was the first scientist to inspect the cave a few days after its discovery.
00:07:27For five years until his retirement, he served as head of the scientific team.
00:07:41Our guide leads us down a first sloping tunnel, which ends in a vertical drop to the cave floor.
00:08:41This is the cave floor.
00:08:46This is the cave floor.
00:08:51This is the cave floor.
00:08:56This is the cave floor.
00:09:01This is the cave floor.
00:09:06This is the cave floor.
00:09:13Since our film crew has been limited to a maximum of four, we must all perform technical tasks.
00:09:21In addition, our time in the cave has been severely restricted.
00:09:27I will take one light as well.
00:09:30It's five past three. We have one hour.
00:09:42Apart from time constrictions, we are not allowed to touch anything in the cave or ever step off the two foot wide walkway.
00:09:53We can use only three flat, cold light panels powered by battery belts.
00:10:01You see how, when they made the passageways, they protected the stalagmites.
00:10:09It's a nice touch.
00:10:15Inevitably, moving along in single file, the film crew will have no hiding places to get out of the shot.
00:10:29The first large chamber we come to is the original entrance to the cave.
00:10:35In prehistoric times, before the rock slide, daylight must have illuminated this.
00:10:43On the left, when we arrived inside the cave, you could see the entrance.
00:10:49That was the archaeological entrance. People came into the cave level, not like us, down a ladder.
00:10:55Then the cliff collapsed. Then we've got the rubble from the cliff.
00:11:01From outside, you cannot see it. From inside, you can.
00:11:07Over there, you've got the dots, the red dots.
00:11:13Those are the red dots which I saw first when I came into the cave.
00:11:18Big dots made with the palm of the hand.
00:11:25Well, here we have a big cave bear skull, right? A nail, probably.
00:11:32And you'll see many others.
00:11:41You see, in this big chamber, which is really huge, it's the biggest in the cave,
00:11:47there are no paintings, except right at the end.
00:11:51This is probably relevant, because when the entrance was still open, there must have been some light here.
00:11:59So they put the paintings really in the complete dark.
00:12:07You see? Yeah.
00:12:12This is a cave bear painted in black.
00:12:16The paintings looked so fresh that there were initial doubts about their authenticity.
00:12:22This picture has a layer of calcite and concretions over it that take thousands of years to grow.
00:12:30This was the first proof that it was not a forgery.
00:12:36A beautiful horse here, one of the most beautiful in the cave.
00:12:42And what is touching is that it looks as if it had been done yesterday.
00:12:49Look how fresh it looks with that technique.
00:12:57And here we have, behind the horse, there are two mammoths. Big mammoths.
00:13:04And here you can see cave bear scratches.
00:13:08And the cave bear scratches are not the same colour.
00:13:11They look like they might have been made five, ten thousand years earlier.
00:13:20We are coming here to one of the great spots of the cave, which is the famous panel of the horses.
00:13:28It is one of the sides of a small recess.
00:13:32And this small hole there is where water comes out, gurgling, after there's been something like a week of rain.
00:13:42And that probably explains why all those animals were painted around that hole.
00:13:51It's one of the great works of art in the world.
00:14:00For these Paleolithic painters, the play of light and shadows from their torches could possibly have looked something like this.
00:14:12For them, the animals perhaps appeared moving, living.
00:14:19We should note that the artist painted this bison with eight legs, suggesting movement, almost a form of proto-cinema.
00:14:29The walls themselves are not flat, but have their own three-dimensional dynamic, their own movement, which was utilised by the artists.
00:14:51In the upper left corner, another multi-legged animal.
00:14:56And the rhino to the right seems also to have the illusion of movement, like frames in an animated film.
00:15:07The painters of the cave seem to speak to us from a familiar, yet distant universe.
00:15:14But what we are seeing here is part of millions of spatial points.
00:15:21Today, scientists have mapped every single millimetre of the cave using laser scanners.
00:15:28The position of every feature in the cave is known.
00:15:33But what we are seeing here is part of millions of spatial points.
00:15:39Today, scientists have mapped every single millimetre of the cave using laser scanners.
00:15:46The position of every feature in the cave is known.
00:15:56This is the shape of the cave in its entirety.
00:16:00From end to end, it is about 1300 feet long.
00:16:07This map is the basis for all scientific projects being done here.
00:16:17We are working to create a new understanding of the cave through that precision, through scientific methods.
00:16:27But that's not, I think, the main goal.
00:16:32The main goal is to create stories about what could have happened in that cave during the past.
00:16:39It is like you are creating the phone directory of Manhattan, four million precise entries.
00:16:46But do they dream? Do they cry at night?
00:16:50What are their hopes? What are their families?
00:16:53You will never know from the phone directory.
00:16:56Definitely, we will never know because past is definitely lost.
00:17:01We will never reconstruct the past.
00:17:04We can only create a representation of what exists now, today.
00:17:10You are a human being. I am a human being.
00:17:14Here, when you come to that cave, of course there are some things.
00:17:19I have my own background.
00:17:21What is your background, if I may ask?
00:17:23I used to be a circus man before, but I switched to archaeology.
00:17:27Circus, doing what? Lion tamer?
00:17:30Well, mostly not lion tamer, but mostly unit cycle and juggling, yeah.
00:17:37The first time I entered to Chauvet Cave, I had a chance to get in during five days.
00:17:45And it was so powerful that every night I was dreaming of lions.
00:17:52And every day was the same shock for me.
00:17:57It was an emotional shock.
00:17:59I am a scientist, but a human too.
00:18:02And after five days, I decided not to go back in the cave
00:18:07because I needed time just to relax and take time to...
00:18:13To absorb it?
00:18:15To absorb it, yeah.
00:18:17And you dreamt not of paintings of lions, but of real lions?
00:18:21Of both. Of both, definitely, yeah.
00:18:26And you were afraid in your dreams?
00:18:28I was not afraid. No, no, no. I was not afraid.
00:18:31It was more a feeling of powerful things and deep things.
00:18:39A way to understand things which is not a direct way.
00:18:48Sorry, silence please.
00:18:50Please don't move.
00:18:52We're going to listen to the silence in the cave.
00:18:55And perhaps we can even hear our own heartbeats.
00:19:25Heartbeats.
00:19:55Heartbeats.
00:20:25Heartbeats.
00:20:55Heartbeats.
00:20:57Heartbeats.
00:20:59Heartbeats.
00:21:01Heartbeats.
00:21:03Heartbeats.
00:21:05Heartbeats.
00:21:07Heartbeats.
00:21:09Heartbeats.
00:21:11Heartbeats.
00:21:13Heartbeats.
00:21:15Heartbeats.
00:21:17Heartbeats.
00:21:19Heartbeats.
00:21:21Heartbeats.
00:21:23Heartbeats.
00:21:25Heartbeats.
00:21:27Heartbeats.
00:21:29Heartbeats.
00:21:31Heartbeats.
00:21:33Heartbeats.
00:21:35Heartbeats.
00:21:37Heartbeats.
00:21:39Heartbeats.
00:21:41Heartbeats.
00:21:43Heartbeats.
00:21:45Heartbeats.
00:21:47Heartbeats.
00:21:49Heartbeats.
00:21:51Heartbeats.
00:21:53Heartbeats.
00:21:55Heartbeats.
00:21:57Heartbeats.
00:21:59Heartbeats.
00:22:01Heartbeats.
00:22:03Heartbeats.
00:22:05Heartbeats.
00:22:07Heartbeats.
00:22:09Heartbeats.
00:22:11Heartbeats.
00:22:13Heartbeats.
00:22:15Heartbeats.
00:22:17Heartbeats.
00:22:19Heartbeats.
00:22:21Heartbeats.
00:22:23Heartbeats.
00:22:25Heartbeats.
00:22:27These images are memories of long forgotten dreams.
00:22:31Heartbeats.
00:22:33Is this their heartbeat or ours?
00:22:35Heartbeats.
00:22:37Heartbeats.
00:22:39Will we ever be able to understand the vision of the artists across such an abyss of time?
00:22:45Heartbeats.
00:22:47Heartbeats.
00:22:49Heartbeats.
00:22:51There is an aura of melodrama in this landscape.
00:22:55Heartbeats.
00:22:57It could be straight out of a Wagner opera or a painting of German Romanticists.
00:23:03Heartbeats.
00:23:05Could this be our connection to them?
00:23:07Heartbeats.
00:23:09This landscape as an operatic event does not belong to the Romanticists alone.
00:23:15Stone Age men might have had a similar sense of inner landscapes.
00:23:20And it seems natural that there is a whole cluster of Paleolithic caves right around here.
00:23:27The Chauvet Cave is just here at the top of this cliff.
00:23:31But the Chauvet Cave is also associated to this natural feature,
00:23:36this beautiful arch called Pont d'Arc.
00:23:40Maybe this Pont d'Arc, in the mythology of the people,
00:23:45was not only a landmark, but a mark also in their imagination,
00:23:51in their stories, in their mythology,
00:23:54that was important for them to understand the world.
00:23:59But what kind of world was it for Paleolithic people back then?
00:24:0435,000 years ago, Europe was covered by glaciers.
00:24:10And in this glacial Europe, you have to imagine a climate dry, cold, but with sun also.
00:24:18That was important.
00:24:20In this place, for example, you have to imagine woolly rhinos,
00:24:25mammoths along the rivers.
00:24:27In the forest, you had megaloceros deers, horses, reindeers, bisons,
00:24:34and also ibex or other antelopes moving.
00:24:38So it was very rich.
00:24:40The biomass in this part of Europe was very important for the development of humans,
00:24:46but also carnivores.
00:24:48So you have to imagine lions, bears, leopards,
00:24:53wolves, foxes, in very large numbers.
00:24:57And among all these carnivores and predators, humans.
00:25:03Could it be how they set up fires in Chauvet Cave?
00:25:06There's evidence that they cast their own shadows against the paddles of horses, for example.
00:25:12The fire was necessary to look at the paintings,
00:25:16and maybe to staging people around.
00:25:20When you look with a flame, with a moving light,
00:25:24you can imagine people dancing with the shadows.
00:25:27Fred Astaire.
00:25:29Yes.
00:25:30I think that this image, dancing with this shadow,
00:25:34is a very strong and old image of human representation.
00:25:39Because the first representation was the wall, the white wall, and the black shadow.
00:25:51The Cave of the Bear
00:26:05The presence of humans in the cave was fleeting like shadows.
00:26:11Bear skulls everywhere.
00:26:14But these skulls belonged to the cave bear,
00:26:17a species like the mammoth and the woolly rhino
00:26:21that vanished from the face of the earth long ago.
00:26:34Tens of thousands of years of patient water dripping
00:26:38has left a thick coating of calcite on this skull.
00:26:43It now has the appearance of a porcelain sculpture.
00:26:47The Cave of the Bear
00:27:07In all this menagerie of bones, there is not a single human specimen.
00:27:13Scientists have determined that humans never lived in the cave.
00:27:19They used it only for painting and possibly ceremonies.
00:27:26Michel Philippe has studied the bones of Chauvy Cave.
00:27:42But there is also a little wolf.
00:27:44We have two skulls, we have several bones.
00:27:47We have a little bouquetin,
00:27:49including a magnificent skull on a beach
00:27:52where there is very pretty calcite.
00:27:55When you light it, the crystals of calcite shine.
00:27:58It's really very, very pretty.
00:28:00There is a little horse too.
00:28:02There is a little cave hyena.
00:28:04What else is there?
00:28:06There is also an eagle skeleton, the royal eagle.
00:28:10It is perhaps a little more recent.
00:28:12It was brought to him by the waters of Rue Salomon,
00:28:15which was going to wedge against two big stones on the edge of the path.
00:28:19We see the bones spread over three meters in length.
00:28:22The goal is not only to say what there is as bones, as a beast,
00:28:27but also to try to understand if they lived there,
00:28:30if they moved, how it was transported.
00:28:33Are the bears eaten by the bones?
00:28:37There are a few bones that are a little crumpled,
00:28:40so maybe the bears or hyenas.
00:29:07Yes, yes.
00:29:09In fact, this is what we call a survey.
00:29:12In the cave, we collect all the traces that we see on the wall,
00:29:18because in fact we do not touch the wall.
00:29:21So we make series of photos that we treat in mosaic, like this.
00:29:26We try to bring out as much detail as possible,
00:29:30and then we put a transparent film that we put on the photo.
00:29:36We return to the cave, and in front of the wall,
00:29:39we trace all the drawings that we see,
00:29:41all the impacts due to the bears, and all the anthropic traces,
00:29:45in order to understand the construction of each figure and each event.
00:29:50Here we have bear griffins,
00:29:52then a very beautiful drawing of a mammoth made with fingers,
00:29:55and other griffins on the drawing of a mammoth.
00:29:57So here we have this succession,
00:29:59which is very important for understanding what happened.
00:30:03We can see it on the computer.
00:30:07Three eras.
00:30:08The first, before 40,000 years, those of the bears,
00:30:11who grazed the walls.
00:30:13Then a second era, with drawings at more than 2.5 meters in height,
00:30:17made with a stick.
00:30:19Then the main phase,
00:30:24where in fact around 33,000 years.
00:30:27It starts with an erasure of the wall,
00:30:30to find the white of the rock,
00:30:32and then the first figures that are put in place
00:30:36are the two rhinoceros faced, which are at the bottom.
00:30:45And finally, to finish with the horses, the four horses,
00:30:48and the main horse in the center of the panel,
00:30:51which is in front of the spectator when we arrive in the cave.
00:30:54Which means that if we do the synthesis of the composition,
00:30:58we have a circular movement like this,
00:31:00from the bottom right to the center, like a circle.
00:31:05It obviously creates a very strong dynamic,
00:31:08which is reinforced here by the oblique movement of the horses.
00:31:13It is the strength of the contrast,
00:31:15and the fact that they played with this contrast and with the wall.
00:31:20It's like a painting by Chevalet.
00:31:22He used the surface, used the material,
00:31:25mixed the material,
00:31:27to give this very strong and very beautiful impression.
00:31:38By comparing all the paintings in the cave,
00:31:41it seems certain that the horses of this panel
00:31:44were created by one single individual.
00:31:48But in the immediate vicinity of the horses,
00:31:52there are figures of animals overlapping with each other.
00:31:58The striking point here is that,
00:32:00in cases like this after carbon dating,
00:32:03there are strong indications that some overlapping figures
00:32:07were drawn almost 5,000 years apart.
00:32:12The sequence and duration of time is unimaginable for us today.
00:32:18We are locked in history, and they were not.
00:32:26Despite this blurring of time and the anonymity of the artists,
00:32:31there is one individual who can be singled out.
00:32:35Dominique Baffier is a scholar of Paleolithic culture.
00:32:39Here, on the right,
00:32:41she examines the cluster of palm prints
00:32:44with her colleague Valérie Ferrulio.
00:33:05With the prints, we were able to highlight
00:33:08the number of gestures of the individual,
00:33:11his movements.
00:33:12He began crouching, and then he extended
00:33:15to reach the upper arm.
00:33:18This panel is made up of the prints of a single man,
00:33:22who must be approximately 1.80 metres tall.
00:33:26A single human?
00:33:27A single human, 1.80 metres tall.
00:33:31Was it only one person?
00:33:33Yes, one person, 1.80 metres tall.
00:33:36We can see on these prints
00:33:39that he has a very significant detail.
00:33:43He has a slightly twisted little finger.
00:33:47This is extraordinary,
00:33:49because it really gives a physical reality
00:33:52to the prehistoric humans
00:33:54who, 32,000 years ago or more,
00:33:56frequented the cavity before us.
00:33:58What is even more surprising
00:34:00is that we will find his trace further in the cavity.
00:34:03We will be able to recognize him
00:34:05because of this twisted little finger,
00:34:07because he applied his hand further in the cavity.
00:34:10So we will follow the path of this man.
00:34:16Madame Bafy took us on a tour.
00:34:19She serves as the custodian of the cave,
00:34:22and her rules of engagement are strict
00:34:25but entirely reasonable,
00:34:27given the precious and fragile nature
00:34:30of this unique place.
00:34:57It's very bright.
00:34:59There are crystals sparkling.
00:35:28Here, at this junction,
00:35:31we have the panther sign.
00:35:34You can see a panther,
00:35:37which is the only known panther in parietal art.
00:35:46Here we come to a place
00:35:48where the concretion was very important,
00:35:51on the ground and on the walls.
00:35:54You can see that the calcite
00:35:57has covered everything
00:35:59by forming sparkling gores,
00:36:04a sort of cascade,
00:36:15with these waves.
00:36:24You have here, look,
00:36:27a bear's vertebra,
00:36:30which is entirely calcite,
00:36:33and taken by the crystals
00:36:36of the calcite concretion.
00:36:44Opposite, on the wall,
00:36:47we have the panther,
00:36:51which also has an abundant concretion,
00:36:54which forms draperies,
00:36:57a sort of niche,
00:36:59where you can see the traces
00:37:02of old red paint,
00:37:04which has been washed away
00:37:06by the stream.
00:37:08And here we find
00:37:10extremely original signs,
00:37:13like this insect-shaped sign,
00:37:16or this one,
00:37:19in the form of a butterfly
00:37:22or a flying bird,
00:37:25which can also be found
00:37:28on this rocky pendant
00:37:31that descends from the ceiling,
00:37:34large in size and very small,
00:37:37associated with two bands of ocher
00:37:40that follow the reliefs of the pendant.
00:37:46We are here in front
00:37:49of the large panel of red paint,
00:37:52but also an extremely curious element,
00:37:55this pile of stones.
00:37:58You can see that it has not fallen
00:38:01from the ceiling.
00:38:04It was the prehistoric men
00:38:07who gathered these stones here.
00:38:10But we don't know
00:38:13why.
00:38:16On this panel,
00:38:19you first have a small rhinoceros,
00:38:22the large horn,
00:38:25the bandage on the abdomen,
00:38:28and you also have
00:38:31a whole series
00:38:34of positive hands underneath.
00:38:37And we find here
00:38:40the hand of the man
00:38:43who applied his palms
00:38:46in the first room of the cave,
00:38:49since we recognize
00:38:52his little twisted finger.
00:38:55You have animals
00:38:58and here the abdomen
00:39:01of a large rhinoceros
00:39:04with a very large horn.
00:39:07The men lit up with torches
00:39:10and when the wood was too burnt,
00:39:13they blew the torch on the wall,
00:39:16gave back the flame
00:39:19and activated the lighting.
00:39:22These traces are very fresh
00:39:25because here you can see
00:39:28small coals that fell during the blowing.
00:39:31One of these tiny fragments
00:39:35This torch was swiped
00:39:3828,000 years ago.
00:40:05And in front,
00:40:08you have the smaller female
00:40:11who seems to rub
00:40:14along the evil side.
00:40:17This representation of the lion
00:40:20of the caverns
00:40:23made it possible to clarify a mystery
00:40:26since archaeologists did not know
00:40:29if the lion of the caverns
00:40:32of more than 30,000 years ago
00:40:35showed us that it had no mane.
00:40:38Look at the line of its head
00:40:41which is very straight.
00:40:44And it is an undeniable evil
00:40:47since we have the scrotum
00:40:50here under the tail
00:40:53which is represented.
00:41:03This is one of the most beautiful
00:41:06panels of the cave,
00:41:09with the feline panel at the bottom.
00:41:12Here we see the technique
00:41:15of prehistoric men
00:41:18but also their very precise knowledge
00:41:21of the animal world.
00:41:24Here they tell us stories.
00:41:27Here you have a set of horses
00:41:30whose representations become sound.
00:41:33You see the two rhinoceros
00:41:36who are fighting.
00:41:39And when we observe them,
00:41:42we see all the signs of their nerves
00:41:45and the movement of their legs
00:41:48which are projected forward.
00:41:51And we almost hear the sound
00:41:54of the horns colliding in the movement
00:41:57Here we see a feline running
00:42:00towards a female who is not ready
00:42:03to accept it.
00:42:06She sits down and growls.
00:42:09Look, we can hear the female growling.
00:42:12She lifts her tails,
00:42:15she shows her teeth,
00:42:18she is not happy.
00:42:21And finally, here you have the race
00:42:24of this alcove with this auroch.
00:42:32Madame Paffy takes us down
00:42:35to the farthest chamber of the cave,
00:42:38the mysterious chamber of the lions.
00:42:41There is a serious level of toxic CO2 gas
00:42:44emanating from the roots of trees
00:42:47which seeps down into the cave
00:42:50through the porous limestone.
00:42:54Our time is even more constricted
00:42:57in this location and there is no possibility
00:43:00to get close to the paintings.
00:43:24This is the lower body of a woman.
00:43:27You have the pubic triangle
00:43:30and the legs which separate
00:43:33from the knees which are divergent
00:43:36and which remind us of the little statues
00:43:39of the gravessian, well known
00:43:42from the excavations of the Jura Soibes.
00:43:45This lower body of the female
00:43:48can only be guessed by half
00:43:51because you cannot walk on these
00:43:54very fragile soils, you would destroy
00:43:57the coal, you would destroy the traces
00:44:00left by bears and men.
00:44:03So you will have to be content with this image.
00:44:06Restore the other half of the female body
00:44:09with its other symmetrical leg
00:44:12and you see that this body is associated
00:44:15with a bison head which would have
00:44:18been rather human.
00:44:21We find ourselves here, more than 30,000 years ago,
00:44:24with a myth which still persists today
00:44:27because we also find the association
00:44:30of the female in Picasso's drawings
00:44:33with Minotaur.
00:44:38This is the only partial representation
00:44:41of a human in the entire cave.
00:44:44For the time being, the other side
00:44:47of the rock pendant must remain
00:44:50unreachable for us.
00:44:53The people who created this
00:44:56are equally enigmatic.
00:44:59Of the few things they left behind,
00:45:02practical items like flint tools
00:45:05can be more easily read.
00:45:08The local museum is filled with artifacts
00:45:11from the region.
00:45:15But Jean-Michel Genest can only lead us
00:45:18to a handful of findings from Chauvet's cave.
00:45:26To shed light on the enigmatic female image,
00:45:29he has prepared some similar figurines
00:45:32from other regions.
00:45:35You can see, like in this
00:45:38Villain of Venus,
00:45:42it's a copy made in limestone
00:45:45found in Austria from the same period.
00:45:48In the Chauvet cave,
00:45:51you have only the lower part
00:45:54of the belly preserved.
00:45:57It's embedded in a bison.
00:46:00There seems to have existed
00:46:03a visual convention extending
00:46:06all the way beyond Baywatch.
00:46:10There is no male representation
00:46:13very clearly found,
00:46:16but this lion man,
00:46:19it comes from a site
00:46:22in the Swabian Alps.
00:46:25What is amazing,
00:46:28it's a mixture between
00:46:31an anthropomorphic shape,
00:46:34a human body,
00:46:37is it a marriage,
00:46:40is it a new being?
00:46:43That's a question we can ask
00:46:46to this reproduction.
00:46:49What the people who lived
00:46:52in this valley left behind
00:46:55is their great art.
00:46:58It was not a primitive beginning
00:47:01or a slow evolution.
00:47:04It is as if the modern human soul
00:47:07had awakened here.
00:47:10Even more astonishing to consider
00:47:13is that at the time,
00:47:16Neanderthal man still roamed
00:47:19this valley.
00:47:22But there must have been
00:47:25other forms of artistic expression,
00:47:28like music, for example.
00:47:31Southwestern Germany,
00:47:3430-40,000 years ago,
00:47:37was connected to this valley
00:47:40through an ice-free corridor.
00:47:43It should also be noted
00:47:46that the Alp mountains
00:47:49were covered by 9,000 feet of ice
00:47:52binding so much water
00:47:55that the sea level
00:47:58would have been crossing
00:48:01the dry seabed of the English Channel.
00:48:04Walking 400 miles in this direction
00:48:07would lead you to the Swabian Alp
00:48:10of Germany.
00:48:13There, in the Museum of Blaubeuren,
00:48:16we find replicas
00:48:19of the best-known Paleolithic Venuses.
00:48:29But this one,
00:48:32the Venus of Hohlefels,
00:48:35stands out.
00:48:38Found in 2008,
00:48:41it is sensational for its age.
00:48:47The Venus from Hohlefels
00:48:50is probably the oldest depiction
00:48:53of any kind of figurative object
00:48:56or representation of a human being,
00:48:59and it's the absolute root
00:49:02of figurative depiction, as we know it.
00:49:05Later on, we see a range
00:49:08of animals being depicted.
00:49:11We can think of the animal depictions
00:49:14in ivory here or the fabulous depictions
00:49:17from Grote Chauvet of mammoths, of lions,
00:49:20and we can see a very clear connection
00:49:23between these depictions.
00:49:26About 1,000 years ago,
00:49:29we see evidence for musical instruments,
00:49:32a range of personal ornaments,
00:49:35mythical depictions that clearly show
00:49:38that these people had a religious concept
00:49:41evolving the transformation
00:49:44between humans and animals.
00:49:47This here is the original statuette
00:49:50with a head instead of a head.
00:49:53The figurine has a ring.
00:49:56It was perhaps worn at times,
00:49:59suspended on a string of some sort.
00:50:02Also, the sexual attributes are key,
00:50:05which clearly link this depiction
00:50:08to ideas of reproduction, fecundity, sexuality,
00:50:11ideas that are absolutely essential
00:50:14to all of humanity also today.
00:50:17Neanderthals, so we're dealing with
00:50:20a critical phase in human evolution
00:50:23where two forms of human beings
00:50:26are testing their boundaries.
00:50:29What we find over and over again
00:50:32is that Neanderthals,
00:50:35although they're very sophisticated,
00:50:38they never had this kind
00:50:41of symbolic artifact, ever.
00:50:44And this beautiful horse
00:50:47comes from the same region.
00:50:50They also found fragments of flutes.
00:50:53We asked Dr. Conard to show us an original.
00:50:56The ivory flute is really
00:50:59a remarkable artifact that Maria Molina
00:51:02discovered a few years back.
00:51:05And I think what's extremely important
00:51:08is that we realize that archaeology today
00:51:11is a high-tech scientific work
00:51:14that's done with incredible detail.
00:51:17Really, millimeter by millimeter,
00:51:20the sediments are removed in these deposits
00:51:23the age of Grotte Chauvet and our sites
00:51:26between 30,000 and 40,000 years ago.
00:51:29And this detailed work allowed Maria
00:51:32to identify a whole range of finds
00:51:35that she was able to piece together.
00:51:38These pieces came from the 1970s,
00:51:41from the first years of excavation,
00:51:44and these were really small pieces
00:51:47you can see here in this picture.
00:51:50The tiny ivory pieces remained
00:51:53unexplained for a full three decades.
00:51:56And 31 pieces had a very significant look.
00:51:59We found pieces with a part of the finger holes
00:52:02and with notches on the side.
00:52:05And with these pieces I thought already
00:52:08that it could be a part of an ivory flute.
00:52:11Of course, the question was very important
00:52:14how this flute was made.
00:52:17And you can see here on the long axis
00:52:20there's a split going all over the flute.
00:52:23And inside the two halves
00:52:26they hollowed the flute out
00:52:29and these little notches along this axis,
00:52:32we fit these two halves together very precise.
00:52:35This flute is only one of 8 in all
00:52:38so far recovered from this area
00:52:41of southwestern Germany.
00:52:44The caves here have no paintings
00:52:47but yield many other objects of art.
00:52:50In this cave, the Geissenklösterle cave,
00:52:53many very important findings from the Ice Age were made.
00:52:56We found some little ivory statues
00:52:59of bear and mammoth, a very tiny mammoth, very lovely.
00:53:02And in 1992 I was part of the excavation team.
00:53:05People lived here
00:53:08about 30,000, 40,000 years back in time.
00:53:11And in that time it was very cold here
00:53:14because the Alps mountains were covered by a glacier
00:53:17about 2,500 meters thick.
00:53:20And in the valley down there,
00:53:23reindeer and mammoths were passing and it was very cold.
00:53:26And that's the reason
00:53:29why I'm dressed up like an Inuit.
00:53:32We presume that in this way
00:53:35the people of the Ice Age were clothed
00:53:38by reindeer fur and boots made of reindeer fur
00:53:41and reindeer leather
00:53:44because otherwise you couldn't stand the cold.
00:53:50One of the most important finds we made in this cave
00:53:53was a very tiny flute
00:53:56made out of the radius of a vulture.
00:53:59Astonishing on this flute
00:54:02is that it is pentatonic.
00:54:05And this is the same tonality
00:54:08we are used to hear today.
00:54:11And if you like,
00:54:14I'll try to play some small tunes for you.
00:54:17. . .
00:54:20. . .
00:54:23. . .
00:54:26. . .
00:54:29. . .
00:54:32. . .
00:54:35And when I first reconstructed the instrument
00:54:38and tried to play some tunes, I came across these ones.
00:54:41. . .
00:54:44. . .
00:54:47. . .
00:54:50. . .
00:54:53. . .
00:54:56. . .
00:54:59Sounds a little bit like
00:55:02Star Spangled Banner.
00:55:05. . .
00:55:08Back in France near Chauvet Cave,
00:55:12explorers, using more primal techniques
00:55:15in search of still-hidden underground chambers,
00:55:18roamed the landscape.
00:55:41. . .
00:56:11. . .
00:56:41. . .
00:57:11. . .
00:57:14. . .
00:57:17. . .
00:57:20. . .
00:57:23. . .
00:57:26. . .
00:57:29. . .
00:57:32There are plans to build a theme park for tourists
00:57:35with a precise replica of the cave
00:57:38a few miles from here.
00:57:41. . .
00:57:44This replica may even contain a recreation of the odor
00:57:47of the prehistoric interior.
00:57:50. . .
00:57:53. . .
00:57:56. . .
00:57:59. . .
00:58:02. . .
00:58:05. . .
00:58:08.
00:58:11.
00:58:14.
00:58:17.
00:58:20.
00:58:23.
00:58:26.
00:58:29.
00:58:3225 000 years ago with all the animals that were there, bears, wolves, rhinoceros maybe,
00:58:40men and their lives, that is to say the burnt woods, the resins, the odors of
00:58:48all nature that surrounded this cave and all that we can find it by imagination.
00:59:02With his sense of wonder the cave transforms into an enchanted world of the imaginary,
00:59:10where time and space lose their meaning.
00:59:15These crystal formations take thousands of years to grow.
00:59:20The artists of the cave never even saw them,
00:59:24as many of them only started to form after the landslide sealed the entrance.
00:59:32In a forbidden recess of the cave there's a footprint of an eight-year-old boy
00:59:56next to the footprint of a wolf.
01:00:01Did a hungry wolf stalk the boy or did they walk together as friends?
01:00:08Or were their tracks made thousands of years apart? We'll never know.
01:01:25So
01:01:35so
01:01:52Dwarfed by these large chambers, illuminated by our wandering lights,
01:01:58sometimes we were overcome by a strange irrational sensation, as if we were
01:02:04disturbing the Paleolithic people in their work. It felt like eyes upon us.
01:02:13This sensation occurred to some of the scientists and also the discoverers of the cave.
01:02:22It was a relief to surface again above ground.
01:02:26Back outside, we asked Jean-Michel Genest about hunting techniques of Paleolithic people,
01:02:32millennia before the invention of bow and arrow.
01:02:37The Chauvet Cave orientation people hunted a lot of really big games. They hunted
01:02:46everywhere in France and Europe. In the settlement we found a lot of bones of rindy,
01:02:53bison, horses and sometimes mammoths. So they developed very specific hunting technology.
01:03:03For example, the system of the orientation bone point is very ingenious. It's a bone point
01:03:10on a wooden shaft. The piece of the bone point is very strongly associated to the shaft.
01:03:20It's a system using a fork and a piece inside. So it's very strong. It has been made and developed
01:03:29to kill bison or horses like that. It's very aggressive and it's also very strong and powerful.
01:03:37This kind of weapon and spear were thrown not only by hand like that, because it's not very
01:03:46efficient, but we suspect that in the beginning of the Paleolithic, they developed the technology
01:03:55of the spear thrower. A spear thrower is at the beginning only a hook, sometimes a tooth,
01:04:02a piece of antler like this one on a long handle. It elongated the arm, gave a lot of power
01:04:12like that and also at the same time some precision to give the spear a good direction.
01:04:19So I will show you. Yes, you see the spear with a flint point, but to use this it's necessary to
01:04:31have a hole, a small depression at the back of the spear. We suspect that sometimes they used
01:04:39phasers to keep the direction at the moment of the throw. I will try to show you how to kill a horse.
01:04:55His efforts may not look very convincing, but this is a powerful weapon.
01:05:02Spearheads have been found deeply embedded in the shoulder blades of horses and mammoths.
01:05:09You see the flight, it's very straight and it's 30 meters.
01:05:21But stay here, the Paleolithic men were better than you, I guess.
01:05:27Oh, I suspect it could be really difficult for me with such a chute to kill a horse, really.
01:05:33By mid-April, scientific research has ended for the year. Now we are allowed full access to the cave.
01:05:48But even that is restricted to a single week, four hours a day.
01:05:54The famous cave of Lascaux had to be shut down because a breadth of scores of tourists
01:06:01has caused mold to grow on the walls.
01:06:11We enter Chauvet Cave, aware that this may be the only and last opportunity to film inside.
01:07:01Music
01:07:24The mystery of the Minotaur and the female began to unfold
01:07:28when our guides allowed us to mount a small camera on a stick
01:07:32with which we reached out.
01:07:37The bison seems to embrace the sex of a naked woman.
01:07:49Traditional people, and I think people of the Paleolithic,
01:07:53had very probably two concepts
01:07:57which change our vision of the world.
01:08:00They are the concept of fluidity and the concept of permeability.
01:08:04Fluidity means that the categories that we have
01:08:08– man, woman, horse, I don't know, tree, etc. –
01:08:13can shift.
01:08:15A tree may speak.
01:08:17A man can get transformed into an animal
01:08:20and the other way around, given certain circumstances.
01:08:25The concept of permeability is that there are no barriers,
01:08:31so to speak, between the world where we are
01:08:34and the world of the spirits.
01:08:37A wall can talk to us or a wall can accept us or refuse us.
01:08:44A shaman, for example, can send his or her spirit
01:08:47to the world of the supernatural
01:08:50and can receive the visit inside him or her of supernatural spirits.
01:08:56If you put those two concepts together,
01:08:59you realize how different life must have been for those people
01:09:04from the way we live now.
01:09:10Humans have been described in many ways, right?
01:09:13And for a while it was Homo sapiens,
01:09:17and it's still called Homo sapiens,
01:09:19a man who knows.
01:09:21I don't think it's a good definition at all.
01:09:24We don't know, we don't know much.
01:09:27I would think Homo spiritualis.
01:09:35The strongest hint of something spiritual,
01:09:37some religious ceremony in the cave,
01:09:40is this bear skull.
01:09:42It has been placed dead center on a rock,
01:09:45resembling an altar.
01:09:49The staging seems deliberate.
01:09:52The skull faces the entrance of the cave
01:09:56and around it fragments of charcoal were found,
01:10:00potentially used as incense.
01:10:07What exactly took place here,
01:10:10only the paintings could tell us.
01:10:19♪♪♪
01:10:29♪♪♪
01:10:39♪♪♪
01:10:49♪♪♪
01:10:59♪♪♪
01:11:09♪♪♪
01:11:19♪♪♪
01:11:29♪♪♪
01:11:39♪♪♪
01:11:49♪♪♪
01:11:59♪♪♪
01:12:09♪♪♪
01:12:19♪♪♪
01:12:29♪♪♪
01:12:39♪♪♪
01:12:49♪♪♪
01:12:59♪♪♪
01:13:09♪♪♪
01:13:19♪♪♪
01:13:29♪♪♪
01:13:39♪♪♪
01:13:49♪♪♪
01:13:59♪♪♪
01:14:09♪♪♪
01:14:19♪♪♪
01:14:29♪♪♪
01:14:39♪♪♪
01:14:49♪♪♪
01:14:59♪♪♪
01:15:09♪♪♪
01:15:19♪♪♪
01:15:29♪♪♪
01:15:39♪♪♪
01:15:49♪♪♪
01:15:59♪♪♪
01:16:09♪♪♪
01:16:19♪♪♪
01:16:29♪♪♪
01:16:39♪♪♪
01:16:49♪♪♪
01:16:59♪♪♪
01:17:09♪♪♪
01:17:19♪♪♪
01:17:29♪♪♪
01:17:39♪♪♪
01:17:49♪♪♪
01:17:59♪♪♪
01:18:09♪♪♪
01:18:19♪♪♪
01:18:29♪♪♪
01:18:39♪♪♪
01:18:49♪♪♪
01:18:59♪♪♪
01:19:09♪♪♪
01:19:19♪♪♪
01:19:29♪♪♪
01:19:39♪♪♪
01:19:49♪♪♪
01:19:59♪♪♪
01:20:09♪♪♪
01:20:19♪♪♪
01:20:29♪♪♪
01:20:39♪♪♪
01:20:49♪♪♪
01:20:59♪♪♪
01:21:09♪♪♪
01:21:19♪♪♪
01:21:29♪♪♪
01:21:39♪♪♪
01:21:49♪♪♪
01:21:59♪♪♪
01:22:09♪♪♪
01:22:19♪♪♪
01:22:29♪♪♪
01:22:39♪♪♪
01:22:50Do you think that the paintings in Chauvet Cave
01:22:53were somehow the beginning of the modern human soul?
01:22:57What constitutes humanness?
01:23:00Humanness is a very good adaptation in the world.
01:23:08So the man's society needs to adapt to the landscape,
01:23:15to the other beings, the animals, to other human groups,
01:23:21and to communicate something,
01:23:25to communicate it and to inscribe the memory
01:23:29on very specific and odd things,
01:23:33like walls, like pieces of wood, like bones.
01:23:38This is the invention of Chromagnon.
01:23:42And how about music?
01:23:44Yes, and also things, mythology, music.
01:23:48But with the invention of the figuration,
01:23:52figuration of animals, of man, of things,
01:23:55it's a way of communication between humans
01:23:59and with the future to evoke the past,
01:24:03to transmit information that is very better than language,
01:24:09than oral communication.
01:24:12And this invention is still the same in our world today
01:24:18with this camera, for example.
01:24:21On the Rhône River is one of the largest nuclear power plants in France.
01:24:51The Chauvet cave is located only 20 miles
01:24:55as a crow flies beyond these hills in the background.
01:25:00A surplus of warm water, which has been used to cool these reactors,
01:25:05is diverted half a mile away to create a tropical biosphere.
01:25:11Warm steam fills enormous greenhouses
01:25:15and the site is expanding.
01:25:38Crocodiles have been introduced into this brooding jungle
01:25:43and warmed by water to cool the reactor,
01:25:46man, do they thrive.
01:25:50There are already hundreds of them.
01:26:02Not surprisingly, mutant albinos swim and breed in these waters.
01:26:10A thought is born of this surreal environment.
01:26:14Not long ago, just a few ten thousands of years back,
01:26:18there were glaciers here 9,000 feet thick.
01:26:23And now a new climate is steaming and spreading.
01:26:30Fairly soon these albinos might reach Chauvet cave.
01:26:35Looking at the paintings, what will they make of them?
01:26:54Nothing is real, nothing is certain.
01:26:59It is hard to decide whether or not these creatures here
01:27:03are dividing into their own doppelgängers.
01:27:10And do they really meet or is it just their own imaginary mirror reflection?
01:27:23Are we today possibly the crocodiles who look back into an abyss of time
01:27:29when we see the paintings of Chauvet cave?
01:27:59For more UN videos visit www.un.org