When he entered the immense rooms of the cave on December 18, 1994, was Jean-Marie Chauvet aware that he had just made a major discovery which shook up, and still shakes up, our understanding of prehistoric peoples? Because beyond the simple artistic consideration, the thousand paintings which decorate the walls of this cave located near the famous Pont d’Arc in Ardèche are a powerful and still enigmatic reflection of what our ancestors were.
A complex story told on the walls of a cave
Considered the “cathedral of the Paleolithic”, the Chauvet cave takes us more than 36,000 years back, to the heart of the hunter-gatherer societies which then occupied European territory. It reveals to us men and women who are both very similar to us, and at the same time very different. Similar in their incredible artistic talent, which reveals strong cognitive, abstraction and communication skills via symbolic representations, and transmission of knowledge. Different because all of the frescoes represented in the cave allow us to glimpse a relationship with the world that is not, or no longer, ours. A world in which humans were fully positioned within the animal world… and not above it.
The drawings of the Chauvet cave thus convey a story which is ours and which yet we still have difficulty understanding. What did these animal drawings represent? Why were they painted here, in this cave? For what purpose?
Exceptional conservation
So many questions that scientists like Gilles Tosello, a prehistorian specializing in cave art and himself an artist, continue to ask themselves. “ I have been working on the paintings of the Chauvet cave since 1998 and yet, each new visit is always as impressive. And we come away each time with new knowledge… and new questions “, he explains.
It must be said that the extraordinary preservation of the paintings and other traces left by the passage of humans and animals several tens of thousands of years ago commands admiration. Sealed by landslideslandslides successive, the cave has in fact remained in sleepsleep for nearly 30,000 years, allowing this testimony of the past to be preserved in a spectacular and completely new way. The paintings, prints and other marks of human and animal presence there are almost disturbingly fresh.
Extraordinary, disturbing, intriguing… These are certainly the words that most characterize the Chauvet cave. A atmosphereatmosphere that Gilles Tosello attempted to reproduce on the walls of the facsimile that tourists can visit (Chauvet-2), access to the cave being strictly reserved for scientists, and even then, under very restricted conditions in order to preserve as much as possible this jewel of Prehistory.
A certain symbolic maturity and a very advanced artistic technique
Because, if this replica of the site was created to allow everyone to have access to this testimony of the past, the researcher and artist experienced its creation as a unique experience and an opportunity to understand the artistic journey of the A wise manA wise man who have penetrated this underground universe.
« It must be realized that although this cave at first glance offered a completely suitable site for the creation of paintings, thanks to its gigantic volume and its large walls limestonelimestoneSapiens did not just make simple drawings. The individuals who have succeeded one another in front of these walls for nearly 6,000 years have demonstrated a truly artistic approach, surprisingly complex and which reveals the presence of a certain symbolic maturity. ».
In other words, 36,000 years ago, Sapiens, equipped with their piece ofhematitehematite or from coalcoaldid not just draw graffiti opportunistically.
« We first notice that there was careful preparation of the wall, in order to remove the layer ofclayclay which covers the limestone and prevents making fine and precise lines. The artists of the time, because they are true artists in the same way as those of today, made sure that their works stood out clearly on a white background. Because the objective was not only to create a drawing, but to tell a story ».
And we must admit that 36,000 years later, this story is still just as alive and transports us to a world made of prey and predators. The meticulousness of the details, the attention paid to the looks and posture of the animals make this story incredibly lively and captivating. The spectator is also taken to task… in a completely intentional way.
Man represented in animal form to symbolize the link that unites him to his environment?
« On the sign says LionsLionswe see several wild animals looking intently at a group of bison which seems to be fleeing. But a little further on, four bison heads have been represented on a projection of the wall, thus seeming to look directly at the visitor. As if the latter was taking part in the hunting party. This remains an interpretation, but we can think that lions, which were then the most formidable predators, are in reality a representation of Humans. »
A hypothesis which could explain why the human figure is so rarely present in the representations of the Chauvet cave. Man would thus be there, but not in his usual form. “ It is very likely that Man is represented in the Chauvet frescoes in an animal form and particularly as a predator, which sheds light on how Sapiens see themselves within the animal world. », Explains the researcher.
Drawings whose full complexity and meaning we do not yet understand
But this Lions panel enlightens us on yet another point. Because behind the observer, in his of theof theis a very intriguing representation. The lower part of a female body has been traced on a phallic-shaped limestone pendant. Thigh and pubic triangle are clearly visible, thus highlighting a woman’s sex. But the upper body is replaced by a bison’s head and that of a lion. For Gilles Tosello, the panel of Lions and Venus thus form a complex artistic composition which owes nothing to chance and which can help us understand the meaning of the representations of the Chauvet cave.
« We will never know exactly what the story is that the paintings in this cave tell. But what is certain is that it conveys one or more myths in which humans and animals are intimately linked, within a great cycle of life. To live and reproduce, humans need to hunt. But by the animal representations, and in particular by this VenusVenushe thus paid homage to his prey. » Life and death are thus intertwined. Prey and predators are necessary to give life.
A highly symbolic site where generations of artists have succeeded one another for 6,000 years
Whatever interpretation we give to the paintings which decorate the Chauvet cave, we can only agree on the fact that this place must have had a highly symbolic importance for the prehistoric peoples who succeeded one another in the region. . For 6,000 years, a time that is difficult to imagine today, generations of artists have entered this underground cathedral, drawing on the frescoes already present and implementing them while taking care not to distort their message. The continuity of stylestyle artistic over such a long time also reveals the existence of an effective mode of transmission within these societies.
Companies which still retain many mysteries. Because, as the researcher points out, “ this cave is of incredible complexity and it still has many details to reveal to us, of which we become aware little by little. ».
If generations of artists have succeeded one another in this cave, it will certainly take several generations of researchers to understand the message!
