this discovery enabled major scientific advances

On December 18, 1994, three speleologists discovered a prehistoric treasure in Ardèche. Specialist Carole Fritz describes the progress made after studying this “time machine”.

Ln December 18, 1994, three speleologists, intrigued by a draft of air within the limestone escarpments of the Ardèche, uncovered a vast cavity. Named “decorated cave of Pont-d’Arc”, called Chauvet cave, from the name of one of them, it reveals a true jewel of cave art, remarkable for the rarity of its remains and for the quality of its representations, dated – 38,000 for the oldest. Thirty years later, the study of “this time machine, which gives us the illusion of rubbing shoulders with our most distant ancestors”, in the words of Carole Fritz, scientific director of this archaeological adventure, has led to considerable advances in the understanding of prehistoric societies.

An inaccessible cave, except for water

It is thanks to the collapse of the limestone escarpment overlooking it that the Chauvet cave remained “hidden” for nearly twenty-two thousand years. Before its discovery by speleologists, no human or animal had been able to penetrate it. Only the slow work of water, following the warming of the climate fifteen thousand years ago, contributed to changing the landscape of the cavity, creating impressive concretions, stalactites and stalagmites. The cave is still closed to the public, accessible only to a handful of scientists who, since 1998, have studied the site for only four weeks a year, in March, the time of year when the volume of CO₂ in the cave is a hundred times more concentrated than in the air, is the least abundant.

A nursery for the cave bear

In Europe, no other cavity has provided as many observations of the cave bear as the decorated cave of Pont-d’Arc. For fifteen thousand years, it served as a nursery for the giant plantigrade, a species extinct around twenty-eight thousand years ago, of which researchers have counted nearly two hundred skulls on the ground. Presumably, bears came to hibernate and give birth there in winter, while humans frequented it between late spring and summer. It was better to avoid an encounter with the ursid, weighing around 450 kilos and 1.30 meters at the shoulder. “Unique case of human appropriation of the universe of bears”, according to archaeologist Carole Fritz, this place could reflect the connection with the large predator, probably revered.

Lighting with black pine torches

It is not possible to move around in a cave without lighting. Still, current technical progress could make us forget that Paleolithic humans went to draw underground at the risk of their lives. If their lights went out, the artists took the risk of not finding their way back to the surface. In the cave, researchers established that the frescoes had been drawn in the light of large blazes of Scots pine, whose dead branches were collected from the surrounding steppe. This species is indeed characterized by its good combustion – the large charcoal produced was used to draw more than five hundred bison and lions on the walls, which seemed to come to life under the flickering flames.

More than a thousand drawings

The Chauvet cave contains around a thousand drawings dating from – 38,000. That is to say the oldest parietal art frescoes in Europe (the site of the Lascaux cave, in Dordogne, dates from around 20,000 years BC). An astonishing stability of style and techniques, which stretches over more than ten millennia and challenges the usual classifications, based on large chronological periods, from the Aurignacian to the Magdalenian. “The symbolic constructions developed by the hunters did not change, despite developments in the range of hunting tools and weapons, says Carole Fritz. In prehistoric societies, as in all those that follow them, symbols and spirituality evolve infinitely more slowly than technical changes. »

The first watchdogs?

Bears or ibexes, numerous animal footprints have been spotted in the cave. Among them, those of wolves which, under the ornate panels, mingle with human footprints. However, these canines do not venture into places without light. As humanity’s first “guard dogs”, would they have escorted human expeditions into the heart of darkness? It is in fact believed that the wolf was the first species tamed, between – 25,000 and – 15,000, according to current archaeological evidence. “Recent data, currently being processed, suggests an original scenario, calling into question the theories and dates of this domestication,” concludes Carole Fritz.

The Chauvet Cave, by Carole Fritz, ed. Citadelles & Mazenod, 208 p., €35.