Pictures From the Past

One fine fall day in September, 1940, four boys and a dog named Robot set out on a walk near the village of Montignac, located in the Dorgodne region of southwestern France. Heading south toward the great oak forest near their village, the boys soon came to Lascaux Hill. Covered with trees and heavy undergrowth, the hill was one of their favorite places to play and explore. But when it came time to come home, Robot was nowhere to be found.

While working their way through the undergrowth in search of the dog, the boys soon came upon a cave. Returning the next day, they made their way through the cave's rocky interior where they came upon a most amazing sight: the cave walls were covered with prehistoric paintings. No one knows exactly what became of Robot, but experts agree that the boys had stumbled upon one of the most important archaeological discoveries of the twentieth century: the Lascaux Cave.

Not long after the boys' discovery of the cave, French archaeologist Henri-Edouard-Prosper Breuil set out to decipher the cave's secrets. He described the entrance in rather precise geological language, writing that "it gave onto a steep slope, slippery and slimy . . . with flakes of worked flint of poor quality, some fragments of reindeer horns and many pieces of conifer charcoal." Once inside the main cavern, which measured 66 feet wide and 16 feet high, Breuil found the going tough. Over the years, the ground of the cave had sunk, creating a steep slope that made it difficult to reach the walls where the paintings were located. But Breuil all but forgot about the difficulties he had encountered once he saw the decorated walls. During the course of his study of the cave paintings, Breuil found nearly 600 painted or drawn depictions, along with almost 1500 engravings, all wonderfully preserved. It was a remarkable find, for it was not only evidence of prehistoric art but also of early culture.

Thought to have been created between 15,000 and 17,000 years ago, the cave paintings at the Lascaux depict various animals, including wild cattle, bison, and horses. Many of the drawings were done from left to right creating a narrative that connects the paintings done throughout seven interconnected caves. One painting covers almost 65 feet of the wall. Many considered the largest of these paintings, known as The Great Hall of the Bulls, to be the finest example of Paleolithic art.

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