Current problems in dating palaeolithic cave art

by  |  03-Dec-2014 23:40

The cave was first explored by a group of three speleologists: Eliette Brunel-Deschamps, Christian Hillaire, and Jean-Marie Chauvet for whom it was named.

Chauvet (1996) has a detailed account of the discovery.

horses, cattle, mammoths, etc., the walls of the Chauvet Cave feature many predatory animals, e.g., cave lions, panthers, bears, and cave hyenas. Typical of most cave art, there are no paintings of complete human figures, although there is one partial "Venus" figure composed of a vulva attached to an incomplete pair of legs.

Above the Venus, and in contact with it, is a bison head, which has led some to describe the composite drawing as a Minotaur.

The Chauvet Cave is uncharacteristically large and the quality, quantity, and condition of the artwork found on its walls have been called spectacular.