<< Our Photo Pages >> Grotte de Lascaux - Cave or Rock Shelter in France in Aquitaine:Dordogne (24)

Submitted by TheCaptain on Friday, 15 May 2009  Page Views: 25852

Natural PlacesSite Name: Grotte de Lascaux
Country: France
NOTE: This site is 0.626 km away from the location you searched for.
Département: Aquitaine:Dordogne (24) Type: Cave or Rock Shelter
Nearest Town: Sarlat-la-Canéda  Nearest Village: Montignac
Latitude: 45.053300N  Longitude: 1.170700E
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
 3 Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
 5 Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
 3 Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
 4

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I have visited· I would like to visit

robinio visited on 1st Jan 2016 - their rating: Cond: 4 Amb: 5 Access: 5

rrmoser visited on 21st Nov 2014 - their rating: Cond: 5 Amb: 4 Access: 5

ModernExplorers visited on 28th Mar 2006 - their rating: Cond: 4 Amb: 5 Access: 4 Brilliant cave system full of rock art - something like 60% horses

TheCaptain visited on 20th May 2005 This world famous cave has not been opened for visitors since about 1962 after the paintings had started to seriously deteriorate. It was found in September 1940 by two boys out walking their dog which fell down a hole underneath the roots of a freshly uprooted tree. It is now fenced off and not even opened up to specialist groups since 2001. The fence of course has its UNESCO World Heritage site plaque proudly on display.



Average ratings for this site from all visit loggers: Condition: 4.33 Ambience: 4.67 Access: 4.67

Grotte de Lascaux
Grotte de Lascaux submitted by ocdolmen : Unicorn in Lascaux cave. (Vote or comment on this photo)
This world famous cave has not been open to visitors since about 1962 after the paintings had started to seriously deteriorate. It was found in September 1940 by two boys out walking their dog which fell down a hole underneath the roots of a freshly uprooted tree. It is now fenced off and not even opened up to specialist groups since 2001. The fence of course has its UNESCO World Heritage site plaque proudly on display.

The Lascaux paintings are thought to be 15,000 to 17,000 years old. The early Europeans who roamed this region used crushed minerals to create some 600 images in red, ochre, deep brown and black. The array of vivid horses, bulls, stags, ibexes and oxen, some resting while others gallop, charge and leap are considered among the finest examples of Paleolithic cave art.

After World War II, the small cave was opened to the public and, at one point, it was receiving as many as 1,800 visitors per day. But by the late 1950s, the visitors’ breath was blamed for the appearance of lichen and small crystals on the walls, prompting the government to close Lascaux to the public in 1963.

Since then, only a select few people have been allowed to visit the underground gallery by special permission, and tourists are steered into a replica of the cave complex nearby. The replica, known as Lascaux II, opened in 1983 and now draws more than 250,000 tourists each year.


Note: Scientists meet to save Lascaux cave from fungus, see latest comment on this page. Fungus becoming resistant to biocide?
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Grotte de Lascaux
Grotte de Lascaux submitted by ocdolmen : Lascaux cave (Vote or comment on this photo)

Grotte de Lascaux 2
Grotte de Lascaux 2 submitted by Flickr : Lascaux II Site in Aquitaine:Dordogne (24) France Image copyright: Ronan Smits, hosted on Flickr and displayed under the terms of their API. (Vote or comment on this photo)

Grotte de Lascaux 2
Grotte de Lascaux 2 submitted by Flickr : lascaux_2 Site in Aquitaine:Dordogne (24) France Image copyright: Sandy-S, hosted on Flickr and displayed under the terms of their API. (Vote or comment on this photo)

Grotte de Lascaux 2
Grotte de Lascaux 2 submitted by Flickr : Lascaux Site in Aquitaine:Dordogne (24) France Image copyright: Naturalmentescienza, hosted on Flickr and displayed under the terms of their API. (Vote or comment on this photo)

Grotte de Lascaux 2
Grotte de Lascaux 2 submitted by Flickr : lascaux Site in Aquitaine:Dordogne (24) France Vue de la rotonde de Lascaux. Par la revue National Geographic. Image copyright: rechercheslascaux, hosted on Flickr and displayed under the terms of their API.

Grotte de Lascaux
Grotte de Lascaux submitted by durhamnature : Two small horses, from "Art of the Stone Age" via archive.org

Grotte de Lascaux
Grotte de Lascaux submitted by durhamnature : Bull, from "Art of the Stone Age" via archive.org Site in Aquitaine:Dordogne (24) France

Grotte de Lascaux
Grotte de Lascaux submitted by Flickr : Monaco 1970 Airmail stamp - Lascaux Horses 996 WHS in France: Prehistoric Sites and Decorated Caves of the Vézère Valley. whc.unesco.org/en/list/85 Image copyright: knyazna.ua (knyazna.ua), hosted on Flickr and displayed under the terms of their API.

Grotte de Lascaux
Grotte de Lascaux submitted by Flickr : La grotte de Lascaux Site in Aquitaine:Dordogne (24) France La grotte de Lascaux Image copyright: MoWestein1 (Mo Westein), hosted on Flickr and displayed under the terms of their API.

Grotte de Lascaux
Grotte de Lascaux submitted by durhamnature : Deer with row of dots, from "Prehistoric Puzzles" via archive.org Site in Aquitaine:Dordogne (24) France

Grotte de Lascaux
Grotte de Lascaux submitted by durhamnature : Part of a frieze, from "Lascaux Measures" via archive.org Site in Aquitaine:Dordogne (24) France

Grotte de Lascaux
Grotte de Lascaux submitted by durhamnature

Grotte de Lascaux
Grotte de Lascaux submitted by durhamnature : Image from "Lascaux Measures" via archive.org Site in Aquitaine:Dordogne (24) France

Grotte de Lascaux
Grotte de Lascaux submitted by durhamnature : Three meter long red and black cow, from "Art of the Stone Age" via archive.org Site in Aquitaine:Dordogne (24) France

Grotte de Lascaux
Grotte de Lascaux submitted by durhamnature : "Small stags", possibly reindeer and then not necessarily male, from "Art of the Stone Age" via archive.org

Grotte de Lascaux
Grotte de Lascaux submitted by durhamnature : Galloping horse pierced by arrows, from "Art of the Stone Age" via archive.org

Grotte de Lascaux
Grotte de Lascaux submitted by durhamnature : Swimming "stags", maybe reindeer, from "Art of the Stone Age" via archive.org

Grotte de Lascaux 2
Grotte de Lascaux 2 submitted by theCaptain : The waiting area and sheltered entrance to the modern recreation of the fabulous Lascaux cave. Picture from May 2005 with building work in progress.

Grotte de Lascaux
Grotte de Lascaux submitted by theCaptain : The entrance gates to the real Lascaux cave site.

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 269m W 277° Grotte de Lascaux 2* Cave or Rock Shelter
 605m N 353° Lascaux 4* Museum
 658m ENE 75° Le Rigourdou* Cave or Rock Shelter
 4.2km WSW 242° Musée de Thot Cave or Rock Shelter
 6.5km SW 229° Belcatre-Hault Cave or Rock Shelter
 8.1km SW 222° Abri Castanet Cave or Rock Shelter
 8.1km SW 223° Abri Reverdit Cave or Rock Shelter
 8.2km NE 39° Polissoirs de Condat sur Vézère* Polissoir
 10.9km SW 233° Abri du Moustier* Cave or Rock Shelter
 10.9km SW 229° La Roque-Saint-Christophe* Ancient Village or Settlement
 11.6km SW 233° Abri de Ruth* Cave or Rock Shelter
 11.8km NNW 349° Grotte du Peyrat Cave or Rock Shelter
 12.4km SW 227° Grotte de La Forêt Cave or Rock Shelter
 12.5km NE 50° Grotte de Saint-Sours Cave or Rock Shelter
 12.8km SSW 203° Abri de Laussel* Cave or Rock Shelter
 13.3km SSW 206° Abri du Cap-Blanc* Cave or Rock Shelter
 13.4km NNE 28° Menhir de Beauregard de Terrasson* Natural Stone / Erratic / Other Natural Feature
 13.5km SSW 204° Grotte de Commarque* Cave or Rock Shelter
 13.5km SSW 208° Abri de la Grèze Cave or Rock Shelter
 14.4km SW 229° Village de la Madeleine* Ancient Village or Settlement
 14.5km SW 229° Source de la Madeleine* Holy Well or Sacred Spring
 14.6km SW 230° Abri de la Madeleine* Cave or Rock Shelter
 15.1km SW 214° Roc de Cazelle* Ancient Village or Settlement
 15.2km WSW 251° Grotte de Rouffignac* Cave or Rock Shelter
 15.4km WSW 258° Menhir de La Rue* Natural Stone / Erratic / Other Natural Feature
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"Grotte de Lascaux" | Login/Create an Account | 12 News and Comments
  
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Stone-Age cinema: Cave art conceals first animations by bat400 on Saturday, 09 November 2013
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Think the first movies were screened in a cinema? According to an analysis of cave art, our prehistoric ancestors may have invented the concept while drawing on their walls.



In this video, researcher and film-maker Marc Azéma from the University of Toulouse Le Mirail in France reveals how several frames of an animation are superimposed in many animal sketches. A horse painting from the Lascaux caves in France, for example, is made up of many versions of the animal representing different positions of movement. In this video, Azema extracts the individual images and displays them in succession, demonstrating how they play back like a cartoon.



In other examples, motion is represented by juxtaposing drawings of a body in motion. Azéma creates another sequence by picking out motion frames to produce an animation of a running animal.



Apart from layered paintings, ancient humans may have used light tricks to evoke motion on cave walls. Engraved discs of bone have also been found which produce galloping animations when spun on a string, reminiscent of flipbooks. For more on prehistoric cinema, read our feature article, "Prehistoric cinema: A silver screen on the cave wall".

Thanks to jackdaw1 for the link. Source: http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/
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Re: Link by Anonymous on Saturday, 09 October 2010
The charm of Temple caves of Lascaux was still lingering on the minds of the visitors. The art work on the walls and ceilings depicting hoards of animal painting in varied colours of yellow, red, brown and black were the main source of attraction. Seeing the pressure mounting, an elaborate replica of the caves was made in 1980 called the Lascaux II. They were the representations of original against the duplicate wall.
Caves of Lascaux
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Re: Link by coldrum on Tuesday, 07 July 2009
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http://www.semitour.com/
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Link by coldrum on Tuesday, 07 July 2009
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http://www.culture.gouv.fr/culture/arcnat/lascaux/fr/index.html
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Biocides inducing resistance in Lascaux cave’s microbes by bat400 on Friday, 15 May 2009
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Submitted by coldrum:

Biocides used in recent years to treat the growth of a black fungus on the cave-art-festooned walls of France’s Lascaux cave have eradicated some populations of human-introduced bacteria and fungi. However, those that remain — including some related to known human pathogens — are becoming biocide-resistant, researchers report in an upcoming issue of Naturwissenschaften.

The new findings come from analyses of around a dozen samples taken from several areas in the cave between April 2006 and January 2007, says Claude Alabouvette, a microbiologist at the University of Bourgogne in Dijon, France. Some of the samples came from areas that were obviously infested with fungal colonies, and others were taken from cave walls that lacked such infestations, he notes.

Human presence has caused problems in Lascaux almost since its discovery in 1940. Lights added so tourists could see the cave art triggered the growth of algae. The heat from those lights — as well as tourists’ body heat and exhalations, the skin cells they shed and the microbes they unwittingly tracked in — changed the cave environment drastically, Alabouvette says.

In areas deep within the cave — ones that have been visited only rarely, says Alabouvette — samples showed that microbial diversity is low. But in oft-visited portions of the cave, especially those that were frequented by tourists before the cave was closed to the public in 1963, microbial diversity is high, he and his colleagues report.

In 2001, scientists discovered that a black fungus had infested parts of the cave and was threatening to cover the art. Recent biocide treatments have, for the most part, successfully halted the spread of the fungus in most areas of the cave. But because the dead fungus has been left in place, the melanin pigment that gives the fungus its color still remains on the wall.



The shift in bacterial diversity that the survey uncovered and the results of lab tests that hint that two of the Pseudomonas species isolated from the Lascaux samples have adapted to survive biocide treatment concern the researchers.

The fact that the biocide breaks down to form carbon- and nitrogen-containing compounds that bacteria and fungi could use as nutrients also troubles Alabouvette and his colleagues. “Now we are wondering what is more dangerous, treating or not treating?” Alabouvette says.

Robert J. Koestler, director of the Smithsonian Institution’s Museum Conservation Institute in Suitland, Md., disagrees with the idea of not treating Lascaux’s fungal infestation. Doing nothing could allow the fungus to grow and produce more melanin, he says. “I think that’s the wrong thing to do,” he notes, because even if researchers come up with a way to kill the fungus, the melanin will still taint the cave walls.



For more, see Science News.
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Scientists meet to save Lascaux cave from fungus by Anonymous on Thursday, 09 April 2009
Geologists, biologists and other scientists convened in Paris to discuss how to stop the spread of fungus stains — aggravated by global warming — that threaten France's prehistoric Lascaux cave drawings.

Black stains have spread across the cave's prehistoric murals of bulls, felines and other images, and scientists have been hard-pressed to halt the fungal creep.

Marc Gaulthier, who heads the Lascaux Caves International Scientific Committee, said the challenges facing the group are vast and global warming now poses an added problem.

"All of Lascaux's problems have always been linked to the cave's climatization, meaning the equilibrium of air inside the cave," Gaulthier told reporters at a news conference before the symposium. Now, rising temperatures have complicated matters by stopping air from circulating inside the caverns, he said.

"It's stagnating, immobile, frozen" inside the cave, he said.

This makes sending teams of scientists into the affected caverns risky, as their mere presence raises humidity levels and temperatures that could contribute to the growth of the different fungi, algae and bacteria that have attacked the cave over the years, he said.

Other factors behind the stains include the presence of naturally occurring microorganisms and the chemical makeup of the rock that forms the cavern walls, Gaulthier and other scientists at the news conference said.

For the moment, the cave is completely sealed in hopes that "it will heal itself," Gaulthier said.

Two possible solutions to be examined at the conference include the installation of a system to regulate the cave's temperature and the use of biocides, which kill the bacteria and have been used in the cave before, with mixed results.

Scientists from as far away as the United States, New Zealand and Japan were scheduled to attend the two-day symposium. The conclusions could also help preserve caves in Japan and Spain.

In 1963, Lascaux, a top tourist destination, was closed to the public after the appearance of green algae and other damage scientists linked to the visitors. A replica of the main Lascaux cavern was built nearby and has become a big tourist draw.

Carbon-dating suggests the murals were created between 15,000 and 17,500 years ago. Discovered in 1940, the cavern is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090226/ap_on_sc/eu_france_cave_drawings;_ylt=Aie1HAReOOmcDnjAGZtCly5vieAA
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Many hands painted Lascaux caves by Andy B on Saturday, 09 August 2008
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The painted caves of Lascaux in the Dordogne region of France are one of the most famed monuments of Ice Age art. Dating back about 17,000 years, the great Hall of the Bulls and its adjacent chambers proved so popular with visitors that a generation ago the cave had to be closed to save the paintings from encroaching mould. A replica, Lascaux II, was built nearby and has proved equally popular.

One thing that strikes the visitor is the exuberance of the compositions, with hundreds of animals, including bison, horses and deer, parading along the walls and ceilings, often overlapping. A big problem in sorting out possible groupings of animals, and possible motives for painting them, has been the issue of contemporaneity — what was painted when?

A recent study by scientists at the Louvre’s research and conservation laboratories has suggested one avenue of approach, by studying the chemical structure of pigments from the cave walls and ancient antlers from Palaeolithic sites. The presence of minuscule antler fragments in the paints may enable animal figures composed at the same time, using the same batch of paint, to be isolated and then studied apart from neighbouring depictions.

Earlier paint analyses had detected phosphorus and calcium, suggesting the presence of crushed bone material: whether this was the result of adding bone powder as an extender for the paint, or the use of bone tools for applying it, was not clear. Writing in the journal Archaeometry, Céline Chadefaux and her colleagues note that bone, ivory and antler have similar compositions and can be studied using the same techniques.

Seven antler specimens from Palaeolithic sites in the Dordogne region were examined, together with modern control samples of antler.

Sixty-three paint samples from the Hall of the Bulls and the Axial Chamber of the Lascaux cave, 18 of them with calcium and phosphorus present, were also analysed.

The use of TEM-EDX (transmission electron microscopy coupled with an energy-dispersive X-ray system) showed that antler could be distinguished from the other two substances because tiny needle-shaped crystals of hydroxlapatite were present; this feature persisted through the loss of organic matter over the millennia and the infiltration of various element from the burial soil, and, Chadefaux’s team reports: “It is therefore possible to distinguish antler apatite crystals from bone and ivory crystals on the nanometre scale.”

Calcium and phosphorus were noted in paint from a red cow on the right wall of the Hall of the Bulls, a brown horse on the left wall of the same room, and a red-and-black horse in the axial chamber, three of the most striking animal portrayals at Lascaux. The colours came from mixtures of haematite with other minerals, and antler apatite crystals were also noted.

Whether these came from powdered antler extender or from a stirring rod could not be determined, and it is also known that antler artefacts were carved by the cave users.

On a balance, the presence of the antler, which seems from its scarcity in the paint samples to have been from a single short period of activity about 17,000 years ago, can be used an an indicator of a group of paintings that were created contemporaneously, and is thus “a tracer of a specific ornamentation phase of the cave”, the team concludes. Similar discovery of unusual extraneous materials in other cave pigments might then enable different episodes in the creation of Lascaux’s rich inventory of art to be teased out.

Source:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/court_and_social/article4425293.ece
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Unesco gives French govt. 'Six months to save Lascaux' by Andy B on Saturday, 12 July 2008
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Unesco, the world cultural body, has threatened to humiliate France by placing the Lascaux caves – known as the "Sistine Chapel of prehistory" – on its list of endangered sites of universal importance.

The Unesco world heritage committee, meeting this week in Quebec, has given the French government six months to report on the success of its efforts to save the Lascaux cave paintings in Dordogne from an ugly, and potentially destructive, invasion of grey and black fungi.

At the same time, a scientific committee appointed by the French government has conceded that an elaborate treatment with a new fungicide in January failed to stop the mould advancing through one part of the caves.

An independent pressure group of scientists and historians claims that up to half of the startlingly beautiful, 17,000-year-old images of bison, horses, wild cattle and ibex are now threatened by the fungal invasion – the second of its kind in eight years.

The heritage committee warned France this week that it will consider placing Lascaux on its list of imperilled cultural and natural sites of global significance unless progress is made by next February. The committee requested France to open Lascaux – closed to the public since 1963 – to a visit by independent experts. It also advised France to commission an "impact study" of all past, and possible future, actions in the caves since the first fungal invasion in 2001-02.

Read more in The Independent.
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Lascaux Cave Zodiac Theory by Anonymous on Saturday, 12 July 2008
Science Frontiers, No. 134, Mar-Apr 2001, pp. 1&2 Paleoastronomer C. Jegues-Wolkiewiez claims that some of the animal paintings are based upon star configurations. In effect, humans 17,000 years ago were constructing a zodiac.

"Incredible?" Yes, if what paleoastronomer C. Jegues-Wolkiewiez claims is borne out by further study. The venue here is the Lascaux Cave in France where, some 17,000 years ago, Cro-Magnon artists drew incredibly expressive portraits of animals in the glare of torches.

It's in this cave's dark recesses that Jegues-Wolkiewiez sees two phenomena that could overturn our view of the Cro-Magnon culture.

First, he claims that some of the animal paintings are really based upon star configurations. In effect, humans 17,000 years ago were constructing a zodiac of sorts. This was about 10,000 years before the ancient Babylonians laid out their first zodiacs.

For example, Jegues-Wolkiewiez asserts that the painting of a bull in Lascaux is drawn and positioned such that it mirrors a group of stars in the constellation Scorpio. He identifies several other like "congruences." Cro-Magnons, it seems, were astute observers of the heavens and attempted to make some sense out of the star configurations they saw.

The second claim of Jegues-Wolkiewiez notes that on the summer soltice the last rays of the setting sun penetrate the cave and illuminate a bison painted in red. He believes this is no accident, and that, 17,000 years ago, humans already appreciated the changing length of the days and the seasonal movements of the sun. This is precocious astronomy by any measure.

(Lima, Pedro; "L'Incroyable Decouverte d'une Paleo-Astronome," *Science et Vie*, p. 77, December 2000. Cr. C. Mauge.)
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Fungus Once Again Threatens French Cave Paintings by bat400 on Friday, 15 February 2008
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submitted by coldrum ---

For the second time in a decade, fungus is threatening France’s most celebrated prehistoric paintings, the mysterious animal images that line the Lascaux cave in the Dordogne region of southwest France.
No consensus has emerged among experts over whether the invading patches of gray and black mold are the result of climate change, a defective temperature control system, the light used by researchers or the carbon dioxide exhaled by visitors.

But after inspection by a team of microbiologists, the government has approved a new treatment of the blemishes with a fungicide and ordered that the cave be sealed off for as long as four months so that its delicate environment can be stabilized.

Since the paintings were discovered by four teenagers in September 1940, however, their preservation has been a constant headache, with government officials in Paris and the local authorities criticized for failing to ensure their proper protection.

After World War II, the small cave was opened to the public and, at one point, it was receiving as many as 1,800 visitors per day. But by the late 1950s, the visitors’ breath was blamed for the appearance of lichen and small crystals on the walls, prompting the government to close Lascaux to the public in 1963. Since then, only five people per day, five days a week, have been allowed to visit the underground gallery by special permission, and tourists are steered into a replica of the cave complex nearby.

In the real cave, new problems arose in 2001, when officials in charge of Lascaux decided to modernize the system regulating the temperature and humidity. Soon after this work was completed, a white mold, later identified as a fungus called fusarium solani, began spreading rapidly across the cave ceiling and walls.

At first, the blame fell on the new air-conditioning unit and the clothing of the workers who installed it. Later studies suggested that the fungus was probably already in the cave, although it might have been awakened by the movement of workers and a related rise in humidity.

Some experts have pointed to climate change as a factor. Mr. Geneste said it might be too early to make such a claim. But he added that in the past two decades, a small rise in temperature and carbon dioxide had been detected in a number of caves in France. “And the average soil temperature in areas around the caves has risen by two degrees centigrade since 1982,” he said, adding that Lascaux is especially sensitive because it is small and not deep.

Whatever the reason for the problems at Lascaux, the white mold outbreak in 2001 led the government to close it to all nonessential visitors. It was so serious that, to stop the invasion, the floor was covered with quicklime and scientists began treating the problem chemically, said Marc Gauthier, president of the International Scientific Committee for Lascaux, which was created as a result of the crisis.

The new problem at Lascaux, however, does not appear to be linked to the fusarium fungus. Described by experts as black stains, the blemishes are in fact both gray and black. “They vary from a few millimeters to 4 centimeters,” said Mr. Geneste. While only a few stains have affected the paintings, they have now been found in some 70 different spots.

Alarm bells were first sounded by a French science journal, La Recherche, in 2003, and subsequently by the International Committee for Preservation of Lascaux. In a statement last December the committee warned of the rapid spread of black spots, which are now appearing where the traces of the fusarium fungus had been removed by scalpels.

Four months later the committee blasted the ineptitude of those charged with protecting Lascaux and said the bacterial and fungus infection inside the cave was not under control. Two weeks ago, the International Scientific Committee for Lascaux decided to try new methods. �

Read the rest of this post...
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[No Subject] by paulcall on Monday, 27 August 2007
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I have just visited Lascaux ll, which contains a facsimile of 90% of the original paintings in the grotte. The original site containing the rock art is closed to the public. We gathered from the guide that the original paintings suffered from 2 processes, one of which turned the paintings green and which has now been eradicated. Sadly the fusarium which turns the paintings white has no cure.
The reproduction is said to be a faithful copy of two of the main galleries in the grotte, and is worth seeing, although it is hardly atmospheric, as you view in rather cramped conditions with about forty other people. It is impossible to rate the original site, unless you were one of the lucky ones who viewed it before it closed in 1963.
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The Battle to Save the Cave by Anonymous on Tuesday, 13 June 2006
For more than 17,000 years, the bestiary of the Lascaux cave in southwestern France survived the ravages of history, unseen and undiscovered. Entering it now is like walking into a time capsule, where 12-foot-long bulls and plump yellow horses appear to float across the vaults like religious apparitions.

Although the draftsmanship is strikingly Modernist--on exiting the cave in 1940, Pablo Picasso is said to have remarked, "We have invented nothing"--these creations are remnants of the Upper Paleolithic Age, when our hunter-gatherer ancestors acquired the gift of consciousness and a knack for nature drawing.

But despite its robust longevity, Lascaux is surprisingly fragile. Five years ago, after the ill-conceived installation of new climatic equipment, Lascaux suffered a fungal infection that threatened to destroy in a few years what thousands of years had left largely unscathed. The cave's custodians are still struggling to eradicate this scourge, a nasty fungus called Fusarium solani.

More:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1202927-1,00.html
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Wir möchten mehr über diese Stätte erfahren. Bitte zögern Sie nicht, eine kurze Beschreibung und relevante Informationen in Deutsch hinzuzufügen.
Nous aimerions en savoir encore un peu sur les lieux. S'il vous plaît n'hesitez pas à ajouter une courte description et tous les renseignements pertinents dans votre propre langue.
Quisieramos informarnos un poco más de las lugares. No dude en añadir una breve descripción y otros datos relevantes en su propio idioma.