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<< Our Photo Pages >> Grotte des Merveilles - Cave or Rock Shelter in France in Midi:Lot (46)

Submitted by TheCaptain on Saturday, 16 April 2005  Page Views: 5430

Natural PlacesSite Name: Grotte des Merveilles
Country: France Département: Midi:Lot (46) Type: Cave or Rock Shelter
Nearest Town: Souillac  Nearest Village: Rocamadour
Latitude: 44.805662N  Longitude: 1.625366E
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
 no data Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
 no data 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.
 no data 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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TheCaptain saw from a distance on 23rd May 2005 - their rating: Access: 5 Saw the entrance to this at least the ticket office and shop. Does it have enough signs pointing to it ?

Grotte des Merveilles
Grotte des Merveilles submitted by thecaptain : The entry building for visits to the Grotte des Merveilles in Rocamadour. Does it have enough signs pointing to it ? (Vote or comment on this photo)
Grotte in Lot


Location Source: T4T35.fr

Information:
grottedesmerveilles.com
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The Dordogne
Rocamadour

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Nearby sites listing. In the following links * = Image available
 933m SW 225° Shrine of Rocamadour Natural Stone / Erratic / Other Natural Feature
 2.3km SSW 204° Dolmen de Mages* Burial Chamber or Dolmen
 2.5km N 2° Le Pouget Burial Chamber or Dolmen
 3.3km NE 38° Dolmen des Plantoux Burial Chamber or Dolmen
 3.5km NNE 18° Dolmen de la Rue Burial Chamber or Dolmen
 3.9km NW 318° Dolmen du Pech de Gourbières 1 Burial Chamber or Dolmen
 3.9km SE 145° Dolmen dit la Pierre Levée de la Pannonie Burial Chamber or Dolmen
 3.9km NW 319° Dolmen du Pech de Gourbières 2 Burial Chamber or Dolmen
 4.4km ESE 122° Dolmen du Pech de Grammont Burial Chamber or Dolmen
 5.2km NNE 17° Dolmen des Placels Burial Chamber or Dolmen
 5.7km NE 49° Dolmen du Pech 4 Burial Chamber or Dolmen
 5.9km NNW 331° Dolmen des Devinaudes 1 Burial Chamber or Dolmen
 5.9km NE 50° Dolmen du Pech 1* Burial Chamber or Dolmen
 5.9km NNW 331° Tumulus des Devinaudes 3 Burial Chamber or Dolmen
 6.0km NNW 332° Dolmen des Devinaudes 2 Burial Chamber or Dolmen
 6.2km N 6° Dolmen de Pélasse Burial Chamber or Dolmen
 6.2km SE 126° Dolmen des Plassous* Burial Chamber or Dolmen
 6.9km NNE 22° Dolmen de Barthe Soubronne* Burial Chamber or Dolmen
 7.1km NW 314° Grotte de Lacave Cave or Rock Shelter
 7.5km N 10° Dolmen de Liade* Burial Chamber or Dolmen
 7.9km NE 35° Dolmen de la Carture Burial Chamber or Dolmen
 7.9km NE 38° Dolmen de Sabadel Burial Chamber or Dolmen
 8.3km NNE 17° Dolmen de Barrade* Burial Chamber or Dolmen
 8.3km N 356° La Masse Burial Chamber or Dolmen
 8.4km NNE 33° Dolmen dit la Pierre Levée (Lecusses)* Burial Chamber or Dolmen
View more nearby sites and additional images

<< Pierre Levée (Châteaubernard)

Dolmen de Carcuignau 3 >>

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"Grotte des Merveilles" | Login/Create an Account | 3 News and Comments
  
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Street View: Grotte des Merveilles by holger_rix on Saturday, 07 May 2016
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Street View
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Links by coldrum on Tuesday, 07 July 2009
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http://www.grotte-des-merveilles.com/

books.google.co.uk.
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Cave Men Loved to Sing by Andy B on Friday, 22 August 2008
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Ancient hunters painted the sections of their cave dwellings where singing, humming and music sounded best, a new study suggests.

Analyzing the famous, ochre-splashed cave walls of France, the most densely painted areas were also those with the best acoustics, the scientists found. Humming into some bends in the wall even produced sounds mimicking the animals painted there.

The Upper Paleolithic people responsible for the paintings had likely fine-tuned their hearing to recognize the sound qualities in certain parts of the cave and chose to do their artwork there as a kind of landmark, perhaps as part of a singing ritual, said researcher Iegor Reznikoff, a specialist in ancient music at the University of Paris X in Nanterre.

Reznikoff presented his findings at the recent Acoustical Society of America meeting in Paris, France.

People who lived in Europe during the Upper Paleolithic - from 10,000 to 40,000 years ago - spent a lot of time in caves, often living there or at least camping out for short periods. "They were hunters in cold conditions," Reznikoff told LiveScience.

With only dull light available from a torch, which couldn't be carried into very narrow passages, the ancient hunters had to use their voices like sonar to explore the crooks and crannies of a newfound cave, Reznikoff explained.

"When acting in a cave in conditions similar to prehistoric ones ... the surroundings a few meters ahead are almost completely dark," he said, adding that "since sound reaches much farther than reduced light, especially in irregular surroundings, the only possibility and security is to explore the cave with the voice and its echoing effects."

When they vacated their caves, many Paleolithic people left behind vast murals depicting bison, mammoth, ibex and other local fauna, as well as splotches of color - usually red - along narrow hallways and corners. A famous example is the network of caves at Lascaux, France, which contains several thousand figures painted across its walls.

The cave paintings were part of a ritual system - like early religious beliefs - practiced by Paleolithic humans that likely also included singing and music, Reznikoff said, noting that bone whistles and flutes have been found inside many of the caves. What archeologists didn't know is whether the paintings and music were connected.

Suspecting a possible link, Reznikoff and a team used voice resonance to study the acoustics in caves across France (some work was done in past years and combined with the latest findings).

A trained vocalist was sent through the caves testing different sounds and pitches in various locations. Spots of maximum resonance, or places where the voice was most amplified and clear, were noted in each section and later laid over a map of the cave drawings. The vast majority of the paintings, up to 90 percent in some cases, were located directly at, or very near, the spots where the acoustics were the absolute best, they found.

Single red spots were even discovered in the most resonant areas of tiny tunnels where people could only have crawled in the dark, suggesting that the paintings were not just coincidentally located in the biggest, best open spaces where the sound was also rich, Reznikoff said. Some reverberations produced in the caves' resonant spots also sounded very similar to the animals painted on the walls nearby, he noted.

Because Paleolithic humans had a deep connection with the melodic properties that helped them navigate in a cave, they likely celebrated the unique acoustics by singing in conjunction with their painting sessions.

"Why would the Paleolithic tribes choose preferably resonant locations for painting," he said, "if it were not for making sounds and singing in some kind of ritual celebrations related with the pictures?"

The phenomenon isn't limited to the interior of caves, etiher. Studies have been d

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