75 years ago, four boys and a dog decided to test an old legend about an underground tunnel in the Dordogne department in France. As a result, the “Sistine Chapel of primitive painting” was discovered. Anthropologist Vyacheslav Vsevolodovich Ivanov tells about what we learned about humanity thanks to the Lasko cave.
On September 12, 1940, four teenagers widened a hole in the ground, hidden among the greenery, and went down a narrow shaft into the cave after their dog Robot. When they were at a depth of about 15 meters underground, their oil lamp illuminated the incredible images on the vaults of the cave. Color drawings, made 15-17 thousand years before us, turned out to be one of the most striking examples of late Paleolithic art. About 600 painted animals and other symbolic images, as well as 1500 engravings, were found on the vaults of the cave. Among the animals depicted there are horses, bulls, bison, cats, deer, birds, as well as mythical creatures. It is believed that the cave was used for hunting and religious rituals for a long time.
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The teenagers managed to keep their discovery secret for only two days. On the third day they told their relatives about the cave, and a day later the whole village knew about it. One of the boys, 14-year-old Jacques Marsal, began to guard the entrance to the cave from vandals and make sure that visitors did not spoil the drawings. Some time later, the Lascaux cave was visited by a Catholic priest, abbot Andre Breuil, who was hiding in this region of France from the German occupation. Anthropologist and Paleolithic specialist Breuil was the first to establish the authenticity of the drawings and describe them. Since 1948, the cave has been open to the public, but thousands of visitors, changes in humidity and artificial light did not allow it to be preserved in its original form, so in 1963 it was closed to tourists. True, now we have the opportunity to visit a copy of the cave created nearby and get an idea of the unique drawings.
How has our understanding of prehistoric man changed due to the discovery of the Lascaux Cave? Anthropologist Vyacheslav Ivanov talks about this.