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Chauvet Studies Underway
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September 10, 1998
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by Spencer P.M. Harrington
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| Chauvet Cave researchers are now cataloging rock art images like those shown above. (Click on images for larger versions.) (J. Clottes, Minister of Culture and Communication, Bureau of Patrimony) |
The French government has finally expropriated the land surrounding Chauvet Cave and has allowed a team led by Jean Clottes of the Ministry of Culture to begin a four-year research program. The cave, housing a spectacular array of Palaeolithic art, was discovered in December 1994 near Vallon-Pont-d'Arc in southern France (see "Stone Age Masterpieces Found," March/April 1995, and "Images of the Ice Age," July/August 1995). In May, Clottes' 15-member team undertook the first of two two-week campaigns scheduled for this year. At least 25 animal images have come to light that were not spotted in initial investigations. Researchers thus far feel certain that the cave was not used for human habitation. Although a hearth measuring 2 1/2 feet in diameter was found, Clottes feels it was possibly used to provide light for Palaeolithic artists. Scores of cave bears appear to have hibernated in the grotto, and the ground is littered with their bones. It is not yet clear how long the bears used the space before and after the artists.
The team split into groups, one studying the floor, another conducting a computerized inventory of the art, and a third tracing the images. Those studying the ground found the hearth, numerous animal footprints, mostly from cave bears, and pieces of flint belonging to the ancient artists. The group inventorying the images entered a description of each figure and a quick sketch into a data base. Those tracing the art first photographed the images, then scanned them into a computer, and made printouts that were then traced onto transparent paper. Clottes predicts that tracing all of the images will take far longer than the four years allotted to the project.
© 1998 by the Archaeological Institute of America
archive.archaeology.org/online/news/chauvet.html |
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