The Chauvet Cave, at Combe D'arc in the Ardeche, France

In the last days of December 1994, a team of three cave explorers (Jean-Marie Chauvet, Eliette Deschamps and Christian Hillaire) found a fabulous painted cave in the valley of the Ardeche, at Combe d'Arc (Vallon-Pont-d'Arc). It includes many signs, such as panels of red dots, stenciled and positive hands, as well as several hundred animal figures, including a majority of species rarely represented elsewhere, such as rinos, lions and bears. Horses, bison, aurochs, red and megaceros deer, ibex, mammoths, have also been painted or engraved. Three animals are unique in Paleolithic art: a panther, a hyena and an owl. The quality of the drawings is truly exquisite and makes this cave one of the most spectacular ever found, comparable only to Lascaux and Altamira. From recurrent conventions and details, it seems that a majority of paintings could have been done by the same artist. The provisional chronological attribution is to the Solutrean, but radiocarbon datings are expected and we hope they will provide a more solid base.

The cave explorers were extremely careful not to walk wherever it was not solid rock. Thousands of cave bear bones litter the ground and many bear footprints have been preserved on the clay. Human traces are also possible. The whole cave has not yet been explored, as the first priority has been its preservation: it was not possible to reach the other side of some chambers for fear of trampling ancient traces. This major discovery will no doubt bring a wealth of information on Paleolithic cave art and human activities in the deep caves.