Bonus Blog: Chauvet Cave

The archaeological site that I found the most captivating out of all those that we studied this semester was Chauvet Cave.  The cave has all the elements of an interesting and exciting site: a chance discovery, a beautiful setting, and pristine material culture and evidence of past human activity.  Most importantly, it provides us a window with a view into a period of time far in the past, into which we rarely get such a clear look.  The site also allows us to draw significant conclusions about the people who used the cave.  All of these attributes contribute to the appeal of the site, as they are things that people picture when they think about archaeology.

The story of the chance discovery of Chauvet Cave by explorers invokes the sense of excitement in discovery that many people associate with archaeology.  It is easy to imagine the feeling of suspense and anticipation the explorers felt as they entered the cave, and the awe and amazement they experienced when they realized what they had found.  These feelings are just like those that people associate with other well-known discoveries, like in the moments before Howard Carter opened King Tutankhamun’s tomb in the Valley of the Kings.

The site’s age and condition also add to its appeal.  The elaborate works of art, fossilized footprints, and animal bones found in the cave were in pristine condition.  It has been determined that some of the paintings are as much as 30,000 years old.  Rarely do we find material culture in such excellent condition from so long ago.  Finding the site in such fantastic condition has allowed scholars to extract much more information than they could have if it were degraded.

The cave’s beauty and what it tells us about the people who used it also help to make the site captivating.  The cave itself is naturally beautiful, and the paintings on the walls inside the cave are breathtaking and complex.  They provide illusions of depth and movement, and make use of intriguing symbolism.  They indicate that the artists were capable of sophisticated and advanced artistic expression, showing that people of the time were far more advanced than many perceive them to have been.  The beauty of the paintings alone evokes a feeling of awe in the viewer, and the knowledge that they were painted so long ago adds to the monumental feeling of amazement.

Overall, I found Chauvet Cave to be the most compelling discovery for several reasons.  The age of the site, its shocking beauty, and the nature of its discovery all appealed to me.  The beautiful cave provides a pristine look into a time long ago, which is hard not to romanticize and become wrapped up in.