Chauvet Cave
Rhinoceroses, lions and horses drawn with shading and perspective, sealed behind a rockfall for 20,000 years.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 6 thousand years
- Known to
- ± 1 thousand years
- Era
- Late Pleistocene, Quaternary
Chauvet in the Ardeche contains over a thousand images, the oldest phase around 36,000 years old, including panels of lions hunting and a herd of rhinoceroses rendered with overlapping outlines to suggest movement. The artists used the natural relief of the wall, scraped surfaces to brighten them, and applied stump-shading. A rockfall sealed the cave around 21,000 years ago, preserving everything — including bear hibernation hollows and a child's footprints — until 1994.