Discovery Tours of Prehistory - Caves & Cave Art in the Dordogne

The Vezere Valley is in the heart of the Dordogne area. It has the finest collections of Ice Age cave art in their original settings. It is unrivalled anywhere in the world. You can get very close to your ancestors here - their beliefs, feelings, concepts and symbols.

The most famous cave paintings are at Lascaux near Montignac. These were discovered in 1940 by four teenagers and their dog when they literally fell into the Hall of the Bulls. In the light of a makeshift lamp they saw huge bulls (wild aurochs up to 5 metres long) bison, cows, horses, deer, chamois and a ‘unicorn’ (with 2 horns!). Here is the ‘Sistine Chapel’ of prehistory. Scientists have established that these pictures were painted by the Cro-Magnon people about 17,000 years ago. These were fully modern humans who have left traces of themselves in the Vezere Valley up to 37,000 years old. Over 200 Ice Age sites are known in this small area.

By 1963, in less than 15 years, over a million people had visited Lascaux. Youngsters from Montignac used to escort them up Lascaux Road and ‘herd’ visitors through the cave to speed them on their way! The cave was closed in 1963 because their breath had reacted with the rock of the cave to obscure the pictures with a limestone film. In 1983 an incredibly accurate facsimile, Lascaux II, was opened. It shows 90% of the pictures. These were painted using the same techniques as the original and the artificial cave is accurate to a few millimetres - all the more incredible when you realise this was done without the aid of computers.

We know how they painted these wonderful images, but as to why they painted them and what they used the caves for, we are much less sure. They are certainly centres of ritual and religion - mysterious spaces to us, let alone to the people of the Ice Age, but we cannot go beyond that. This inability of ours to answer apparently simple questions only adds to the awesomeness of these sites’ attraction - these artists were the Michelangelos of the Ice Age. You won’t see anything like them anywhere else in the world.

In total there are about 25 decorated caves in this region you can visit. Les Eyzies (sometimes called the ‘World Capital of Prehistory’) has several of the best caves within easy reach - Font-de-Gaume, Les Combarelles, Rouffignac. This last, the Cave of a Hundred Mammoths (there are 152!) is so big that we have to use an electric train to travel back 13,000 years. In other caves bison and horses seem to jump from the rock, so finely attuned were our ancestor-artists to the physical environment with which they were working.

A few kilometres down the Les Eyzies road from Montignac is the Le Thot museum park. Here you can see even more facsimiles of the images from Lascaux. The painstakingly detailed research allows us to see the different phases of the paintings in stereo video presentation projected onto copies of the rockface. Outside is a park where you can see some of the animals of the Ice Age, such as bison, deer, horses and wild goats. You can also see some aurochs although those at Le Thot are smaller than the prehistoric ones. The last European aurochs died in 1623. Those at Le Thot are the result of back-breeding different types of cattle to try to recreate the giants of the Ice Age.

Above the centre of Les Eyzies is the National Museum of Prehistory sheltering under a huge rock overhang. On two floors you can see wonderful collections of flint, bone tools plus other artefacts and displays showing tool making, social life, ritual, etc. The different cultures of the Ice Age are all represented. It makes a great introduction to the other sites of the Vezere Valley and beyond - although it has been said that it is too complex for the layman to comprehend.

You will very quickly realise that there is a huge amount to see in this region - the Vezere Valley is deservedly a UNESCO World Heritage site. Using a guide will help you enormously to get the most out of your visit. - travelling back 37,000 years or more takes some doing!

Steve Burman of Caves and Castles is a professional archaeologist, historian and guide who lives there. He can explain and animate the very complex sites in ways that will bring them alive for you. The memories will be with you long after you have left the Vezere Valley. Check out the various Tours on offer and discover the best of this wonderful area. Email cavesandcastles@gmail.com or visit their website www.cavesandcastles.com