The prehistoric paintings recently discovered in Chauvet Cave are twice as old as the paintings of Lascaux, and show both considerable strength and beauty. The discoverers of Chauvet Cave are well known and respected speleologists who maintained impeccable records while exploring their find. It is they who tell the story of their explorations. In many ways this book is reminiscent of Carter’s writings about Tutankhamen’s tomb with a similar sense of awe at the millennia that had passed between the fabrication of the work and the modern discovery. The text is good, with a clean, easy-to-read translation by prehistorian Paul G. Bahn, who also provides the foreword. It is the photographs, however, that capture the real power and beauty of these paintings, bringing the humanity of their Stone Age artists close to home. Very highly recommended for any collection on art history or prehistory.?Mary Morgan Smith, Northland P.L., Pittsburgh
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Kirkus Reviews
Before there were artists at the famous caves of Lascaux, there were artists at Chauvet and Cosquer–two caves whose paleolithic drawings remained undiscovered until the 1990s. Chauvet, in southeast France, is the most ancient; some of its vivid panels of horses, lions, and rhinoceri (beautifully reproduced here) are as much as 31,000 years old. Cosquer, buried for 20 centuries beneath the Mediterranean, was serendipitously discovered by a diver for whom the cave is named. Some of the Cosquer drawings date back 27,000 years. In Dawn of Art: The Chauvet Cave, a series of experts in prehistory discuss the nature of the cave and the remarkable paintings found on its walls. In The Cave Beneath the Sea: Paleolithic Images at Cosquer (Trans. by Marilyn Garner; Abrams; $60.000; May; 200 pp.; ISBN 0-8109-4033-7), the two archaeologists who explored the cave review their journey into the treacherous space and the wonders they found–drawings that echo the humanity of the prehistoric artist across otherwise silent millennia. — Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Review
The Chauvet Cave was found in 1994, and has been identified as the oldest painted cave yet found anywhere, with artwork more sophisticated than that of later date, and depictions of animals not seen elsewhere. The three discoverers provide a spirited account of their excitement and delight on opening the amazing cavern. Handsome photographs present a very small sampling of the paintings. This book, published promptly in 1996, is being repromoted because it is unlikely that anything more will emerge from Chauvet for some time to come. The French government has, as usual, assumed possession of the cave to ensure its protection and careful study. The landowners affected by the procedure do not agree on their property lines but do agree that the compensation offered them by the authorities is inadequate. The triangular row is now in the courts. As Jean Clottes, the president of the International Committee on Monuments and Sites, observes in his epilogue to this beautiful and frustrating book, “If it has waited for thirty thousand years, what are a few years more?” — The Atlantic Monthly, Phoebe-Lou Adams
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