Chauvet: The World's Oldest Cave Paintings?
A Groundbreaking Discovery
Late on December 18, 1994 French speleologist Jean-Marie Chauvet, together with his colleagues Eliette Brunel Deschamps and Christian Hillaire, descended a precarious rope ladder and peered into the damp, dark depths of a vast, obscure limestone cave above the Ardèche River in the south of France. By only the glow of their head torches, they locked eyes on some spectacular, groundbreaking images that were to become the focal point of an ongoing archaeological debate.
Beyond dispute is how dramatic and impressive the Chauvet cave paintings are. They depict 13 species of mammals, many of which have rarely or never been seen in other ice age paintings. The majority of them are predatory animals such as panthers, bears, rhinos and – most strikingly – a pride of lions. They’re stunning in their elegance and detail (the techniques used to create them appear to have been very advanced for their time).
What hasn’t been agreed on entirely is the paintings’ age. Evidence suggests with some certainty that the images are as much as around 32,000 years old – making them the oldest cave paintings ever discovered. A few experts are skeptical, however. Since the debate has begun, yet more finds have been made that may possibly even outdate these paintings.
The Two Ages Of Chauvet
Intensive and complex fieldwork on the cave paintings at Chauvet was carried out after 1998 by Frenchman Jean Clottes, the former General Inspector for Archaeology at the French Ministry of Culture, chairman of UNESCO’s International Committee of Rock Art (now retired) and current editor of the International Newsletter on Rock Art. By means of employing radiocarbon dating techniques on charcoal found on the walls and on the floor of the cave, he was able to posit to two specific periods of activity at the cave, one centered around 27,000-26,000 BC and another around 32,000-30,000 BC.
This makes them specific to the so-called Aurignacian archaeological culture of the Upper Palaeolithic period in Europe and southwest Asia, which is said to have begun between 40,000 and 35,000 years ago and lasted until between 28,000 and 26,000 years ago (give or take a few millennia).
Debate
One opponent to Clottes findings has been German archaeologist Christian Züchner. Based on his archaeological dating, the paintings are from the Gravettian period (circa 28,000–23,000 BC) and the Early Magdalenian period (early part of circa 18,000–10,000 BC). The samples Clottes used for radiocarbon testing he suggested may have been misleading, possibly because “prehistoric artists prepared charcoal with sub-fossil wood buried in river terraces or under glacial dunes.” He concluded by saying that “Chauvet and his friends (had) not discovered the oldest cave sanctuary of the world, but – regarding its age and importance – a second Lascaux.”
British archaeologists Paul Pettitt and Paul Bahn have warned against trusting Clottes’ datings outright on the basis of their belief that they seem “startlingly early” and demand “dramatic revision” to the traditional stylistic sequence seen in the development of cave art throughout the period – a story of “progress” from crude, clumsy beginnings towards increasing levels of sophistication.
One further, more recent finding by Clottes in 2007 has since added further weight to his case. Studies of animal remains found in the cave – particularly bear bones – indicate Chauvet was inhabited by large animals around the same time the paintings were made, but not thereafter, so we can assume that it became somehow inaccessible to them, and therefore humans too.
Other Contenders?
More recent discoveries that may even outdate Chauvet are the painted slabs unearthed in Fumane Cave near Verona, Italy in 2001, which are estimated to be between 32,000 and 36,500 years old, although their age hasn’t been proven exhaustively. Just last year (2008), a groundbreaking find was made in the shape of the Venus of Hohle Fels at Schelklingen in Germany – a tiny, painstakingly hand carved erotic pendant dated to between 35,000 and 40,000 years ago. While it’s an example of figurative art and not a cave painting, it suggests that levels of behavioral modernity in the Aurignacian period were certainly very advanced indeed, and that other, older examples of rock art may yet be discovered in caves known to have been occupied in that age.
It’s worth noting that cultures in older cradles of human civilization – such as the bushmen of the Drakensberg Mountains in South Africa and the tribes of the Bhimbetka Rock Shelters in India – practiced cave painting extensively too. While many, many fine examples of paintings have been found – some from as late as the upper Paleolithic period – none have yielded examples that can be conclusively proven to outdate those so far found in Europe. But that doesn’t mean that they won’t do so yet.
A New Technique?
A new dating technique – pioneered by a team led by Dr Alistair Pike of Bristol University – may be about to turn the world’s oldest cave painting argument on its head again. Uranium series dating was originally developed by geologists to date rock formations such as stalactites and stalagmites in caves. Pike and his colleagues are the first to turn it to archaeological ends, and use it to test the age of cave paintings. One study, at Altamira in Northern Spain in 2008, found images there to possibly be as old as 35,000 years (more than twice the age they were previously believed to be).
Pike added a caveat in his findings however. He points out that trying to figure out how old cave paintings are might be pointless, as in many instances they may have been painstakingly created over generations and thousands of years. This goes against the findings of archaeologists “who excavated in the caves and found archaeology for just one period,” he told The Telegraph newspaper.
The debate as to which are the world’s oldest cave painting will probably never cease as long as new theories and techniques such as this are being pioneered, not to mention new sites discovered.
Picture of Chauvet lions (top) and picture of Chauvet horses (bottom) by Aadav. All rights reserved.
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Comments
Great article, Malcolm. I hadn't heard about that figurative sculpture discovered in Germany. Nor did I know anything about Pike's new method. Fascinating.
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