Cave-Paintings, Lescaux

Extract

Owing to the fog of War, and because I live abroad, I did not hear about the discovery in the Dordogne (September 1940) of Lescaux—a hitherto unknown painted cave of the utmost interest—until after my article ‘Palaeolithic Paintings-Magdalenian Period’ was in type (see ANTIQUITY, June 1942). Had I known of it, some modification in the treatment of my thesis would have been necessary. This new material, however, does not stultify the general trend of my argument; it tends rather to support it, if the scarcity of information I have is correct. No comprehensive survey of this new treasure-house of Palaeolithic art is yet available, but an article written by the L'Abbéenri Breuil for L'Academie des Belles Lettres leaves no doubt as to its outstanding importance. He says of it: ' Si l'Altamira est le Capitale de l'Art pariél, Lescaux est le Versailles '. I understand also that the L'Abbéwhose judgment in these matters is hors concours, inclines to the view that the Lescaux paintings, though of the highest quality, are late Aurignacian in date. They belong therefore to the period of climatic amelioration known as the Achen retreat, which separates the two final glacial advances Wiirm I and Würm II. This dating is borne out by the fact that the animals depicted belong much more to a ‘steppe and forest’ fauna than they do to a colder ‘tundra’ one. There are for example no mammoths and no reindeer, but there are many horses, a Considerable quantity of cattle (Aurochs ?) bisons, and a Saïga antelope—the head only, attached to a strange composite animal.