The Chauvet-Pont-d'Arc Cave (French: Grotte Chauvet-Pont d'Arc) is located in the Ardèche department of southeastern France. It is a cave that contains some of the best-preserved drawings of people and animals in the world, along with other signs of life during the Upper Paleolithic period. The cave is near the village of Vallon-Pont-d'Arc, on a limestone cliff above the old riverbed of the Ardèche River, in the Gorges de l'Ardèche area.
The cave was discovered on December 18, 1994, and is considered one of the most important prehistoric art sites. In 2014, UNESCO, the United Nations' cultural organization, gave it World Heritage status. The cave was first explored by three people: Eliette Brunel-Deschamps, Christian Hillaire, and Jean-Marie Chauvet (after whom the cave was named). This happened six months after a hole called "Le Trou de Baba" (Baba's Hole) was found by Michel Rosa. Later, the group returned to the cave. Another member, Michel Chabaud, and two others explored further and discovered the Gallery of the Lions and the End Chamber. Jean-Marie Chauvet wrote a detailed description of the discovery. In addition to the drawings, the explorers found fossilized bones, footprints, and markings from many animals, some of which no longer exist.
Further research by French archaeologist Jean Clottes has provided more information about the site. Scientists have debated the dates of the artwork, but a study from 2012 suggests the art was created during the Aurignacian period, about 32,000 to 30,000 years ago. A study published in 2016 used 88 carbon dating results and showed two periods of human activity: one from 37,000 to 33,500 years ago and another from 31,000 to 28,000 years ago. Most of the black drawings were made during the earlier time.
Features
The cave is located above where the Ardèche River used to flow before the Pont d'Arc formed. The deep valleys of the Ardèche region contain many caves, many of which are important for studying ancient geology or history.
Radiocarbon dating shows the cave was used by humans during two time periods: the Aurignacian and the Gravettian. Most of the artwork in the cave dates to the earlier Aurignacian period, between 32,000 and 30,000 years ago. The later Gravettian period, between 27,000 and 25,000 years ago, left behind few items, including a child’s footprints, burned remains from ancient fires, and dark stains from torches used to light the cave. These footprints may be the oldest human footprints with accurate dating. Evidence suggests that after the child visited, a landslide blocked the cave’s entrance, leaving it undisturbed until it was discovered in 1994.
The soft, clay-like floor of the cave still shows the paw prints of cave bears and large, rounded depressions where the bears may have rested. Many fossilized bones are found in the cave, including the skulls of cave bears and the horned skull of an ibex. Paw prints dated to 26,000 Years Before Present are thought to belong to a dog, but some scientists believe they were left by a wolf instead.
Paintings
More than 100 animal paintings have been recorded, showing at least 13 different types of animals, including some that are rarely or never seen in other ice age paintings. Unlike most Paleolithic cave art, which often shows common plant-eating animals like horses, aurochs, and mammoths, the walls of the Chauvet Cave include many pictures of animals that hunt other animals, such as cave lions, leopards, bears, and cave hyenas. There are also paintings of rhinoceroses.
As is typical in most cave art, there are no complete drawings of people. However, there are two partial figures that look like a vulva attached to incomplete legs. One is found in a small area of the End Chamber, and the other is on a cone-shaped or tooth-like object several meters away. Above the second figure, there is a drawing of a bison head, which has led some to call the image a Minotaur. There are also a few areas with red hand prints and hand stencils made by blowing pigment over hands pressed against the cave wall. Lines and dots, which are abstract designs, are found throughout the cave. Two unclear images that look a bit like butterflies or birds are also present. These varied subjects have led some researchers to think that the paintings may have had a ritual, spiritual, or magical purpose.
One drawing, later covered by a sketch of a deer, looks like a volcano erupting, similar to volcanoes that were active in the region at that time. If confirmed, this would be the earliest known drawing of a volcanic eruption.
The artists used methods not often seen in other cave art. Many paintings appear to have been created after the cave walls were cleaned of dirt and hard deposits, leaving a smoother and lighter surface for painting. A sense of movement and depth was achieved by carving or etching around the edges of some figures. The art is also unusual for its time because it includes scenes showing animals interacting, such as two woolly rhinoceroses seen butting horns, possibly competing for territory or mates.
Dating
The cave contains some of the oldest known cave paintings, based on radiocarbon dating of black material from drawings, torch marks, and the floors, according to Jean Clottes. Clottes concluded that the dates fall into two groups: one centered around 27,000–26,000 BP and the other around 32,000–30,000 BP. As of 1999, 31 samples from the cave had been reported. The earliest sample, Gifa 99776 from "zone 10," dates to 32,900 ± 490 BP.
Some archaeologists have questioned these dates. Christian Züchner, using stylistic comparisons with similar paintings at other well-dated sites, suggested that the red paintings are from the Gravettian period (c. 28,000–23,000 BP) and the black paintings are from the Early Magdalenian period (early part of c. 18,000–10,000 BP). Pettitt and Bahn argued that the dating does not match the traditional stylistic sequence and that there is uncertainty about the source of the charcoal used in the drawings and the amount of surface contamination on the rock. Stylistic studies showed that some Gravettian engravings are placed on top of black paintings, proving the black paintings are older.
By 2011, more than 80 radiocarbon dates had been taken, including samples from torch marks, paintings, animal bones, and charcoal on the cave floor. These dates suggest two periods of creation in Chauvet: 35,000 years ago and 30,000 years ago. This would place the cave’s occupation and painting within the Aurignacian period.
A research article published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in May 2012 confirmed that the paintings were created by people during the Aurignacian era, between 30,000 and 32,000 years ago. The researchers analyzed rock slide surfaces around the cave’s entrance and found that the entrance was sealed by a collapsing cliff about 29,000 years ago. This supports the radiocarbon dating results, placing human presence in the cave and the paintings between 32,000 and 30,000 years BP.
A 2016 study in the same journal, examining 259 radiocarbon dates (some previously unpublished), concluded there were two phases of human occupation: one from 37,000 to 33,500 years ago and another from 31,000 to 28,000 years ago. Most dates for the black drawings came from the earlier phase. The authors believe the first phase ended with a rockfall that sealed the cave, followed by two more rockfalls at the end of the second phase. After this, no humans or large animals entered the cave until it was rediscovered. In an email to the Los Angeles Times, two authors explained that a group of people visited the cave around 36,000 years ago for cultural reasons and created black drawings of large mammals. A later group from a different region visited the cave thousands of years later.
In 2020, researchers used the new IntCal20 radiocarbon calibration curve to estimate that the oldest painting in the cave was created 36,500 years ago.
From 2008 onward, scientists studying the cave also conducted chronological research at other rock art sites along the Ardèche River gorges, led by Julien Monney. These included Points cave (Aiguèze, Gard, France), which shares iconographic similarities with Chauvet cave, and Deux-Ouvertures cave. Named the "Datation Grottes Ornées" (DGO) project, this research aims to understand the context in which rock art caves in the region were visited. The project seeks to examine Chauvet cave’s apparent chronological and iconographic uniqueness by comparing it to other sites in the area. This research is ongoing as of 2020 but has already produced results that indirectly relate to Chauvet cave’s timeline.
Preservation
The cave has been closed to the public since 1994. Access is strictly limited because of past problems at decorated caves like Altamira and Lascaux in the 19th and 20th centuries. There, large numbers of visitors caused mold to grow on the walls, which damaged the artwork. In 2000, Dominique Baffier, an archaeologist and expert in cave paintings, was chosen to manage the cave’s conservation and care. In 2014, Marie Bardisa took over this role.
Caverne du Pont-d'Arc (Grotte Chauvet 2), a copy of Chauvet Cave modeled after the so-called "Faux Lascaux," opened to the public on April 25, 2015. It is the largest cave replica ever built, ten times bigger than the Lascaux facsimile. The artwork is reproduced at full size in a smaller version of the underground environment, inside a circular building above ground, a few kilometers from the real cave. Visitors experience the same conditions as the original cave, including silence, darkness, temperature, humidity, and acoustics, which are carefully recreated.