Font-de-Gaume

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Font-de-Gaume cave
Font-de-Gaume
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Cliff at Font-de-Gaume
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Location in France
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Font-de-Gaume (France)
Locationnear Les Eyzies,
Region Dordogne, France
Coordinates 44°56′13″N1°1′36″E / 44.93694°N 1.02667°E / 44.93694; 1.02667
History
Cultures Magdalenian
Site notes
Excavation dates1901,
ArchaeologistsDenis Peyrony
Official nameFont de Gaume
Part of Prehistoric Sites and Decorated Caves of the Vézère Valley
Criteria Cultural: (i), (iii)
Reference 85-003
Inscription1979 (3rd Session)
Area5.216 ha (561,400 sq ft)
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Cave entrance

Font-de-Gaume is a cave near Les Eyzies in the Dordogne department of south-west France. The cave contains prehistoric polychrome cave paintings and engravings dating to the Magdalenian period. Discovered in 1901, more than 200 images have been identified in Font-de-Gaume. Along with other nearby prehistoric archeological sites, Font-de-Gaume was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1979 as the Prehistoric Sites and Decorated Caves of the Vézère Valley. [1]

Contents

History

The paintings were discovered by Denis Peyrony, a local schoolmaster, on 12 September 1901. The cave had been known to the general public before this, but the significance of the paintings had not been recognised. [2] Four days earlier Peyrony had visited the cave at Les Combarelles, a short distance away, with the archaeologist Henri Breuil, where he saw its prehistoric engravings. The paintings in the cave at Font-de-Gaume were the first to be discovered in the Périgord province. [3]

Prehistoric people living in the Dordogne Valley first settled in the mouth of Font-de-Gaume around 25,000 BC. The cave mouth was inhabited at least sporadically for the next several thousand years. However, after the original prehistoric inhabitants left, the cave was forgotten until the nineteenth century when local people again began to visit the cave. The paintings date from around 17,000 BC, during the Magdalenian period. Many of the cave's paintings have been discovered in recent decades. The cave's most famous painting, a frieze of five bison, was discovered accidentally in 1966 while scientists were cleaning the cave.

Present day

As of 2007, Font-de-Gaume was the only site in France with polychrome cave paintings that is still open to the public. [4]

To date, 230 figures have been recorded in the cave, and it is thought that more are still to be revealed. [3] Font-de-Gaume holds over 200  polychrome paintings. These engravings are considered the best examples of polychrome painting other than Lascaux, which is now closed to the public. The rock art in Font-de-Gaume includes depictions of more than 80  bison, approximately 40  horses, and more than 20  mammoths.

Notable visitors

Cro-Magnon artists painting in Font-de-Gaume, by Charles R. Knight Font-de-Gaume.jpg
Cro-Magnon artists painting in Font-de-Gaume, by Charles R. Knight

In August 1919, the poet T. S. Eliot visited Périgueux. As part of his walking tour, he explored the then already famous Font-de-Gaume cave. [5]

See also

Notes

  1. "Prehistoric Sites and Decorated Caves of the Vézère Valley". UNESCO World Heritage Centre. United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization. Retrieved 9 Oct 2021.
  2. Daubisse et al. 1994 , p. 6.
  3. 1 2 Daubisse et al. 1994 , p. 8.
  4. Bahn 2007 , p. 45.
  5. Bacigalupo 2007 , pp. 111–112.

References