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The Chauvet Cave in the Ardèche, southern France, holds some of the oldest and best-preserved cave paintings in the world. Its lions, horses, mammoths and rhinos were drawn in charcoal and red ochre, the oldest of them about 36,000 years ago.

Ardèche, France

ArtHistory

The story behind the card

Three cave explorers, Jean-Marie Chauvet, Éliette Brunel-Deschamps and Christian Hillaire, found the paintings on 18 December 1994. Thousands of years ago a rockfall had sealed the entrance, which kept the art almost untouched. Hundreds of animals from at least 13 species are shown, including many predators, such as cave lions, bears and hyenas, that are rare in other cave art. The artists scraped the walls smooth before drawing, etched around outlines to give depth and movement, and painted scenes such as two woolly rhinos butting horns. Radiocarbon dating, which measures the decay of carbon in charcoal and bone, shows two periods of use, about 37,000 to 33,500 and 31,000 to 28,000 years ago. UNESCO made it a World Heritage Site in 2014. The cave is closed to protect it, and a full-size replica opened nearby in 2015.

Türkçe oku
Güney Fransa'da, Ardèche bölgesindeki Chauvet Mağarası'nda dünyanın en eski ve en iyi korunmuş mağara resimlerinden bazıları bulunur. Kömürle ve kırmızı aşı boyasıyla çizilmiş aslanların, atların, mamutların ve gergedanların en eskileri yaklaşık 36.000 yıllıktır.
Ardèche, Fransa

Resimleri 18 Aralık 1994'te Jean-Marie Chauvet, Éliette Brunel-Deschamps ve Christian Hillaire adlı üç mağaracı buldu. Binlerce yıl önce düşen kayalar girişi kapatmış, bu da resimlerin neredeyse hiç bozulmadan kalmasını sağlamıştı. En az 13 türden yüzlerce hayvan resmedilmiştir; aralarında mağara aslanı, ayı ve sırtlan gibi başka mağaralarda nadir görülen yırtıcılar da vardır. Sanatçılar çizmeden önce duvarı kazıyarak düzleştirmiş, derinlik ve hareket duygusu vermek için figürlerin kenarlarını oymuş, iki yünlü gergedanın boynuz boynuza tokuştuğu sahneler bile çizmiştir. Radyokarbon yöntemi, kömürdeki ve kemikteki karbonun ne kadar bozunduğunu ölçerek yaş belirler. Bu yöntemle yapılan tarihlendirmeler, mağaranın iki ayrı dönemde, yaklaşık 37.000–33.500 ve 31.000–28.000 yıl önce kullanıldığını gösteriyor. UNESCO mağarayı 2014'te Dünya Mirası listesine aldı. Mağara korunmak için ziyarete kapalıdır; 2015'te yakınında birebir boyutlu bir kopyası açıldı.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Chauvet Cave
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