Prehistory, take two.

Last Saturday Raphael and I woke up at 5am to make the 3 hour drive to Les Ezies to visit the Museum of Prehistory and the expositions available on Lascaux, the most elaborately decorated prehistoric cave in the world which was closed to the public in 1955 because of the co2 damage done to the paintings. The museum provides a well laid out introduction to prehistoric tools and art and it houses a tiny but beautiful lamp found in la grotte de Lascaux that dates back to 20,000 BCE. There are tons of skeletons of Neanderthals and Cro-Magnon men, the oldest dating to 34,000 BCE. No one knows what happened to the Neanderthals. Perhaps they were killed by our ancestors, but we have found no traces of violence, or perhaps they integrated themselves into Cro-Magnon society, and didn't go extinct at all. They had larger skeletons and craniums than the Cro-Magnons and their traits can be dated back much further ca 600,000 BCE. They were better hunters than our ancestors and they attacked their prey directly, engaging them in combat, instead of trapping them or scavenging. They also had better tools, were better at fishing, and often had sweeter dwelling spots. The only skill the Cro-Magnon man can claim over the Neanderthal is art. There are no paintings or engravings in the Neanderthal caves, whereas in the caves of the homo sapiens sapiens, the diversity of styles, themes, and tecniques is simply bouleversant. The art instinct dates to 40,000 BCE, or era that marks the rise of homo sapiens sapiens. And not surprising, the first artists were primarily interested in female genitalia. It seems that just as modern day pornography is responsible for the quick advancement of internet technology, the ancient equivalent spurred a similar advances in carving and painting tools. The Museum of prehistory has on display prehistoric vulvas of every shape and size imaginable, and as far as I can tell, we have not made significant alterations to their representation in the past 40,000 years. There is also a panel depicting, in various positions, prehistoric booty, offering us some insight into J-lo's popularity today. Raphael tried to convince me that this booty was religious booty, but in my opinion these booties have more in common with the art my 12 year old students make on their english hand-outs than something you might find in a church. So I have posted the work in question to let you make your own decisions.



After the museum we headed northwest to see the exhibitions specific to Lascaux. The Lascaux museum, in addition to documentary films and representations of the most famous panels also keeps a zoo with modern animals that are the most similar to the ancient ones represented on the cave walls. There was an adorable baby auroch who kept running up and down his pasture to the bemusement of his parents. The first painting to absorb my attention was this painting of a man wounded by a bull (or an auroch). The bull also is wounded, his intestines hanging down from his belly. And the man, very crudely drawn in comparison with the animal, has the face of a bird and an erection. There is a strange bird with a very long leg (perhaps a cane) portrayed below the man. The eyes of the bull are intense, his brow furrowed, his horns lowered, as though conscious that this act of violence will be his last. It is a strange picture. and by far my favorite of those at Lascaux.

Another painting depicted two bulls facing away from each other. It is clear that when the painter began his work he meant for the two animals to be facing the dame direction (look at their legs), but he changed his mind in the process. Many paintings show signs of superimposition, either by the same artist who changed his mind or perhaps by a second artist who thought he could do it better. The documentaries were quite informative in showing step by step how the ancient artist used and reused the same lines to form different images. This reminded me of a documentary I watched on graffiti wars in which it was explained that it was completely acceptable to draw over older works of graffiti, so long as what you created was better than that which preceded you. Its so cool how little things have changed.

If you want to see more of Lascaux and the paintings there, and dont have time to come to france, check out the site: http://www.lascaux.culture.fr/#/en/00.xml

Le Pays de L'homme

I spent my 26th birthday in the capital of prehistory deep in Dordogne were I visited caves that have been engraved or painted by men 200,000 years ago. I don't even know how to make sense of that number. As a classicist, I am used to imagining life 5000 or even 10,000 years back, but multiply that number by 20 and I'm more or less lost.

On our way out to Les Eyzies, we stopped by an ancient Roman villa from the 2nd Century CE that boasts some well preserved mosaics and baths. As with many of these ancient sites, the guys from the Middle Ages decided to put a church on it. And so you have to walk around and through this great big medieval church in order to get a clear idea of the grounds. Still it was quite impressive. The mosaics in the baths are all pictures of sea animals and then in the living areas the art becomes more abstract.

After leaving this site, we kept on towards Bergerac where we stopped off to try some of the local wines, the reds darker and stronger than those from Bordeaux, and the whites honey sweet and light. After a quick visit to Cyrano's statues we hit the route again driving through a beautiful countryside scattered with rolling hills and streams and quaint little wooden bridges and finally arriving in Les Eyzies just as the sun was beginning to set. We threw up our tent, shelled out 10 euros, and walked into the little town in search of food. Even in the dark you could feel the presence of the vast overhanging cliffs that threatened the little village. We toured the whole area in less than 10 minutes and shortly after returned to our tent, since there wasn't a single cafe lit up on a sunday evening after 8pm.

In the morning we woke up early and hungry. We walked through the town again really taking in the scenary this time, and noticing how appealing this area might have been for the cro-magnum man because of its cliffs and rock formations offering shelter from weather and wild animals. After eating we headed to la Grotte de Fonte-de Gaume famous for its paintings that date to the Magdalénien period. We have found the tools that they made to apply the paint--tube like things from which the artists would blow the paint onto the engravings. This was the only polychrome site that we visited on our trip (black and red paints). But since any vegetal based coloring would be lost to the ages, we must imagine that these paintings were probably much more colorful à l'epoch.

We hiked up a sizeable hill to the entrance and then were led through the narrow entrance of the cave. These caves were not inhabited because it would have been impossible to light or heat them because of the limited oxygen capacity. This means that the beings that drew these pictures and the other beings whe presumable view them did so in a space that was only frequented to that end, the artistic (perhaps religious) end. Sadly, the paintings on the doorway and in the entrance area were destroyed or badly damaged by kids in the 19th century, before the historic importance of this cave was well known. Still, the cave was incredible! Housing over 80 bisons, a number of Mamoths, and some well-endowed prehistoric ladies, depicted more or less like my friends Caroline sees them today. Something funny is that many of the animals are superimposed one onto the other. That is to say that the artist(s) used lines from one animal to form a different picture if the light hits the work in a different way. very cool, prehistory. Another thing that I found interesting was that most of these animals are depicted in pairs: a mother and her kid, two lovers, (more rarely) a fight between two animals. But always in pairs. On the other hand, the humans were always alone. And the humans were never a part of the animal scenes--no scenes of hunting or anything like that.

Its so amazing how little and how much we know us these people. I like to imagine that they painted everything, all the cliffs and rock faces native to their region. And that they used tons of colors to create their world.

After a couple days of caving, we headed south to visit some famous chateaux that date to the 11th and 12th century and that house modern museums of medieval warfare. Then we visited the old seat of Josephine Baker and her rainbow tribe, paying hommage to one of the most influential artists of the 20th century and remarking the extent to which our conception of art has changed throughout the last two millennia . not as much as all that, I imagine.