Discovering the Lascaux Caves

The Lascaux Cave is located near Lascaux in southern France. It is only 0.15 miles long, but it contains more than 2000 images.

The cave was discovered by 4 teenagers in 1940. Watch the following video to learn more about how the cave was discovered:

After the cave was discovered, archaeologists, anthropologists, and art historians studied it.

They found that the cave drawings were more than 20,000 years old. They are unsure what the drawings (of mostly animals) mean. But, they do know that the drawings’ artists used minerals to create red, yellow, black, brown, and violet paint.

The cave was closed to visitors in 1963 to protect it. A replica cave was created for visitors, and it opened in 2016. Read more about the replica cave in the following article:

http://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2017/01/02/507549682/next-to-the-original-france-replicates-prehistoric-cave-paintings