Heyo!

I’m looking for some rock art. I’ve been familiarising myself bit by bit but I’d really appreciate being pointed to some sites by the following criteria (in order of importance):

  • the best-preserved rock art, a la Lascaux & such (and/or the most striking–which is not quite the same thing! emphasis on the former since the latter is more subjective :))

  • especially which depicts non-human life (other animals & so on) or part-humans (but the less anthropocentric the more it appeals to me)

  • and especially anything from the neolithic or (bonus points!!) before! Paleolithic is my main interest, I’m not really interested in anything after literacy :)

Thank you SO much!! Any advice on specific sites or where/how to search under this criteria super appreciated!!

  • ᴇᴍᴘᴇʀᴏʀ 帝AEnglish
    4·
    4 months ago

    One Summer I got Paul G Bahn’s Journey Through the Ice Age, stuck some post-it notes in on anything that look interesting and drove down through the Dordogne to the Ariege. The wealth of ancient art is astounding, even if you just branch out from the classics, like Lascaux (which you have to do while in the area).

    So the ones that still stand out in my memory are:

    • Abri du Cap Blanc which has stunning animal carvings
    • Niaux - which is quite the experience as you get to feel quite how magical such places would be. You start high up on the valley in what would have been a great position for hunter-gatherers to spot game, then enter the cave, pass the pools and into a long, dark tunnel that opens into a huge cave with numerous animal drawings
    • Bédeilhac which is a vast cave (it housed an aircraft factory in WW2) with a range of stone age art in a number of techniques.

    Then, when you have the key locations locked down, you can search around for others, via pages like Prehistoric Sites of the Vezere Valley and the Prehistoric caves in the Ariège Pyrenees (which mentions Le Mas d’Azil, which is worth a look as the road goes through the cave but you can only see reproductions of the art, and the Prehistoric Park that might give you other pointers). It’s become a lot easier to research thanks to the Web - this seems a good place to start. Looking through that, I think that holiday I get to most of the ones in the Vezere, Lot and Ariege. They are relatively close by and the sites are usually not far from each other, so you can visit a few in one day.