Qualla: Chauvet Cave https://qualla.com/chauvet-cave en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:30 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/s/p/g/h/chauvet-cave-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Chauvet Cave https://qualla.com/chauvet-cave Chauvet Cave: Introduction https://qualla.com/chauvet-cave/ Photo credit Thomas T. from somewhere on Earth, CC BY-SA 2.0. For roughly 29,000 years, no human being entered this cave. A collapsing cliff sealed its entrance sometime around 29,000 years ago, entombing the work of Aurignacian artists in perfect darkness -- until December 18, 1994, when three French speleologists squeezed through a narrow opening and aimed their headlamps at walls that had not reflected light since the last Ice Age. What Eliette Brunel-Deschamps, Christian Hillaire, and Jean-Marie Chauvet found inside would rewrite the history of art.

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Image: Thomas T. from somewhere on Earth | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/p/g/h/chauvet-cave-wp/spgh-chauvet-cave-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Chauvet Cave: A Gallery Older Than Civilization https://qualla.com/chauvet-cave/ Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. Hundreds of animal paintings cover the walls of Chauvet Cave, depicting at least thirteen different species. But what makes the cave extraordinary is not just its age -- radiocarbon dating places the oldest works at approximately 36,500 years old -- but what the artists chose to ...

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Image: Unknown author | Public domain

]]> Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/p/g/h/chauvet-cave-wp/spgh-chauvet-cave-a-gallery-older-than-civilization.mp3 0:06 2 full Chauvet Cave: Two Occupations, One Mystery https://qualla.com/chauvet-cave/ Photo credit Boerkevitz at Dutch Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0. Research published in 2016 identified two distinct periods of human presence inside the cave: one spanning roughly 37,000 to 33,500 years ago, and a second from 31,000 to 28,000 years ago. Most of the black charcoal drawings date to the earlier phase. Between and after these visi...

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Image: Boerkevitz at Dutch Wikipedia | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/p/g/h/chauvet-cave-wp/spgh-chauvet-cave-two-occupations-one-mystery.mp3 0:06 3 full Chauvet Cave: The Weight of a Handprint https://qualla.com/chauvet-cave/ Photo credit Prankster, Public domain. Among the paintings are panels of red ochre handprints and stencils, made by pressing a palm against the rock and blowing pigment around it. There are abstract markings -- lines and dots -- whose meaning remains debated. Two partial female figures appear, and above one of them, a...

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Image: Prankster | Public domain

]]> Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/p/g/h/chauvet-cave-wp/spgh-chauvet-cave-the-weight-of-a-handprint.mp3 0:06 4 full Chauvet Cave: Sealed for Preservation https://qualla.com/chauvet-cave/ Photo credit JYB Devot, CC BY-SA 4.0. Learning from the fate of Lascaux and Altamira, where tourist crowds introduced mold that damaged irreplaceable paintings, French authorities sealed Chauvet Cave immediately after its discovery in 1994. No member of the public has ever walked its passages. Access is restricted to...

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Image: JYB Devot | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/p/g/h/chauvet-cave-wp/spgh-chauvet-cave-sealed-for-preservation.mp3 0:06 5 full