A boy followed his dog and uncovered a secret cave filled with 17,000-year-old human artifacts
After confirmation of the site’s historical importance, it was was opened to the public - but later closed due to the effect of heavy footfall.
In September 1940, 18-year-old Marcel Ravidad followed his dog into a hole near a fallen tree in the forest of Montignac, France. Inside, he stumbled upon a chamber covered in murals dating back roughly 17,000 years.
After the discovery, Ravidad alerted his teacher, the prehistorian Léon Laval, who entered the cave and immediately recognized the images as prehistoric - a confirmation of the site’s significance, as documented by the official archives of France’s Ministry of Culture.
What exactly is inside the cave?
Inside the cave, researchers have identified more than 2,000 images and approximately 6,000 painted figures. The artwork is attributed to the Magdalenian culture, with the images dated between 17,000 and 19,000 years before the present.
The paintings depict aurochs, deer, horses, ibex, felines, and symbolic forms. The pigments used include red ochre, hematite, charcoal, and manganese oxide. Researchers believe the artists likely used scaffolding to reach the ceilings and worked by firelight or oil lamps.
In 1948, the cave opened to the public, drawing huge crowds - an estimated 1,200 visitors per day. This heavy foot traffic introduced carbon dioxide, humidity, and temperature fluctuations that began to degrade the cave’s internal environment.
Closed to the public in ‘60s
Due to these issues, the cave was closed in 1963 when green algae began appearing on the walls. In 2001, workers servicing the air‑conditioning system inadvertently introduced a fungus, Fusarium, which spread across the cave’s surfaces, according to a 2003 report by ABC Science.
To address the problem, conservators applied an antibiotic treatment to suppress the bacteria, which only partially solved the issue. The cave remains closed to the public to this day, according to the French Ministry of Culture.
As public demand to see the site continued to grow, Lascaux IV opened in 2016 at the Centre International de l’Art Pariétal - an immersive reconstruction of the cave.
This experience features high‑resolution 3D modeling and a sound system capable of accurately recreating the cave’s sensory environment.
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