200 thousand year ago Perigord was the center of the first significant civilization of the world – that of the Upper Paleolithic. The representatives of this civilization left numerous writings on the walls of the caves. The first drawings were discovered in north-western Spain, in 1879. Since that time over 200 caves were found on the territories of Spain and France, grottoes and caves with ancient drawings. Most of the caves are located in the Dordogne department. The material proof of humans inhabiting these regions (stone lamps, footprints) helped scientist and archeologists decipher the technique of Dordogne cave drawings used by prehistoric artists. It still remains unclear why the primitive people created these drawings. Although, for the last 25 thousand years the stone age artists used a minimalist mode of expression in their drawings, and completely natural coloring. Almost all the drawings represent animals, but some of them are stylized to represent people. All the drawings are hidden in places that are very hard to access.
Visiting the caves
In the regions of Cognac there are deep cracks in the rocks (doiptec) as well as numerous stone galleries. There are some drawings preserved in these caves depicting people. Around Les Eyzies there are some very large caves – Font de Gaume, Grotte de Combarelles, Grotte Bara Bahau, and Abri du Cap Blanc. These Dordogne caves, much like the ones in Rouffignac, have a number of very interesting wall drawings. The Grand Roc cave is noteworthy for the stalactite and stalagmite formations. The Lafage crack, located to the north-west of Les Eyzies, leads to halls and galleries with samples of rock formations of unusual shape. In the caves of the southern Dordogne, near Lacan, you will be able to see underground rivers and a lake surrounded by even more unusual rock formations. The gigantic crack and the grottoes of Padirac look even more intriguing. The cave of Lascaux features some of the most amazing wall drawings (800 drawings of dear, mountain goats, bulls, and horses). Unfortunately the cave is closed for visitors, but a copy of the cave has been made, called Lascaux II, just for tourists. The cave of La Madeleine gave the name to the Madeleine archeological culture.
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