The French caves of Lascaux was discovered by happenstance in 1940 by four French boys who stumbled upon it while exploring the area. They have since become one of the most treasured and studied anthropological artifacts in human history. For good reason. The caves radiant wall paintings offer a breath-taking and revealing view of what life as a human was like 18,000 years ago. Not to mention they show what incredible artistic talent our forebears possessed.
I confess, I’ve always wanted to visit Lascaux, even if I’ve sometimes wondered whether the caves were the equivalent of prehistoric funny pages (a sort of Far Side for Australopithecus). But while I have no immediate flight plans to France, I did see that a new book is out about the caves by Norbert Aujoulat, the research director of the caves for the last 10 years. Called Lascaux: Movement, Space and Time, the book contains 226 full color photos, maps and illustrations of the cave’s proto-artistic wonders.