Cave of Niaux

The cave of Niaux is a decorated Grotte Paléolithique having delivered many parietal figurations Magdalénien born. It is located in France, in the area the Midday-Pyrenees, in Ariège, on the commune of Niaux. It opens with semi-slope in the valley Vicdessos.

History

The cave was regularly visited as from the 17th century, as the multiple inscriptions found in the cave testify some. The prehistoric occupation is recognized and studied since 1906.

Classified historic building on July 13rd, 1911, the cave of Niaux belongs to an underground whole of 13 km. This underground unit also included the Cave of Lombrives located on the other pouring of the hill.

Prehistoric occupation

Parietal art

The cave of Niaux contains a very rich parietal Art including the majority of the species suitable for the prehistoric Faune of the solid mass of the the Pyrenees. The animals are painted most of the time with a black matter, identified with charcoal or Dioxyde of manganese, sometimes with a red matter obtained starting from the crushing of Hématite.

The principal room, which gathers the animal representations most spectacular is called the “black Living room”. The cave also delivered signs such as points or features of red and black color, either isolated on the walls, or associated with the representations of animals. Paintings of the black Living room containing of the charcoal could be dated by the method of the carbon-14; their age is thus estimated at 13.000 years.

Certain parietal paintings, covered with calcite veils, can be deciphered only using one lighting Ultra-violet. The bestiary represented includes/understands mainly Bison S (54), horses (29), Bouquetin S (15) as well as stags and even of the Poisson S. the morphology of the horses evokes that of the current Pottok, endemic horse of the the Pyrenees still present at the Basque Country. The presence of a layout outlining a Belette deserves to be underlined, so much this animal is seldom represented in the parietal Art Magdalénien.

Motivations of the frequentation of the cave

Several assumptions were put forth concerning the reasons of the occupation of the cave by the prehistoric men. It from now on is acquired that the cave was not place of dwelling: no domestic vestige was found, whether it is at the entry or the bottom of the cave. Niaux in addition makes party of a whole of caves decorated, present in the valley or the valleys close and not having functioned either like places to dwelling (Grotte of the Cow, Grotte of Lombrives, Grotte of Bédeilhac, network of caves of the valley of Ussat, etc).

The magdaléniens probably used two entries for the cave of Niaux, one to reach the “black Living room”, the other to reach the “Clastres network”. The underpass between the two parts is currently drowned by a siphon.

The prehistoric man penetrated very deeply in the cave to paint there: there is no parietal painting identified at the entry of the cave, and the “black Living room” is located at more than 700 m of the supposed prehistoric entry. The cave thus had neither a function Domestique (habitat), nor a practical function (storage). Prints of human steps were identified on the ground of the cave. There remain only three today about it on a hundred. The identification of the size of the steps thus showed that children had been able penetrated in the cave.

Significance of works magdaléniennes

The art of Niaux, like the paleolithic art in general, does not aim at a simple figurative landscape representation: no element of the landscape is represented (flora, sun, mountains, etc). Except for a small ibex which seems to take support with its front legs on a crack of the rock which can appear a line of ground, the animals seem to float on the walls of the cave, marrying the form of this one. Only large-sized animals are represented, preferably here herbivores. The Bear or the Loup is not represented whereas they were present in the area.

One century of excavation in the area made it possible to highlight seasonal campings, establish by human groups of the Paléolithique superior come to drive out the ibex or the reindeer, enter others. Seminomads, they spent nine months per annum in Pyrenean Piedmont to go down again low in the valley during the winter season. The economy was based mainly on the work of the skin, the wood and the bones of reindeers. One of the first assumptions concerning the parietal Art of the Paleolithic superior in all the chain pyrénéo - Cantabric was consequently related to hunting: works would be representations of scenes of hunting (of the arrows seem drawn on certain animals of the “black Living room”) and would have been carried out within the framework of ceremonies to the spirits to secure a good hunting (representation only of large herbivores).

An assumption put forth as of the end of the 19th century and handing-over with the last style recently, in particular by Jean Clottes connects paleolithic art with the Chamanisme. In the majority of the paleolithic parietal representations (that it is in Niaux or elsewhere, with Lascaux for example), the horses and the bisons are very frequently illustrated whereas they form part of the most driven out species, neither for the consumption of flesh, nor for the manufacture of tools. The representations are stylized and officially agreed (legs in triangle, the tail never not touching the back train) and follow the shapes of the wall. In addition, certain close caves contain representations of predatory. The assumption of the shamanism thus consists in seeing in the cave of Niaux a privileged place of meetings between the man and the world of the spirits of nature, which show through through the walls of the cave. It is then about a social system and mystic in whom the interaction with the natural spirits forms integral part of the daily newspaper.

Visits

The cave of Niaux is opened with the public. The visits are made in the compliance with precise rules in order to ensure the conservation of parietal works. The visits are done by small groups of 20 people to the maximum and are led by a guide.

There is no permanent lighting system installed in the cave. Each group thus lights using portable flashlights, on a course of 800 meters, to the “black Living room” which contains the majority of visible paintings. The other part decorated with the cave, called Clastres Network, is not opened with the visit.

The visit borrows narrow passages and is carried out on the same ground that the magdaléniens traversed.

Notes and references of the article

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