Caves of Arcy-sur-Cure

The caves of Arcy-sur-Cure are prehistoric caves located on the commune of Arcy-sur-Cure in the Département of Yonne in France. The parietal paintings, oldest currently known after those of the Cave Chauvet, were discovered there in 1990.

History

The caves, dug by the Cure within a calcareous solid mass dating from the Mesozoic (secondary era), were used as refuge with the man since at least: 200000 years. The human presence was confined a long time there at their entry, used like Abri-sous-roche.

The paintings, carried out on the walls of rooms distant from 300 to 500 meters of the entry, go back for oldest to approximately: 28000 years, according to datings with the Carbon-14 carried out on carbonaceous remainders discovered in these rooms. They are placed thus at the second rank by their seniority, after the Grotte Chauvet (: 31000 years), and well before that of Lascaux (: 15000 with: 18000 years), with which they cannot however compete by the number, since one found any until now only 160, against more than 400 in the Chauvet cave and approximately: 1900 in that of Lascaux.

Unfortunately, it is estimated that at least 80% of paintings were destroyed during an unfortunate cleaning of the walls by a jet with high pressure of a solution of Hydrochloric acid in the Années 1970. At the time, nobody imagined that, under the lampblack film produced by the torches at the time of the visits of the centuries spent, could be hidden prehistoric paintings that a fine layer of sediment made invisible to the naked eye.

Paintings

Paintings were carried out with the Ocre and the charcoal. One finds there at the same time hands of men, women and children, and representations of animals.

The hands are “negative hands”, i.e. represented by their contours, and not by their surface. It is known precisely today that at least a hand was drawn with ocher using a pipette.

To represent the animals, the man of the Prehistory, here the man of Cro-Magnon, often chose the parts of wall whose relief, under the wavering lighting of the torches, revealed forms which recalled the anatomy of it, like the eyes or the wood of large the stags. It used painting with parsimony then, drawing only the elements which the relief did not reveal. Only contours of the animals were represented, the entirely virgin interior being left.

The feet of the animals here are often opened, which constitutes a characteristic of these caves. In general a leg with before and a leg with the back are represented.

Among the most interesting paintings, one entirely finds a Mammouth drawn, and a prehistoric stag whose wood could measure 4 meters, represented partially by using the reliefs of the wall.

Others

One finds in the caves at least 5 species of Chauve-souris. Driven out by the visits of the principal cave, one found a new reference mark to them whose access was closed.
the cave dug by the Cure is regularly invaded by water. One finds there stalagmites, stalactites, columns, draperies, a room of the Virgin. In the beginning open at the two ends, a crumbling closed one of them of it when the flow of the underground river strongly decreased. It ends in formed basins of layers of sediment left by water on the level of the ground. There are several lakes. One of them presents a strange phenomenon of layer of sediment which covers water surface, fall at the bottom then goes back to surface periodically. This phenomenon is still badly included/understood, but does not seem due directly to bacteria.

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