Facts about Chauvet Cave Paintings
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Chauvet Cave is closed to the public to preserve the paintings, so a full-scale replica called the Caverne du Pont d'Arc was built for visitors.
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Artists in Chauvet Cave used techniques such as scraping the cave walls before drawing and shading to create a sense of volume and movement in their animal figures.
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Unique among Paleolithic cave art sites, Chauvet Cave features numerous depictions of predatory animals such as cave lions, bears, and woolly rhinoceroses rather than mainly prey animals.
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Discovered in 1994 by Jean-Marie Chauvet and two colleagues, the Chauvet Cave paintings include detailed depictions of rhinoceroses, lions, and mammoths.
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The Chauvet Cave paintings in southern France are among the oldest known cave art, dating back approximately 36,000 years.