~ Chauvet Cave Art ~

The Chauvet-Pont-d'Arc Cave in southern France is a cave that contains some of the earliest known cave paintings, Discovered on December 18, 1994, it is considered one of the most significant prehistoric art sites.

The cave was first explored by a group speleologists: One of the three, Chauvet for whom it was named.  In addition to the paintings and other human evidence, they also discovered fossilized remains, prints, and markings from a variety of animals, some of which are now extinct.  The dates have been a matter of dispute but a study published in 2012 supports placing the art in the Aurignacian period, approximately 30,000–32,000 BP.