In September 1940, four teenagers in the south-west of France made one of the…

In September 1940, four teenagers in the south-west of France made one of the most important archaeological discoveries of the twentieth century. While exploring the hills near the village of Montignac, they found a narrow opening in the ground. When they crawled inside with a lamp, they found themselves in a series of caves whose walls were covered with hundreds of paintings of animals. The cave became known as Lascaux.

The paintings show horses, deer, bulls and other animals, many of them drawn with remarkable skill. Some figures are more than five metres long. Scientists estimate that the paintings are around 17,000 years old, created by people who lived by hunting and gathering. These artists used natural colours made from minerals, such as red and yellow from iron-rich earth and black from charcoal. They may have applied the paint with their fingers, with brushes made from animal hair, or by blowing it through hollow bones.

The discovery changed the way many people thought about prehistoric humans. Before, they had often been imagined as simple, brutish beings with little interest in anything beyond survival. The paintings at Lascaux suggested something very different: people with a sense of beauty, careful observation of the natural world and, perhaps, complex beliefs.

Why the paintings were made remains a mystery. Some researchers believe they were part of religious ceremonies or rituals intended to bring good luck in hunting. Others point out that the animals shown are not always the ones the people ate most often, which suggests the images had a deeper, symbolic meaning. Still others think the caves may have been used to record seasons or stories that were passed from one generation to the next.

After the war, Lascaux was opened to the public and soon attracted more than a thousand visitors a day. Unfortunately, this popularity nearly destroyed it. The breath and body heat of so many people changed the temperature and humidity inside the caves, and green mould began to grow on the walls. In 1963 the caves were closed to the public in order to protect the paintings.

To allow people to see the art without causing further damage, an exact copy of part of the cave, known as Lascaux II, was opened nearby in 1983. Today, only a small number of scientists are allowed into the original cave, and only for short periods. The story of Lascaux shows both how much we can learn from the distant past and how easily that past can be lost.