Cave Communication

Have you ever seen pictures of drawings that were made on caves? Why do you think the cave dwellers drew on the walls of their homes? What do their drawings tell you about their lives?

Even in the ancient times people used drawings and decorations in their living surroundings to communicate ideas or to tell about things they had seen.

Click below to see some cave drawings.

Imagine being a teenager out for a walk on a crisp fall day and making a discovery of a lifetime! That is exactly what happened to four teenage boys on Thursday, September 12, 1940.

As the boys were walking on a hill near the village of Montignac, they saw a hole in the ground that had opened up after a big pine tree had fallen several years before.

The curious boys made the hole larger and tumbled down into a pile of rocks that led to the entrance of a cave. With only a lamp to see with, they wandered through the cave and soon discovered the Great Hall of the Bulls. Can you imagine how excited they were to see the pictures of prehistoric animals painted on the walls of the cave?

These young men had just stumbled upon one of the most amazing archaeological discoveries of the 20 th Century! They were the first modern people to see cave drawings that were hundreds of years old!

The boys went back the next day to explore more of the cave. The farther they went into the cave the more wondrous paintings they discovered. Needless to say when people heard of this discovery they came in great numbers to see it. Scientists from all over the world came to explore the caves and view the evidence left by ancient men.

After World War II the floors of the cave were lowered and the entrance was enlarged to allow more people to visit the cave and see the amazing drawings. As many as 1,200 people visited the cave each day.

In 1955 scientists realized that bad things were happening to the cave. The drawings were beginning to deteriorate. It was discovered that the carbon dioxide in the air due to the breath of so many visitors had caused green algae and mosses to grow in the cave. On April 20, 1963, the cave was closed to the public in order to save the valuable cave paintings. CAVE CLOSED

In March of 1980, reproductions of the Great Hall of the Bulls and the Painted Gallery were built. These reproductions are housed in a half-buried structure designed to look like the original cave. Lascaux II has been open to the public since Click here to see more of the cave of Lascaux.

Now, it’s your turn. You will get a piece of crumpled brown paper to create a cave drawing of your own using crayons. Your cave drawing must communicate a message. When your picture is finished, you will share your work with your classmates and interpret each other's pictures.