Look at this flash movie of a tour of the interior of the Lascaux cave paintings

[moobu2]

I tried to link to the page where the movie would just start after you click the link automatically, but if it doesn't, just pass your mouse over to the far left and the panel will open and you can navigate around the site from there. The movie is located in the "Visit to the cave" then "begin the visit". It would probably help if you have a fast connection.

Click the link below then maximize your screen. If you haven't seen it already enjoy. So cool.

http://www.lascaux.culture.fr/index.php#/en/02_00.xml

[snagglepuss]

2. Absolutely AMAZING Thank you so much for posting.

[benld74]

3. WAY Cool!!! Thank Much

[Rainforestgoddess]

4. Thank you

That was very interesting.

[Surya Gayatri]

5. Moobu, thanks so much for the wonderful memories...

I've had the good fortune to visit Lascaux in person.

The real cave is closed to the public nowadays because the humidity from the breath of thousands of visitors attacks the pigment.

But, the perfect, life-sized replica is so amazingly well executed that the visit is still the experience of a lifetime.

While wandering through the galleries, you feel as if those figures were painted only yesterday. They are so life-like that they jump off the walls at you.

The reality of our ancestors and their breathtaking genius comes vividly to life in those panels. These were no primitive savages, for they loved beauty as we do.

[tblue37]

6. I never visitted Lascaux, but in the summer of 1971 I did get to visit

the cave paintings in Altamira, which is also closed to the public now to protect the paintings.

The experience was awe-inspiring.

[Surya Gayatri]

7. Awe-inspiring and humbling! We ain't invented nothin'!

[tblue37]

8. I wish I could have seen Lascaux in person. As amazing as Altamira is,

the paintings there are not as numerous or as varied as in Lascaux. It's like the difference between seeing a few incredible works of art hanging in a collector's home and visiting all the great works displayed in the Louvre. I am greedy. I would have loved the opportunity to experience in person the much larger and more varied collection in the Lascaux gallery!

I teach college English at Kansas University, but I also tutor in many different subjects, especially in the humanities. One of my tutoring clients is taking Art History right now, and a couple of weeks ago I was showing her how to critically analyze the images in the Altamira set. I am going to send her this video link (which I am desperately grateful for, BTW!).

My beloved son-in-law Matt is French. I plan to send this to him and my daughter, too. I know they will enjoy it.

[Surya Gayatri]

9. Hello to a Jayhawk from a former Nebraska Cornhusker. Nice to meet you, tblue!

I too was an English teacher (TOEFL) before I retired a couple of years ago.

In fact, I live in France and can visit Lascaux when I like. Just have to take the TGV from Paris down to the Dordogne.

Best to do it out of season, though. Too many tourists and long lines in the spring and summer.

[tblue37]

10. Hi back atcha. But be careful--there is another "tblue" here on DU--which is why I am tblue37.

My actual name is T. Blue; hers is not, but she came to DU first.

The other tblue and I have never met, but because we have such similar DU names, we greet each other as "Cuz" whenever we run into each other on a thread.

[Vox Moi]

11. Two of the most thought-provoking things about these paintings:

In part, it's star map.
Look at the Panel of the Black Bear and the image entitled 'Fourth Bull'
Many people regard this as the first recorded constellation, Taurus.
The Bull's eye is Aldebaran and the dots around the eyes are The Hades.
The dots over the Bull's shoulders are The Pleiades and the string of dots in front and below are Orion's belt.
- one article -
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/871930.stm

It's not about people.
The images of the animals are exquisite, rendered with great artistic capability. Some of the most beautiful drawings ever.
In contrast, people are stick figures. No portraits of a shaman or a great warrior. People magazine would not have gone over well at Lascaux 15,000 years ago. Animal Planet might have.
The collection in the cave, taken a whole, depict a mind set we will never really know. It is a connection to the natural world we can only guess at.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

14. The origin of the Zodiac has to be recent enough for the stars to be close to their current state.

Just look at "The Big Dipper" shift over 10,000 years:

[img][/img]

[moobu2]

19. It's known as the Plough to some cultures

The Big Dipper never looked like a plough to me though but looking at the older version of the Big Dipper I can see it right away.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

21. Well, that is 10,000 years in the future in the second diagram.

Picture one like Scorpio though. There's no way the tail and claws existed too long ago so the Zodiac came about in the not too distant past.

I've heard people say the Spinx is to commemorate the transition between the Ages of Virgo and Leo which would be prior to the Age of Taurus which is prior to the Age of Pisces (The age we are in now). As intriguing as that is, the star positions didn't form the constellations we have now that far back so the Zodiac didn't exist back then.

My theory is the Zodiac is likely the invention of nomadic European Gypsies who were famed for their fortune telling. That would explain it's lack of specific origin.

[Tumbulu]

18. Thanks for that link

how interesting, I was wondering if they were depictions of constellations before I even read your post.

What a treasure to be able to view these!

[Odin2005]

24. I think these caves were where youths were "initiated".

I would guess they would be given hallucinogens and then sent into the cave. Think of it like going into the cave while on an acid trip.

[left-of-center2012]

12. Beautiful !

I'm passing it along.
Thanks.

[donal dubh]

13. this is what makes this site so excellent...

that was... brilliant. the caves, the shapes of the tunnels, the paintings themselves; and the soundtrack... thanks ever so much for this.

And, as said, this is the kind of stuff that makes DU such a great site. Life is so varied. On the same page I read updates on the US election, a video of a humpback being rescued, personal tales that show the inherent decency in much of humanity, and this. Good stuff. thanks again

[Tumbulu]

17. I feel the same way- welcome! (nt)

[drynberg]

15. THIS LITTLE LASCAUX TOUR REMINDS ME OF MORE COSMIC, POWERFUL ISSUES THAN OCCUPY ME MOST OF THE TIME

Thank you for sharing a broader view of the cosmos than our day-to-day concerns, as important as they may appear to folks like myself...

[alfredo]

16. The whole site kicks ass.

[lillypaddle]

20. Excellent & amazing!

K&R

[DavidL]

22. Excellent! Thanks n/t

[Odin2005]

23. When Picasso saw the cave paintings he exclaimed "We have invented NOTHING!!!"

Those paintings dispelled myths about "primitive" hunter-gatherers being dull and stupid.

[Judi Lynn]

25. Unforgettable. Thank you, so much for this experience. n/t