Lascaux Cave Paintings (PHOTOS): Rare And Never-Seen Photos From LIFE.com

On a warm afternoon in 1940 in southwestern France, two rabbit-hunting schoolboys made a startling, historic discovery.

As their dog chased a hare down a hole beside a downed tree, the boys quickly followed suit. Once underground, they stepped into the "Versailles of Prehistory," a series of caves known today as Lascaux, where stunning and remarkably-preserved paintings, some believed to be up to 18,000 years old, line the walls.

The following photographs are a small sample of a series shot by LIFE's Ralph Morse. In 1947, Morse journeyed to Lascaux and became the first photographer to document the astonishingly detailed, colorful Cro-Magnon paintings on film. Some of these photos have not been seen until now.

Be sure to check out the amazing full gallery from LIFE.com.

Photos and captions courtesy of LIFE.com

The reds and yellows were created from ground, colored earth, while charred bone and soot were used for dark shading, and green was made from manganese oxide.
"Most people don't realize how huge some of the paintings are," recalls Morse. "There are pictures of animals there that are ten, fifteen feet long, and more."
Morse's wife Ruth sits at a photo-captioning desk while locals gather to see the cave brightly lit for the first time.

SEE THE FULL GALLERY OF PHOTOS FROM LIFE.COM

Comments

[smolensk-lies]

03:39 AM on 09/17/2010

an amazing culture there in France 18,000 years ago. they likely also crossed the Atlantic by first hopping on the now submerged north Azores, and landing on the Grand Banks.

the bifaced hunting tools found at the Meadowcroft Rock Shelter, dated 16-19,000 years ago - and exactly like those in (pre)France - go a long way towards establishing a link, and endig the silly Clovis-first theories

again an amazing culture

[Weirdo]

08:57 PM on 09/16/2010

Those Cro-Magnons could draw a heck of a lot better than I can.

Fantastic stuff.

[oregonrain]

06:36 PM on 09/15/2010

Incredible !!!!!!!!

[Forester]

04:03 PM on 09/15/2010

There is something very interesting about how there is just one single depiction of a human, and he appears to be wounded, arou sed, and about to be crushed by a wounded bison.

If you haven't seen the French Ministry of Culture website - check it out.

http://www.lascaux.culture.fr/index.php?lng=en

[seegray]

11:15 PM on 09/16/2010

With a virtual tour of the cave:
http://www.lascaux.culture.fr/#/en/00.xml

[ValdaDeDieu]

12:48 PM on 09/15/2010

All museums should be in caves. Seems the climate there is ideal for preservation of art.

[WYHKTai-Tai]

09:13 AM on 09/15/2010

We visited these caves in 2006. Fantastic to see! The caves and the paintings are HUGE. The thing that struck me as most "odd" was that except for the horses, the animals had a fairly accurate shape. The horses were extremely similar to ancient Chinese paintings, big-f@t body, small head and long delicate skinny legs. Here in China they're called "mongolian horses" As the Mongolian horses in real life are very sturdy with thin legs.

Perhaps there was a migration of the humans or of the horses.

The Lescaux Caves and that whole region of France is so very worth a visit. Unbelievable beauty, (& unbeatable food & wine) :)))

[WYHKTai-Tai]

09:20 AM on 09/15/2010

Actually, it was a "carefully executed replica" of the caves, Lescaux II, that we went through. The real ones are closed to the public, but we were told that the size and shape were as exact as possible.

[DJlaysitup]

01:46 PM on 09/14/2010

It's fun to try and guess what these caves were used for. Many guess that these were sacred places where only the elders were permitted for special ceremonies. But nobody knows. Maybe they were the equivalent of our current grade schools/daycare centers. Our 1st grade classes always have A,B,C's and numbers on the walls as teaching aids. Since the knowledge they most needed would be to identify prey/dangerous animals - maybe that's what the pictures were for.

Plus - a cave would be a perfect spot since it would reduce the number of able-bodies required to maintain security while the rest of the clan hunted and foraged.

Lotsa possibilities.

[lldem1]

02:32 PM on 09/14/2010

or someone just liked to paint. to have been able to paint with perspective and using the contours of the wall to shape the horse's neck obviously took a lot of practice. my guess is that our ancestors were a lot more advanced than we give them credit.

[rolfruben]

08:02 PM on 09/14/2010

No "perspective" here.

[WindySailor]

03:19 PM on 09/16/2010

They were living quarters. The wife wanted wallpaper, but the husband couldn't find any she liked.

[desertdweller]

01:15 PM on 09/14/2010

Surely, these paintings can't be more than 5,000 years old. Why aren't there depictions of dinosaurs?

[quovadiszero]

05:45 PM on 09/14/2010

Asteroid hits earth 65 million years ago = no more dinos

[ferguskhan]

10:17 PM on 09/14/2010

Dude, it was sarcasm.

[BeBop33]

12:54 PM on 09/14/2010

With regard to painting "in the dark"...don't forget that the optic physiology of hominids from that era was probably markedly different than it is today. It stands to reason, as they had only fire light for illumination at night and no ambient light at all to speak of, their visual acuity in low light was probably a lot more pronounced. The rods and cones were probably super sensitive, a product of the natural survival evolution. So they probably were able to operate pretty well in dimly lit spaces.

What's really amazing is their facility with technique and materials. And the instinct and diesire to create such fully formed figures. What we see here isn't just a record of the hunt but the birth of human creativity. Pretty cool stuff...
render such

[DJlaysitup]

01:12 PM on 09/14/2010

Also, it would probably be a lot more comfortable (and conducive to creativity) to paint in an enclosed place where the door could be guarded. Remember, back in the day, many of the animals they ate tried to eat them back (and were no doubt often successful).

[rolfruben]

08:01 PM on 09/14/2010

Chauvet Cave paintings began about 37,000 years ago, so you'll have to push the date of "birth of human creativity" back a bit...about 19,000 years. And, are you saying that "creativity" is witnessed exclusively in painting? Surely humans were creative even very long before Cauvet.

[rolfruben]

08:06 PM on 09/14/2010

Chauvet

[Bradley Moonves]

12:06 PM on 09/14/2010

The story told by the photographer, Ralph Morse, on Life.com is wonderful stuff. Now THAT's history!

[Luca]

11:36 AM on 09/14/2010

The truth about 'cave paintings'? As is true today, folks painted outdoors. Back then it was on bark, so all that stuff is long gone. If someone didn't have talent, and because preparing bark for painting was labor intensive, the talentless were told, 'Why don't you try practicing in the the cave.' Sadly, this is all that did survive.

[SegoLily1]

12:35 PM on 09/14/2010

Actually, it is more likely that most of these murals and drawings had a religious purpose and were done inside of some designated sacred space, like a temple, that celebrated the natural world and the creation drama. This stuff is all over, even in North America.

[greyhound2]

11:49 AM on 09/16/2010

Some suggest a religion based on an Animal God, who lived deep in the earth and gave permission to kill for food.

[WindySailor]

03:24 PM on 09/16/2010

I see no evidence of any religious connection whatsoever. That's a conclusion that is supported by no evidence. It is more likely a chronicling of familiar fauna, a depiction of game overcome by the hunter, or art for the sake of art.

[den1953]

11:30 AM on 09/14/2010

Wonder what Jeebus would say about the paintings?

[SegoLily1]

12:31 PM on 09/14/2010

Jesus would probably enjoy the celebration of animal life here which is dipicting particular phases of the creation drama, which is probably what this sacred space was used for, a temple complex that had a component that revered the natural world and its role in the ascent of mankind. This kind of thing is all over the ancient world, from Egypt to China, most of these sacred spaces were temples, like stonehenge and others. Some of them have been found recently in Turkey that are tens of thousands of years old.

[WindySailor]

03:25 PM on 09/16/2010

He would say, "Those are cool. Can you do one for me?"

[PWM]

11:14 AM on 09/14/2010

You can be sure of one thing. When these paintings were being made some conservative was critical of it.

[desertdweller]

01:16 PM on 09/14/2010

"some conservative was critical of it" and like John Ashcroft, ordered them to be covered with expensive drapes.

[MrsFonebone]

10:59 AM on 09/14/2010

Great pictures, too bad that there's the assumption--of course--that Cro Magnon men did this, as of course the gender roles were exactly the same now as then, 17,000 years ago and women could not have been creative then, either.

[tice]

11:15 AM on 09/14/2010

Where did it say that Cro Magnon men exclusively did it?

[binxterdoodles]

12:44 PM on 09/14/2010

It was right before the section explaining how the men were the only ones smart enough to mix the paint and right after the part explaining how the Cro Magnon men made $1 in deer hides for every $0.75 in deer hides that the women made.

[JaxReader]

11:59 AM on 09/14/2010

Even though that would have made the most sense (Men having made these specific paintings since the me\ales would typically do the hunting/hunting rituals, and the paintings are mostly of game and hunting) the article never says that it was men or women.

[Fez]

10:58 AM on 09/14/2010

One huge question that has never been answered about these and other cave paintings... how were such paintings made in the dark? Even if torches were used, the light would be shadowy and weak. How were paintings with such colors and elegant proportions made in the dark?

[seagullking]

11:12 AM on 09/14/2010

Interesting question, but there may be many variables to consider with the changing landscape over 18,000 years. Perhaps there was a source of light that's now covered with rocks, or growth. It is astonishing, regardless, how sophisticated the works are.. I recall reading about this in either Nat. Geographic, or perhaps LIFE itself quite some time ago. Its great there's more where that came from.

[WindySailor]

03:26 PM on 09/16/2010

Flashlights.