Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Lascaux: Versailles of Prehistory

 Regular readers know how I love stories like this. It's hard to believe the caves were discovered 70 years ago. Here LIFE takes us on a journey of unpublished images accompanied by updated text. There are 15 or 16 images in all.  Enjoy.
September 12, 1940. A warm afternoon in southwestern France. As two schoolboys hunt rabbits on a ridge covered with pine, oak, and blackberry brambles, their dog chases a hare down a hole beside a downed tree. Widening the hole, removing rocks, the boys follow -- and enter not merely another world, but another time. Underground, they discover "a Versailles of prehistory" -- a series of caves, today collectively known as Lascaux, boasting wall paintings up to 18,000 years old. 
The amazing images are HERE.

And so it goes.
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1 comments:

Mark said...

I love this stuff too and you always pick the best ones. Doesn't it make you wonder what could be right under the ground you're walking on? it does me.
Thanks.
Your Friend, m.

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