A WORD FROM MRS ALLEGRO, OUR TOURISM & CULTURE EXPERT

18 December 1994. 20:00. Jean-Marie Chauvet and two other French speleologists (cave explorers) crawled into a hole and found a cave. One that had not been seen by humans for 20 000 years. The three amateur speleologists had just discovered the first works of art created in the history of mankind. Ta-da!

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WHAT OUR TWITTERATI EXPERTS SAY...

Me cave man draw cave wall. You come Ardèche see pretty Chauvet cave #culture #ancestors #humanity

THE REAL FAKE CHAUVET CAVE

FACE THE UNI! CHALLENGES

Describe this project in four words:

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THEME: INVENTIONS - ENERGY – ENVIRONMENT TRANSPORT - EDUCATION & SOCIAL TOURISM & CULTURE

UNI !THEME sheets

Every day, the European Union (EU) invests in its nearly 300 regions. The UNI! THEME sheets will help you discover dozens of examples showing the work of the EU’s regional policy. They cover many areas like the environment, education, health, energy and transport. Here is one of these stories...

Regional and Urban Policy

More info on the EU’s regional policy: http://europa.eu/!hm43kn

More THEME sheets on the UNI! website: http://europa.eu/!Cb39Du

Do you know this game?

is the first game where strategy and solidarity are one!

Find it here: http://ec.europa.eu/ regional_policy/uni/index_fr.cfm

When the Chauvet cave was discovered, a cavern was found. Its walls are entirely covered by thousands of paintings dating 36 000 years before present. To protect this heritage, France and Europe worked together to make an identical cave nearby, to satisfy visitors’ understandable curiosity.

Wild beasts

Drawings on cave walls by prehistoric humans are called ‘parietal art’. At Chauvet, the scientific experts have found thousands of paintings and engravings, including over 400 pictures of animals. As well as showing us our ancestors’ artistic side, these wall paint-ings tell us that long ago, ferocious animals like bears, rhinoceros, bison, mammoths, and prides of lions lived in Europe.

Talented, like film makers

The people who painted the animals in the Chauvet cave were obviously very talented artists. With very simple drawing tools, the cave people managed to draw scenes such as hunts on the walls. When you look at them, it’s like being there!

N o r t h S e a

B l a c k S e a

M e d i t e r r a n e a n S e a

B a l t i c

S e a

A d r i a t i c S e a

A t l a n t i c

O c e a n

I o n i a n S e a

Monaco

Rossija

Su

El Djazair

El Maghreb

Lebanon

Tounis JoIsrael

Moldova

Poranešna Jugoslovenska

Republika Makedonija

CrnaGora

SanMarino

Andorra

Belarus

Ukraina

Bosna iHercegovina

Shqipëria

Srbija

Kosovo

Österreich

België / Belgique

България /Bulgaria

Schweiz /Suisse / Svizzera

Κύπρος / Kypros

CeskáRepublika

Deutschland

Danmark

España

Ελλάδα /Elláda

Hrvatska

Magyarország

Éire

Island

Italia

Liechtenstein

Luxembourg

Malta

Nederland

Portugal

România

Sverige

Slovenija

UnitedKingdom

France

Türkiye

Polska

Slovensko

Lietuva

Latvija

Eesti

Suomi

Norge

West Bank

Rossija

See it yourself without causing damage

Since its discovery in 1994, millions of people have wanted to see man’s first art gallery. However, visiting it can damage it, so the general public are not allowed in.

To keep everyone happy, several public partners, including the European Commission, invested money to make a replica (copy) of the cave. Inside this replica, which opened in 2015, you can see all the drawings from the ‘real’ cave. With this attraction, the region expects 300 000 people to visit each year. A flood of people that will be great for the local economy!

Did you know?To describe when things happened a long time ago, archaeologists use the expression ‘Before Present’ (BP). This present was chosen at random: it means 1 January 1950.

IT’S A GREAT PROJECT!

MORE INFO

1

Have you ever visited a cave?

2

Do you know the difference between a speleologist and an archaeologist?

3

Can you see any similarities between cave art and graffiti

in our city streets?

THE THREE QUESTIONS