Prehistoric Paintings in Pech Merle

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Pech Merle is a cave in the Lot départment in the southwest of France, near the town of Cahors. It is famous for its  prehistoric cave paintings, some of them dating back as far as 25.000 years.

I was very much impressed by the strong and somehow pure power of observation and and the strong lines of characaol. The paintings aren’t so much about color as in Lascaux for example, but I think they were meant to be seen much more in a three dimensional context. 25.000 years ago these caves were pitch black which means the people needed some sort of light source. Today the three dimensionality gets somehow lost because by the way the cave is lit but it is impressive anyway.

I was probably most impressed by the pure urge to be creative which seems to be in humans for a very, very long time.

Pech Merle is one of the few prehistoric cave which remains open to the general puplic. If you plan to visit the caves make sure that you get your tickets in advance because only a restricted number of visitors is allowed to acces the cave.

  1. Fritz Engelhardt
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    Danke für diesen Beitrag, der uns zu den Ursprüngen menschlicher Kreativität zurückführt.
    Fritz Engelhardt