Cave of Forgotten Dreams Page #5

Then we take a transparency,

and we put it

on top of the photo.

And then we trace

the underlayers of engravings.

Later, we return to the cave

and check against the contours

all the designs that we can see

and all the markings

of the bears as well

so that we can understand

each figure and event.

We have bear scratches

and then a magnificent drawing

of a mammoth done by finger

and other scratches

done over the mammoth.

So their succession

is very important

to understand what took place.

On the computer,

one can see three phases.

The first dates 40,000 years

back in time,

the one when the bear

scratched the walls.

Then a second phase

with drawings

stretching over eight feet

in height,

therefore made with a stick,

followed by the main phase

sometime around 33,000 years

or less.

It starts

with the scraping of the wall

to get to the white of the rock.

After that, the first figures

were put in place.

These were the two rhinos

attacking one another

at the bottom.

After that came

the three bulls.

- And finally, they ended

with a series of horses

going from top to bottom

and, in the final phase,

adding this very beautiful horse

that confronts the viewers

when they arrive in the cave.

- When you do a synthesis

of the composition,

there is a kind of dynamic

circular movement

going from the bottom

to the right,

towards the center,

like a circle.

It obviously creates

a very strong dynamic

that is reinforced here

by the oblique movement

of the horses.

- It's the force

of the contrast,

the fact that they've played

with the contrast

and with the shape of the wall.

It's like an easel.

They've used the surface,

made use of the material,

and mixed material to create

this very strong impression.

By comparing

all the paintings in the cave,

it seems certain

that the horses of this panel

were created

by one single individual.

But in the immediate vicinity

of the horses,

there are figures of animals

overlapping with each other.

The striking point here

is that in cases like this,

after carbon dating,

there are strong indications

that some overlapping figures

were drawn

almost 5,000 years apart.

The sequence

and duration of time

is unimaginable for us today.

We are locked in history,

and they were not.

Despite this blurring of time

and the anonymity

of the artists,

there's one individual

who can be singled out.

Dominique Baffier is a scholar

of Paleolithic culture.

Here on the right, she examines

the cluster of palm prints

with her colleague

Valrie Feruglio.

We are currently working

on this large panel

that was covered

with positive handprints.

We've been able to put forward,

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