World Religions › Prehistoric › Prehistoric ritual: burials, cave art, figurines
Painted caves of Chauvet and Lascaux
c. 36,000 (Chauvet) and 17,000 (Lascaux) years ago· Holy place· Ancient, indigenous & folk
Mostly agreed by scholarsMost historians agree; some details uncertain.
Two French caves holding some of the world's finest Ice Age paintings of animals, made deep underground.
See it on the World Religions map →What it is
Chauvet, found in 1994, holds over 400 animal images, including lions, rhinos and mammoths, painted about 36,000 years ago in charcoal and ochre, using the rock's bulges for shading. Lascaux, found in 1940 by four teenagers, has about 600 paintings and 1,500 engravings from about 17,000 years ago, including bulls over 5 meters long. Lascaux closed to visitors in 1963 after breath and lighting damaged it; both caves now have full-scale replicas.
Why it matters
They prove people 36,000 years ago made sophisticated art, and their deep, dark settings suggest ritual rather than mere decoration.
Sources and history
Radiocarbon dating of charcoal pigment and bones; hearths, torch marks and footprints on cave floors. Both are UNESCO World Heritage Sites (Lascaux 1979, Chauvet 2014).
Questions and debates
Why paint animals deep in caves: hunting magic, shamanic trance, initiation or storytelling? Chauvet's surprisingly early date was challenged but has held up.
Connections (2)
▸Painted caves of Chauvet and Lascaux is a major site of Prehistoric ritual: burials, cave art, figurinesMostly agreed by scholars
The connection
Chauvet and Lascaux are the best-known places where Ice Age people made art deep inside caves, far from daylight and living areas. Their remote placement, repeated visits over generations and care lavished on the images suggest ritual use, making them prime evidence for prehistoric ritual life.
When and where
Chauvet, Ardèche, France, discovered in 1994 by cavers Jean-Marie Chauvet, Éliette Brunel and Christian Hillaire; Lascaux, Dordogne, found in 1940 by four teenagers.
How do we know?
Radiocarbon dates from charcoal pigment; few signs of everyday living deep inside; torch marks, footprints and, at Chauvet, a cave bear skull set on a rock.
Questions and debates
Whether the caves were sanctuaries, galleries, initiation spaces or something else; images alone cannot tell us what they meant to their makers.
▸Shamanism: healers who journey to the spirit world may explain the art of Painted caves of Chauvet and LascauxDebated by scholars
The connection
Archaeologist David Lewis-Williams argued that some cave images, like grids, dots and part-human, part-animal figures, match what people see in trance states. If so, the painters may have been shamans, and the cave walls a thin membrane between this world and a spirit world beyond the rock.
When and where
Proposed in the 1980s–90s by David Lewis-Williams of South Africa and French prehistorian Jean Clottes, notably in The Shamans of Prehistory (1996).
How do we know?
Comparisons with San rock art in southern Africa, made by known shamans, and brain research on trance visions; there is no direct evidence from the Ice Age painters.
Questions and debates
Critics call trance imagery too generic and the theory untestable; rival readings include hunting magic, totems, storytelling and art for its own sake.