Thanks, Patrick. Speaking of Lascaux, I went to see Herzog's documentary
about the Chauvet cave last night. His new film Cave of Forgotten Dreams is
probably the best view I'm going to get of the Chauvet cave. With 3D glasses
in a theatre with a big screen. Herzog and co were given several hours of
visiting time over several days. It's worth seeing just to get a relatively
good look at the oldest human paintings on record (32,000 years). Now's the
time to see the film, while it's still in the theatres. Almost all of the
drawings in the cave are of animals; there's only a couple of
representations of humans. One of those is apparently female minotaur-like,
but we don't get much of a view of it in the film. The animals are
magnificent, though. A vast cave full of the oldest paintings known to man,
and what are they of? Almost all of them are representations of animals.
Rhinoceri, lions, bison, ibek, mamoths, bears, panthers, hyena...all lived
in France 32,000 years ago, apparently. There are two overlapping animals
that were drawn 5,000 years apart.
A friend of mine is writing a novel set in that time, inspired by the
Chauvet cave paintings. There's a part of the novel where the characters
descend into the cave. It's really gripping. Experiencing their utterly
ancient past, our unutterably ancient past in the dark grottos and bowels of
the earth. These paintings were done by fully human people. Deeply enchanted
by their fellow creatures. And, in turn, deeply enchanting.
ja
http://vispo.com/aleph/images/slidvid1
http://vispo.com/aleph
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