1 00:00:01,000 --> 00:00:04,074 Cave.Of.Forgotten.Dreams.2010.1080p.BrRip.x264.YIFY 2 00:01:38,483 --> 00:01:40,110 This is the Ardèche River 3 00:01:40,218 --> 00:01:42,186 in southern France. 4 00:01:42,287 --> 00:01:44,721 Less than a quarter of a mile from here, 5 00:01:44,823 --> 00:01:46,848 three explorers set out 6 00:01:46,958 --> 00:01:52,760 a few days before Christmas in 1994. 7 00:01:52,864 --> 00:01:55,799 They came along this way. 8 00:01:55,901 --> 00:02:00,235 They were seeking drafts of air emanating from the ground, 9 00:02:00,338 --> 00:02:04,570 which would point to the presence of caves. 10 00:02:04,676 --> 00:02:07,668 Eventually, they sensed a subtle airflow 11 00:02:07,779 --> 00:02:10,077 and began clearing away rocks, 12 00:02:10,181 --> 00:02:14,743 revealing a narrow shaft into the cliff. 13 00:02:14,853 --> 00:02:16,184 It was so narrow 14 00:02:16,288 --> 00:02:20,486 that a person could barely squeeze through it. 15 00:02:20,592 --> 00:02:24,187 They descended into the unknown. 16 00:02:24,296 --> 00:02:27,788 They were about to make one of the greatest discoveries 17 00:02:27,899 --> 00:02:31,960 in the history of human culture. 18 00:02:39,010 --> 00:02:41,570 At first, the cave did not appear 19 00:02:41,680 --> 00:02:43,944 to contain anything special, 20 00:02:44,049 --> 00:02:47,883 aside from being particularly beautiful. 21 00:02:53,892 --> 00:02:58,852 But then deep inside, they found this. 22 00:03:11,276 --> 00:03:15,508 It would turn out that this cave was pristine. 23 00:03:15,614 --> 00:03:21,951 It had been perfectly sealed for tens of thousands of years. 24 00:03:22,053 --> 00:03:25,511 It contained by far the oldest cave paintings, 25 00:03:25,624 --> 00:03:29,560 dating back some 32,000 years. 26 00:03:29,661 --> 00:03:33,825 In fact, they are the oldest paintings ever discovered, 27 00:03:33,932 --> 00:03:37,663 more than twice as old as any other. 28 00:04:16,508 --> 00:04:20,444 In honor of its leading discoverer, Jean-Marie Chauvet, 29 00:04:20,545 --> 00:04:25,881 the cave now bears the name Chauvet Cave. 30 00:04:29,220 --> 00:04:31,518 This is the road in the Ardèche Gorge 31 00:04:31,623 --> 00:04:34,387 leading to the cave. 32 00:04:34,492 --> 00:04:37,484 It is early spring. 33 00:04:37,595 --> 00:04:40,530 We have been given an unprecedented endorsement 34 00:04:40,632 --> 00:04:42,862 by the French Ministry of Culture 35 00:04:42,967 --> 00:04:46,926 to film inside the cave. 36 00:04:47,038 --> 00:04:49,302 From the first day of its discovery, 37 00:04:49,407 --> 00:04:53,104 the importance of the cave was immediately recognized, 38 00:04:53,211 --> 00:04:57,910 and access was shut off categorically. 39 00:04:58,016 --> 00:05:03,079 Only a small group of scientists is allowed to enter. 40 00:05:03,188 --> 00:05:06,351 They are archaeologists, art historians, 41 00:05:06,458 --> 00:05:12,021 paleontologists, and geologists, among others. 42 00:05:12,130 --> 00:05:15,156 They are here to perform their studies together 43 00:05:15,266 --> 00:05:18,064 during a few short weeks at the end of March 44 00:05:18,169 --> 00:05:20,637 and the beginning of April. 45 00:05:20,739 --> 00:05:22,400 This is one of the rare times 46 00:05:22,507 --> 00:05:25,601 anyone, with the exception of two guards, 47 00:05:25,710 --> 00:05:29,612 is allowed inside the cave. 48 00:05:40,258 --> 00:05:46,219 The cave is like a frozen flash of a moment in time. 49 00:05:46,331 --> 00:05:48,822 The reason for its pristine condition 50 00:05:48,933 --> 00:05:51,527 is this rock face. 51 00:05:51,636 --> 00:05:55,436 Some 20,000 years ago, it came tumbling down 52 00:05:55,540 --> 00:05:57,235 in a massive rock slide, 53 00:05:57,342 --> 00:06:00,436 sealing off the original entrance to the cave 54 00:06:00,545 --> 00:06:04,003 and creating a perfect time capsule. 55 00:06:23,067 --> 00:06:27,936 A wooden walkway leads to the entrance of Chauvet Cave. 56 00:06:31,376 --> 00:06:35,005 The narrow tunnel through which the discoverers crawled 57 00:06:35,113 --> 00:06:36,341 has been widened 58 00:06:36,447 --> 00:06:38,881 and locked with a massive steel door 59 00:06:38,983 --> 00:06:41,076 like a bank vault. 60 00:06:44,489 --> 00:06:48,983 Once we pass through this door, it will be locked behind us 61 00:06:49,093 --> 00:06:53,189 so as not to compromise the delicate climate inside. 62 00:06:57,068 --> 00:07:00,526 For this, our first exploration into the cave, 63 00:07:00,638 --> 00:07:04,734 we are using a tiny, nonprofessional camera rig. 64 00:07:08,413 --> 00:07:10,938 In this first narrow holding room, 65 00:07:11,049 --> 00:07:12,482 we are fitted with sterile boots 66 00:07:12,584 --> 00:07:16,680 and given safety instructions. 67 00:07:19,991 --> 00:07:21,583 We have this, okay. 68 00:07:21,693 --> 00:07:23,718 Once you've set this on the rope, 69 00:07:23,828 --> 00:07:25,022 you don't touch it. 70 00:07:25,129 --> 00:07:27,063 Jean Clottes was the first scientist 71 00:07:27,165 --> 00:07:31,795 to inspect the cave a few days after its discovery. 72 00:07:31,903 --> 00:07:34,667 For five years, until his retirement, 73 00:07:34,772 --> 00:07:38,173 he served as head of the scientific team. 74 00:07:46,784 --> 00:07:50,447 Our guide leads us down a first sloping tunnel, 75 00:07:50,555 --> 00:07:55,015 which ends in a vertical drop to the cave floor. 76 00:09:16,941 --> 00:09:19,136 Since our film crew has been limited 77 00:09:19,243 --> 00:09:20,835 to a maximum of four, 78 00:09:20,945 --> 00:09:24,676 we must all perform technical tasks. 79 00:09:24,782 --> 00:09:27,910 In addition, our time in the cave 80 00:09:28,019 --> 00:09:30,317 has been severely restricted. 81 00:09:30,421 --> 00:09:32,753 And I will take one light as well. 82 00:09:32,857 --> 00:09:35,553 So it's five past 3:00. 83 00:09:35,660 --> 00:09:38,220 We have one hour. 84 00:09:45,870 --> 00:09:47,861 Apart from time constrictions, 85 00:09:47,972 --> 00:09:51,066 we are not allowed to touch anything in the cave 86 00:09:51,175 --> 00:09:55,305 or ever step off the two-foot-wide walkway. 87 00:09:59,684 --> 00:10:03,017 We can use only three flat cold light panels 88 00:10:03,121 --> 00:10:07,524 powered by battery belts. 89 00:10:07,625 --> 00:10:09,923 - You see how, when they made the passageways, 90 00:10:10,028 --> 00:10:13,589 they protected the stalagmites. 91 00:10:16,934 --> 00:10:19,027 It's a nice touch. 92 00:10:19,137 --> 00:10:22,971 Inevitably, moving along in single file, 93 00:10:23,074 --> 00:10:25,736 the film crew will have no hiding places 94 00:10:25,843 --> 00:10:28,937 to get out of the shot. 95 00:10:33,384 --> 00:10:35,909 The first large chamber we come to 96 00:10:36,020 --> 00:10:39,251 is the original entrance to the cave. 97 00:10:39,357 --> 00:10:42,520 In prehistoric times, before the rock slide, 98 00:10:42,627 --> 00:10:45,687 daylight must have illuminated this. 99 00:10:45,797 --> 00:10:49,096 - So on the left when we arrived inside the cave, 100 00:10:49,200 --> 00:10:51,225 you can see the entrance, 101 00:10:51,335 --> 00:10:54,463 and that was the archaeological entrance. 102 00:10:54,572 --> 00:10:56,631 People came into the cave level, 103 00:10:56,741 --> 00:10:58,470 not like us, down a ladder. 104 00:10:58,576 --> 00:11:00,373 And then the cliff collapsed. 105 00:11:00,478 --> 00:11:04,414 And then we've got the rubble from the cliff. 106 00:11:04,515 --> 00:11:06,312 From outside, you cannot see it. 107 00:11:06,417 --> 00:11:07,816 From inside, you can. 108 00:11:10,888 --> 00:11:13,015 Over there, you've got the dots, 109 00:11:13,124 --> 00:11:15,991 the red dots. 110 00:11:16,094 --> 00:11:18,585 Those are the red dots which I saw first 111 00:11:18,696 --> 00:11:21,324 when I came into the cave, 112 00:11:21,432 --> 00:11:25,300 big dots made with the palm of the hand. 113 00:11:28,206 --> 00:11:33,644 Well, here we have... - we have a big cave bear skull, right? 114 00:11:33,744 --> 00:11:35,268 Male, probably. 115 00:11:35,379 --> 00:11:41,181 And you'll see many others. 116 00:11:45,089 --> 00:11:48,889 You see, in this big chamber, which is a really huge... - 117 00:11:48,993 --> 00:11:50,483 it's the biggest in the cave... - 118 00:11:50,595 --> 00:11:54,224 there are no paintings except right at the end. 119 00:11:54,332 --> 00:11:55,924 So this is probably relevant, 120 00:11:56,033 --> 00:12:00,163 because when the entrance was still open, 121 00:12:00,271 --> 00:12:02,398 there must have been some light here. 122 00:12:02,507 --> 00:12:06,534 So they put the paintings, really, in the complete dark. 123 00:12:10,214 --> 00:12:12,546 See here. 124 00:12:16,254 --> 00:12:19,587 This is a cave bear painted in black. 125 00:12:19,690 --> 00:12:21,624 The paintings looked so fresh 126 00:12:21,726 --> 00:12:24,991 that there were initial doubts about their authenticity, 127 00:12:25,096 --> 00:12:26,859 but this picture has a layer 128 00:12:26,964 --> 00:12:29,330 of calcite and concretions over it 129 00:12:29,433 --> 00:12:33,267 that take thousands of years to grow. 130 00:12:33,371 --> 00:12:38,502 This was the first proof that it was not a forgery. 131 00:12:38,609 --> 00:12:41,373 - A beautiful horse here, 132 00:12:41,479 --> 00:12:44,607 one of the most beautiful in the cave. 133 00:12:44,715 --> 00:12:46,808 And what is touching 134 00:12:46,918 --> 00:12:52,254 is that it looks as if it had been done yesterday. 135 00:12:52,356 --> 00:12:57,726 Look how fresh it looks with that technique. 136 00:13:01,199 --> 00:13:03,724 And here we have, behind the horse, 137 00:13:03,834 --> 00:13:08,066 there are two mammoths, big mammoths. 138 00:13:08,172 --> 00:13:11,369 And here you can see cave bear scratches, 139 00:13:11,475 --> 00:13:14,205 and the cave bear scratches are not the same color. 140 00:13:14,312 --> 00:13:16,212 They look like they might have been made 141 00:13:16,314 --> 00:13:19,715 5,000, 10,000 years earlier. 142 00:13:24,722 --> 00:13:28,021 We are coming here to one of the great spots of the cave, 143 00:13:28,125 --> 00:13:32,459 which is the famous panel of the horses. 144 00:13:32,563 --> 00:13:36,465 It is of the... - one of the size of a small recess. 145 00:13:36,567 --> 00:13:38,398 And this small hole there 146 00:13:38,502 --> 00:13:41,733 is where water comes out, gurgling, 147 00:13:41,839 --> 00:13:45,434 after there's been something like a week of rain. 148 00:13:45,543 --> 00:13:48,410 And that probably explains 149 00:13:48,512 --> 00:13:54,940 why all those animals were painted around that hole. 150 00:13:55,052 --> 00:14:01,321 It's one of the great works of art in the world. 151 00:14:03,794 --> 00:14:06,786 For these Paleolithic painters, 152 00:14:06,897 --> 00:14:10,094 the play of light and shadows from their torches 153 00:14:10,201 --> 00:14:14,137 could possibly have looked something like this. 154 00:14:16,741 --> 00:14:22,976 For them, the animals perhaps appeared moving, living. 155 00:14:23,080 --> 00:14:26,243 We should note that the artists painted this bison 156 00:14:26,350 --> 00:14:29,581 with eight legs, suggesting movement, 157 00:14:29,687 --> 00:14:33,521 almost a form of proto-cinema. 158 00:14:44,435 --> 00:14:46,801 The walls themselves are not flat 159 00:14:46,904 --> 00:14:49,839 but have their own three-dimensional dynamic, 160 00:14:49,940 --> 00:14:56,368 their own movement, which was utilized by the artists. 161 00:14:56,480 --> 00:15:01,281 In the upper left corner, another multilegged animal. 162 00:15:01,385 --> 00:15:03,580 And the rhino to the right 163 00:15:03,688 --> 00:15:06,885 seems also to have the illusion of movement, 164 00:15:06,991 --> 00:15:10,859 like frames in an animated film. 165 00:15:22,940 --> 00:15:26,103 The painters of the cave seem to speak to us 166 00:15:26,210 --> 00:15:30,237 from a familiar yet distant universe. 167 00:15:30,348 --> 00:15:32,316 But what we are seeing here 168 00:15:32,416 --> 00:15:36,113 is part of millions of spatial points. 169 00:15:40,991 --> 00:15:44,722 Today scientists have mapped every single millimeter 170 00:15:44,829 --> 00:15:48,993 of the cave using laser scanners. 171 00:15:49,100 --> 00:15:53,434 The position of every feature in the cave is known. 172 00:15:59,877 --> 00:16:03,836 This is the shape of the cave in its entirety. 173 00:16:03,948 --> 00:16:10,353 From end to end, it is about 1,300 feet long. 174 00:16:10,454 --> 00:16:11,716 This map is the basis 175 00:16:11,822 --> 00:16:15,849 for all scientific projects being done here. 176 00:16:20,064 --> 00:16:26,628 - We are working to create new understanding of the cave 177 00:16:26,737 --> 00:16:31,071 through that precision, through scientific methods, 178 00:16:31,175 --> 00:16:35,703 but that's not, I think, the main goal. 179 00:16:35,813 --> 00:16:38,611 The main goal is to create stories 180 00:16:38,716 --> 00:16:43,312 about what could have happened in that cave during the past. 181 00:16:43,421 --> 00:16:44,786 It is like you are creating 182 00:16:44,889 --> 00:16:46,948 the phone directory of Manhattan. 183 00:16:47,057 --> 00:16:51,721 Four million precise entries, but do they dream? 184 00:16:51,829 --> 00:16:53,956 Do they cry at night? 185 00:16:54,064 --> 00:16:55,395 What are their hopes? 186 00:16:55,499 --> 00:16:56,966 What are their families? 187 00:16:57,067 --> 00:16:59,194 You'll... - we'll never know from the phone directory. 188 00:16:59,303 --> 00:17:00,736 - Definitely. 189 00:17:00,838 --> 00:17:04,604 We will never know, because past is definitely lost. 190 00:17:04,708 --> 00:17:07,700 We will never reconstruct the past. 191 00:17:07,812 --> 00:17:10,178 We can only create a representation 192 00:17:10,281 --> 00:17:14,115 of what alre... - what exists now, today. 193 00:17:14,218 --> 00:17:15,913 You are a human being. 194 00:17:16,020 --> 00:17:17,214 I am a human being. 195 00:17:17,321 --> 00:17:20,415 And here when you come to that cave, 196 00:17:20,524 --> 00:17:22,287 of course there are some things. 197 00:17:22,393 --> 00:17:24,224 I have my own background. 198 00:17:24,328 --> 00:17:26,319 What is your background, if I may ask? 199 00:17:26,430 --> 00:17:29,160 - Well, I used to be a circus man before, 200 00:17:29,266 --> 00:17:30,893 but I switched to archaeology. 201 00:17:31,001 --> 00:17:32,161 Circus? 202 00:17:32,269 --> 00:17:34,203 Doing what? Lion tamer? 203 00:17:34,305 --> 00:17:36,569 - Well, mostly... - not lion tamer, 204 00:17:36,674 --> 00:17:40,940 but mostly unicycle and juggling, yeah. 205 00:17:41,045 --> 00:17:44,378 The first time I entered to Chauvet Cave, 206 00:17:44,482 --> 00:17:48,384 I had a chance to get in during five days, 207 00:17:48,486 --> 00:17:51,216 and it was so powerful. 208 00:17:51,322 --> 00:17:56,089 Then every night, I was dreaming of lions. 209 00:17:56,193 --> 00:18:00,186 And every day was the same shock for me. 210 00:18:00,297 --> 00:18:02,060 It was an emotional shock. 211 00:18:02,166 --> 00:18:05,932 I mean, I'm a scientist but a human too. 212 00:18:06,036 --> 00:18:10,803 And after five days, I decided not to go back in the cave, 213 00:18:10,908 --> 00:18:17,575 because I needed time just to relax and take time to... - 214 00:18:17,681 --> 00:18:18,648 To absorb it? 215 00:18:18,749 --> 00:18:20,512 - To absorb it, yeah. Yeah. 216 00:18:20,618 --> 00:18:23,382 And you dreamt not of paintings of lions 217 00:18:23,487 --> 00:18:25,011 but of real lions. 218 00:18:25,122 --> 00:18:28,250 - Of both, of both, definitely. 219 00:18:28,359 --> 00:18:29,656 Yeah. 220 00:18:29,760 --> 00:18:31,660 And you were afraid in your dreams? 221 00:18:31,762 --> 00:18:33,195 - I was not afraid, no. 222 00:18:33,297 --> 00:18:34,491 No, no, I was not afraid. 223 00:18:34,598 --> 00:18:42,801 It was more a feeling of powerful things and deep things, 224 00:18:42,907 --> 00:18:50,678 a way to understand things which is not a direct way. 225 00:18:50,781 --> 00:18:52,043 - Uh, sorry. 226 00:18:52,149 --> 00:18:54,140 Silence, please. 227 00:18:54,251 --> 00:18:55,878 Please don't move. 228 00:18:55,986 --> 00:18:58,955 We're going to listen to the silence in the cave, 229 00:18:59,056 --> 00:19:04,221 and perhaps we can even hear our own heartbeats. 230 00:22:29,401 --> 00:22:31,028 These images are memories 231 00:22:31,136 --> 00:22:35,095 of long-forgotten dreams. 232 00:22:35,206 --> 00:22:40,405 Is this their heartbeat or ours? 233 00:22:40,512 --> 00:22:43,345 Will we ever be able to understand the vision 234 00:22:43,448 --> 00:22:48,317 of the artists across such an abyss of time? 235 00:22:52,624 --> 00:22:57,891 There is an aura of melodrame in this landscape. 236 00:22:57,996 --> 00:23:01,432 It could be straight out of a Wagner opera 237 00:23:01,533 --> 00:23:05,299 or a painting of German Romanticists. 238 00:23:05,403 --> 00:23:09,737 Could this be our connection to them? 239 00:23:09,841 --> 00:23:13,572 This staging of a landscape as an operatic event 240 00:23:13,678 --> 00:23:17,273 does not belong to the Romanticists alone. 241 00:23:17,382 --> 00:23:20,374 Stone Age men might have had a similar sense 242 00:23:20,485 --> 00:23:23,511 of inner landscapes, and it seems natural 243 00:23:23,622 --> 00:23:26,887 that there's a whole cluster of Paleolithic caves 244 00:23:26,992 --> 00:23:28,687 right around here. 245 00:23:30,061 --> 00:23:33,155 - The Chauvet Cave is just here at the top of this cliff, 246 00:23:33,264 --> 00:23:36,597 but the Chauvet Cave is also associated 247 00:23:36,701 --> 00:23:38,259 to this natural feature, 248 00:23:38,370 --> 00:23:42,466 this beautiful arch called Pont d'Arc. 249 00:23:42,574 --> 00:23:47,375 Maybe this Pont d'Arc, in the mythology of the people, 250 00:23:47,479 --> 00:23:51,882 was not only a landmark but a mark also 251 00:23:51,983 --> 00:23:55,214 in the imagination, in the stories, 252 00:23:55,320 --> 00:23:56,719 in the mythology 253 00:23:56,821 --> 00:24:00,552 that was important for them to understand the world. 254 00:24:00,659 --> 00:24:03,719 But what kind of world was it 255 00:24:03,828 --> 00:24:06,353 for Paleolithic people back then? 256 00:24:06,464 --> 00:24:10,127 - 35,000 years ago, the Europe... - 257 00:24:10,235 --> 00:24:14,797 Europe was covered by glaciers, and in this glacial Europe, 258 00:24:14,906 --> 00:24:21,141 you have to imagine a climate dry, cold, but with sun also. 259 00:24:21,246 --> 00:24:22,645 That was important. 260 00:24:22,747 --> 00:24:25,739 In this place, for example, 261 00:24:25,850 --> 00:24:27,909 you have to imagine woolly rhinos, 262 00:24:28,019 --> 00:24:29,782 mammoths along the rivers. 263 00:24:29,888 --> 00:24:31,515 In the forest, 264 00:24:31,623 --> 00:24:37,061 you had Megaloceros deers, horses, reindeers, bisons, 265 00:24:37,162 --> 00:24:40,461 and also ibex or the antelopes moving. 266 00:24:40,565 --> 00:24:42,533 So it was very rich. 267 00:24:42,634 --> 00:24:44,932 The biomass in this part of Europe 268 00:24:45,036 --> 00:24:47,129 was very important 269 00:24:47,238 --> 00:24:50,537 for the development of human but also carnivores. 270 00:24:50,642 --> 00:24:54,976 So you have to imagine lions, bears, leopards, 271 00:24:55,080 --> 00:24:59,574 wolves, foxes in very large numbers. 272 00:24:59,684 --> 00:25:04,815 And among all these carnivores and predators, human. 273 00:25:04,923 --> 00:25:08,484 Could it be how they set up fires in Chauvet Cave? 274 00:25:08,593 --> 00:25:11,721 There's evidence that they cast their own shadows 275 00:25:11,830 --> 00:25:15,061 against the panels of horses, for example. 276 00:25:15,166 --> 00:25:18,624 - The fire were necessary to look at the paintings 277 00:25:18,737 --> 00:25:22,901 and maybe towards staging people around. 278 00:25:23,007 --> 00:25:26,170 When you look with the flame, with moving light, 279 00:25:26,277 --> 00:25:29,337 you can imagine people dancing with the shadows. 280 00:25:29,447 --> 00:25:30,505 Like Fred Astaire. 281 00:25:30,615 --> 00:25:32,207 - Fred Astaire, yes. 282 00:25:32,317 --> 00:25:36,185 I think that this image dancing with this shadow 283 00:25:36,287 --> 00:25:41,623 is a very strong and old images of human representation, 284 00:25:41,726 --> 00:25:44,524 because the first representation was the walls, 285 00:25:44,629 --> 00:25:47,291 the white wall and the black shadow. 286 00:26:07,218 --> 00:26:09,482 The presence of humans in the cave 287 00:26:09,587 --> 00:26:13,216 was fleeting like shadows. 288 00:26:13,324 --> 00:26:16,350 Bear skulls everywhere, 289 00:26:16,461 --> 00:26:19,191 but these skulls belong to the cave bear, 290 00:26:19,297 --> 00:26:23,131 a species, like the mammoth and the woolly rhino, 291 00:26:23,234 --> 00:26:27,227 that vanished from the face of the Earth long ago. 292 00:26:36,281 --> 00:26:40,342 Tens of thousands of years of patient water dripping 293 00:26:40,451 --> 00:26:45,081 has left a thick coating of calcite on this skull. 294 00:26:45,190 --> 00:26:49,024 It now has the appearance of a porcelain sculpture. 295 00:27:09,881 --> 00:27:12,315 In all this menagerie of bones, 296 00:27:12,417 --> 00:27:16,148 there's not a single human specimen. 297 00:27:16,254 --> 00:27:21,590 Scientists have determined that humans never lived in the cave. 298 00:27:21,693 --> 00:27:28,622 They used it only for painting and possibly ceremonies. 299 00:27:28,733 --> 00:27:33,067 Michel Philipe has studied the bones of Chauvet Cave. 300 00:27:35,707 --> 00:27:37,766 Caves constitute a favorable place 301 00:27:37,876 --> 00:27:39,571 for the preservation of bones. 302 00:27:39,677 --> 00:27:42,339 As the result, there are a lot of bear bones. 303 00:27:42,447 --> 00:27:46,042 Overall, this represents 99% of the finds, 304 00:27:46,150 --> 00:27:47,674 but there are also some wolves. 305 00:27:47,785 --> 00:27:50,379 We have two skulls and have several bones. 306 00:27:50,488 --> 00:27:52,513 We have a few ibexes. 307 00:27:52,624 --> 00:27:55,491 We have a magnificent skull on the wet sand with calcite, 308 00:27:55,593 --> 00:27:57,618 quite lovely. 309 00:27:57,729 --> 00:27:59,253 When you shine light on it, 310 00:27:59,364 --> 00:28:01,764 they are calcite crystals that glisten. 311 00:28:01,866 --> 00:28:03,390 It's truly quite lovely. 312 00:28:03,501 --> 00:28:05,366 There are some horses as well. 313 00:28:05,470 --> 00:28:07,335 There is a cave hyena. 314 00:28:07,438 --> 00:28:09,269 What else is there? 315 00:28:09,374 --> 00:28:11,740 There's also an eagle skeleton, 316 00:28:11,843 --> 00:28:15,870 a golden eagle, practically whole, 317 00:28:15,980 --> 00:28:17,641 but it may be a little more recent, 318 00:28:17,749 --> 00:28:19,478 carried in by the run of water 319 00:28:19,584 --> 00:28:22,815 and wedged against the big rocks at the edge of the waterway. 320 00:28:22,921 --> 00:28:24,582 So you can see its bones spread out 321 00:28:24,689 --> 00:28:26,816 over ten feet in length. 322 00:28:26,925 --> 00:28:29,359 Our goal is not only to say what bones there are, 323 00:28:29,460 --> 00:28:32,156 but we also try to understand if they lived there, 324 00:28:32,263 --> 00:28:35,198 if they were moved, how they were transported. 325 00:28:35,300 --> 00:28:37,097 Did the bears bring the bones? 326 00:28:37,201 --> 00:28:39,897 There are several bones that have been chewed on a little. 327 00:28:40,004 --> 00:28:44,498 So it could have been the bears or the hyenas. 328 00:28:47,478 --> 00:28:49,036 All the scientists are lodged 329 00:28:49,147 --> 00:28:53,379 in a nearby sports complex. 330 00:28:53,484 --> 00:28:56,282 Although they each have their special field, 331 00:28:56,387 --> 00:29:01,256 they compare and combine their findings. 332 00:29:01,359 --> 00:29:04,453 We were interested in the work of these two. 333 00:29:04,562 --> 00:29:09,727 Carole, Gilles, can you explain about what you're doing here? 334 00:29:09,834 --> 00:29:10,766 - Yeah, oui. 335 00:29:13,204 --> 00:29:14,501 In the cave, 336 00:29:14,605 --> 00:29:16,300 we are trying to reveal the contours 337 00:29:16,407 --> 00:29:17,874 of underlying designs 338 00:29:17,976 --> 00:29:20,536 that are hard to follow with the naked eye. 339 00:29:20,645 --> 00:29:23,443 Because we are not supposed to touch the wall, 340 00:29:23,548 --> 00:29:28,576 we take a series of photos that we put together in a mosaic. 341 00:29:28,686 --> 00:29:31,746 We are trying to achieve a maximum of detail. 342 00:29:31,856 --> 00:29:34,154 Then we take a transparency, 343 00:29:34,258 --> 00:29:36,226 and we put it on top of the photo. 344 00:29:36,327 --> 00:29:39,956 And then we trace the underlayers of engravings. 345 00:29:40,064 --> 00:29:44,160 Later, we return to the cave and check against the contours 346 00:29:44,268 --> 00:29:46,668 all the designs that we can see 347 00:29:46,771 --> 00:29:49,296 and all the markings of the bears as well 348 00:29:49,407 --> 00:29:53,537 so that we can understand each figure and event. 349 00:29:53,644 --> 00:29:55,168 We have bear scratches 350 00:29:55,279 --> 00:29:58,680 and then a magnificent drawing of a mammoth done by finger 351 00:29:58,783 --> 00:30:01,217 and other scratches done over the mammoth. 352 00:30:01,319 --> 00:30:03,184 So their succession is very important 353 00:30:03,287 --> 00:30:05,687 to understand what took place. 354 00:30:05,790 --> 00:30:09,191 On the computer, one can see three phases. 355 00:30:09,293 --> 00:30:12,421 The first dates 40,000 years back in time, 356 00:30:12,530 --> 00:30:16,227 the one when the bear scratched the walls. 357 00:30:16,334 --> 00:30:18,768 Then a second phase with drawings 358 00:30:18,870 --> 00:30:21,134 stretching over eight feet in height, 359 00:30:21,239 --> 00:30:25,107 therefore made with a stick, followed by the main phase 360 00:30:25,209 --> 00:30:30,340 sometime around 33,000 years or less. 361 00:30:30,448 --> 00:30:33,178 It starts with the scraping of the wall 362 00:30:33,284 --> 00:30:35,081 to get to the white of the rock. 363 00:30:35,186 --> 00:30:37,518 After that, the first figures were put in place. 364 00:30:37,622 --> 00:30:39,419 These were the two rhinos attacking one another 365 00:30:39,524 --> 00:30:40,957 at the bottom. 366 00:30:41,059 --> 00:30:43,584 After that came the three bulls. 367 00:30:43,694 --> 00:30:46,356 - And finally, they ended 368 00:30:46,464 --> 00:30:49,695 with a series of horses going from top to bottom 369 00:30:49,801 --> 00:30:53,669 and, in the final phase, adding this very beautiful horse 370 00:30:53,771 --> 00:30:57,798 that confronts the viewers when they arrive in the cave. 371 00:30:57,909 --> 00:31:00,002 - When you do a synthesis of the composition, 372 00:31:00,111 --> 00:31:02,545 there is a kind of dynamic circular movement 373 00:31:02,647 --> 00:31:04,410 going from the bottom to the right, 374 00:31:04,515 --> 00:31:06,540 towards the center, like a circle. 375 00:31:06,651 --> 00:31:09,313 It obviously creates a very strong dynamic 376 00:31:09,420 --> 00:31:10,751 that is reinforced here 377 00:31:10,855 --> 00:31:14,188 by the oblique movement of the horses. 378 00:31:14,292 --> 00:31:16,351 - It's the force of the contrast, 379 00:31:16,461 --> 00:31:18,759 the fact that they've played with the contrast 380 00:31:18,863 --> 00:31:21,889 and with the shape of the wall. 381 00:31:27,939 --> 00:31:29,304 It's like an easel. 382 00:31:29,407 --> 00:31:32,171 They've used the surface, made use of the material, 383 00:31:32,276 --> 00:31:37,043 and mixed material to create this very strong impression. 384 00:31:39,684 --> 00:31:43,085 By comparing all the paintings in the cave, 385 00:31:43,187 --> 00:31:46,122 it seems certain that the horses of this panel 386 00:31:46,224 --> 00:31:51,787 were created by one single individual. 387 00:31:51,896 --> 00:31:55,332 But in the immediate vicinity of the horses, 388 00:31:55,433 --> 00:32:00,302 there are figures of animals overlapping with each other. 389 00:32:00,404 --> 00:32:01,962 The striking point here 390 00:32:02,073 --> 00:32:06,339 is that in cases like this, after carbon dating, 391 00:32:06,444 --> 00:32:08,344 there are strong indications 392 00:32:08,446 --> 00:32:10,812 that some overlapping figures were drawn 393 00:32:10,915 --> 00:32:14,476 almost 5,000 years apart. 394 00:32:17,588 --> 00:32:20,022 The sequence and duration of time 395 00:32:20,124 --> 00:32:23,491 is unimaginable for us today. 396 00:32:23,594 --> 00:32:28,861 We are locked in history, and they were not. 397 00:32:31,802 --> 00:32:34,066 Despite this blurring of time 398 00:32:34,172 --> 00:32:36,402 and the anonymity of the artists, 399 00:32:36,507 --> 00:32:42,844 there's one individual who can be singled out. 400 00:32:42,947 --> 00:32:46,747 Dominique Baffier is a scholar of Paleolithic culture. 401 00:32:46,851 --> 00:32:51,345 Here on the right, she examines the cluster of palm prints 402 00:32:51,455 --> 00:32:54,424 with her colleague Valérie Feruglio. 403 00:33:00,531 --> 00:33:02,226 We are currently working 404 00:33:02,333 --> 00:33:03,425 on this large panel 405 00:33:03,534 --> 00:33:06,002 that was covered with positive handprints. 406 00:33:06,103 --> 00:33:08,503 We've been able to put forward, as evidence, 407 00:33:08,606 --> 00:33:11,370 the number of positions the individual assumed 408 00:33:11,475 --> 00:33:13,375 and his movements. 409 00:33:13,477 --> 00:33:18,005 He started by crouching, and then he stretched out 410 00:33:18,115 --> 00:33:20,777 to reach all the way to his highest palm prints. 411 00:33:20,885 --> 00:33:24,616 This panel is comprised of the prints of a single man 412 00:33:24,722 --> 00:33:28,749 who must have measured roughly six feet tall. 413 00:33:28,859 --> 00:33:30,793 A single human. 414 00:33:30,895 --> 00:33:33,227 - 1 meter 80 tall, that's big. 415 00:33:33,331 --> 00:33:35,094 Was it only one person? 416 00:33:35,199 --> 00:33:36,496 - Une personne, une personne. 417 00:33:36,601 --> 00:33:40,264 One person, a person measuring six feet. 418 00:33:40,371 --> 00:33:42,168 And you'll notice on these prints 419 00:33:42,273 --> 00:33:44,935 that there is a very significant detail. 420 00:33:45,042 --> 00:33:47,943 He has a slightly crooked little finger. 421 00:33:48,045 --> 00:33:49,410 And that's extraordinary, 422 00:33:49,513 --> 00:33:51,879 because it gives a physical reality 423 00:33:51,983 --> 00:33:56,477 to a prehistoric individual who, 32,000 years or more ago, 424 00:33:56,587 --> 00:33:59,715 came to the cave before us. 425 00:33:59,824 --> 00:34:02,315 And what is even more surprising 426 00:34:02,426 --> 00:34:05,725 is that you'll find traces of him deeper in the cavern. 427 00:34:05,830 --> 00:34:09,266 We'll be able to recognize him by his crooked little finger, 428 00:34:09,367 --> 00:34:12,598 because he printed his hand farther in the cave. 429 00:34:12,703 --> 00:34:16,332 So we can follow this man's path. 430 00:34:19,410 --> 00:34:22,004 Madame Baffier took us on a tour. 431 00:34:22,113 --> 00:34:25,412 She serves as the custodian of the cave, 432 00:34:25,516 --> 00:34:27,711 and her rules of engagement are strict 433 00:34:27,818 --> 00:34:29,581 but entirely reasonable 434 00:34:29,687 --> 00:34:32,520 given the precious and fragile nature 435 00:34:32,623 --> 00:34:35,217 of this unique place. 436 00:34:42,033 --> 00:34:44,558 - You have cave bear tracks, 437 00:34:44,669 --> 00:34:47,331 the forepaws and hind paws. 438 00:34:47,438 --> 00:34:50,100 These are the longest cave bear tracks 439 00:34:50,207 --> 00:34:53,699 currently known in any cave. 440 00:35:12,530 --> 00:35:14,259 It's very sparkly. 441 00:35:14,365 --> 00:35:17,732 There are crystals that glitter. 442 00:35:31,482 --> 00:35:36,351 Here at this junction, we have the panel of the panther. 443 00:35:36,454 --> 00:35:38,547 You can see the drawing of a panther, 444 00:35:38,656 --> 00:35:41,921 which is the only one known in Paleolithic wall painting 445 00:35:42,026 --> 00:35:44,017 to date. 446 00:35:51,268 --> 00:35:53,168 Here we've arrived at a place 447 00:35:53,270 --> 00:35:57,036 where concretion growth has been very important. 448 00:35:57,141 --> 00:36:00,372 On the ground and walls, you can see 449 00:36:00,478 --> 00:36:04,380 that rimstone calcite ridges have covered everything 450 00:36:04,482 --> 00:36:09,715 in sparkling formation, a kind of cascade... 451 00:36:20,431 --> 00:36:23,764 With waves. 452 00:36:39,116 --> 00:36:43,143 Here you have... - take a look... - a bear vertebra 453 00:36:43,254 --> 00:36:46,314 which is entirely coated in calcite 454 00:36:46,424 --> 00:36:50,554 and held by calcite crystals. 455 00:36:56,801 --> 00:36:59,497 In front of us, on the wall, 456 00:36:59,603 --> 00:37:04,438 you also have an overflowing drapery-like concretion 457 00:37:04,542 --> 00:37:07,102 and here a kind of niche 458 00:37:07,211 --> 00:37:11,147 where you can see the traces of ancient red paintings, 459 00:37:11,248 --> 00:37:14,513 which have been washed away by water seepage. 460 00:37:14,618 --> 00:37:19,317 And this is where you find extremely original images, 461 00:37:19,423 --> 00:37:22,324 like this insect-shaped one 462 00:37:22,426 --> 00:37:25,054 or this one shaped like a butterfly 463 00:37:25,162 --> 00:37:30,156 or a bird in flight, 464 00:37:30,267 --> 00:37:33,634 that you also find on this rock pendant 465 00:37:33,737 --> 00:37:38,197 hanging from the ceiling large and very small 466 00:37:38,309 --> 00:37:40,971 coupled with two vertical ocher stripes 467 00:37:41,078 --> 00:37:45,139 that follow the pendant's contours. 468 00:38:03,033 --> 00:38:04,159 So here we are in front of 469 00:38:04,268 --> 00:38:06,532 the large panel of red paintings, 470 00:38:06,637 --> 00:38:09,333 also an extremely intriguing item: 471 00:38:09,440 --> 00:38:11,465 this mound of stones. 472 00:38:11,575 --> 00:38:14,100 You can see that it didn't fall from the ceiling. 473 00:38:14,211 --> 00:38:17,374 It was prehistoric man who grouped the stones here, 474 00:38:17,481 --> 00:38:20,006 but we do not know why. 475 00:38:26,891 --> 00:38:29,553 On this panel, you have, first of all, 476 00:38:29,660 --> 00:38:32,561 a little rhinoceros with a large horn 477 00:38:32,663 --> 00:38:34,756 and a stripe on the abdomen. 478 00:38:34,865 --> 00:38:38,733 Also, you have a whole series underneath 479 00:38:38,836 --> 00:38:41,430 of positive handprints. 480 00:38:41,539 --> 00:38:43,871 And over there, you can see the hand 481 00:38:43,974 --> 00:38:45,965 of the man who printed his palms 482 00:38:46,076 --> 00:38:47,839 in the first room of the cave, 483 00:38:47,945 --> 00:38:52,382 because you can recognize his crooked little finger. 484 00:38:52,483 --> 00:38:55,748 In other words, we've followed him here. 485 00:38:58,188 --> 00:39:00,656 Here there are some animals 486 00:39:00,758 --> 00:39:04,125 and here the front part of a big rhinoceros 487 00:39:04,228 --> 00:39:08,255 with a very large horn. 488 00:39:10,301 --> 00:39:12,895 Here you have torch swipe marks. 489 00:39:13,003 --> 00:39:15,563 The men would light their way with a torch, 490 00:39:15,673 --> 00:39:18,005 and when the wood was too burnt down, 491 00:39:18,108 --> 00:39:20,838 they would scrape the torch against the wall 492 00:39:20,945 --> 00:39:22,708 to rekindle the flame. 493 00:39:22,813 --> 00:39:25,509 The traces are fresh, because you can see 494 00:39:25,616 --> 00:39:29,279 these small fragments of coal that have fallen. 495 00:39:32,356 --> 00:39:34,381 One of these tiny fragments 496 00:39:34,491 --> 00:39:37,324 was tested by radiocarbon dating. 497 00:39:37,428 --> 00:39:43,458 This torch was swiped 28,000 years ago. 498 00:39:47,204 --> 00:39:50,901 - And here we have a painting that is quite interesting, 499 00:39:51,008 --> 00:39:55,536 because it represents a couple of now-extinct cave lions. 500 00:39:55,646 --> 00:39:57,273 You have here the male. 501 00:39:57,381 --> 00:39:59,975 He's behind, the larger one. 502 00:40:00,084 --> 00:40:02,314 He's outlined in a single stroke 503 00:40:02,419 --> 00:40:05,684 more than six feet in length. 504 00:40:05,789 --> 00:40:08,758 And in front, you have the female. 505 00:40:08,859 --> 00:40:15,059 She is smaller and seems to rub her flank against the male. 506 00:40:15,165 --> 00:40:18,623 And this representation of the cave lion 507 00:40:18,736 --> 00:40:21,569 has allowed us to shed light on a mystery, 508 00:40:21,672 --> 00:40:24,641 because archaeozoologists didn't know 509 00:40:24,742 --> 00:40:27,210 whether the cave lion had a mane, 510 00:40:27,311 --> 00:40:29,905 like the lion today living in Africa. 511 00:40:30,014 --> 00:40:32,812 And this representation of a cave lion, 512 00:40:32,916 --> 00:40:35,282 more than 30,000 years old, 513 00:40:35,386 --> 00:40:39,220 shows us that they didn't have a mane. 514 00:40:39,323 --> 00:40:44,056 Look at the outline of his head, which is clearly delineated. 515 00:40:47,731 --> 00:40:50,222 And this is, without a doubt, a male, 516 00:40:50,334 --> 00:40:54,828 because we've got the scrotum right here under the tail. 517 00:41:07,551 --> 00:41:10,585 This is one of the most beautiful panels in the cave, 518 00:41:10,689 --> 00:41:13,920 along with the lion panel at the far end. 519 00:41:14,025 --> 00:41:15,754 And here we can see 520 00:41:15,860 --> 00:41:17,953 the technique of prehistoric man, 521 00:41:18,063 --> 00:41:20,793 but you can also see their keen knowledge 522 00:41:20,899 --> 00:41:22,526 of the animal world. 523 00:41:22,634 --> 00:41:24,625 They tell us stories. 524 00:41:24,736 --> 00:41:27,000 Here you have an ensemble of horses, 525 00:41:27,105 --> 00:41:30,404 but their open mouths suggest that the animals are whinnying. 526 00:41:30,508 --> 00:41:32,271 That is to say that these images 527 00:41:32,377 --> 00:41:34,174 become audible to us. 528 00:41:34,279 --> 00:41:38,113 You see that the two rhinos there are fighting. 529 00:41:38,216 --> 00:41:41,617 You can see all the signs of fury towards each other, 530 00:41:41,720 --> 00:41:45,087 the movement of their legs, which are thrown forward, 531 00:41:45,190 --> 00:41:49,752 and you can almost hear the sound 532 00:41:49,861 --> 00:41:52,921 of their horns colliding against each other 533 00:41:53,031 --> 00:41:55,158 in the movement of the fight. 534 00:41:55,266 --> 00:41:59,669 Here you have another story, a story of lions, 535 00:41:59,771 --> 00:42:03,172 a male courting a female who is not ready for mating. 536 00:42:03,274 --> 00:42:05,708 She sits and growls. 537 00:42:05,810 --> 00:42:09,041 Look, you can hear the female growling. 538 00:42:09,147 --> 00:42:10,910 She's raising her lips. 539 00:42:11,015 --> 00:42:12,505 She's baring her teeth. 540 00:42:12,617 --> 00:42:14,175 She is not happy. 541 00:42:14,285 --> 00:42:16,753 And here, to finish off, 542 00:42:16,855 --> 00:42:19,016 you have the flight of this bison. 543 00:42:19,124 --> 00:42:20,523 We hear the hooves. 544 00:42:20,625 --> 00:42:24,186 We can make out multiple legs indicating its movement. 545 00:42:24,295 --> 00:42:26,490 It is escaping from this alcove, 546 00:42:26,598 --> 00:42:29,226 following this auroch. 547 00:42:33,705 --> 00:42:35,673 Madame Baffier takes us down 548 00:42:35,774 --> 00:42:38,572 to the farthest chamber of the cave, 549 00:42:38,676 --> 00:42:42,612 the mysterious chamber of the lions. 550 00:42:42,714 --> 00:42:47,014 There is a serious level of toxic CO2 gas 551 00:42:47,118 --> 00:42:49,484 emanating from the roots of trees, 552 00:42:49,587 --> 00:42:55,219 which seeps down into the cave through the porous limestone. 553 00:42:55,326 --> 00:42:59,956 Our time is even more constricted in this location, 554 00:43:00,064 --> 00:43:05,764 and there is no possibility to get close to the paintings. 555 00:43:05,870 --> 00:43:07,303 - Unfortunately, 556 00:43:07,405 --> 00:43:10,306 there are things you won't be able to show in your film 557 00:43:10,408 --> 00:43:12,433 and you won't be able to see. 558 00:43:12,544 --> 00:43:14,637 You can't get closer. 559 00:43:14,746 --> 00:43:17,579 That is the case with these absolutely marvelous paintings 560 00:43:17,682 --> 00:43:21,209 in the farthest chamber, this grouping of lions. 561 00:43:21,319 --> 00:43:24,618 It is especially the case with this rock pendant, 562 00:43:24,722 --> 00:43:26,986 where the lower portion of a woman's body 563 00:43:27,091 --> 00:43:28,752 has been painted. 564 00:43:28,860 --> 00:43:31,624 That is, you have her pubic triangle 565 00:43:31,729 --> 00:43:35,290 and her legs that separate, starting at the knee, 566 00:43:35,400 --> 00:43:37,834 which diverge and are reminiscent 567 00:43:37,936 --> 00:43:41,064 of the well-known small early Stone Age statuettes 568 00:43:41,172 --> 00:43:45,506 from archaeological digs in the Swabian Jura in Germany. 569 00:43:45,610 --> 00:43:49,603 We can only see part of this lower half of a female body, 570 00:43:49,714 --> 00:43:53,411 because we cannot access the other side of the pendant. 571 00:43:53,518 --> 00:43:55,486 You can not walk on these grounds, 572 00:43:55,587 --> 00:43:57,578 because they are too fragile. 573 00:43:57,689 --> 00:44:00,590 You would destroy the charcoal remains. 574 00:44:00,692 --> 00:44:02,455 You would destroy the tracks 575 00:44:02,560 --> 00:44:04,960 left by the bears and the humans. 576 00:44:05,063 --> 00:44:08,863 So you'll have to make do with this partial image. 577 00:44:08,967 --> 00:44:11,993 If you completed the other half of this female body 578 00:44:12,103 --> 00:44:14,264 with its other legs symmetrically, 579 00:44:14,372 --> 00:44:17,569 you could see that it is connected to a bison head 580 00:44:17,675 --> 00:44:20,075 that would have a somewhat human arm. 581 00:44:20,178 --> 00:44:24,205 And here we are, some 30,000 years later, 582 00:44:24,315 --> 00:44:28,411 with a myth that has endured until our days. 583 00:44:28,519 --> 00:44:30,578 We can also find this association 584 00:44:30,688 --> 00:44:32,121 of female and bull 585 00:44:32,223 --> 00:44:38,628 in Picasso's drawings of the Minotaur and the woman. 586 00:44:38,730 --> 00:44:42,826 This is the only partial representation 587 00:44:42,934 --> 00:44:45,960 of a human in the entire cave. 588 00:44:46,070 --> 00:44:47,833 For the time being, 589 00:44:47,939 --> 00:44:50,237 the other side of the rock pendant 590 00:44:50,341 --> 00:44:55,040 must remain unreachable for us. 591 00:44:55,146 --> 00:45:00,049 The people who created this are equally enigmatic. 592 00:45:00,151 --> 00:45:02,881 Of the few things they left behind, 593 00:45:02,987 --> 00:45:05,649 practical items like flint tools 594 00:45:05,757 --> 00:45:09,056 can be more easily read. 595 00:45:09,160 --> 00:45:10,718 - All the boxes... 596 00:45:10,828 --> 00:45:12,261 The local museum is filled 597 00:45:12,363 --> 00:45:14,524 with artifacts from the region. 598 00:45:14,632 --> 00:45:17,999 - Because we have made some excavation in the site. 599 00:45:18,102 --> 00:45:20,593 But Jean-Michel Geneste - can only lead us 600 00:45:20,705 --> 00:45:23,435 to a handful of findings from Chauvet Cave. 601 00:45:23,541 --> 00:45:24,701 - Things are preserved. 602 00:45:24,809 --> 00:45:27,937 You have only two, three boxes in this area, 603 00:45:28,046 --> 00:45:29,980 but I have prepared for you some... 604 00:45:30,081 --> 00:45:32,845 To shed light on the enigmatic female image, 605 00:45:32,951 --> 00:45:36,978 he has prepared some similar figurines from other regions. 606 00:45:37,088 --> 00:45:39,022 - Very precious for archaeology. 607 00:45:39,123 --> 00:45:44,993 You can see, like in this Willendorf Venus, 608 00:45:45,096 --> 00:45:49,533 it's a copy made in limestone, found in Austria, 609 00:45:49,634 --> 00:45:51,864 from the same period. 610 00:45:51,970 --> 00:45:53,562 In the Chauvet Cave, 611 00:45:53,671 --> 00:45:57,038 you have only the lower part of the belly preserved. 612 00:45:57,141 --> 00:45:59,939 It's embedded in a bison. 613 00:46:00,044 --> 00:46:01,739 There seems to have existed 614 00:46:01,846 --> 00:46:03,108 a visual convention 615 00:46:03,214 --> 00:46:07,241 extending all the way beyond Baywatch. 616 00:46:09,988 --> 00:46:12,889 - No male representation very clearly found 617 00:46:12,991 --> 00:46:15,459 but this lion man. 618 00:46:15,560 --> 00:46:17,050 It comes from a site, 619 00:46:17,161 --> 00:46:20,358 Hohlenstein-Stadel in Swabian Alps. 620 00:46:20,465 --> 00:46:25,596 What is amazing, it's a mixture 621 00:46:25,703 --> 00:46:30,265 between an anthropomorphic shape, 622 00:46:30,375 --> 00:46:34,402 a human body, and the head of a lion. 623 00:46:34,512 --> 00:46:38,141 Is it the spirit of the... - of a lion in a man? 624 00:46:38,249 --> 00:46:40,183 Is it a marriage? 625 00:46:40,284 --> 00:46:42,047 Is it a new being? 626 00:46:42,153 --> 00:46:46,749 That's a question we can ask to this reproduction. 627 00:46:51,396 --> 00:46:53,261 What the people who lived in this valley 628 00:46:53,364 --> 00:46:56,424 left behind is their great art. 629 00:46:56,534 --> 00:46:58,229 It was not a primitive beginning 630 00:46:58,336 --> 00:47:00,236 or a slow evolution,; 631 00:47:00,338 --> 00:47:05,435 it rather burst onto the scene like a sudden explosive event. 632 00:47:05,543 --> 00:47:11,914 It is as if the modern human soul had awakened here. 633 00:47:12,016 --> 00:47:15,417 Even more astonishing to consider is that at the time, 634 00:47:15,520 --> 00:47:20,583 Neanderthal man still roamed this valley. 635 00:47:20,691 --> 00:47:24,957 But there must have been other forms of artistic expression, 636 00:47:25,063 --> 00:47:27,861 like music, for example. 637 00:47:27,965 --> 00:47:32,834 For this, we had to look around in nearby regions. 638 00:47:32,937 --> 00:47:37,237 Southwestern Germany 30,000, 40,000 years ago 639 00:47:37,341 --> 00:47:42,938 was connected to this valley through an ice-free corridor. 640 00:47:43,047 --> 00:47:46,346 It should also be noted that the Alp Mountains were covered 641 00:47:46,451 --> 00:47:50,182 by 9,000 feet of ice, binding so much water 642 00:47:50,288 --> 00:47:56,488 that the sea level was 300 feet lower than today. 643 00:47:56,594 --> 00:47:59,563 A hunter could have walked from Paris to London 644 00:47:59,664 --> 00:48:04,863 crossing the dry seabed of the English Channel. 645 00:48:04,969 --> 00:48:07,437 Walking 400 miles in this direction 646 00:48:07,538 --> 00:48:11,440 would lead you to the Swabian Alb of Germany. 647 00:48:14,846 --> 00:48:17,212 There, in the museum of Blaubeuren, 648 00:48:17,315 --> 00:48:22,514 we find replicas of the best-known Paleolithic Venuses. 649 00:48:35,399 --> 00:48:39,836 But this one, the Venus of Hohle Fels, stands out. 650 00:48:39,937 --> 00:48:46,172 Found in 2008, it is sensational for its age. 651 00:48:49,280 --> 00:48:52,681 - The Venus from Hohle Fels is probably the oldest depiction 652 00:48:52,783 --> 00:48:55,775 of any kind of figurative object we know at all. 653 00:48:55,887 --> 00:48:58,856 It's the earliest representation of a human being, 654 00:48:58,956 --> 00:49:02,915 and it's the absolute root of figurative depiction 655 00:49:03,027 --> 00:49:04,426 as we know it. 656 00:49:04,529 --> 00:49:07,430 Later on, we see a range of animals being depicted. 657 00:49:07,532 --> 00:49:10,126 We can think of the animal depictions in ivory here 658 00:49:10,234 --> 00:49:13,795 or the fabulous depictions from Grotte Chauvet 659 00:49:13,905 --> 00:49:15,270 of mammoths, of lions, 660 00:49:15,373 --> 00:49:17,307 and we can see a very clear connection 661 00:49:17,408 --> 00:49:21,401 between the Swabian finds and the depictions in Chauvet. 662 00:49:21,512 --> 00:49:23,980 What's also fascinating is that at this time, 663 00:49:24,081 --> 00:49:25,309 40,000 years ago, 664 00:49:25,416 --> 00:49:27,441 we see evidence for musical instruments, 665 00:49:27,552 --> 00:49:29,042 a range of personal ornaments, 666 00:49:29,153 --> 00:49:31,314 mythical depictions that clearly show 667 00:49:31,422 --> 00:49:33,913 that these people had a religious concept 668 00:49:34,025 --> 00:49:38,121 evolving the transformation between humans and animals. 669 00:49:38,229 --> 00:49:40,254 This here is the original statuette 670 00:49:40,364 --> 00:49:43,197 carved from a mammoth tusk. 671 00:49:43,301 --> 00:49:46,600 - If we look at the Venus of Hohle Fels a bit more closely, 672 00:49:46,704 --> 00:49:48,831 we can see very clearly, for instance, 673 00:49:48,940 --> 00:49:51,374 that the figurine has no head, right? 674 00:49:51,475 --> 00:49:53,807 Instead of a head, the figurine has a ring. 675 00:49:53,911 --> 00:49:55,811 It was perhaps worn at times, 676 00:49:55,913 --> 00:49:58,711 suspended on a string of some sort. 677 00:49:58,816 --> 00:50:01,216 Also, the sexual attributes are key, 678 00:50:01,319 --> 00:50:03,685 which clearly link this depiction 679 00:50:03,788 --> 00:50:07,155 to ideas of reproduction, fecundity, sexuality, 680 00:50:07,258 --> 00:50:10,022 ideas that are absolutely essential 681 00:50:10,127 --> 00:50:14,188 to all of humanity also today. 682 00:50:14,298 --> 00:50:16,266 It's also important to realize that at this time, 683 00:50:16,367 --> 00:50:18,801 much of Europe was occupied by Neanderthals. 684 00:50:18,903 --> 00:50:20,393 So we're dealing with the critical phase 685 00:50:20,504 --> 00:50:21,869 in human evolution 686 00:50:21,973 --> 00:50:25,875 where two forms of human beings are testing their boundaries. 687 00:50:25,977 --> 00:50:28,343 And what we find over and over again 688 00:50:28,446 --> 00:50:29,435 is that Neanderthals, 689 00:50:29,547 --> 00:50:31,071 although they're very sophisticated, 690 00:50:31,182 --> 00:50:37,314 they never had this kind of symbolic artifact ever. 691 00:50:37,421 --> 00:50:39,548 This small ivory mammoth 692 00:50:39,657 --> 00:50:45,152 was also found near Hohle Fels cave. 693 00:50:45,263 --> 00:50:50,792 And this beautiful horse comes from the same region. 694 00:50:50,901 --> 00:50:53,836 They also found fragments of flutes. 695 00:50:53,938 --> 00:50:57,669 We asked Dr. Conard to show us an original. 696 00:50:57,775 --> 00:51:00,642 - The ivory flute is really a remarkable artifact 697 00:51:00,745 --> 00:51:03,680 that Maria Malina discovered a few years back, 698 00:51:03,781 --> 00:51:06,511 and I think what's extremely important 699 00:51:06,617 --> 00:51:08,585 is that we realize that archeology today 700 00:51:08,686 --> 00:51:11,985 is not a heroic adventure with spades and picks 701 00:51:12,089 --> 00:51:14,455 but high-tech scientific work 702 00:51:14,558 --> 00:51:16,788 that's done with incredible detail. 703 00:51:16,894 --> 00:51:19,795 Really millimeter by millimeter, the sediments are removed 704 00:51:19,897 --> 00:51:22,730 in these deposits the age of Grotte Chauvet 705 00:51:22,833 --> 00:51:23,993 and our sites, 706 00:51:24,101 --> 00:51:25,898 between 30,000 and 40,000 years ago. 707 00:51:26,003 --> 00:51:28,233 And this detailed work allowed Maria 708 00:51:28,339 --> 00:51:30,705 to identify a whole range of finds 709 00:51:30,808 --> 00:51:32,435 that she was able to piece together. 710 00:51:32,543 --> 00:51:34,704 Maybe you can explain how that worked out. 711 00:51:34,812 --> 00:51:36,746 - Yes, we were doing an inventory 712 00:51:36,847 --> 00:51:38,439 of all the artifact pieces. 713 00:51:38,549 --> 00:51:41,712 Some of the pieces came from the 1970s, 714 00:51:41,819 --> 00:51:43,650 from the first years of excavation, 715 00:51:43,754 --> 00:51:46,450 and these were really small pieces. 716 00:51:46,557 --> 00:51:48,787 You can see here in this picture. 717 00:51:48,893 --> 00:51:50,520 The tiny ivory pieces 718 00:51:50,628 --> 00:51:54,064 remained unexplained for a full three decades. 719 00:51:54,165 --> 00:51:59,967 - And 31 pieces had a very significant look. 720 00:52:00,071 --> 00:52:04,030 We found pieces with a part of the finger holes 721 00:52:04,141 --> 00:52:05,972 and with notches on the side, 722 00:52:06,077 --> 00:52:08,944 and with these pieces, I thought already 723 00:52:09,046 --> 00:52:11,674 that it could be a part of an ivory flute. 724 00:52:11,782 --> 00:52:14,012 Of course, the question was very important 725 00:52:14,118 --> 00:52:15,949 how this flute was made. 726 00:52:16,053 --> 00:52:18,851 And you can see here on the long axis 727 00:52:18,956 --> 00:52:22,858 there is a split going all over the flute, 728 00:52:22,960 --> 00:52:27,454 and inside the two halves, they hollowed the flute out. 729 00:52:27,565 --> 00:52:31,899 And these little notches along this axis, along the split 730 00:52:32,002 --> 00:52:37,838 helped to refit these two halves together very precise. 731 00:52:37,942 --> 00:52:40,536 This flute is only one of eight in all 732 00:52:40,644 --> 00:52:45,138 so far recovered from this area of southwestern Germany. 733 00:52:45,249 --> 00:52:47,376 The caves here have no paintings 734 00:52:47,485 --> 00:52:50,750 but yield many other objects of art. 735 00:52:50,855 --> 00:52:53,085 - In this cave, the Geissenkloesterle cave, 736 00:52:53,190 --> 00:52:57,559 many very important findings from the Ice Age were made. 737 00:52:57,661 --> 00:53:02,064 We found some little ivory statues of bear and mammoth... - 738 00:53:02,166 --> 00:53:04,396 a very tiny mammoth, very lovely. 739 00:53:04,502 --> 00:53:08,802 And in 1992, I was part of the excavation team. 740 00:53:08,906 --> 00:53:13,934 People lived here about 30,000, 40,000 years back in time, 741 00:53:14,044 --> 00:53:16,342 and in that time, it was very cold here, 742 00:53:16,447 --> 00:53:19,007 because the Alp Mountains were covered by a glacier 743 00:53:19,116 --> 00:53:21,812 about 2,500 meters thick. 744 00:53:21,919 --> 00:53:23,750 And in the valley down there, 745 00:53:23,854 --> 00:53:26,721 reindeer and mammoth were passing, 746 00:53:26,824 --> 00:53:28,553 and it was very cold. 747 00:53:28,659 --> 00:53:33,460 And that's the reason why I'm dressed up like an Inuit. 748 00:53:33,564 --> 00:53:36,692 We presume that in this way, 749 00:53:36,801 --> 00:53:39,167 the people of the Ice Age were clothed 750 00:53:39,270 --> 00:53:43,206 by reindeer fur and boots made of reindeer fur 751 00:53:43,307 --> 00:53:44,740 and reindeer leather, 752 00:53:44,842 --> 00:53:50,337 because otherwise you couldn't stand the cold. 753 00:53:50,448 --> 00:53:57,149 One of the most important finds we made in this cave 754 00:53:57,254 --> 00:54:02,282 was a very tiny flute made out of the radius of a vulture. 755 00:54:02,393 --> 00:54:06,693 Astonishing on this flute is that is... - 756 00:54:06,797 --> 00:54:08,890 that it is pentatonic, 757 00:54:08,999 --> 00:54:14,835 and this is the same tonality we are used to hear today. 758 00:54:14,939 --> 00:54:20,969 And if you like, I'll try to play some small tunes for you. 759 00:54:36,026 --> 00:54:39,086 And when I first reconstructed the instrument 760 00:54:39,196 --> 00:54:42,427 and tried to play some tunes, I came across these ones. 761 00:55:00,451 --> 00:55:04,649 Sounds a little bit like Star-Spangled Banner. 762 00:55:09,827 --> 00:55:13,888 Back in France, near Chauvet Cave, 763 00:55:13,998 --> 00:55:17,092 explorers using more primal techniques 764 00:55:17,201 --> 00:55:20,102 in search of still-hidden underground chambers 765 00:55:20,204 --> 00:55:23,696 roam the landscape. 766 00:55:54,805 --> 00:55:56,705 Professional cave explorers 767 00:55:56,807 --> 00:56:00,106 have techniques for finding underground chambers, 768 00:56:00,210 --> 00:56:01,871 because there are air currents. 769 00:56:01,979 --> 00:56:05,176 So they use the back of their hands or their cheeks 770 00:56:05,282 --> 00:56:07,307 to feel for a faint draft of air 771 00:56:07,418 --> 00:56:12,117 that may be coming out of the cave. 772 00:56:12,222 --> 00:56:14,486 I'm trying to do things differently, 773 00:56:14,592 --> 00:56:20,656 as I have the habit of using my sense of smell in my profession. 774 00:56:20,764 --> 00:56:22,425 So I try to sniff the smells 775 00:56:22,533 --> 00:56:28,267 coming from the interior of a cave. 776 00:56:28,372 --> 00:56:33,571 Here, I didn't smell anything except the exterior landscape. 777 00:56:33,677 --> 00:56:39,582 Outside you can smell the earth, the wild thyme, the ivy. 778 00:56:39,683 --> 00:56:41,116 You can smell a range of things 779 00:56:41,218 --> 00:56:43,618 but nothing specific related to a cavern 780 00:56:43,721 --> 00:56:46,952 that's been closed for thousands of years. 781 00:56:51,829 --> 00:56:55,993 This is my personal technique, because I design perfumes. 782 00:56:56,100 --> 00:56:57,692 It's a matter of trying to experience it 783 00:56:57,801 --> 00:56:59,428 in a different manner. 784 00:56:59,536 --> 00:57:02,994 So I've been... - I've always created perfumes, 785 00:57:03,107 --> 00:57:05,405 and most notably, I was president 786 00:57:05,509 --> 00:57:07,670 of the French Society of Perfumers 787 00:57:07,778 --> 00:57:11,407 for some years and... 788 00:57:33,637 --> 00:57:35,264 There are plans 789 00:57:35,372 --> 00:57:37,966 to build a theme park for tourists 790 00:57:38,075 --> 00:57:40,339 with a precise replica of the cave 791 00:57:40,444 --> 00:57:45,074 a few miles from here. 792 00:57:45,182 --> 00:57:48,276 This replica may even contain a re-creation 793 00:57:48,385 --> 00:57:52,549 of the odor of the prehistoric interior. 794 00:58:14,545 --> 00:58:17,070 - Evidently, the odor you can smell right now 795 00:58:17,181 --> 00:58:19,581 is quite attenuated. 796 00:58:19,683 --> 00:58:22,311 It is very subtle. 797 00:58:22,419 --> 00:58:26,788 There are not many emanations, but our imagination permits us 798 00:58:26,890 --> 00:58:30,656 to try and reconstruct the scene, 799 00:58:30,761 --> 00:58:34,458 the scene with its odors from 25,000 years ago, 800 00:58:34,565 --> 00:58:37,398 with all the animals that would have been found there... - 801 00:58:37,501 --> 00:58:42,837 bears, wolves, perhaps even rhinoceroses, and man... - 802 00:58:42,940 --> 00:58:47,775 the presence of their lives, meaning burnt wood, resins, 803 00:58:47,878 --> 00:58:51,177 the odors of everything from the natural world 804 00:58:51,281 --> 00:58:53,715 that surrounds this cave. 805 00:58:53,817 --> 00:58:57,480 We can go back with our imagination. 806 00:59:04,495 --> 00:59:06,429 Herzog: With his sense of wonder, 807 00:59:06,530 --> 00:59:08,157 the cave transforms 808 00:59:08,265 --> 00:59:11,826 into an enchanted world of the imaginary 809 00:59:11,935 --> 00:59:17,373 where time and space lose their meaning. 810 00:59:17,474 --> 00:59:22,104 These crystal formations take thousands of years to grow. 811 00:59:22,212 --> 00:59:25,409 The artists of the cave never even saw them, 812 00:59:25,516 --> 00:59:28,110 as many of them only started to form 813 00:59:28,218 --> 00:59:32,120 after the landslide sealed the entrance. 814 00:59:52,142 --> 00:59:54,906 In a forbidden recess of the cave, 815 00:59:55,012 --> 00:59:57,810 there's a footprint of an eight-year-old boy 816 00:59:57,915 --> 01:00:02,443 next to the footprint of a wolf. 817 01:00:02,553 --> 01:00:05,954 Did a hungry wolf stalk the boy? 818 01:00:06,056 --> 01:00:09,719 Or did they walk together as friends? 819 01:00:09,827 --> 01:00:13,820 Or were their tracks made thousands of years apart? 820 01:00:13,931 --> 01:00:17,367 We'll never know. 821 01:01:53,064 --> 01:01:55,362 Dwarfed by these large chambers 822 01:01:55,467 --> 01:01:58,595 illuminated by our wandering lights, 823 01:01:58,703 --> 01:02:03,333 sometimes we were overcome by a strange, irrational sensation 824 01:02:03,441 --> 01:02:06,501 as if we were disturbing the Paleolithic people 825 01:02:06,611 --> 01:02:09,546 in their work. 826 01:02:09,647 --> 01:02:14,243 It felt like eyes upon us. 827 01:02:14,352 --> 01:02:17,913 This sensation occurred to some of the scientists 828 01:02:18,022 --> 01:02:23,016 and also the discoverers of the cave. 829 01:02:23,128 --> 01:02:26,894 It was a relief to surface again aboveground. 830 01:02:28,900 --> 01:02:31,892 Back outside, we ask Jean-Michel Geneste 831 01:02:32,003 --> 01:02:35,200 about hunting techniques of Paleolithic people 832 01:02:35,306 --> 01:02:39,538 millennia before the invention of bow and arrow. 833 01:02:39,644 --> 01:02:43,671 - The Ohauvet Oave Aurignacian people 834 01:02:43,782 --> 01:02:46,945 hunted a lot of really big games. 835 01:02:47,051 --> 01:02:51,579 They hunted everywhere in France and Europe. 836 01:02:51,689 --> 01:02:54,556 In the settlement, we found a lot of bones 837 01:02:54,659 --> 01:02:59,494 of reindeer, bison, horses, and sometime mammoths. 838 01:02:59,597 --> 01:03:03,966 So they developed very specific hunting technology. 839 01:03:04,068 --> 01:03:08,334 For example, the system of the Aurignacian bone point 840 01:03:08,439 --> 01:03:09,736 is very ingenious. 841 01:03:09,841 --> 01:03:13,538 It's a bone point on a wooden shaft. 842 01:03:13,645 --> 01:03:16,273 The piece of the bone point 843 01:03:16,381 --> 01:03:20,249 is very strongly associated to the shaft. 844 01:03:20,351 --> 01:03:25,084 It's a system using a fork and a piece inside. 845 01:03:25,190 --> 01:03:27,920 So it's very strong. 846 01:03:28,026 --> 01:03:29,857 It has been made and developed 847 01:03:29,961 --> 01:03:33,226 to kill bison or horses like that. 848 01:03:33,331 --> 01:03:35,196 It's very aggressive, 849 01:03:35,300 --> 01:03:38,064 and it's also very strong and powerful. 850 01:03:38,169 --> 01:03:42,538 This kind of weapon and spear were thrown 851 01:03:42,640 --> 01:03:47,339 not only by hand, like that, because it's not very efficient, 852 01:03:47,445 --> 01:03:50,312 but l... - we suspect that very... - 853 01:03:50,415 --> 01:03:53,407 in the beginning of the Paleolithic, 854 01:03:53,518 --> 01:03:57,181 they developed the technology of the spear thrower. 855 01:03:57,288 --> 01:04:01,281 A spear thrower, it's at the beginning only a hook, 856 01:04:01,392 --> 01:04:04,361 sometime a tooth, a piece of antler, 857 01:04:04,462 --> 01:04:07,158 like this one, on a long handle. 858 01:04:07,265 --> 01:04:13,329 It's elongated arm gave a lot of power, like that, 859 01:04:13,438 --> 01:04:16,737 and also at the same time, some precision to keep... - 860 01:04:16,841 --> 01:04:19,309 I just... - to give the spear a good direction. 861 01:04:19,410 --> 01:04:21,503 So I will show you. 862 01:04:21,613 --> 01:04:24,707 Yes. 863 01:04:24,816 --> 01:04:28,274 You see, the spear with a flint point, 864 01:04:28,386 --> 01:04:31,844 but to use this, it's necessary to have 865 01:04:31,956 --> 01:04:36,586 a small depression at the back of the spear. 866 01:04:36,694 --> 01:04:42,030 We suspect that sometimes they used feathers to a very... - 867 01:04:42,133 --> 01:04:44,966 to keep the direction at the moment of the throw. 868 01:04:45,069 --> 01:04:50,132 I will try to show you how to kill a horse. 869 01:04:52,744 --> 01:04:55,042 Okay. 870 01:04:55,146 --> 01:04:59,276 His efforts may not look very convincing, 871 01:04:59,384 --> 01:05:01,852 but this is a powerful weapon. 872 01:05:01,953 --> 01:05:05,411 Spearheads have been found deeply embedded 873 01:05:05,523 --> 01:05:09,687 in the shoulder blades of horses and mammoths. 874 01:05:15,700 --> 01:05:17,099 - You see the fly? 875 01:05:17,201 --> 01:05:21,194 It's very straight, and it's 30 meters. 876 01:05:21,306 --> 01:05:23,001 But stay here. 877 01:05:23,107 --> 01:05:27,271 The Paleolithic man was better than you, I guess. 878 01:05:27,378 --> 01:05:28,811 - Oh, I suspect. 879 01:05:28,913 --> 01:05:31,279 It could be really difficult for me 880 01:05:31,382 --> 01:05:36,410 with such a shot to kill a horse, really. 881 01:05:38,690 --> 01:05:39,987 By mid-April, 882 01:05:40,091 --> 01:05:43,583 scientific research has ended for the year. 883 01:05:43,695 --> 01:05:48,257 Now we are allowed full access to the cave, 884 01:05:48,366 --> 01:05:50,459 but even that is restricted 885 01:05:50,568 --> 01:05:54,834 to a single week, four hours a day. 886 01:05:54,939 --> 01:05:58,033 The famous cave of Lascaux had to be shut down 887 01:05:58,142 --> 01:06:01,043 because the breath of scores of tourists 888 01:06:01,145 --> 01:06:05,741 has caused mold to grow on the walls. 889 01:06:11,723 --> 01:06:13,315 We enter Chauvet Cave 890 01:06:13,424 --> 01:06:17,554 aware that this may be the only and last opportunity 891 01:06:17,662 --> 01:06:20,631 to film inside. 892 01:07:24,996 --> 01:07:29,160 The mystery of the Minotaur and the female began to unfold 893 01:07:29,267 --> 01:07:32,259 when our guides allowed us to mount a small camera 894 01:07:32,370 --> 01:07:38,138 on a stick with which we reached out. 895 01:07:38,242 --> 01:07:43,339 The bison seems to embrace the sex of a naked woman. 896 01:07:49,754 --> 01:07:52,188 - Traditional people and, I think, 897 01:07:52,290 --> 01:07:56,124 people of the Paleolithic had very probably some... - 898 01:07:56,227 --> 01:08:00,857 two concepts which change our vision of the world. 899 01:08:00,965 --> 01:08:05,425 They're the concept of fluidity and the concept of permeability. 900 01:08:05,536 --> 01:08:09,563 Fluidity means that the categories that we have... - 901 01:08:09,674 --> 01:08:14,134 man, woman, horse, I don't know, tree, et cetera... - 902 01:08:14,245 --> 01:08:16,008 can shift. 903 01:08:16,114 --> 01:08:18,082 A tree may speak. 904 01:08:18,182 --> 01:08:21,015 A man can get transformed into an animal 905 01:08:21,119 --> 01:08:25,681 and the other way around, given certain circumstances. 906 01:08:25,790 --> 01:08:32,127 The concept of permeability is that there are no barriers, 907 01:08:32,230 --> 01:08:34,664 so to speak, between the world where we are 908 01:08:34,765 --> 01:08:36,995 and the world of the spirits. 909 01:08:37,101 --> 01:08:40,195 A wall can talk to us, 910 01:08:40,304 --> 01:08:44,968 or a wall can accept us or refuse us. 911 01:08:45,076 --> 01:08:48,239 A shaman, for example, can send his or her spirit 912 01:08:48,346 --> 01:08:50,871 to the world of the supernatural 913 01:08:50,982 --> 01:08:55,214 or can receive the visit, inside him or her, 914 01:08:55,319 --> 01:08:57,651 of supernatural spirits. 915 01:08:57,755 --> 01:09:00,451 If you put those two concepts together, 916 01:09:00,558 --> 01:09:04,654 you realize how different life must have been 917 01:09:04,762 --> 01:09:08,755 for those people from the way we live now. 918 01:09:11,536 --> 01:09:14,198 Humans have been described in many ways, right? 919 01:09:14,305 --> 01:09:17,672 And for a while, it was Homo sapiens 920 01:09:17,775 --> 01:09:19,868 and is still called Homo sapiens, 921 01:09:19,977 --> 01:09:21,808 "the man who knows." 922 01:09:21,913 --> 01:09:25,542 I don't think it's a good definition at all. 923 01:09:25,650 --> 01:09:27,015 We don't know. 924 01:09:27,118 --> 01:09:28,415 We don't know much. 925 01:09:28,519 --> 01:09:32,751 I would think Homo spiritualis. 926 01:09:35,860 --> 01:09:38,522 The strongest hint of something spiritual, 927 01:09:38,629 --> 01:09:41,291 some religious ceremony in the cave, 928 01:09:41,399 --> 01:09:43,458 is this bear skull. 929 01:09:43,568 --> 01:09:49,803 It has been placed dead center on a rock resembling an altar. 930 01:09:49,907 --> 01:09:53,707 The staging seems deliberate. 931 01:09:53,811 --> 01:09:57,178 The skull faces the entrance of the cave, 932 01:09:57,281 --> 01:10:00,717 and around it, fragments of charcoal were found 933 01:10:00,818 --> 01:10:04,777 potentially used as incense. 934 01:10:08,993 --> 01:10:10,961 What exactly took place here, 935 01:10:11,062 --> 01:10:14,395 only the paintings could tell us. 936 01:13:05,870 --> 01:13:09,328 - If you want to have an understanding of it, 937 01:13:09,440 --> 01:13:12,238 you must go outside of the cave. 938 01:13:12,343 --> 01:13:17,337 I mean, you must start from the cave and then go outside. 939 01:13:17,448 --> 01:13:18,574 How far outside? 940 01:13:18,682 --> 01:13:19,979 Where would you go? 941 01:13:20,084 --> 01:13:23,884 - Well, I would say everywhere but with... - 942 01:13:23,988 --> 01:13:26,183 to have a look at different culture 943 01:13:26,290 --> 01:13:29,259 would be a very good way to better understand 944 01:13:29,360 --> 01:13:33,387 how different culture could have coped with rock art, 945 01:13:33,497 --> 01:13:36,694 for example, in Australia, in North America, 946 01:13:36,801 --> 01:13:38,325 or in South Africa. 947 01:13:38,436 --> 01:13:40,563 Aborigines in Australia 948 01:13:40,671 --> 01:13:45,836 who lived until recently almost like Stone Age people. 949 01:13:45,943 --> 01:13:50,346 - Sure, for example, because they used to paint 950 01:13:50,448 --> 01:13:54,509 and to create rock art until the 1970s, 951 01:13:54,618 --> 01:13:56,984 and in some places, I think there still are 952 01:13:57,087 --> 01:14:00,113 some traditions of creating rock art. 953 01:14:00,224 --> 01:14:01,782 Well, of course it has changed 954 01:14:01,892 --> 01:14:04,190 since the beginning of the century, 955 01:14:04,295 --> 01:14:06,126 when they were discovered, 956 01:14:06,230 --> 01:14:09,996 but it can tell us different ways 957 01:14:10,100 --> 01:14:11,533 of looking at rock art 958 01:14:11,635 --> 01:14:14,160 which are not our way of looking at rock art. 959 01:14:14,271 --> 01:14:15,761 Do you have an example? 960 01:14:15,873 --> 01:14:17,397 - Yeah, sure, of course. 961 01:14:17,508 --> 01:14:23,310 In north Australia, for example, in the 1970s, 962 01:14:23,414 --> 01:14:27,009 an ethnographer was on the field with an aborigine 963 01:14:27,117 --> 01:14:29,051 who was his informer, 964 01:14:29,153 --> 01:14:32,611 and once they arrived in a rock shelter. 965 01:14:32,723 --> 01:14:33,985 And in that rock shelter, 966 01:14:34,091 --> 01:14:36,651 there were some beautiful paintings, 967 01:14:36,760 --> 01:14:38,193 but they were decaying. 968 01:14:38,295 --> 01:14:41,890 And the aborigine started to become sad 969 01:14:41,999 --> 01:14:44,263 because he saw the paintings decaying. 970 01:14:44,368 --> 01:14:46,632 And in that region, there is a tradition 971 01:14:46,737 --> 01:14:50,833 of touching up the paintings time after time, 972 01:14:50,941 --> 01:14:57,744 so he sat, and he started to touch up the paintings. 973 01:14:57,848 --> 01:15:01,875 So the ethnographer asked the question 974 01:15:01,986 --> 01:15:06,082 that every Western person would have asked. 975 01:15:06,190 --> 01:15:08,090 "Why are you painting?" 976 01:15:08,192 --> 01:15:10,126 And the man answered, 977 01:15:10,227 --> 01:15:14,186 and his answer is very troubling, 978 01:15:14,298 --> 01:15:16,425 because he answered, "I am not. 979 01:15:16,534 --> 01:15:18,593 "I am not painting. 980 01:15:18,702 --> 01:15:22,138 "That's the hand, only hand, 981 01:15:22,239 --> 01:15:25,538 spirit who is actually painting now." 982 01:15:25,643 --> 01:15:27,372 The hand of a spirit. 983 01:15:27,478 --> 01:15:32,643 - Yeah, because the man is a part of the spirit. 984 01:22:49,821 --> 01:22:53,382 Do you think that the paintings in Chauvet Cave 985 01:22:53,491 --> 01:22:57,894 were somehow the beginning of the modern human soul? 986 01:22:57,996 --> 01:23:00,157 What constitutes humanness? 987 01:23:00,265 --> 01:23:06,170 - Humanness is a very good adaptation 988 01:23:06,271 --> 01:23:08,739 with the... - in the world. 989 01:23:08,840 --> 01:23:11,934 So the soc... - the human society 990 01:23:12,043 --> 01:23:15,410 needs to adaptate to the landscape, 991 01:23:15,513 --> 01:23:18,949 to the other beings, the animals, 992 01:23:19,050 --> 01:23:22,383 to other human groups 993 01:23:22,487 --> 01:23:26,548 and to communicate something, to communicate it 994 01:23:26,658 --> 01:23:29,218 and to inscribe the memory 995 01:23:29,327 --> 01:23:33,661 on very specific and hard things, 996 01:23:33,765 --> 01:23:38,600 like walls, like pieces of wood, like bones, 997 01:23:38,703 --> 01:23:42,264 this is invention of Cro-Magnon. 998 01:23:42,373 --> 01:23:43,772 And how about music? 999 01:23:43,875 --> 01:23:48,073 - And... - yes, and also things, mythology, music. 1000 01:23:48,179 --> 01:23:52,639 But with the invention of the figuration... - 1001 01:23:52,750 --> 01:23:55,651 figuration of animals, of men, of things... - 1002 01:23:55,753 --> 01:23:59,120 it's a way of communication between humans 1003 01:23:59,223 --> 01:24:01,088 and with the future 1004 01:24:01,192 --> 01:24:05,526 to evocate the past, to transmit information 1005 01:24:05,630 --> 01:24:08,997 that is very better than language, 1006 01:24:09,100 --> 01:24:12,228 than oral communication. 1007 01:24:12,337 --> 01:24:18,071 And this invention is still the same in our world today... - 1008 01:24:18,176 --> 01:24:21,111 with this camera, for example. 1009 01:24:45,403 --> 01:24:47,166 On the Rhone River 1010 01:24:47,271 --> 01:24:51,605 is one of the largest nuclear power plants in France. 1011 01:24:51,709 --> 01:24:56,510 The Chauvet Cave is located only 20 miles as the crow flies 1012 01:24:56,614 --> 01:24:59,913 beyond these hills in the background. 1013 01:25:00,018 --> 01:25:02,509 A surplus of warm water, 1014 01:25:02,620 --> 01:25:05,521 which has been used to cool these reactors, 1015 01:25:05,623 --> 01:25:11,653 is diverted half a mile away to create a tropical biosphere. 1016 01:25:11,763 --> 01:25:15,597 Warm steam fills enormous greenhouses, 1017 01:25:15,700 --> 01:25:18,362 and the site is expanding. 1018 01:25:38,289 --> 01:25:43,124 Crocodiles have been introduced into this brooding jungle, 1019 01:25:43,227 --> 01:25:46,321 and warmed by water to cool the reactor, 1020 01:25:46,431 --> 01:25:50,026 man, do they thrive. 1021 01:25:50,134 --> 01:25:54,002 There are already hundreds of them. 1022 01:26:02,413 --> 01:26:04,176 Not surprisingly, 1023 01:26:04,282 --> 01:26:09,879 mutant albinos swim and breed in these waters. 1024 01:26:09,987 --> 01:26:14,287 A thought is born of this surreal environment. 1025 01:26:14,392 --> 01:26:18,488 Not long ago, just a few ten thousands of years back, 1026 01:26:18,596 --> 01:26:23,226 there were glaciers here 9,000 feet thick. 1027 01:26:23,334 --> 01:26:27,270 And now a new climate is steaming and spreading. 1028 01:26:29,907 --> 01:26:35,243 Fairly soon, these albinos might reach Chauvet Cave. 1029 01:26:35,346 --> 01:26:41,080 Looking at the paintings, what will they make of them? 1030 01:26:53,732 --> 01:26:55,324 Nothing is real. 1031 01:26:55,434 --> 01:26:57,959 Nothing is certain. 1032 01:26:58,070 --> 01:27:01,130 It is hard to decide whether or not 1033 01:27:01,240 --> 01:27:03,208 these creatures here are dividing 1034 01:27:03,308 --> 01:27:06,937 into their own doppelgaengers. 1035 01:27:09,814 --> 01:27:13,113 And do they really meet, 1036 01:27:13,217 --> 01:27:18,120 or is it just their own imaginary mirror reflection? 1037 01:27:22,261 --> 01:27:25,458 Are we today possibly the crocodiles 1038 01:27:25,564 --> 01:27:28,294 who look back into an abyss of time 1039 01:27:28,400 --> 01:27:32,496 when we see the paintings of Chauvet Cave? 1040 01:27:33,000 --> 01:27:36,064 Best watched using Open Subtitles MKV Player