Some experts have long believed that Palaeolithic art was older than the 15
000 years attributed to caves such as Lascaux. Now they have proof. In 1994
three French speleologists came across an undiscovered cave, some of whose 300
wall paintings are 30 000 years old. This extraordinary story is told by the
discoverers themselves, Jean-Marie Chauvet, Eliette Brunel Deschamps and
Christian Hillaire, in Chauvet Cave: The Discovery of the World’s Oldest
Paintings (Thames & Hudson, £28, ISBN 0 500 01706 9). The photographs
are stunning, as are the implications for human cognitive development.
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