This photograph gives a good idea of where the cave fits in the local landscape. The cave entrance is on the right background of the photo, at the point where the third lot of trees climbs up the slope, dividing the cliff into four segments in this photo. The cave contains many paintings from the Ice Ages.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008
Further along the cliff line.
While most photos of Font de Gaume on archaeology websites show only the prominent headland jutting out over the parking area for the busy ticket office at Font de Gaume, which services all ticketing for the large number of archaeological sites in the area, the actual entrance for the cave is up hill behind the small building shown in the panorama above.
This view is obtained by going up the side road not far from the ticket office.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008
These are close ups of the prominent headland near the Font de Gaume cave, and above the ticket office there. From the ticket office there is an uphill walk of several hundred metres to the entrance to the cave, and these photos show successive views on the way up the path.
Ayla (from the book 'Shelters of Stone' by Jean Auel) says it looks like the face of the Mother.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008
Ticket Office at Font de Gaume, which controls access to all the gisements / archaeological sites in the area. Although the ticket office does not open until 09:30 hours, visitors hoping to get tickets to any of the archaeological sites in the area should be there at 08:00 hours or earlier during the high season of summer. Tickets may be booked ahead, but a certain number are kept for the day itself - provided you get there early enough. The gift shop attached is usually open by 09:00 hours.
This image shows the scene when I turned up at 09:00 hours having booked for the tour of La Ferrassie a few days before. The two ladies sitting on the wall were also on the La Ferrassie trip.
Visitors should also be aware that many of the less popular sites, of interest mainly to archaeologists, such as La Ferrassie or Le Moustier, are open only once or twice a week. Check ahead to find out when these tours operate. Visitors are then taken to the sites using their own cars following that of the guide.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008
Map of the passages in the Font de Gaume
Source: A display at Font de Gaume
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008
Entrance to the Font de Gaume cave, which is paved with a rubber mat so that visitors can scrape dirt off their shoes before entering, and to provide secure footing.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008
(Left) This shows a secondary entrance to a short cave of no archaeological significance, which is used to hold visitors bags while they tour the cave with a guide. The entrance to the cave proper is to the right of the baggage cave.
(Right) This is a small cave at the end of the baggage area.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008
View of the cliff above the cave entrance.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008
The photo shows the entrance to Font de Gaume Cave, under the cliff known also as Font de Gaume
Located near Les Eyzies, on the Sarlat road, Font-de-Gaume Cave is a showpiece of Magdalenian engravings and paintings from around 14 000 BC. The
flints (chisels, scrapers, blades) and other things found in the cave during
the excavations testify to a continual occupation since the Mousterian age, or the age of the Neandertals.
Discovered in 1901 by D. Peyrony, the Cave, 130 m long, contains about 250
paintings. The visitor can only see 30 of them, the most beautiful
ones and the best preserved. After 60 m underground, the "Rubicon" is the
beginning of the decorated part of the cave, with red dots on the left wall.
These caves were not used as dwellings, they were shrines, according to A.
Leroi-Gourhan
Text and photo: "Font-de-Gaume Cave" - Editions Pierre Fanlac.
My thanks to Anyasun for finding this book.
Font de Gaume Entrance
This cave has never been closed by natural causes, as Lascaux was for example, which explains the bad state of the paintings. Though paintings are everywhere in the cave, they have not been seen (again) before 1901 (by the man who also discovered Combarelle a few weeks before). Kids of Les Eyzies used to play there and they carved their names and dates on the walls, sometimes destroying what the (supposed) Magdalenians did. Added to that, water deposited some calcite on the walls, hiding many of the paintings-carvings.
(Left) Composite image of the two cave entrances the visitor sees while waiting for the guide and latecomers to the tour, with the real cave entrance on the right.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008
Plan de la grotte de Font-de-Gaume
Photo: (d'après l'Atlas des cavernes. Imprimerie Nationale)
http://www.culture.fr/culture/conservation/fr/grottes/Pageshtm/4-4.htm
Painting of a wolf in Font de Gaume after Breuil, from a postcard. My thanks to Anyasun for bringing it to my attention.
What is so special with Font de Gaume is that the animals are carved, then painted inside the carving. It's a great thing, because if the paint disappears, most of the carving can still be seen. Recently, about 3 years ago, they renovated the ground of the cave for tourists. Before doing that, they studied the walls again, to be sure they did not miss any paintings.
They discovered something like 180 new 'things', from animals to simple signs. Most of them are behind a layer of calcite, and can be seen only with a UV or IR light. Utika says 'the guide showed the visitors a really cute little mammoth, about the size of my hand that they missed before. It was also then that they discovered the wolf. Only the carved part of that wolf survived'
The entrance of Font de Gaume is on the right. On the left, it's only a small cavity - small compared to the cave itself (nowadays used to leave bags, and everything that could touch the walls by mistake during the visit). This is the natural shape, but they modified the floor to make it flat.
Text: Utika 2002
After the "Rubicon", it's possible to see the first paintings - twelve
mammoths and bisons from the Ice Age. Delicately engraved outlines are enhanced by a black
line. The paint is applied after, on the limestone wall. Mainly two colors :
black for male animals, and red for females, often gravid (pregnant) ones.
Text and photo: "Font-de-Gaume Cave" - Editions Pierre Fanlac.
My thanks to Anyasun for finding this book.
Les hauts lieux de la préhistoire dans la vallée de la Vézère sont essentiels à la connaissance de l'expression symbolique paléolithique (~35 000 / ~9 000 av. J-C.) avec notammement les grottes de Font-de-Gaume, des Combarelles et l'abri du Poisson (Les Eyzies-de-Tayac).
Galerie principale, seconde partie, paroi de gauche, Frise des cinq bisons, sujet de gauche.
Text and photo: Postcard from Monum, Éditions du patrimoine
This is a closeup of the left most bison in the photo above of mammoths and bisons. My thanks to Anya for sending this postcard.
On the left wall, just before the crossroads is the famous scene of a male reindeer licking a kneeling female reindeer, with a line of other reindeer behind. It's possible to see the black
reindeer tongue brushing the female forehead.
Text and photo: "Font-de-Gaume Cave" - Editions Pierre Fanlac.
My thanks to Anyasun for finding this book.
Bison et cervidé de la Frise noire.
Bison and deer on the black panel.
Photo from: Agenda de la Préhistoire 2002 - 2003, a superb diary with excellent illustrations sent to me by Anya. My thanks as always.
Ensemble des peintures du carrefour
Another view of the Bison and deer on the black panel at the crossroads.
Photo from: a Castelet postcard sent to me by Anya. My thanks as always.