Grotte Chauvet Discovery: Google Doodle Celebrates the 26th Anniversary of the Discovery of UNESCO World Heritage Site Chauvet Cave

Google Doodle celebrates the 26th Anniversary of the Grotte Chauvet Discovery on December 18, 2020. Found on 18 December 1994, the decorated cave of Pont d’Arc, known as Grotte Chauvet-Pont d’Arc in Ardèche, is viewed as one of the most significant prehistoric art sites and the UN’s cultural agency UNESCO approved it World Heritage Site List on June 22, 2014.

The Chauvet-Pont-d’Arc Cave in the Ardèche branch of southeastern France is a cave that contains not only probably the best-preserved figurative cave paintings in the world, but also other proof of Upper Paleolithic life.

It is situated close to the commune of Vallon-Pont-d’Arc on a limestone cliff above the previous bed of the Ardèche River, in the Gorges de l’Ardèche.

The cave was first investigated by a group of three speleologists: Eliette Brunel-Deschamps, Christian Hillaire, and Jean-Marie Chauvet for whom it was named a half year after an aperture presently known as “Le Trou de Baba” (“Baba’s Hole”) was found by Michel Rosa (Baba).

Read More: Interesting Facts about Grotte Chauvet Cave, UNESCO World Heritage Site

Sometime in the future, the group got back to the cave. Another individual from this group, Michel Chabaud, alongside two others, traveled further into the cave and found the Gallery of the Lions, the End Chamber. Chauvet has his own detailed account of the discovery.

Notwithstanding the paintings and other human proof, they additionally found fossilized remaining parts, prints, and markings from a variety of animals, some of which are presently wiped out.

Through carbon dating, the uncommon drawings at Chauvet Cave have been followed back to the Aurignacian era more than 30,000 years prior. Because of a rockfall that sealed the entrance over 10,000 years after the fact, the Chauvet Cave–and the above 1,000 drawings documented on its limestone walls-at that point stayed untouched, protected for centuries in perfect quality.

Further investigation by French archaeologist Jean Clottes has uncovered much about the site. The dates have involved debate yet an examination published in 2012 supports placing the art in the Aurignacian era, about 32,000–30,000 years BP.

An investigation published in 2016 using extra 88 radiocarbon dates indicated two periods of habitation, one 37,000 to 33,500 years back and the second from 31,000 to 28,000 years prior, with the vast majority of the black drawings dating to the previous period.

Several animal paintings have been recorded at the Chauvet Cave, portraying at least 13 different species, including some rarely or never found in other ice age paintings. The walls of Chauvet Cave highlight numerous predatory animals, e.g., cave lions, leopards, bears, and cave hyenas. There are likewise paintings of rhinoceroses.

Then again, as indicated by Jean Clottes, Chauvet Cave contains probably the oldest known cave paintings, in light of radiocarbon dating of ‘black from drawings, from torch marks and the floors’.

The paintings were made by individuals in the Aurignacian period, somewhere in the range of 30,000 and 32,000 years prior – this was guaranteed by a group of researchers from the University of Savoy and Aix-Marseille University in a research article published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in May 2012.

In acknowledgment of the site’s immense importance to the human story, UNESCO recorded the Chauvet Cave onto the World Heritage List in 2014.

In 2020, scientists used the new IntCal20 radiocarbon calibration curve to determine that the oldest painting in the cave was made 36,500 years back.

Google Doodle on 26th Anniversary of the Grotte Chauvet Discovery

On December 18, 2020, Google praises the 26th Anniversary of the Grotte Chauvet Discovery – which always adjusted the archeological understanding of ancient man’s artistic expression and inventive development.

As represented in Google Doodle, the cave highlights portrayals of 14 unique species—from horses and lions to risky ancient animals like the long-extinct wooly rhinoceros and mammoth.

The deepest gallery highlights the portrayals of the human body, while different walls show an abstract series of red spots. The pictures exhibit extraordinary artistic vision and procedure through their anatomical accuracy, a deception of depth and movement, mindblowing use of colors, and a skillful combination of both painting and engraving.

Notwithstanding the paintings, the cave is additionally home to human footprints and nearly 4,000 ancient creature fossils.