The former home of the reindeer hunters lies inconspicuously under a rock face near the village of Sergeac in the French department of Dordogne. Some 37,000 years ago, our ancestors lived under the rock shelter of Abri Castanet in southern France. It was probably members of the Aurignacian culture who decorated the ceiling of the rock with pictures and runes. The Aurignacians were a Neolithic hunter-gatherer culture and were already quite similar to today’s humans. Their ceiling painting in the Abri Castanet is one of the oldest known works of art in Europe.
Among other things, it shows a half-finished animal and a vulva, a part of the female sexual organ. Over the years, the cave has collapsed. Archaeologists found the drawings in 2007 on the underside of a 1.5-tonne piece of rock, which they identified as the former ceiling of the Abri Castanet.
The Abri Castanet is freely accessible and can be seen from the Route de Castel Merle. The cave is part of the Castel Merle complex, which consists of a large number of prehistoric caves. If you feel like it, you can take a guided tour to see more of these cultural cities.
More information: https://www.castel-merle.com/visitez/
Photo: Cave painting on a cave wall. Credits: Pixabay/rodro.
