Ancient cave paintings found in France

A remarkable new gallery of prehistoric cave paintings has been discovered in south-western France, including a 4m-long drawing of a bison and a number of erotic sketches.

The find, at Cussac, in the valley of the river Dordogne, is regarded as almost as important as the celebrated Lascaux cave paintings in the same area. The latest discovery was made by an amateur archeologist last September but the extent and richness of his finds have only just been revealed.

French anthropologists said the site was important because it contained "monumental" drawings of animals in friezes up to 25m long. These were sketches rather than paintings and probably older than the Lascaux pictures, maybe about 37,000 years old.

The caves also contained erotic drawings and representations of women, which have been found previously only in the caverns discovered in 1994 in the Ardeche region of France. Altogether, the caverns - extending for 1km - are thought to contain up to 200 separate drawings.

These include "all the standard bestiary of the paleolithic world, mammoths, rhinoceroses, deer, and many bisons and horses," said Norbert Aujoulat of the National Prehistory Centre of the Ministry of Culture.

"These are monumental drawings, with one panel 25m long comprising 40 figures, including a bison 4m long, which is one of the largest drawings of the period ever found."

Mr Aujoulat said the caves also included creatures rare in prehistoric paintings, such as birds. There were also bizarre creatures with long horns and open mouths, which had so far defied all attempts at identification.

The caverns were first discovered by Marc Delluc, an amateur archeologist and pot-holer from the nearby town of Perigueux. Rocks and compacted earth had to be removed from the entry to the caves, which were not fully explored until May this year.

The bones of five people from the early neolithic era were also found in the caves. Henri Duday, an anthropologist from the French National Research Centre said these bones were thought to come from the early part of the Gravetian period (28,000 to 22,000 years BC) or even possibly the Aurignacian period (28,000 to 35,000 BC).

Like the Lascaux caves and the Ardeche caverns, the grotto at Cussac will never be opened to the public as daylight would fade the drawings. Plans are being considered for a full-scale reproduction at a site nearby, similar to the one at the Lascaux. Two museums are already proposed for the caverns in the southern Ardeche.

- INDEPENDENT