The Cave Of The Hundred MammothsThe Rouffignac cave is a cave located in the department of Dordogne

The Cave Of The Hundred MammothsThe Rouffignac cave is a cave located in the department of Dordogne in France and is also known as the cave of the hundred mammoths thanks to its 255  cave paintings of which 62% represent a mammoth. The cave itself is big, it has over 10 kilometers of underground passageways and shafts that lead to even deeper levels not fully explored. In total, 12 kilometers of the cave has been explored and visitors can take a tour on a train that will take them about 2km far into the cave. Earliest mentions of the cave dates back to 1575 when writer and painter François Belleforest described strange paintings and footprints of various animals in his work ‘Cosmographie Universelle’. During the 19th century, the cave became a tourist attraction because of the paintings but nobody yet realised that these paintings were actually made during the paleolithic era. It wasn’t until the 1950’s when several researchers (Romain Robert, Louis-René Nougier, Charles and Louis Plassard) entered the cave and noticed that the paintings inside were of great historical value. In 1957 the cave became a listed site and it was finally confirmed that the art inside, is in fact prehistoric in nature and thus of incredible archeological value. The art inside the cave is not the oldest art found in Europe. The art of Rouffignac is dated back to about 13,000 years ago from the Magdalenian culture, in comparison the art of Chauvet cave is about 30,000 years old. What is quite fascinating is the fact that 62% of all the paintings, 158 in total, represent a mammoth. There are 29 depictions of bison, 16 of a horse, 12 of an ibex, 11 of a rhino, 6 of a snake, 4 of a human, 1 of a bear and 14 abstract paintings. Some of the art has been made in quite difficult positions inside the cave, it’s amazing to think that humans were able to explore this cave 13,000 years ago and make these pieces of art. There must have been a reason behind all of this art because no one would enter this cave that deeply to create art in pitch black and dangerous surroundings in prehistoric times, even with all of our current gear and knowledge humans wouldn’t even do this for fun in the 21st century. The possible spiritual meaning behind cave art still remains a mystery yet an incredibly fascinating topic to explore. Why is there such an abundance of mammoth cave art in Rouffignac? We actually have no idea why. Perhaps our ancestors viewed the woolly mammoth as a particularly sacred animal, maybe their spiritual beliefs were based on the spirit of the mammoth. These are just wild guesses because in truth, it is impossible to find any archeological evidence inside this cave that explains the reason why there are so many depictions of a mammoth. One thing that is certain is that the mammoth continues to fascinate human beings until this very day, I myself got a tattoo of a woolly mammoth based on art found inside this cave. Here are images of:Rouffignac cave art -- source link

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