Abstract
IN the enthusiasm of fresh discovery, archaeologists at times are apt to overstress the importance of their finds. No reservation is necessary in appreciating the outstanding character of the remarkable discovery of the cave and paintings of palæolithic age at Lescaux in the Dordogne valley, recorded by the Abbé Breuil in another column of this issue of NATURE (see p. 11). Although at the time of writing examination of the cave had proceeded no further than would warrant a preliminary report, sufficient of its nature had already been revealed to justify the conclusion in the opinion of the Abbé Breuil that the discovery is of exceptional importance. To quote his own words “as … Déchelette called Altamira 'the Sixtine Chapel of Magdalenian art”, so Lescaux represents with equal splendour that of the far more ancient Perigordian”. In this remarkable cave with its high central hall and galleries, the latter for the most part still unexplored, are more than eighty paintings, chiefly on blocks fallen from the roof, as well as engravings—in the hall superposed upon the paintings, in the galleries unaccompanied—which it has not yet been possible to examine adequately on account of their delicacy.
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Palæolithic Paintings in the Dordogne. Nature 147, 21–22 (1941). https://doi.org/10.1038/147021c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/147021c0