-1 101 Z Four boys out walking their dog in 1940 accidentally discovered a series of caves which proved to hold one of the most impressive collections of Palaeolithic art now known to us. A number of different groups of paintings and engravings decorate the passages and caves, created over many thousands of years.
# Introduction
3 102 A Four huge bulls dominate the main hall, the largest an imposing 17 ft (6 m) long. Bulls and horses are the two species most frequently depicted in French and Spanish cave art and some scholars believe that these animals had some ritual significance in the lives of Palaeolithic people.
# Hall of Bulls, one of the 4 huge black bulls
2 101 x Handprints made in clay here include some from which fingers are missing. Frostbite seems a likely explanation for their loss. Hand stencils on the walls here are all of intact hands, however.
# Handprints
4 101 x Many examples of Palaeolithic art are deep in the heart of caves, where natural light could not penetrate. Instead the artists had to rely on flaming torches or lamps. A particularly fine specimen of a lamp, made of stone with carved decorations on it, was found here.
# Lamp, Timelines
5 101 x Abstract symbols, including black dots, accompany the vigorous creatures which move along the walls of the Axial Gallery. One recent interpretation sees the whole gallery as a representation of a drive lane through which to channel game and the dots as cairns of stones placed to assist the drive.
# Axial gallery, horse and dots
6 101 x As in other caves, many of Lascaux's designs are not painted but engraved. In the areas of the caves where such engravings exist some of the stone tools used to execute the engravings have been found discarded.
# Stone tools
7 103 D A shaft 16 ft (5 m) deep contained a lavish concentration of images, including the famous scene in which a man seems to be falling backwards before a wounded and irate bison. The nature of the paintings and the associated finds suggest that this shaft probably functioned as a holy place. Access may have been by rope.
# Shaft, scene in shaft 1B - IS MISSING !!!
8 101 x Paintings on the ceilings and high on the walls of many caves show scaffolding or ladders must have been used. Evidence of both survives at Lascaux: here sockets for scaffolding beams were found about 7 ft (2m) above the passage floor, while elsewhere in the cave rope has been discovered.
# Scaffolding in Axial gallery
9 103 B Numerous skilfully painted horses with large bellies and short legs decorate the walls of the gallery and hall. They are often called the 'Chinese horses' because of their similarity to horses in Chinese art.
# Chinese horses
1 101 X The popularity of visits to the Lascaux caves had a disastrous effect: algae and crystals began to grow on the walls due to the raised temperature and humidity. To protect the paintings the caves were closed, but a faithful copy, exact in every detail, has been constructed for visitors nearby.
# Lascaux II
10 101 x A mollusc shell found lying on the floor had been perforated, presumably to enable it to be worn. It had been brought here from far away: such shells are known in fossil beds in Ireland and the Isle of Man.
# Mollusc shell
11 101 x Lascaux has yielded the finest collection of pigments used in cave painting, along with the grindstones used to prepare them. Some were made from single minerals such as red and yellow ochres. Others were a mixture of different materials: white made from kaolin, quartz and calcite, for example. Charcoal was often used for black.
