Fifteen years of crowds
Four teenagers found the cave near Montignac, in the Dordogne, on 12 September 1940. What they saw is described in the guide to the Lascaux paintings: nearly 6,000 figures, mostly animals, painted and engraved about 17,000 years ago (a date that comes from the methods explained in how cave paintings are dated). For all that time the cave had been sealed, with a stable temperature and humidity that kept the colours fresh.
On 14 July 1948 Lascaux opened to the public. To let people in, the entrance was enlarged, steps were cut, doors were added, the floor was lowered and electric lights were fitted. By the early 1960s, at the busiest times, more than a thousand visitors a day were walking through a few narrow galleries (the figures in the sources range from about 1,200 to 1,800). Each one breathed out water vapour and carbon dioxide and gave off body heat. A machine to control the air was installed, but it could not keep up.
The “green sickness” and the decision of 1963
By the late 1950s the guides had noticed green patches on the walls, growing around the lamps. The French called it the maladie verte, the green sickness: algae, bacteria and fungi feeding on the light, the warmth and the moisture the crowds had brought in. At the same time a thin white film of calcite was forming in places, a “white sickness” that could slowly veil the paintings.
In April 1963 André Malraux, France’s Minister of Culture, ordered the cave closed to the public. The air machine was switched off, the algae were treated with antibiotics and diluted formalin, and the green sickness stopped. Few countries have shut their most famous prehistoric site at the height of its fame, to protect it from its own visitors.
Why the paintings are so fragile
The images of Lascaux were made with mineral pigments: red and yellow from iron oxides (ochres), black from charcoal and manganese oxides, blown or brushed onto limestone. The paint sits on the surface of the rock, with no binder strong enough to protect it, and the rock itself is alive in a chemical sense, with water seeping through it and minerals dissolving and forming again.
A painted cave is in balance with its climate the way an old house is with its walls: change the air, and something starts to grow. For thousands of years the balance at Lascaux had held. Fifteen years of visitors were enough to break it, and closing the door did not simply put it back.
Then came the mould
For almost forty years after the closure, Lascaux seemed stable. Then, in 2001, a white fungus, identified as Fusarium solani, appeared on the floor and walls and spread fast. It followed the replacement of the cave’s air-conditioning system and other works in the cave, and many researchers link the two, although how much each factor mattered is still discussed. The fungus was treated with fungicides and, on the floor, with quicklime.
Within a few years a second problem appeared: grey and black stains, caused by other fungi, spreading on the walls from around 2007. Since then, the cave has been watched daily, with sensors and a small team allowed in for short periods, and every treatment is weighed against the risk of harming the paint. The paintings have not been lost. But the story shows that “closed” does not mean “safe”: the cave is a living system, and it is now one that people have to manage.
What the replicas keep, and what they lose
Since nobody can visit the cave, France has built copies. Lascaux II, opened in 1983 a short walk from the original, reproduces the Hall of the Bulls and the Axial Gallery, painted by hand with the same kinds of pigments. Then, in December 2016, came Lascaux IV, the International Centre for Cave Art at the foot of the hill in Montignac: a near-complete replica of the cave, made from 3D scans and cast in resin, then painted by a team of artists.
What do the replicas keep? The shapes, the sizes and the positions of the figures, the way they follow the relief of the rock, the darkness and the scale of the galleries. A copy made from scans can be more accurate than any drawing or photograph. What do they lose? The age of the surface, the knowledge that a person stood on this very spot seventeen thousand years ago, and the slow discovery of a real cave. Other painted caves face the same choice, as the pages on Altamira in Spain and on the wider world of rock art show.
So can a replica ever replace a painted cave? For seeing the paintings, nearly. For being there, no. The honest answer is that a copy is the price of keeping the original at all, and at Lascaux the original is still being kept, carefully and at some risk.
Where to see it
The original cave is closed. Lascaux IV, at Montignac, is the most complete copy and the one to choose if you have time for only one; Lascaux II is still open nearby. Both are in the Vézère valley, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1979, which also has open caves with real paintings and the National Museum of Prehistory at Les Eyzies. Check opening times and tickets on the official sites before you go.
Sources
- P. G. Bahn, “Lascaux: Ice Age cave art under threat”, Oxford University Press blog (2012).
- Ministère de la Culture, “Lascaux”, official website of the cave (archeologie.culture.gouv.fr/lascaux).
- F. Bastian, C. Alabouvette and C. Saiz-Jimenez, “The impact of arthropods on fungal community structure in Lascaux Cave”, Journal of Applied Microbiology (2009).
- UNESCO World Heritage Centre, “Prehistoric Sites and Decorated Caves of the Vézère Valley”.
- Lascaux IV, Centre international de l’art pariétal, official website.
