Caves of Gargas

The cave of Gargas is 700 meters south-east of Aventignan in the department of Hautes -Pyrénées in the Midi -Pyrénées region of France and is part of the perimeter of the Franco-Cantabrian cave art. It consists of two halls and is classified as a historical monument. It is since the beginning of the 20th century the subject of scientific research; first by Émile Henri Breuil Cartailhac and Abbé.

The cave paintings in the Grotte de Gargas are made of red and black sometimes ocher ( an even white) ummalten hands, very many (144 of 154 perfectly recognizable ) are mutilated, as well as depictions of animals belonging to the late Paleolithic. The first hands were discovered in 1906 by Félix Régnault. Breuil and Cartailhac counted more than 150 Last Claude Barrière has 231 observed, although some have already disappeared as a result of erosion and vandalism.

In the cave you found the skull funeral of six bison, as well as the bones and teeth worked the cave bear. Finger drawings of bison, horses, reindeer, various antelope species and other animals were prepared with increasing differentiation in the clay can be found meandering pattern. The sharp claws of a cave bear left scratch marks on the walls.

In the front part of the cave settlement layers were washed with tools of the Central and Upper Paleolithic found. The largest find of precipitation comes from the Aurignacian. The petroglyphs on the cave walls, however, are mainly from the Gravettian. By means of the radiocarbon dating could be dated bone splinter from a rock crevice on a painted wall at 26,860 ± 460 BP. In addition, a limestone slab was with engravings in the Gravettian occupation layer found in conjunction with the typical for this time Noailles burins -.

Images of the upper cave ( grotto Superieure ) mainly belong to the Magdalenian.

Not far from the cave of Gargas is the Grotte de Tibiran.