CHAPTER 1Origins
Early in the winter of 1994, a trio of speleologists made an amazing
find: a limestone cavern in the south of France containing some of the
most spectacular examples of prehistoric art ever seen. The charcoal,
ochre, and carved wall paintings of Chauvet Cave date from more than
thirty thousand years ago and are among the oldest currently known
examples of Paleolithic cave art. Before its modern discovery in De-
cember 1994, it is likely no one had entered this cave for more than
twenty thousand years.
A number of other caves in this region of southwestern Europe
are also filled with wall paintings dating from ten thousand or more
years ago. Often these drawings are deep inside the caves, far removed
from the entrances and completely impervious to light from outside
—places of deep darkness. The Paleolithic humans who made these
drawings carried torches and stone lamps and built small fires to
illuminate their artistic undertakings. It is also likely, given the op-
portunity afforded by these nether regions so isolated from outside
light, that these ancient humans used the darkness as an aid to inner
exploration.
In darkness is the absence of the compelling visual stimuli that fill