The Cave at Niaux

The cave paintings at Niaux by the Magdalenien people date back 12-14,000 years.   At the outside Pre-History Museum in Tarascon sur Ariège, we wandered around exhibits showing how these people lived - how they constructed their camps of deerskin covered tents, how they made fire, crafted tools and weapons, hunted, mixed paints and made music.  Visits to the cave itself are highly regulated to control the temperature, moisture, and light.   Mysteries about these paintings, nearly 1 kilometer into the cave, still abound - what spiritual significance did they hold or commemorate and why did they paint the buffalo, a plains animal, in this mountain cave?   We know that they did not live in this cave and the paintings done outside have been lost to the elements.  But the beauty of the lines, the way they used the contours of the rock to indicate shape and movement, are amazing.   You can imagine the storytelling that went on here, images moving in the torchlight, sound filling the cavernous space.