Font de Gaume is a cave in southwestern France near Les Eyzies. The cave houses a collection of prehistoric polychrome cave paintings, and is a popular site for tourists. Inside Cave of the Mounds. ... Les Eyzies-de-Tayac-Sireuil is a commune of the Dordogne département, in southwestern France. ... Prehistory (Greek words προ = before and ιστορία = history) is the period of human history prior to the advent of writing (which marks the beginning of recorded history). ... Polychrome is one of the terms used to describe the use of multiple colors in one entity. ... Cave, or rock, paintings are paintings painted on cave or rock walls and ceilings, usually dating to pre_historic times. ...

History of Font de Gaume

Prehistoric people living in the Dordogne Valley first settled in the mouth of Font de Gaume around 25,000 BC. The cave mouth was inhabited at least sporadically for the next several thousand years. However, after the original prehistoric inhabitants left, the cave was forgotten until the nineteenth century when local people again began to visit the cave. Dordogne is a département in central France named after the Dordogne River. ...

In 1901, Denis Peyrony, a school teacher from Les Eyzies, discovered the paintings inside Font de Gaume. The paintings date from around 17000 BC, during the Magdalénien period. However, many of the cave's paintings were discovered much later on. As a matter of fact, the cave's most famous painting, a frieze of five bison was discovered accidentally in 1966 while scientists were cleaning the cave. 1901 (MCMI) was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Wednesday of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ...

The Paintings

Font de Gaume holds over 200 polychrome paintings and is considered the best example of polychrome painting other than Lascaux which is now closed to the public. The paintings in Font de Gaume include depictions of more than 80 bison, approximately 40 horse depictions, and more than 20 mammoth depictions. Polychrome is one of the terms used to describe the use of multiple colors in one entity. ... Lascaux Lascaux is a complex of caves in southwestern France famous for its cave paintings. ... Species B. antiquus B. bison B. bonasus B. priscus Bison is a taxonomic genus containing six species of large even-toed ungulates within the subfamily Bovinae. ... Binomial name Equus caballus Linnaeus, 1758 The horse (Equus caballus, sometimes seen as a subspecies of the Wild Horse, Equus ferus caballus) is a large odd-toed ungulate mammal, one of ten modern species of the genus Equus. ... Species Mammuthus africanavus   African mammoth Mammuthus columbi   Columbian mammoth Mammuthus exilis   Pygmy mammoth Mammuthus jeffersonii   Jeffersonian mammoth Mammuthus trogontheri   Steppe mammoth Mammuthus meridionalis Mammuthus primigenius   Woolly mammoth Mammuthus lamarmorae   Sardinian Dwarf Mammoth A mammoth is any of a number of an extinct genus of elephant, often with long curved tusks...