2023-09-26 19:50:31
View of the vault of the Grotte des Gorges. Serge David
The cavity, long forgotten, contains engravings of animal representations and sculpted pieces among the oldest in France.
In Amange, Jura
A small bat hangs from the wall. Surrounded by hundreds of spiders, she is disturbed by the light of the torches. She takes advantage of a moment of inattention from visitors to reach the bottom of the cave in total darkness. The spiders don’t move. Were they already there more than 30,000 years ago when men regularly entered this cavity to engrave animal shapes on the walls? Horses, rhinoceroses, a mammoth, but also felines and a megaceros (a kind of large deer) float on the walls of the Gorges cave, in the town of Amange, in the Jura. These engravings are also present on blocks detached from the walls.
To the lay eye, the scenes are far from spectacular. It is difficult to differentiate them from cracks or scratches left by animals. But, looking closer, shapes emerge. Segmental traces, without detail. Animals…
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