Discovered 25 years ago in Dordogne, southwestern France, the Cussac cave is an immaculately preserved jewel of prehistory – and so strictly protected by the French ministry of culture that the public will never be allowed to set foot in it.
Discovered in 2000 by an amateur cave explorer, the Grotte de Cussac holds ancient human remains, traces of long-extinct bears and stunning, fragile artworks. Deep inside this labyrinthine cave, ancient humans who lived around 30,000 years ago carved horses, mammoths and rhinoceros into the walls, creating a prehistoric menagerie that has rarely been seen – until now.
A team of journalists from French news agency AFP has been granted access to the cave, a privilege usually reserved for researchers for just four weeks each year.
After passing through the iron access gate, the group donned white suits, hairnets and gloves and disinfected the soles of their shoes, before crawling through a narrow corridor that crosses a rockfall which has partitioned the area for millennia.
Then, using headlamps, they walked through vast galleries of stalactites and stalagmites on a narrow clay path, carefully following the route taken by caver Marc Delluc, who discovered the cave in September 2000.
Delluc had noticed a draft blowing from within the rocks. After removing several limestone slabs, he uncovered a path which, after following it for around 100 metres, led him to the engravings.
He described experiencing an "adrenaline rush" upon seeing the intertwining shapes and curves above his head. "I realised the privilege granted to me: to enter a place that has been sacred since time immemorial," Delluc, who passed away in 2017, later recalled.
'A sanctuary'
The 1.6-kilometre cave contains more than 1,000 carved figures, both animals and stylised feminine forms, drawn on the soft rock during the so-called Gravettian period – between 26,000 and 35,000 years ago, several millennia before the famous Lascaux cave.
"The Grotte de Cussac is exceptional for its well-preserved state. It was probably closed off very soon after it was occupied, which protected the soil and vestiges inside," said Emeline Deneuve, chief heritage conservationist for the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region's cultural affairs department.
Archaeological findings on France's Ile de Ré reveal North Sea trade links
Claw marks and signs of burrowing also attest to the presence of the cave bear, a distant relative of the brown bear. It is in their dens, which they dug for hibernation, that human remains, contemporaneous with the cave art, were found. Six individuals have been identified.
According to Jacques Jaubert, an archaeologist responsible for the multidisciplinary research project, the cave was a "sanctuary" rather than a dwelling. "The group lived outside, in the open or in shelters under the rocks," he explained.
'A passage between worlds'
To explain the presence of humans, he believes the cave may have been used for initiation ceremonies – "a rite of passage for adolescents to join the adult world", which was a practice often observed in primitive hunter-gatherer groups.
The Gravettians may have also perceived the cave "as a passage between the world of the living and the world of the dead," said Jaubert.
World's oldest artwork discovered in Indonesian cave
The engravings, which he calls "fragments of mythology," were made using sharp tools of flint, wood, and bone. They depict bison, ibex, geese and other animals, as well as women, often with giant heads and tiny feet.
Researcher Valerie Feruglio, who uses 3D imaging to study the artworks, said: "After testing the wall with their hands, leaving finger trails, the engraver began with initial animal figures, on which others would overlap," to illustrate a narrative "told by the artist or the viewer, mainly featuring bisons in friezes, others obscured by horses, or mammoths associated with female silhouettes."
Strict measures
Researchers in the partially explored cave must adhere to strict measures to preserve this fragile site, which has been listed as a historical monument since 2002 and is protected under environmental law. To ensure the preservation of the site, the French state has also acquired the land above the cave.
"We are the guardians responsible for preserving and documenting the site," said Deneuve, the conservation chief. "We support the research carried out there, as long as it is in line with conservation and heritage requirements. Documenting the cave and digitising it in 3D is also part of our goal to bring it to the public."
In October, the Dordogne department opened a free exhibit on the cave in the town of Buisson-de-Cadouin, displaying reproductions of its artworks.
Funding for dinosaur fossil digging falls, as French interest rises
But authorities say there are no plans to open the cave to the public. The state does not want to repeat the mistakes of the Lascaux cave in the same region, which was contaminated by micro-organisms due to an influx of visitors, before its closure in 1963.
(with AFP)
