Grotte de Bara Bahau - Le Sanctuaire de l'Ours

At Le Bugue near Les Eyzies, come and contemplate the prehistoric cave of Bara-Bahau (pronounced "barraba-ou" in Occitan). Discovered in 1951, it presents three ribbons of large engraved animals, horses, bears, reindeer, aurochs, ibexes, dating back 15,000 years. "Ribambelle" because fresco refers rather to paintings and frieze of small engravings. Bara-Bahau, however, displays neither of these.
Engraved on three superimposed levels, the animals diminish in size as one gets closer to the ground, no doubt due to the lack of leeway for the artists, who work standing, sitting or almost lying down. Another curiosity: the essential contours but also the manes, the ganaches and, inside the silhouettes, parallel lines made with the fingers that underline the shapes and volumes, themselves carried by the reliefs of the wall, thus giving life to the drawings.

Show less