In 1994 a cave was found just north of Marseilles, France in a region
known as the Ardech. The pictures and engravings in the cave are of a
modern style that uses perspective that wouldn't be seen again in
western art until the Renaissance. The cave, Chauvet-Pont-de-Arc,
contains art that is 32,000 years old, and is the oldest of an art
tradition that lasted 20,000 years (the original classic tradition).

For a virtual tour go to:
The Cave of Chauvet-Pont-de-Arc
http://www.culture.gouv.fr/culture/arcnat/chauvet/en/
and click on "visit the cave".

The archeology of cave panting is only 150 years old and is populated by
a wide array of personalities. To learn about these archeologist, the
caves, and the development of the understanding of the caves, I'd
recommend the following for your wintery reading.
The Cave Painters: Probing the Mysteries of the World's First Artists by
Gregory Curtis
http://www.amazon.com/Cave-Painters-...sts/dp/1400078
873/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1290644076&sr=1-1

If reading isn't your thing, a movie about The Cave of
Chauvet-Pont-de-Arc is about to be released.

Cave of Forgotten Dreams by Werner Herzog
http://tiff.net/filmsandschedules/ti...forgottendream

Now get out there and stretch those minds.

And good reading to you.
--
- Billy
"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the
merger of state and corporate power." - Benito Mussolini.
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/7/2/maude
http://english.aljazeera.net/video/m...515308172.html