Editing Lascaux (section)

==History since rediscovery==
[[File:Lascaux entrance.jpg|thumb|left|150px|Modern entrance to the Lascaux cave]]
On 12 September 1940, the entrance to the Lascaux Cave was discovered on the [[House of La Rochefoucauld|La Rochefoucauld-Montbel]] lands by 18-year-old Marcel Ravidat when his dog, Robot, investigated a hole left by an uprooted tree (Ravidat would embellish the story in later retellings, saying Robot had fallen into the cave.)<ref>{{Cite book |last=Curtis |first=Gregory |title=The Cave Painters |publisher=Anchor Books |year=2007 |isbn=978-1-4000-7887-5 |pages=82–88}}</ref><ref name="dailytelegraph.com.au" /> Ravidat returned to the scene with three friends, Jacques Marsal, Georges Agnel, and Simon Coencas. They entered the cave through a {{convert|15|m|ft|adj=mid|-deep|abbr=off|-1}} shaft that they believed might be a legendary secret passage to the nearby Lascaux Manor.<ref name="dailytelegraph.com.au">{{Cite web|url=https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/how-a-dog-called-robot-helped-reveal-lascauxs-prehistoric-art-gallery/news-story/717e1cb7dc68c1302f2575e5cdc67fe9|title=Lascaux's prehistoric cave of wonders discovered by a dog|date=10 September 2015|website=www.dailytelegraph.com.au|language=en|access-date=21 December 2018}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://www.worldhistory.org/Lascaux_Cave/|title=Lascaux Cave|website=[[World History Encyclopedia]]|access-date=21 December 2018|archive-date=25 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230425104117/http://www.worldhistory.org/Lascaux_Cave/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.historytoday.com/richard-cavendish/discovery-lascaux-cave-paintings|title=Discovery of the Lascaux Cave Paintings {{!}} History Today|website=www.historytoday.com|access-date=21 December 2018|archive-date=21 December 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181221230811/https://www.historytoday.com/richard-cavendish/discovery-lascaux-cave-paintings|url-status=live}}</ref> The teenagers discovered that the cave walls were covered with depictions of animals.<ref name=nytimes_ravidat>{{cite news|last=Thomas|first=Robert McG. Jr.|title=Marcel Ravidat is Dead at 72; Found Lascaux Paintings|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1995/03/31/obituaries/marcel-ravidat-is-dead-at-72-found-lascaux-cave-paintings.html|access-date=30 December 2012|newspaper=The New York Times|date=31 March 1995|archive-date=25 December 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221225002054/https://www.nytimes.com/1995/03/31/obituaries/marcel-ravidat-is-dead-at-72-found-lascaux-cave-paintings.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=cave_art>{{cite book|last=Bahn|first=Paul G.|title=Cave Art: A Guide to the Decorated Ice Age Caves of Europe|year=2007|publisher=Frances Lincoln|location=London|isbn=978-0-7112-2655-5|pages=81–85}}</ref> Galleries that suggest continuity, context or simply represent a cavern were given names. Those include the ''Hall of the Bulls'', the ''Passageway'', the ''Shaft'', the ''Nave'', the ''Apse'', and the ''Chamber of Felines''. They returned along with the [[Henri Breuil|Abbé Henri Breuil]] on 21 September 1940; Breuil would make many sketches of the cave, some of which are used as study material today due to the extreme degradation of many of the paintings. Breuil was accompanied by [[:fr:Denis Peyrony]], curator of the [[National Museum of Prehistory (France)|National Museum of Prehistory]] at [[Les Eyzies-de-Tayac-Sireuil|Les Eyzies]], Jean Bouyssonie and Dr Cheynier.

The cave complex was opened to the public on 14 July 1948, and initial archaeological investigations began a year later, focusing on the Shaft. By 1955, [[carbon dioxide]], heat, humidity, and other contaminants produced by 1,200 visitors per day had visibly damaged the paintings. As air condition deteriorated, fungi and [[lichen]] increasingly infested the walls. Consequently, the cave was closed to the public in 1963, the paintings were restored to their original state, and a monitoring system on a daily basis was introduced.

===Replicas===
[[File:Lascaux-IV 01.jpg|thumb|Part of Lascaux IV]]
Conservation problems in the original cave have made the creation of replicas more important.

====Lascaux II====
''Lascaux II'', an exact copy of the ''Great Hall of the Bulls'' and the ''Painted Gallery'' was displayed at the [[Grand Palais]] in Paris, before being displayed from 1983 in the cave's vicinity (about {{convert|200|m|ft|abbr=on|disp=or}} away from the original cave), a compromise and attempt to present an impression of the paintings' scale and composition for the public without harming the originals.<ref name=":0" /><ref name="cave_art" /> A full range of Lascaux's parietal art is presented a few kilometres from the site at the ''Centre of Prehistoric Art'', Le Parc du Thot, where there are also live animals representing [[Prehistoric animals|ice-age fauna]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://france3-regions.francetvinfo.fr/nouvelle-aquitaine/dordogne/au-thot-24-retour-loups-prehistoriques-1259593.html |title=le retour des loups "préhistoriques" |access-date=17 June 2017 |archive-date=4 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221204090313/https://france3-regions.francetvinfo.fr/nouvelle-aquitaine/dordogne/au-thot-24-retour-loups-prehistoriques-1259593.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

The paintings for this site were duplicated with the same type of materials (such as [[iron oxide]], [[charcoal]], and [[ochre]]) which were believed to be used 19,000 years ago.<ref name="dailytelegraph.com.au"/><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.thoughtco.com/lascaux-cave-170323|title=The Beautiful and Famous Lascaux Cave|last1=Hirst|first1=Kris|website=ThoughtCo|access-date=21 December 2018|archive-date=1 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230401003702/https://www.thoughtco.com/lascaux-cave-170323|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://labos.ulg.ac.be/cipa/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2015/07/25_eshleman.pdf|title=Lectures on the Ice-Age Painted Caves of Southwestern France|access-date=21 December 2018|archive-date=12 December 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221212001654/http://labos.ulg.ac.be/cipa/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2015/07/25_eshleman.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Ferrier|first1=Catherine|last2=Debard|first2=Évelyne|last3=Kervazo|first3=Bertrand|last4=Brodard|first4=Aurélie|last5=Guibert|first5=Pierre|last6=Baffier|first6=Dominique|last7=Feruglio|first7=Valérie|last8=Gély|first8=Bernard|last9=Geneste|first9=Jean-Michel|date=28 December 2014|title=Heated walls of the cave Chauvet-Pont d'Arc (Ardèche, France): characterization and chronology|url=http://journals.openedition.org/paleo/3009|journal=PALEO. Revue d'archéologie préhistorique|language=en|issue=25|pages=59–78|doi=10.4000/paleo.3009|s2cid=192897888|issn=1145-3370|doi-access=free|access-date=21 December 2018|archive-date=1 February 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230201182710/https://journals.openedition.org/paleo/3009|url-status=live}}</ref> Other [[facsimile]]s of Lascaux have also been produced over the years.

====Lascaux III====
''Lascaux III'' is a series of five exact reproductions of the cave art (the Nave and Shaft) that, since 2012, have been exhibited in various countries, allowing knowledge of Lascaux to be shared widely, far away from the original.

====Lascaux IV====
''Lascaux IV'' is the latest replica, in real scale, of the integrality of the cave of Lascaux. Situated on the same hill overlooking [[Montignac, Dordogne|Montignac]],<ref>[https://www.lascaux.fr/en Lascaux IV International Centre for Cave Art] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230424153417/https://www.lascaux.fr/en |date=24 April 2023 }}, official website.</ref> and 400 m from the original site, it is part of the International Centre for Parietal Art (Centre International de l'Art Pariétal) that was inaugurated in December 2016. The museum, built by [[Snøhetta (company)|Snøhetta]],<ref>[https://snohetta.com/projects/322-lascaux-iv-the-international-centre-for-cave-art Lascaux IV: The International Centre for Cave Art] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230306022752/https://snohetta.com/projects/322-lascaux-iv-the-international-centre-for-cave-art |date=6 March 2023 }}, Snøhetta projects, website snohetta.com</ref> integrates digital technology, workshops and films into adjacent display rooms.