Caveman drawings

Try to imagine what a caveman might draw on the walls of a cave. Stick figures? Pictures of people he knew? Think again!

From 12,000 to 18,000 years ago, some people who were humans like us -- maybe a little hairier, but just as smart -- drew and painted pictures inside caves in southwest France that amaze people today. Some are just outlines, others are painted in bright colors. But all are pictures of animals that lived around them. This includes mammoths (a kind of huge hairy elephant) and woolly rhinos, both of which are extinct today. Nobody knows why they painted these pictures, but they are remarkably accurate and detailed.

We visited a cave called Rouffignac, which has more than 100 drawings of mammoths, on the walls and ceilings deep inside a huge cave. We had to go in on a small train, and each part of the cave is kept completely dark except when people visit that part. Only a few people can visit at a time, because they want to preserve the drawings from damage that comes from people breathing carbon dioxide and touching the paintings. We weren't allowed to take photos at all. But when we finished the tour, I took photos of some copies other people had made of the drawings.

Can you imagine, 14,000 years ago, people dressed in furs, lying on their backs, drawing such pictures on the ceiling of a cave, lit only by a torch?

There are many such cave paintings in this region, including the most fabulous and famous, called Lascaux. It was near here that a man named Mr. Magnon discovered five skeletons in 1870 of people who had lived here in prehistory. These people are now called Cro-Magnons, and they were anatomically identical to people today. However, they lived at the same time as the Neanderthals, who were human-like but looked very different.

Because of this discovery, the study of prehistoric man really started in this area, and there is a big museum of prehistory that we visited. Outside it, high on a cliff, stands a statue of Cro-Magnon man, as someone imagined he looked.