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The boys who discovered the Lascaux cave.

It was the end of summer 1940 in the southwest French commune of Montignac, far from Paris, where the swastika flag had only flown for three months. Everyone was concerned about the Nazi occupation and the impending war, but that did not prevent children from playing and seeking for treasure one day.
On the hill above Montignac, according to local legends at the time, there was a concealed entrance to a subterranean passage that led to the manor of Lascaux. People hypothesized that chests containing valuable gems and gold coins were concealed there.

Young apprentice mechanic Marcel Ravidat from the adjacent garage scaled the slope with his dog Robot in search of adventure. The latter fell into a fox den, triggering a minor landslide that exposed the cave entrance. Too much darkness prevented Marcel from investigating the area.On September 12, he returned with three companions: Jacques Marsala, Georges Agniel, and Simone Coencas. By the illumination of an oil lamp, the three individuals entered the opening and discovered a 100-foot-long cave. Unexpectedly, the men discovered buried treasure.

With the flicker of a flame, the children uncovered a magnificent universe of never-before-seen rock art all around them. Animal murals adorned each chamber of the labyrinthine passages. When they discovered a fissure in the ground that led to darkness, the boys opted to descend while attached to a rope. The opening turned out to be a well approximately twenty-five feet deep, and a caricature of a man with outstretched arms and a horrified expression was painted on the wall. After being pierced by a javelin, a bison in front of the individual appears to be assaulting him.
"We couldn't believe our eyes," Simone Coencas recalled after seven decades. "We had decided to keep the information to ourselves, but word quickly spread" (Barcelona 2020, p. Coencas was the last surviving ensemble member at the time of the interview; he died on February 2, 2020.

Despite the country's curfew and repressive social climate, it was impossible to conceal or deny the extraordinary discovery. Father Henri Breuil, abbott and renowned expert in prehistory at the College of France, was among the first to discover the caverns and seek refuge there. In the face of what appeared to be an irrefutable discovery of exceptional significance in terms of quantity, size, and caliber of art, he remained mute.Numerous ocher-colored animals, including horses, deer, ibex, and even an auroch, an extinct race of cattle, were depicted on the walls. Objects within the cave have been dated, providing evidence that what Breuil referred to as the "Sistine Chapel of Prehistory" was constructed by humans between 18,000 and 17,000 years ago.

Tourism was established as a consequence of everyone's desire to see the wonder. Between 1948 and 1963, it is estimated that over a million people visited the cave, but the carbon dioxide from visitors' breath, the increase in temperature, and the artificial lighting began to damage the delicate artwork. In 1979, the tunnels were closed to the public and designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. 1983 witnessed the opening of Lascaux 2, a replica of the original site. Later, a third one was built and sent on a global tour. The unveiling of Lascaux 4, a restoration of the original cave, occurred in 2016.
However, many questions regarding the paintings' meaning remain unresolved. Cro-Magnon, an extinct Homo sapiens species that lived in Europe, Asia, North Africa, and North America during the Upper Paleolithic period, is believed to have painted roughly 6,000 images on the walls. They were a primitive people who nonetheless valued beauty and art. They utilized jewelry, painted themselves with mollusk ink, and adorned themselves with feathers. These time-consuming activities must have been as vital to their survival as food and shelter.

In this context, viewing the artwork is required. Lascaux, like other caves with rock art, was not a habitation. There are scant traces of fires, which likely served as a source of light for the painters, indicating that no one dwelt in these caverns.
There are even fewer animal bones that may have been consumed in the caverns, adding to the enigma. These bones are 90 percent reindeer. On the ramparts of Lascaux, approximately one thousand animals are depicted, but not a single reindeer. Therefore, it is difficult to presume, as was commonly believed, that these drawings represent hunting sacrifices.

These caverns may have been used for prayer, meditation, or as places of worship. Or did they host a social gathering? Were they a point of reference for other Cro-Magnons, a means of identifying oneself as a member of the same population? Art, the symbolic representation of something true, appears to have played a significant role in the lives of these individuals. It is the reason why each year millions of visitors visit the paintings.
Skeptics are often criticized for removing the mystique from the world. In reality, skeptic investigations often uncover lies, deceptions, self-deception, and forgeries. Once these are eliminated, genuine mysteries proliferate on our planet, and they can be found anywhere, even in an abandoned cave.


Reference

Barcellona, G.S. 2020. Addio a Simon Coencas, l’ultimo dei ragazzi che scoprirono la grotta di Lascaux. La Repubblica .
They were Marcel Ravidat, a 17-year-old apprentice mechanic from Montignac, Georges Agniel, 16, from Nogent-sur-Seine, who was on vacation at his grandmother's house, Simon Coencas, 15, originally from Montreuil but taking refuge in Montignac, and Jacques Marsal, 15, from Montignac.