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The exhibition
Trailer of the exhibition The Chauvet Cave: a scientific adventure (0'30)
The exhibition shows the day-to-day work of researchers in the Chauvet Cave. Four weeks a year, the scientists can cautiously observe all the details of the inside of the cave, and then continue working on the outside. Get inside the life of these scientists: experience their work conditions, wear their equipment, discover their tools, get to know the technologies they use, analyse prints as well as fossilised excrement…
Wander freely among four spaces that help us understand the different faces of the cave: interdisciplinary research, living beings of the Palaeolithic that inhabited it, the art inside the cave… Get ready to live a real scientific experience!
Practical informations
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€13 | €10 | Our prices
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From age 9
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Trilingual exhibition (French, English, Spanish)
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The Cité is open from Tuesday to Saturday 10.00 am - 6.00 pm and 10.00 am - 7.00 pm on Sunday.
Accessibility
- Accessible to visually impaired visitors
- Accessible to visitors with reduced mobility
- Accessible to deaf and hard of hearing visitors
- Accessible to cognitively impaired visitors
- Accessible to signing deaf visitors
Plan your visit
Small pushchairs are allowed inside the museum. This exhibition area can be accessed by lift.
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The cave
In this part of the exhibition, the cave unveils its secrets. How was the cavity formed and then transformed? What animals and groups of humans lived in it 40,000 years ago? What were the paleoclimates at that time? You will be able to reveal so many clues from the past, by studying the walls, the volumes, the mapping of remains and by analysing the atoms within the stalagmites.
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At a crossroads of research
In this area, slip into the shoes of scientist inside and outside the cave. Use a pole to obtain images of a bear scull or play around with the lighting in order to reveal the drawings otherwise invisible to the naked eye. Learn about the challenges of conserving the cave, the methods of dating and the transdisciplinary studies needed to continue the research.
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Living beings
Bears, bats, wolves, many animals got inside the Chauvet cave in the past. Did they encounter each other? Did the humans who went inside to draw and perform other rituals, ever faced the bears? Enquire and find out by analysing excrement, prints, and remains of fires as well as the acoustics of the cave.
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Cave art
In this last area, time for art! How do archaeologists analyse and interpret cave drawings? What can they learn about the worldview and beliefs of the human societies of that period? Become an artist by recreating the drawings and examine the strokes and furrows, discover the tools and pigments used 38,000 years ago.