Diver’s ‘undersea Lascaux’ to be brought ashore
WHEN French diver Henri Cosquer stumbled upon the world’s only prehistoric cave paintings under the sea in 1991 off Marseille, some Parisian experts laughed off his claims of caveman penguin art as Provence hyperbole.
But the Cosquer Cave – whose entrance lies 37 metres (120ft) under the waves – is now being hailed as France’s “undersea Lascaux”. An exact copy of the fabulous discovery that bears Mr Cosquer’s name will soon open to the public in Marseille.
Experts around France are putting the finishing touches to a perfect facsimile of the Cosquer Cave – the only one in the world with an entrance below present-day sea level where cave art has been preserved from the flooding after the end of the last Ice Age.
The original contains 500 drawings of 11 different species, including horses, bison, deer and a cave lion.
However, unique to the cave are sea animals including penguins, auks, seals and jellyfish-like creatures. The cave also contains a depiction of what some have dubbed the first prehistoric murder, showing a human with a seal’s head shot through by a spear. There are also depictions of sexual organs, and even children’s handprints.
With experts unable to verify Mr Cosquer’s claims at the time, some dismissed them. In a rare interview, Mr Cosquer, now in his 70s, said their scepticism still riled him 30 years on. “Paris and Marseille have never got on. They think they’re the kings of the world and the rest of us good-for-nothings. But how many have learnt to dive to see the cave for themselves?,” he asked.
Carbon dating has shown that the art was painted in two discrete periods – around 30,000 years ago and 19,000 years ago.
Mr Cosquer first found the cave entrance in 1985 after diving from his boat off the rocky Calanque de la Triperie near Cassis. He swam up through a narrow, pitch-black gallery for about 360 feet, which miraculously led to a huge chamber partially above sea-level.
“At first, I thought: ‘Who’s come down here to put graffiti on the walls?’,” he said. “I only later realised it was prehistoric graffiti.” Mr Cosquer finally revealed his secret find in 1991 shortly after three divers perished when they panicked in the gallery’s murky silt.
Some 20,000 years ago, the grotto would have been 5km from the shore. Since then the sea level has risen 130 metres. Today, only a third of the cave is above sea level and the water is inexorably rising due to climate change.
Hence the decision to build a copy of the original, due to open in summer 2022 in Marseille’s Villa Méditerrané. Visitors will enter the replica cave in “exploration pods” that give the illusion of surfacing from below the waterline.
They will then behold a replica lovingly recreated. Working from 3D digital scanning of the actual cave, every detail is exact, with images of the paintings projected on to the walls. “It was very probably a Marseillais who painted this 33,000 years ago,’’ said Mr Cosquer. “I’m supporting this replica so that the layman can see what I have seen with my own eyes.”