Stone Age Art and Animals in Southern Africa

Lions, leopards, hyenas and rhinoceroses once roamed the European landscape with ancient humans, and deep in a limestone cave, artists painted these animals with exquisite detail and beauty. On my recent visit to safari camps in South Africa, I saw these same animals in their bush environment, and it is fascinating to know that tens of thousands of years ago, they also wandered over lands that are now far to the north. A Window on the Past Inset into a limestone cliff in southeastern France, Chauvet Cave contains some of the best-preserved cave paintings in the world; the cave has had UNESCO World Heritage status since 2014. Artists made the drawings as far back as 37,000 years ago, during a time of cold temperatures and extensive glaciers (the Pleistocene “Ice Age”). Around 29,000 years ago, after animals and humans had used the cave for thousands of years, a series of rockfalls sealed the cave opening. Over time, most of the animals depicted in the art became extinct. The cave…