Shared Illusions

Saturday, we went to the Prehistoric Museum in Les Eyzies. Lots of bones and rocks. And some really good videos bringing life in the Stone Age to life. For instance, how they used rock on rock to create tools and weapons for hunting. Or a re-enactment of dis-membering and skinning an animal with stone tools. Amazing how sharp you can get a stone. The Stone Age lasted roughly 2.5 million years. That’s not even grasp-able. It ended about 5,000 years ago with the Bronze Age. Then along came the Iron Age.

Sunday, we went to the Chateau Castlenaud,  a museum of medieval warfare. It was a bit disturbing,  disorienting to move so fast , so far forward in time. Especially considering the weapons deeloped.

Then at Pêche Merle today, learning that early man, 29,000 years ago likely didn’t engage in warfare against one another. They were too few, had lemty of space, and ostensibly, nothing to fight over. Or so the experts suspect.

Pêche Merle is a massive cave, one of not too many, where you can enter the cave and see the actual art by ancient people. Also stalgmites and stalagtites. The cave at Lascaux is closed to visitors. There are 47 caves or grottos in France, but not all of them are open.

The tour provides a clear sense of what it must have been like to enter a narrow fissure, exploring in the dark with just a small hollowed rock contining burning fat and a plant as a wick for light. Bears and lions possibly taking refuge in them. Did many enter together, each with their small lamp, to create enough light for the artist to see his work? The drawings, some of them, are quite large. The artist(s) also incorporated some of the rock structure into their work to complete the likeness of bison or mastodon, or…

Living in these pasts – stone age and medieval age – and contemplating the swift changes wrought within the fairly recent past compared to the extensive years of the Stone Age – my mind is confounded.