The false paintings in the caves cause the specialists anger

In a cave of Comminges, a speleologist discovered two horses on a wall, imitating the paintings of prehistoric times. These “bad jokes” are multiplying in Pyrenean cavities, risking deceiving archaeologists and damaging the thousands of years old.

It is at the bend of a new expedition to the cavities of the Comminges that Daniel Quettierpresident of the southern society of speleology and prehistory, discovered this week. On the walls of a cave in the commune of Juzet-D’Izaut (Haute-Garonne), two painted horses, at first sight close to works older over 10,000 years old, seemed to arise from the past.

But the verdict was not long in coming for the expert: this is a false. “This is the second time since the start of the year that it has happened in the sector”deplores Victor Riout, secretary of the association’s prehistory section. “This deteriorates the walls, these have been natural lines that have been there for centuries. People may think they are doing a bad joke, but that does nothing other than degrading.”

With more than 3,000 cavities listed in Ariège, Haute-Garonne and Hautes-Pyrénées, the counterfeiters are spoiled for choice. If some caves, well known to the general public, benefit from protection and surveillance, the vast majority remain free to access … and without control.

“We do not want the closure of these cavities”insists Vivien Riout. “We just want people to be respectful. But the caves are sometimes ransacked, damaged by paintings or victims of clandestine excavations when only archaeologists are allowed to intervene. It’s a shame …”

These imitations of paintings, sometimes made in still unexplored cavities, also pose another problem to archaeologists. Some may, at first glance, lend to confusion and be taken for real prehistoric engravings.

In the case of the discovery of Juzet-D’Izaut, the informed eye of Victor Riout quickly pierced the mystery: “There could have been a slight doubt with the high horse, but it was immediately lifted by the red pigments, far too bright. There is also a small horse made in the stencil, and this technique did not exist at the time.”

In reality, faithfully recreating a painting of several millennia is very difficult. “Prehistoric men were real artists, very talented. They knew how to play perfectly with the natural volume of the walls to give life to the forms”assures the secretary of the prehistory section of the southern company.

More reason, according to Vivien Riout, to put an end to these “Bad jokes” which he considers as “Insults to prehistoric artists”. Rather, he invites the curious to admire the real wonders left by our ancestors, visible in several remarkable sites of Occitanie, such as the cave of Niaux in Ariège, that of the Pech Merle in the lot or the Gargas cave in the Hautes-Pyrénées.