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AI Revealing New Prehistoric Insights — Transcript

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0:16This is the south-west of France,
0:17more precisely the area around the village of Montignac,
0:20home to the Lascaux cave.
0:22In front of us stretch the landscapes of Périgord,
0:25hills,
0:25pine forests,
0:27groves of homogues and a few villages with neatly aligned houses,
0:31dominated by châteaux and manor houses in the characteristic local stone.
0:35At the bottom of the valley runs the Vézère river,
0:38sometimes calm,
0:39sometimes swollen by the rains that furrow the limestone slopes of Périgord-Noir.
0:43For thousands of years,
0:45the Périgord river has been a popular tourist destination.
0:45the water hollowed and carved out the landscape.
0:47Its tumultuous strength gave rise to the cliffs and rock shelters in which the first men settled.
0:53Long after the water had gone,
0:55our ancestors travelled up the dry beds of these underground rivers and also left their mark,
1:00the signs of their passing.
1:02Some of their frescoes,
1:03probably the most beautiful,
1:05would be revealed 18,000 years after being painted.
1:09This fabulous discovery was made,
1:10as so often is the case,
1:12by chance.
1:17Marcel Ravida and his friends were out on Lascaux Hill with their dogs.
1:21In the late afternoon,
1:22they decided to go down to Montignac,
1:25passing through Lascaux Woods.
1:27While they were in the woods,
1:28Marcel's dog ran off into the bushes and disappeared.
1:35Marcel was intrigued.
1:36He went after it,
1:38parted the branches,
1:39and saw a hole in the ground,
1:40barely a metre deep,
1:42in which the dog was furiously digging.
1:44He pulled the dog out.
1:46and in doing so sent a stone tumbling inside the hole making an echo.
1:50Their imaginations fuelled by adventure stories.
1:53The boys thought they'd stumbled upon an underground passage,
1:56and certainly treasure.
1:57Four days later,
1:58on Sunday,
1:59better equipped,
2:00three boys accompanied Marcel Ravida to the legendary tunnel.
2:04One of them was Simon Cuenca.
2:06Here he is,
2:0676 years after the discovery,
2:08the last surviving member of the group.
2:11September 12,
2:121940 changed his life.
2:14He still remembers the sequence of events.
2:16The four of us made the hole larger,
2:19and Ravida went down first.
2:22The tunnel sloped downhill,
2:24and then we came out into the cave.
2:28We had a lantern and candle,
2:29so you can imagine the effect with the shadows and everything.
2:33When we saw it,
2:34it was amazing.
2:41It wasn't what they'd hoped for,
2:43but it was a treasure nonetheless and one they would now have to protect.
2:46The experts of the day,
2:48including Abbé Breuil,
2:49a prehistorian,
2:50visited Montignac.
2:52The frescoes had survived miraculously through the ages,
2:55and they couldn't risk losing them.
2:57But at the end of 1940,
2:58France was occupied,
2:59and elsewhere war was raging.
3:01To prevent people breaking in and pillaging the site,
3:04the discoverers decided to stand guard on the hillside.
3:07Then,
3:08before the end of winter,
3:09the cave was sealed shut with a metal cover.
3:12Lascaux was forgotten about for another seven years.
3:15The Paleolithic frescoes didn't see the light again until the end of the war.
3:19In 1947,
3:20building work was carried out on the site so that everyone could admire the Cro-Magnon paintings.
3:27They decided that this exceptional site should be open to the public so
3:32that people could learn about the mentality and artistic abilities of prehistoric man.
3:39From then on,
3:40Montignac opened itself up to tourism,
3:42with all its successes.
3:44People came from everywhere.
3:45On some summer days,
3:46more than 1,500 visitors filed past the aurochs in the Hall of the Bulls.
3:50The high volume of visitors that followed,
3:52which was logical given the knowledge we had at the time,
3:55didn't take into account the effect on the ecological balance of the site,
3:58on the microbiological life of the decorated walls.
4:02We were still in the mineral world.
4:04All of that had become clearer in the 60s,
4:06at the same time as the problems appeared.
4:09The problems were initially the development of microscopic algae that spread on the walls,
4:14the green sickness,
4:16then a layer of calcite,
4:17lime scale,
4:18which covered the frescoes,
4:20the white sickness.
4:21The cave was in crisis.
4:24When the cave was closed in 1963,
4:2664,
4:2765,
4:28and it was discovered that the damage was irreversible,
4:30the idea of a replica was born.
4:33and Lascaux II opened in the early
4:341980s. A site was chosen a few hundred meters from the original location,
4:40on the same hill,
4:41in the same forest.
4:42A copy of the Lascaux cave would be created from scratch,
4:45a full-scale replica of parts of the cave system,
4:49those containing the most frescoes,
4:51a task that would occupy Monique Pétral and her team for more than 11 years.
5:01We worked on the principle of studying as precisely as possible,
5:05as slowly as possible,
5:06so that the reproduction would be as spontaneous as possible.
5:11They even had photographs to help them in their work,
5:14making the result all the more realistic.
5:18Thirty years after it opened,
5:19the first replica,
5:20LASCO II,
5:22still receives more than 260,000 visitors each year.
5:34Everyone descends into the Hall of the Bulls in a whirlwind of animals and colours.
5:40It's true that from here you realise that the title of the
5:42prehistoric Sistine Chapel is well deserved.
5:46This is the outline of the whole of the Lascaux cave system.
5:49240 metres of tunnels and 900 square metres of decorated and engraved walls.
5:55Lascaux too represents only a tiny part of the complex.
5:59the chamber's richest in paintings,
6:01the Hall of the Bulls and the Axial Gallery.
6:04Lascaux III gives the public the shaft scene and the main frescoes of the nave,
6:09the crossed bison,
6:10the black cow,
6:11the frieze of the stags.
6:12Different techniques were used to make these six emblematic frescoes on six mobile cave sections,
6:18and the result paved the way for an even more ambitious project.
6:27With the emergence of new methods and new technologies and new concepts,
6:31Lascaux 4 is now underway for the conservation and study of the cave.
6:37This is where this totally unique project will take place,
6:40involving 30 people for more than three years.
6:44You don't always realise how huge it actually is.
6:49Producing all of the walls,
6:51engravings and frescoes in Lascaux.
6:53It's a phenomenal task.
6:55And as it's never been done before,
6:57There are no points of reference.
6:58With all the projects so far,
7:00everything's been done for the first time.
7:02Everything will have to follow on seamlessly in order to meet the deadlines and achieve the goal.
7:07Making this complete,
7:08full-scale replica of the Lascaux Cave is a leap onto the unknown.
7:13Nothing is truly defined.
7:14Three years is the only information available,
7:17and it's the time allotted to all the participants in this technical adventure.
7:21Teams have been formed,
7:23each dedicated to the creation of a wall,
7:25a segment of the cave.
7:27Each operation has to flow perfectly into the next.
7:30Otherwise,
7:31how will they be certain to finish on time?
7:33At this stage,
7:34no one can say.
7:38Our task is really to produce an exact replica of the cave,
7:41to enable the public to experience the same emotions they'd feel if
7:45they had the immense privilege of visiting the original Lascaux cave.
7:51Everyone is counting on a piece of technology to aid them in each of their tasks.
7:55A shared document
7:56born from the latest generation of topographic laser scanners,
8:00a digital clone of the cave.
8:02In short,
8:02Lascaux in three dimensions.
8:09It's in Azère,
8:10in the Chorange cave,
8:11that we're going to meet the team that scanned the
8:13walls of Lascaux and find out how they went about their task.
8:20These scanners have acquisition capacities of 500,000 to a million points per second,
8:25which allows us to recreate a 3D model of the cave.
8:41The beam makes a
8:42360-degree sweep of the wall.
8:45In addition to the volume and relief,
8:47it's the colors and mineral composition that are recorded.
8:54So that no shadows remain,
8:55the scanner is moved on its tripod to several different places.
8:59This means the smallest corner of the cave is recorded.
9:03These are three recordings from the same room,
9:05from three different places.
9:07The same markers are used for each,
9:09three points on the ground.
9:11By superimposing the digital readings,
9:13The total volume of the cave is obtained without any areas of shadow.
9:18Powerful computers are required to process the raw data.
9:21The form is obtained by connecting the points.
9:24Two for a straight line,
9:26three for a triangle.
9:28The triangles are then assembled to create the volume.
9:31At the same time,
9:3250,000 extremely high definition photos have been taken.
9:36Each of them contains coordinates,
9:38which will then provide the relief for the digital skeleton of the cave.
9:41The precision is extreme.
9:4316 pixels to the square millimeter.
9:46Without this level of definition,
9:49we wouldn't be able to make an exact replica.
9:51The port of La Rochelle.
9:53It's in a city known for its nautical activities that the
9:56next stage of the Lascaux adventure will take place.
9:58The engineers in this company have taken on a very unusual assignment.
10:06We usually make boats that have smooth fluid shapes,
10:10streamlined in fact.
10:11Here we had to do the opposite,
10:13make a totally beaten up shape,
10:16without any particular line but still respecting the digital data.
10:22Here the cave is divided into sections.
10:25In this digital model,
10:26each section has its own colour.
10:28Pieces of a puzzle carved from polystyrene blocks
10:31that will then be assembled thanks to tabs and notches.
10:35Here's the result once the puzzle is assembled in the Montagnac workshops.
10:39A real piece of Lascaux.
10:40The contours of the cave wall are already clearly visible and look very realistic.
10:53Water is the sculptor of all of these landscapes.
10:56It clears a path,
10:57channels through the rock,
10:58creates the valleys.
11:06But this is only the visible part of its work,
11:08because it also moves under the surface.
11:11The geological history is complex,
11:13with different formations across the whole landscape.
11:15Above Lascaux,
11:16we have limestone,
11:17right where the cave is,
11:18but alongside that we also have pockets of sand,
11:20pockets of clay,
11:21and so on.
11:25It's the accumulation over millions of years of the shells of marine invertebrates,
11:30compacted by the pressure at the bottom of the oceans,
11:32which formed the limestone.
11:35Then,
11:36through random tectonic shifts,
11:38these rocks rose to the surface,
11:40dried and hardened,
11:41but also cracked.
11:43Rainwater seeped in,
11:44laden with CO2 from the atmosphere,
11:46which acted as an acid.
11:49Water,
11:49running through increasingly large networks,
11:52ended up carving tunnels through the softest layers of limestone,
11:56forming the caves.
12:02We know of hundreds of caves that measure a few meters,
12:04some measure a few hundred meters,
12:06and we know that there are dozens or hundreds of undiscovered tunnels beneath our feet.
12:10So why was Lascaux chosen from amongst the multitude of caves?
12:22It's the geology,
12:23the mineral detail and the shape of the wall that inspired the painters.
12:29What you see here is a perfect illustration of
12:32what the prehistoric entrance to Lascaux might have looked like.
12:36A small porch opening onto the wood,
12:38palace cone and then a tumble of about 20 meters down to the Hall of the Bulls.
13:00It's the same sound level,
13:01the same mineral environment,
13:03the same temperature.
13:05With these little paintings recreated here,
13:07you get an idea of the effect of the light moving on the walls.
13:19Once the river retreated millions of years later,
13:22it was visited by prehistoric man.
13:25In this very special cave,
13:27they found dry walls covered in white calcite.
13:33It's an ideal canvas for painting.
13:39Here in the workshop,
13:40the first thing to reproduce from the real Lascaux is the general appearance of the walls.
13:45The polystyrene blocks are now assembled on a steel frame.
13:48All that remains now is to define the texture of the rock more clearly.
13:53This is the job of the modelers who will work with papier-mâché.
13:55The polystyrene already shows us all the hollows and bumps,
14:03things like that.
14:05And then we use this paste to create the whole mineral aspect of the wall.
14:11All the details that we put in,
14:13all the smoothed,
14:14eroded granular areas,
14:16you learn little by little.
14:18There are techniques,
14:20little tricks for getting the effect.
14:24Each modeler gives their own view,
14:26sizing up the wall in progress.
14:31We'll look at that,
14:32and then we'll have to blend this bit in so that it goes down gradually until we reach the bottom.
14:38This discussion has one aim,
14:40to homogenize the final aspects of the work and eliminate any inconsistencies.
14:45The goal isn't to make a patchwork but one wall,
14:47one work,
14:48all together.
14:50The artists are about to engage in a long and close relationship with this wall,
14:54known as the shaft scene.
15:00What I'm tackling is a more precise area,
15:03because there's a fresco here.
15:05I've put up some pictures and photographs which allow me to see the details,
15:11such as for example this little highlight,
15:13which we can see on the screen.
15:15So here I'll be able to outline it really precisely,
15:18because I know it's there.
15:20At this stage,
15:20one of Lascaux's first secrets has already been revealed,
15:24and we can almost guess at the way Cro-Magnon Mann approached this work.
15:30There's volume to a head,
15:32to a belly,
15:33to an eye,
15:34a mouth.
15:35It gives enormous character to the figures in front of us and upon which we're working.
15:43Once the polystyrene wall has been modelled,
15:45it's time to make the impression for the moulding.
15:48The polystyrene will be coated with three layers of silicone rubber,
15:51each taking several hours to apply,
15:54and a few more,
15:55so that the structure can withstand the next stage.
15:59An impression of the cave has now been made on the back of this rubber skin.
16:03It has to be removed from the polystyrene.
16:05The contact surface is such that the two elements are extremely difficult to separate.
16:15The blocks are thrown away.
16:16They're no longer useful.
16:18After the finesse of the modelling and the precision of the brush,
16:21it's brute force that's now brought into play.
16:28How will the surface be made upon which the painters will reproduce the frescoes?
16:33Let's take a look at the different stages.
16:35Using the digital readings,
16:37the polystyrene blocks have been carved and then modelled.
16:42An impression of the wall has been made with silicone rubber.
16:46The back of this impression has been reinforced with fibreglass.
16:50The painters won't paint their frescoes onto the polystyrene,
16:53but onto a more rigid wall.
16:56It is therefore necessary to make a print of the rock,
16:59relief and shape included,
17:00and repeat the present operation the other way round.
17:09More than 900 square meters of walls will be reproduced.
17:13The whole replica will use nearly seven tons of silicone rubber,
17:16and more than twice that weight of resin for the shell.
17:20That's one finish guys.
17:24This is the next stage.
17:25The modelers apply a thin layer of stone,
17:28which will give the wall its authentic mineral appearance when it hardens.
17:32This stone coating is the artist's canvas,
17:34the blank page upon which they will first reproduce the appearance of the rock,
17:38then the frescoes.
17:41Thirty years separate the making of the first replica and this one.
17:45Thirty years of technological evolution,
17:48which have allowed some areas of the process to be industrialized.
17:51The main task for Jean-Baptiste.
17:54Lasco 2 was a cave made from a single block inside a hole,
17:57while Lasco 4 is lots of small bits of cave that will be placed
18:01in a setting that's currently under construction.
18:03And here it is.
18:04A stone's throw from the workshop,
18:06a massive centre dedicated to cave art is being built.
18:10There are two teams,
18:11two locations,
18:13two sites,
18:14which will soon have to be synchronised.
18:16One team is making the copy of the cave,
18:18the other a very unusual building.
18:21Here.
18:22The general outline of the cave is positioned at the end of the building.
18:27The advantage of having cut the cave into lots of small segments
18:30is that we could put each of the painters in different workspaces.
18:34We'll be able to build this cave in just three years instead of ten.
18:39On the site,
18:4012 months from the official opening day,
18:42the structure,
18:43the outline of the International Cave Art Centre is beginning to take shape.
18:48The structural work is underway.
18:51For us,
18:51all the structural work represents more than 140,000 hours of labour,
18:5512,000 cubic metres of concrete and 700 tonnes of steel.
18:59The 100 workmen on site have only been able to keep the project on track by working in
19:03all weathers and continually rescheduling the different phases of the operation.
19:07We've had to rethink and review a great many things that we've had.
19:10It was a challenge.
19:12Lascaux deserved a building on par with its fame,
19:14and it was a Norwegian firm of architects who won the tender by setting the bar very high.
19:21The architecture is really raw.
19:23There are sacred spaces with overhead light.
19:27The feeling you get from being in these spaces is really strong.
19:31The concrete,
19:32the main component of the facades,
19:34has been treated to reflect the underground world.
19:41We're straddling two worlds,
19:43raw architecture and the scenography,
19:45where you immerse yourself in the mysterious world of Lascaux.
19:52An ambitious project both visually and technically.
19:55A demanding proposition.
19:57Even the overall shape of the building recalls that of the hill.
20:03This is the geographical position of the Lascaux Cave.
20:06A few meters away,
20:07150 to be precise,
20:09is the entrance to Lascaux 2,
20:11the first replica.
20:12On a broader scale,
20:13here is the location of the site that will house Lascaux 4.
20:16And finally,
20:17800 meters away as the crow flies,
20:19at the entrance to Montagnac,
20:21the Perigord facsimile workshop.
20:23This building is welcoming an exceptional group of artists,
20:27individuals capable of taking on a real professional challenge.
20:30What's about to happen here is a human adventure.
20:32As artistic director of the project,
20:34Francis Ringenbach can only count on one thing,
20:37the talent of his team.
20:39They have sensibilities and specialities that complement one another.
20:4530 people with very different profiles.
20:48There are,
20:49for example,
20:49art restorers,
20:51who are used to going into detail,
20:52of reproducing,
20:55or sentimentalism,
20:59Each person in turn will be confronted with the major stages of making the frescoes.
21:04More than just talent,
21:05it also takes a good eye.
21:07Among the handful of people who are currently allowed to enter the Lascaux Cave is Sandrine,
21:11a technician whose help is invaluable to the artists.
21:17Sandrine has been roaming Lascaux for 20 years and knows it down to the last detail.
21:24They've done a great modelling job here,
21:26it's really accurate.
21:28I must confess it's very impressive.
21:30You really feel you could scrape the clay off the benches.
21:33The finish is really amazing.
21:42To carry out their work,
21:43the artists are relying on information from the digital clone and the photos of the cave.
21:48The two documents are combined.
21:51The artists mainly use a video projector,
21:53which allows them to project not just an image onto the wall,
21:57but a segment of the 3D model,
21:58with its deformation,
22:00onto its initial volume.
22:05We have to align the images with the 3D model and the layer of stone,
22:09meaning the wall.
22:12We've drawn the outlines of the figures and particular points on the wall,
22:15which have been superimposed onto the 3D model.
22:22Two things contribute to fine-tuning this alignment,
22:25light and shadows.
22:28After that,
22:28we can start to paint this blank canvas.
22:34But what will the artists paint?
22:36Which version of the cave?
22:37We can't paint it exactly as it was at the time.
22:40We're painting the effects of time too.
22:45Even the dust has left its mark and will be reproduced on the walls.
22:49The colours used are all natural pigments,
22:51not synthetic.
22:53Ochres,
22:54oxides,
22:54as they were 18,000 years ago,
22:57in the form of powders arranged in shades,
22:59which are finally mixed on the artist's palette.
23:02And as 18,000 years ago,
23:04when it comes to applying the colour,
23:06technology takes a back seat.
23:07It's down to the human hand,
23:09nothing more.
23:18By following the outlines of their frescoes,
23:20the artists reveal the full humanity of Cro-Magnon Man.
23:24But what makes this testament to the past so powerful?
23:29Lascaux may not have revealed all its secrets.
23:33Bull,
23:33dear horse,
23:34line of dots.
23:34Dear horse,
23:35line of dots,
23:36bull.
23:38This mental universe of prehistoric man,
23:41into which Lascaux invites us,
23:43shows us that humans are making their place in the world.
23:51Going down into this cave and confronting these
23:53paintings is a unique and very personal experience.
23:57My memory is one of beauty,
23:59one of meditation,
24:00it goes without saying too,
24:02and also a feeling of fear.
24:05A confrontation that challenges us without us even understanding its meaning.
24:10Besides,
24:11the message of Lascaux has long been misunderstood.
24:13It was believed that Cro-Magnon Mann painted hunting scenes on the walls,
24:17the animals they ate.
24:19Well,
24:20we were wrong.
24:21It can't only be that,
24:23because the most hunted animals weren't the most represented.
24:29They loved reindeer meat,
24:31and it so happens that reindeers are hardly represented on the walls at all.
24:41No fish either,
24:42or rabbits,
24:43although they were eaten every day by the men of Lascaux.
24:46Other important elements are missing from these frescoes.
24:49No horizons,
24:50no trees,
24:51and no man either.
24:53The paintings are therefore symbolic.
24:55The fresco is naturalistic.
24:57The animals are floating in a completely imaginary space.
25:05And it's these animals that tell the story.
25:09Horses,
25:10deer,
25:11aurochs and bison figure most predominantly in the Lascaux bestiary.
25:15But an ibex,
25:16felines,
25:17a bear and a rhinoceros complete the list.
25:20As in nature,
25:21the numerous herbivores occupy the wide plains.
25:24The predators are hidden.
25:26They are to be found at the bottom of the cave,
25:28lurking.
25:29And where is man in all this?
25:33He is disguised,
25:34he is masked,
25:35he is transformed into a man-animal or animal-man,
25:39and man,
25:40in fact,
25:40when you look for him,
25:41you find him.
25:44Is he,
25:44as they say,
25:45represented only once?
25:47In the most remote and mysterious room of the cave,
25:50the one that takes its name from its shape,
25:52the shaft.
25:53You can see him if you're willing to look for him in the features of the unicorn,
25:57one of the most emblematic figures of the Lascaux cave.
26:00Its importance isn't due to its size,
26:03because it's much smaller than the balls it accompanies,
26:06but what it's big in is mystery.
26:12Its position in the cave is very important because it's the first figure we see.
26:18It's the last figure that the visitor's eye falls upon when leaving the cave.
26:23There might be a hidden man,
26:26so you just have to hide the tip of the nostril,
26:30and maybe we can see a nose and a kind of a beard with a rather enigmatic eye.
26:45We can also see an early example of perspective on these walls,
26:48of composition,
26:49of a layout devised for telling a story.
26:53The animals are always painted in the same order on the walls.
26:57In the background are horses overlaid with aurochs,
27:00bovines and finally,
27:02at the front,
27:03the deer.
27:06The figures fit together with extraordinary skill,
27:09as if these images are made to be seen together and not one after the other.
27:18600 animals,
27:19every species,
27:20a whirlwind which almost make us forget the dots,
27:23the lines which are more discreet,
27:25numerous signs which are strange in the very least.
27:29There are more than 400 signs.
27:32There are dots,
27:33crosses and lines for the simple signs,
27:35but there are also very complex signs,
27:39like the famous quadrangular signs.
27:42Animals,
27:43signs,
27:43arranged like sentences on the walls.
27:46Line of dots,
27:47horse,
27:48bull,
27:48deer,
27:49bull,
27:50deer,
27:50horse,
27:50line of dots,
27:51deer,
27:52horse,
27:52line of dots,
27:54bull.
27:55No one knows what they correspond to,
27:57or what they're supposed to represent.
28:00They use this figurative and abstract material,
28:03tell a story,
28:04a myth,
28:05beliefs,
28:06etc.
28:08Amongst all these signs,
28:09one stands out.
28:10It seems to be the signature of the painters of Lascaux,
28:13because it isn't found in any other cave of the same time.
28:21We're looking at a work with meaning,
28:23at art,
28:24just like any contemporary art today.
28:32Everything has to be in harmony with this art,
28:35and the construction site is no exception.
28:38Here,
28:38with the shapes,
28:39the outlines,
28:40it's a matter of creating atmospheres,
28:42spaces,
28:43to make this an unforgettable experience for the visitor.
28:47People are in a state of contemplation.
28:49They are in the atmosphere,
28:50in the spirit,
28:51in the discovery.
28:52They are discoverers.
28:54Here,
28:54everyone must have the feeling,
28:56like the original discoverers,
28:57that they are the first to see the mysteries of the cave.
29:01As they make their way through the building,
29:02the field of vision,
29:04space and light will gradually reduce.
29:06We are about to enter a confined space,
29:08and we are going to be a bit hemmed in because we are going down into the bowels of the air.
29:19The atmosphere will be reproduced,
29:22that's to say the humidity level,
29:24the temperature.
29:26It has to be something physical where we are part of the experience.
29:33This space,
29:34a kind of buffer zone,
29:35a decompression zone,
29:36lies between the replica and the contemplation room,
29:39containing several segments of the cave.
29:41It's a place in which the visitor can look back over everything in detail and understand it.
29:47Here you'll be able to get really close to the wall and play with
29:51the lighting to highlight the engravings.
29:53The latest media and digital tools will of course be employed.
29:57Visitors will also be able to immerse themselves in an image cube,
30:01control 90 screens and discover the diverse nature of cave art throughout the world.
30:08Back in the workshop and the centre is due to open in seven months,
30:13work has been progressing for several weeks on a very unusual chamber,
30:17an area appropriately known as the shaft.
30:24The interesting thing about Lascaux is that there really was a master.
30:29The uniform style adds to the great reputation of the cave and its paintings.
30:38A master,
30:38certainly,
30:39and a great knowledge of the animals that populated their environment.
30:46The decoration of Lascaux took time and monopolized all the individuals in that society,
30:52with certainly a distribution of the task.
30:54This is the orientation area of the room.
30:56It make a look like a horizontal form.
30:57You could tour the walls that are leaning in towards one another.
31:04Once the idea goes in a cave to make large zones of the earth,
31:05through the task of some carried owls,
31:07everywhere an open hole to confine you together.
31:09Where we are going to be a big adventure in group because we
31:11soon a moment to the bones of the earth.
31:16and gone to this cave with lights,
31:18with fuel,
31:19so that they could light their lamps.
31:29The whole group was there,
31:31omnipresent,
31:32not to live in the cave,
31:34but to produce this unique work.
31:37Were there official artists in the time of Lascaux?
31:40Whatever the case,
31:41whoever painted this was adhering to rules.
31:45It was a construction destined from the outset for communication and exchange with others.
31:52It breaks the time barrier.
31:53It breaks the boundaries,
31:55in fact,
31:55with our ancestors.
31:57We realized that they'd already developed all the basic techniques which we still use today.
32:02They already had brushes,
32:03they'd already blown paint,
32:05they had airbrushes and stencils.
32:10This stenciling technique is used particularly and very obviously.
32:13in the manes of the animals in the crossed bison fresco.
32:17I think they might have placed reeds next to each other and blown the paint.
32:21You can see little specks of paint all around them.
32:26The work is progressing,
32:27but for the artists,
32:28doubt is also growing.
32:30Does the copy resemble the model?
32:32Beth is one of the people supervising the painting of the walls.
32:36Every morning I go and see each painter personally,
32:39and I see where...
32:41whereabouts they're at on their painting,
32:43if they have any questions,
32:45because when you're painting one part of the cave you become very very encased
32:48in that one part and you sort of tend to forget everything that's going on around.
32:52Beth has to make sure that none of the artists is offering their
32:55own personal vision of the fresco that he or she has to reproduce.
33:00If we put it on the forehand we're going to lose the powder inside.
33:05You do realise when there's
33:0620 painters working together.
33:09that we do not see the same things.
33:13We give guidelines,
33:14but it's a very personal thing.
33:25Giving reassurance,
33:26leading a group effort and inviting people to take a step back is a difficult task.
33:31The painters are often focused for days on end on a detail a few centimetres big on a wall.
33:36They need to be fully involved.
33:38But nothing in this work will bear their mark,
33:41their style.
33:45The artist gives his artistic talent,
33:47but to a common work.
33:48No one will be given particular credit for this work,
33:50which is extraordinary.
33:51We don't have anything to do with the emotion that comes out of these paintings.
33:55That's there.
33:56We just have to copy.
34:03After several months of work,
34:04a panel of experts comes to validate the reproduction of each segment of the cave.
34:09If the result is unsatisfactory,
34:11it will have to be done again.
34:14They're expecting something from us that they can't see
34:17themselves because they're not allowed into the cave.
34:22That's how I see it in my mind's eye.
34:26One element is causing some debate amongst the experts.
34:29The light.
34:31It's a very special LED selection,
34:33which has a particularly good colour rendering in the red spectrum.
34:39How will the frescoes be lit when the whole cave is finished?
34:42From what angle?
34:43Vital questions.
34:46You sometimes discover certain fragments of engravings you've never seen before,
34:50because our lighting brings out something that we've never noticed.
34:56Our final result will depend on how we enlighten it.
35:02Until we have the final lighting on our work,
35:05that is the only moment where we will know if it's right or not.
35:18Let's go back to the construction site.
35:20A new team has just arrived,
35:22the concrete sculptors.
35:23charged with reproducing the original entrance to the cave,
35:27the ceilings and the lower parts,
35:29known as the benches.
35:30In short,
35:31everything that isn't painted.
35:32The A's are on the right.
35:35They're going to create the initial outline of the cave by putting together some metal frames,
35:40a very concrete mesh this time.
35:42A rough outline of the cave walls will be sketched out,
35:45a first draft that this sculptor will adjust
35:47section by section along the 240 metres of the cave.
35:55It's a bit too geometric for my taste,
35:57so by using the computer I'm trying to bring it round while remaining within the initial cage.
36:06The 3D clone of the cave is also the reference for the sculptors.
36:11I'm refining it,
36:12seeing roughly where I can add extra bars,
36:14which will mean I can use less mortar.
36:19After assembling and readjusting the first outline of the cave,
36:22This steel cage is covered with a fine plastic mesh.
36:26The first layer of concrete will be applied to this mesh,
36:28which has been meticulously attached to the cage.
36:31Finally,
36:32the artists will add the special mortar to this rigid structure,
36:35which they will then sculpt in order to replicate the final appearance of the cave wall.
36:42Right behind me is where the two walls will be installed,
36:45so the black cow part on the left and the panels of the frieze of the stags,
36:49they'll be installed on the posts you can see here.
36:52The fiberglass shells and the frescoes created by the artists
36:55in the workshop will be positioned on the benches.
37:03They're running out of space and time.
37:06The first pieces of the puzzle will arrive in a few days.
37:10We'll have to wind our way through the maze of constructions that are already installed.
37:14Position them very,
37:15very precisely,
37:16that is to say to the nearest centimeter,
37:18in their environment and on the corresponding metallic structure.
37:30This morning in Montagnac,
37:31Sandrine Giraud-Vinsolange is meeting Muriel Moriac,
37:35the current curator of Lascaux.
37:37They're going to the most restricted place on the hill,
37:40a wooded enclosure under constant video surveillance,
37:43the area containing the Lascaux caves.
37:45This is a rare moment.
37:47We're outside the monumental bronze door which
37:49has protected this jewel and its mysteries for more than 70 years.
37:53The door isn't sealed up.
37:55It's open sparingly to a few people,
37:57to some privileged people who serve the cave.
38:00namely researchers who work through research programs to
38:03conserve and better understand the phenomena likely to alter the cave.
38:08Is the famous Lascaux cave in the Dordogne in danger?
38:12Black spots are spreading over the walls,
38:15a fungus that's worrying the scientists.
38:18Global warming is amongst the causes.
38:21In 2001,
38:22an initial warning was given of a serious danger to Lascaux,
38:26white mold threatening to spread throughout the whole site.
38:29The problem was treated chemically,
38:31but today there are fears that it only made things worse.
38:34At the same time,
38:35a massive ventilation system was installed,
38:37which, it is thought,
38:39also upset the natural balance of the atmosphere in the cave.
38:42It was the imbalance at a given moment that allowed some fungi or
38:46certain bacteria to take the edge over the others.
38:52There are certain areas of the cave where the roof is only three or four meters below ground level.
38:58Hence this great reactivity to the outside environment.
39:02Today,
39:02a network of more than a hundred sensors has been installed in the cave.
39:06Among the parameters monitored are temperature,
39:09humidity levels and also carbon dioxide.
39:12The first danger of CO2 is obviously for humans.
39:15Then it can be problematic for conservation if it's associated with condensation on the wall.
39:20Carbon dioxide is capable of dissolving the limestone and therefore the lasco frescoes,
39:26which has already happened naturally.
39:29Due to the effect of moisture and heat,
39:31the works in the passageway and the nave have gradually altered and deteriorated.
39:37Today the works are faded or only the engravings remain.
39:43This erosion is hard to avoid because today little is known
39:46about the microbiological functioning of these caves.
39:53We have to remain very careful,
39:55very humble in this area,
39:56so as not to disrupt a balance that's existed for millennia.
40:00which has survived until the present day and which I hope
40:02will survive for millennia after we've gone.
40:06There have been no new outbreaks since the
40:0890s, but there is no question of becoming
40:11complacent and releasing the cave from its quarantine.
40:15David Delarue acts as liaison between the workshop and the construction site.
40:19His task will be crucial in the coming hours,
40:22because the frescoes will soon leave the place in which they were made for their final destination.
40:27This is a pivotal moment.
40:28It's the workshop that will now set the tempo and impose its schedule on all the teams on the site.
40:34The tension is palpable between the various site supervisors this morning.
40:38It's trickier to do this in two parts because you have to match the points here.
40:42We install the first element and the second element has to join up with the point here.
40:48Remember the assignment the workshop was given.
40:50Making a replica of Lascaux,
40:52a cave that had been segmented,
40:54cut into sections.
40:58All these elements of course make up a gigantic puzzle,
41:01which at a given moment has to be removed from the workshop,
41:04transported and installed on the site.
41:24In the darkness of the storage area,
41:26far from the frantic activity of the workshop,
41:28a wall awaits.
41:30Another panel,
41:31the Unicorn,
41:32shrouded beneath a veil of mystery and plastic,
41:35will also soon be making its way to the site.
41:38The ceiling,
41:39decorated with the Axial Gallery,
41:41is one of the largest pieces in the cave's puzzle,
41:44nearly 10 meters in length.
41:55Bumps and knocks are,
41:56of course,
41:56to be avoided at all costs.
41:59But even more than that,
42:00twisting the structure,
42:01which would crack the walls and damage the paintings.
42:04You can see the tension on the faces of those responsible for the maneuver.
42:08That can be pushed back.
42:12Stop,
42:12not too far.
42:14The workshop and the construction site are barely half a mile apart as the crow flies.
42:18But in reality,
42:19it's another story.
42:21They'll have to go up the main street of Montagnac.
42:23through the town centre and finally out along the road by the school,
42:27which is undergoing roadworks.
42:29A minefield of potholes and bumps that they'll have to navigate with the utmost delicacy.
42:34The passageways and frames have all been measured to within a millimetre,
42:38but will the manoeuvre go as planned?
42:56The central upright to the left seems less important to me than the one on the right.
42:59One on the right is hyper important.
43:03It's a pretty large fragment because it's eight meters long,
43:06three meters fifty wide,
43:08two meters fifty tall and ten thousand kilos in weight.
43:11A ton.
43:12We've got about twenty people working on this fragment.
43:18No one likes to see the shell rocking and swinging around in the air.
43:21Everyone's worried that the wall will hit a metal post.
43:25But before the fresco can be placed on its stand,
43:27it has to be released from the transportation structure.
43:31While David and Jean-Baptiste are taking the time to fix the locking screws in place,
43:35the others have already decided to start moving the wall.
43:43What are you doing?
43:45Communicate!
43:47Communicate!
43:52The shell slides along a rail fixed to the ceiling.
44:08The wall is unbalanced,
44:09which isn't surprising.
44:10It's an irregular shape,
44:12but this fact is posing real problems.
44:15To move it into position,
44:16the team finally opts for the least risky method.
44:20Ropes and brute force.
44:22and a balancing act in every sense of the term.
44:33It's no good.
44:34To gain the last few centimeters they'll have to proceed otherwise.
44:41That one's too far left.
44:42It has to come forward!
44:44They'll have to adjust some elements of the lower part of the cave,
44:47the only section they can alter,
44:48and remove some links of the iron cage.
44:51There won't be any impact on the final appearance of the replica,
44:54because they've several centimeters in which to maneuver.
45:02When we're putting it in place,
45:03we try to do it gently,
45:05one leg after another.
45:07If it goes down,
45:08suddenly it will damage the wall and it will have to be repaired afterwards.
45:20No sooner has the first shell been put in place than the second one arrives.
45:24There are more than 30 segments to install,
45:26an operation that involves everyone on the site and remains very time-consuming.
45:41In the days that follow,
45:42the panels for the contemplation zone have to be lowered in from above,
45:46because the door on the replica side will be blocked off to allow
45:48for the final installation of all the walls.
45:56The shells are in position above the lower parts of the cave,
45:59the benches,
46:00which will now have to be made to look like the original.
46:03This is the task of the concrete sculptors,
46:05who now join the fray for what promises to be the home straight of the construction work.
46:17There are four months left in which to make the replica look like the original cave.
46:21The talus cone,
46:22in other words the cave entrance,
46:24is the first sculpture that Yves Poisson will tackle.
46:32It's the original entrance to the cave where the discoverers came in.
46:36We're putting real stones because there were real stones in the talus
46:40which were embedded in the clay and in the earth.
46:44This whole area was destroyed in 1947.
46:47No digital clones here.
46:49Sketches,
46:50a photograph and written testimonies are the only documents that can guide the sculptor's hand.
46:56Can you add some more?
46:58Possibly.
46:59They need to be smooth.
47:02It's from data like that that we've been able to recreate it and then
47:06we know the geological composition of this talus.
47:15The last signs of the construction work to be removed are these lines and joins.
47:19The gaps have to be filled between the shells of the frescoes and the sculpted concrete walls,
47:24a highly technical operation.
47:26It'll make an expansion joint because it will have a little flexibility,
47:31avoiding any cracks that might appear between these two materials,
47:34which are completely different.
47:38That's what's happening to the shells and bases of the replica.
47:41No less than 650 feet of joints have to be filled without leaving the slightest trace.
47:47We'll have to do a lot of work with the lighting and the raking light so as not
47:51to reveal the ghost of a joint that might otherwise be visible.
47:56It's not just the frescoes that have made the journey from the workshop to the site.
48:00Some of the artists have come with them.
48:02In these noisy and uncomfortable conditions they have to focus on the detailed work at hand.
48:08Unless they succeed in making the joints disappear,
48:11The whole work will be compromised and the magic of the replica destroyed.
48:19This adventure isn't just coming to an end for the artists.
48:23The rest of the site is also at the finishing stage.
48:26Final adjustments,
48:27technical tests,
48:29the scaffolding is being removed along with the dust,
48:31while the last pieces are adjusted.
48:42The space will soon be left to the visitors.
48:57Amongst the mysteries of Lascaux,
48:59there's the science and talent of the painters,
49:01who were able to draw on a protruding and uneven surface without their work being distorted,
49:06as if it had been done on a sheet of white paper.
49:10Anamorphosis is a technique that consists of deliberately distorting the image that's being
49:15created so that it appears normal when seen from a particular point.
49:23That's what happened with the third auroch,
49:25which you can see here,
49:26the one with the slightly erased muzzle.
49:30If you look at its two front legs,
49:32that's where it's interesting.
49:34It really feels as though they're exactly the same length.
49:39Which is absolutely not the case.
49:43This is the leg I was talking about earlier.
49:45It's 60 centimeters longer than the left.
49:49The artist had to distort it in this way so that
49:51the legs looked in proportion from the middle of the hall of the bulls.
49:58Even more edifying,
49:59this bull with a duck's bill is simply being looked at from the wrong angle,
50:03because when viewed from the front from a slightly higher position,
50:07this is what we see,
50:09an auroch in all its splendour.
50:11And this demonstration of artistic virtuosity doesn't end here.
50:16My own feeling is that these caves,
50:18these tunnels,
50:19these bowels of the air,
50:20were sacred.
50:23That's why they did these paintings and engravings here.
50:26And it's most certainly a cult dedicated to animals.
50:32It's all the more sacred and all the more a sanctuary because it's a little bit hidden.
50:37These paintings weren't meant for us.
50:40They did them for themselves,
50:41for their descendants.
50:43We're going to pass on this belief,
50:45this knowledge.
50:46Lascaux will become the memory of this society.
50:52Today still,
50:53it's through these drawings,
50:55this message,
50:56that schoolchildren get to know our ancestors.
50:58The famous story of the discovery of the Lascaux Cave is told,
51:02I think,
51:03in every country in the world.
51:06It's so beautiful.
51:07It's also proof that drawing,
51:09through the ages,
51:09whatever our culture,
51:11is a faculty that everyone uses to communicate and reproduce the general forms of what surrounds us.
51:24shells,
51:25frames,
51:25tarpaulins.
51:27Today,
51:27these are all that's left of three years of activity in this workshop.
51:32I thought up this project,
51:33I grew up with this project,
51:35and today I feel,
51:36and most importantly I know,
51:38that the gamble has paid off.
51:43I think we've done a good job.
51:45We're very proud of what the modelling team did.
51:50Discovering the painting from this angle by making a replica is like nothing else in the world,
51:55that's clear.
51:58Even spiritually,
51:59it's an aesthetic journey.
52:03Has man really changed much since that time?
52:06Are we not still the same man?
52:11I think there will be many hundreds of thousands of people,
52:13and I can imagine my own colleagues,
52:15my own students,
52:17and indeed my children coming here to experience this national asset.
52:25And here we've really made a bridge.
52:27We've spanned these 20,000 years.
52:58Within this cave,
52:59there's no distance between Cro-Magnon Man and us.
53:03We are the same humanity.
53:05In front of these frescoes,
53:07there's no distance either between the teenager fleeing the war and the old man he has become.
53:12Simon Cuencas is the first person to enter the replica,
53:16as he entered the cave 76 years ago with his friends.
53:20Today,
53:21he is the last surviving member of the group that discovered Lascaux.
53:25The 12th of September,
53:271940.
53:28The day of the discovery wasn't just a unique moment in his life,
53:32but an important day for all of us.

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