Word: cave
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Nowhere is this cultural richness more apparent than in the artworks that these paleolithic hunters left in caves in France and Spain. When the first of these subterranean galleries was discovered in Spain nearly a century ago, Europe's savants, still reeling from the shock of Darwinian evolution, refused to believe that the find was anything more than a hoax. Since then, nearly a hundred richly decorated prehistoric caves have been found in Spain and France, and the existence of paleolithic painting has been established beyond doubt. The ancient artisans also left behind tiny sculptures of exquisite beauty, meticulous...
Despite the abundance of these ancient works, the contemporary world has seen little of them. Many of the originals are carefully locked away in the vaults of various European cities, and some have never been publicly displayed. Nor are the caverns always accessible. France's celebrated Lascaux cave with its paintings of running bison and horses is now closed to all but a few selected scholars; contamination and changes in humidity and temperature caused by sightseers in the few decades after the cave was discovered in 1940 caused more damage to the fragile paintings than had occurred during...
Most of the others are skillfully rendered copies in realistic settings. Captured on film by Frenchman Jean Vertut, who specializes in photographing cave art, a Lascaux mural of horses, bulls and stags covers an entire wall of the show. Designer Henry Gardiner's theatrical lighting suggests the flickering oil lamps by which the cave artists must have worked. The exhibit also includes elegant silk-screen reproductions crafted by Douglas Mazonowicz, an artist and writer who has studied rock art around the world. Perhaps most impressive of all are the full-size replicas of Cro-Magnon man's sculptures...
What that culture was like remains an enigma. What, for instance, is the significance of the Venus figures, with their exaggerated sexual features? What role did the great cave paintings play in the lives of those ancient people? Whatever the answers, it is clear the art is exceptionally complex, more than simple "hunting magic," as some turn-of-the-century scholars thought. Every indication is that Cro-Magnon man was deeply involved in rituals, ceremonies, myths, perhaps even a kind of religion...
...doctors for raising their fees 50% more than the increase in the cost of living last year. He has accused farmers of asking for crop subsidies that might create double-digit food inflation next year. He has criticized Congress-and indirectly even the White House-for appearing to cave in to the farmers' demands. Bosworth has also become an effective jaw-boner. Two weeks ago. he masterminded the Administration's successful effort to prevent the nation's steelmakers from following U.S. Steel in its attempt to raise prices far beyond what would have been justified...