jan 1, 14000 BC - 14,000 BCE - Rouffignac Cave The earliest art is indirectly dated to about 14,000 BCE, with the rest being assigned to the middle phase of Magdalenian art four types of art at Rouffignac: animal paintings and engravings; pictures of anthropomorphic figures; abstract signs; and finger flutings. alongside the La Binche river, in the French commune of Rouffignac-Saint-Cernin, in the department of the Dordogne. France

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Quote from Cork Uni (link below) -

the art has been indirectly dated by its stylistic content

Yet another important centre of prehistoric art in the Dordogne, Rouffignac Cave is famous for four things. (1) Its size: with more than 8 kilometres of underground passages, it is the largest site of Franco-Cantabrian cave art, and still relatively unexplored. (2) Its unique collection of cave painting and rock engravings featuring almost 160 mammoths, including the famous "Patriarch" mammoth. They account for about a third of all mammoth-images in European cave art - hence Rouffignac's nickname "Cave of the Hundred Mammoths". (3) Its extraordinary ceiling ("Le Grand Plafond de Rouffignac") decorated with a swirling ensemble of 60 large black drawings of horses, mammoths, ibex and bison. (4) A unique black drawing of a bearded human face ("tete barbue de face"). The earliest art is indirectly dated to about 14,000 BCE, with the rest being assigned to the middle phase of Magdalenian art, about 14,000-11,000 BCE. For more about the chronology of cave painting in the Dordogne, please see: Prehistoric Art Timeline (from 2.5 million BCE).

Rouffignac Cave, also known as Miremont cave, Cro de Granville or Cro des Cluzeau, is located on a hill slope alongside the La Binche river, in the French commune of Rouffignac-Saint-Cernin, in the department of the Dordogne. Resembling a massive tunnel, its limestone walls are rich in flint nodules but there are no stalactites or stalagmites. Its natural floor consists of a sticky, unpleasant clay. An electric train is used to convey visitors around the cave. There are numerous other sites of Paleolithic art in the area, including: Abri du Poisson (c.23,000 BCE); Abri de la Madeleine (20,000); Lascaux Cave (17,000); Font de Gaume Cave (14,000); Cap Blanc Shelter (c.13,000) and Les Combarelles Cave (c.12,000 BCE).

The Grand Ceiling of Rouffignac ("Le Grand Plafond")

Although a sizeable area of the lower, more remote levels of the cave remain uninvestigated, the richest area of Stone Age art so far discovered is undoubtedly the Grand Ceiling of Rouffignac ("Le Grand Plafond"). This is located about 700 metres from the entrance of the cave in the main gallery known as the Sacred Way.

The ceiling is remarkable for two reasons. First, its concentrated mass of 65 animal figures - the largest and best images in the cave - most of which are drawn in black and include: 26 mammoths, 12 bison, 11 horses, 12 ibex, 3 rhinos, and one mountain goat. Second, the fact that it appears to have been a highly dangerous place to create a gallery of pictures. When researchers first entered the cave, the ceiling was a mere 1 metre above a huge 7-metre deep hole in the cave floor, which occupied the entire width of the gallery. This dangerous pit had slippery clay sides and led only to a river below. Why did Rouffignac's Stone Age artists paint so many beautiful animal figures in such a dangerous and obscure place, when there was so much flat ceiling space in the gallery before and after the hole. The pit was definitely in existence when the ceiling was painted, since (like in the Apse at Lascaux) there are traces of a wooden platform used to support the artists above the pit during their work.

Since its initial discovery, the pit under the Grand Ceiling has been filled in, and the floor lowered to allow easy movement and better viewing conditions.

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