Illustrations for the Pech-Merle cave (Quercy, France)
The Pech-Merle team ordered me 2 sets of illustrations as support for the introduction of the tour.
The first set had to show a landscape as it was during the Upper Paleolithic.
Based on a view of the actual valley, I drew Ice Age vegetation: small bushes, steppic grass, juniper, birch, pine and oak trees.
Then I added human beings, Cro-Magnon people. Years ago, I drew a Homo sapiens for the site, they wanted me to correct it in the light of recent discovers: after genetical research, it appears that Cro-Magnon people were dark skinned and blue eyed.
They asked me to add a woman and a youngster as well.
The second set had to show the entrance of the cave as it was (now you enter it through an artificial one). It was a crack in the ground.
Where stones piled up through the years.
At one moment, it was accessible enough to allow "visitors" inside the cave : Cave bears, Hyenas and Homo sapiens (they came here to paint and I strongly recommend you to have a look on the wonderful paintings of this cave…).
And finaly, at some point, the cave got closed and remained preserved until André David, Marthe David and Henri Dutertre discovered it, september the 4th 1922 (yes, it is its 100 years anniversary!).
Thanks for your support!