Cave of Forgotten Dreams - Essay Example

The Cave of Forgotten Dreams was enlightening. Although it had to play a few times for the details to be d, this was an overall fascinating movie. The Chauvet Cave located in France was beautiful with crystal formations, wall drawings, and secrecy surrounding the whole place. Chauvet Cave is well preserved due to a rockslide over the entrance. The Cave is thought to have been covered for around 20,000 years, but to have been inhabited around 32,000 years ago. Two main points stood out about this cave.

The first was the drawings on the wall. These drawings were shaded with detail that competes with a Renaissance master. The bison, deer, and other animals looked almost like charcoal drawings. Not only animals were depicted, but scenes of animals and hunting. Other images were not as easy to determine. It was like a collage of animal and hunting scenes. All types of images mixed together with some recognizable, while others were not. This could be because of the age, or the rock drawing. The second main point was the security.

Instead of an open cave opening, a steel door that is locked has been placed at the opening. The door served another purpose than just keeping people out. This door is to keep the climate the same in the Cave. The archeologist made sure that the cameras, ropes, lights, and people did not touch anything that was not necessary. No one but those authorized by the French government can access this Cave. This film crew had to receive permission first. The security goes high tech in preserving the site.

Thin films of sediment are removed to show the cave drawings below. The French government really wants to preserve this site for future observation. Finally, this film speculated on the people that lived in the cave. What is known can be deduced from the Cave and surrounding areas. Since bones and weapons have been found, the cave dwellers were likely hunters. The reasons for the paintings are less obvious. Some theorize that they are religious or spiritual, others simple records. A comparison with Aborigines in Australia showed that a spirit guided the rock drawings.

The humans that lived there adapted to their environment and gave an account. In the film the cave drawings are compared to the capturing of this film on camera. No doubt more research needs to be done on the Cave, but the overall movie was fascinating with possibilities of the past. A footnote was added. A nuclear plant is twenty miles away. Since the water used to cool the reactors is heated up, the environment is changing. The environment now has introduced crocodiles. Some have mutated.

The point in sharing this is time has changed the environment since the Cave dwellers lived there. It continues to change. The Cave needs to be documented because soon it might be gone in the new environment.