The Cosquer Cave is located in the '' Calanque de Morgiou'' in

Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Fran ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan ar ...

, near Cap Morgiou. The entrance to the

cave A cave or cavern is a natural void in the ground, specifically a space large enough for a human to enter. Caves often form by the weathering of rock and often extend deep underground. The word ''cave'' can refer to smaller openings such as sea ...

is located underwater, due to the

Holocene The Holocene ( ) is the current geological epoch. It began approximately 11,650 cal years Before Present (), after the Last Glacial Period, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene togeth ...

sea level rise Globally, sea levels are rising due to human-caused climate change. Between 1901 and 2018, the globally averaged sea level rose by , or 1–2 mm per year on average.IPCC, 2019Summary for Policymakers InIPCC Special Report on the Ocean and Cry ...

. The cave contains various prehistoric rock art engravings. Its submarine entrance was discovered in 1985 by

Henri Cosquer Henri is an Estonian, Finnish, French, German and Luxembourgish form of the masculine given name Henry. People with this given name ; French noblemen :'' See the 'List of rulers named Henry' for Kings of France named Henri.'' * Henri I de Mont ...

, a professional diver. The underwater passage leading to the cave was progressively explored until 1990 by cave divers without the divers being aware of the

archaeological Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscape ...

character of the cave. It is only in the last period (1990-1991) of the progressive underwater explorations that the cave divers emerged in the non-submerged part of the cave. The prehistoric paintings were not immediately discovered by the divers to first emerge from the other side of the sump. The cave was named after Henri Cosquer, when its existence was made public in 1991, after that three divers became lost in the cave and died.

Description

The cave can now be accessed by divers through a long tunnel; the entrance is located below sea level, which has risen since the cave was inhabited. During the glacial periods of the

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the '' Ice age'') is the geological epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was finally confirmed ...

, the shore of the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on th ...

was several kilometers to the south and the sea level up to below the entrance of the cave.

Discovery and history

Henri Cosquer, a professional diver in Cassis, discovered the drowned entrance to the cave which had been indicated to him by a diver friend in 1985. That same year, he progressively explored the submersed gallery alone and then with a friend and diving instructor from his club until he reached the "''stratum''" (the part where the gallery narrows and turns 90° to open into the underground lake). Cosquer went back alone once in 1985, discovered the underground lake, but a lamp breakdown forced him to turn back and he was left with a good scare. In June 1990, Henri Cosquer asked for the help of two Belgian cave divers, the brothers Bernard and Marc Van Espen, who had come to dive in Cassis. Following Cosquer's instructions, the two brothers found the entrance of the gallery at -37 metres at the foot of the Pointe de la Voile, near Cap Morgiou. They followed the ascending gallery, swimming slowly and carefully near the ceiling of the gallery to avoid lifting the particles of

silt Silt is granular material of a size between sand and clay and composed mostly of broken grains of quartz. Silt may occur as a soil (often mixed with sand or clay) or as sediment mixed in suspension with water. Silt usually has a floury feel wh ...

and fine

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4). Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay part ...

sediment Sediment is a naturally occurring material that is broken down by processes of weathering and erosion, and is subsequently transported by the action of wind, water, or ice or by the force of gravity acting on the particles. For example, sa ...

s covering the floor in order to not compromise the underwater visibility (to avoid silt out). They arrive at the underground lake topped by the air bell seen by Cosquer in 1985. Their guide line being too short, Bernard and Marc Van Espen are forced to turn back in order to exit safely by following their guide line towards the entrance of the gallery without being able to emerge in the bell. At this stage, the non-submerged part of the cave has still not been explored. In June 1991, Marc Van Espen is back in Cassis and on June 24 he dives again with Henri Cosquer, both of them determined to finally go to the end of this cave. On this occasion, Marc Van Espen achieves the installation of the last section of the guide line essential to the safety of the progression in the immersed part of the cave. Their incursion into the cave only lasts about thirty minutes and only allows them to briefly explore the first room to which the

sump A sump is a low space that collects often undesirable liquids such as water or chemicals. A sump can also be an infiltration basin used to manage surface runoff water and recharge underground aquifers. Sump can also refer to an area in a cav ...

gives direct access. A few days later, on July 9, 1991, Cosquer decides to go back to explore the cave to estimate its extent in company of friends and instructors of his

diving club Scuba diving is a mode of underwater diving whereby divers use breathing equipment that is completely independent of a surface air supply. The name "scuba", an acronym for " Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus", was coined by Chri ...

: Cendrine Cosquer (his niece), Yann Gogan and Pascale Oriol. It was during this dive that a more detailed exploration of the unflooded part of the cave was carried out. Yann Gogan then saw the outline of a hand on a wall, while Pascale Oriol put forward the hypothesis of a

cave painting In archaeology, Cave paintings are a type of parietal art (which category also includes petroglyphs, or engravings), found on the wall or ceilings of caves. The term usually implies prehistoric origin, and the oldest known are more than 40,00 ...

. This discovery, as disconcerting as it was unexpected, prompted the "team of four" to return and actively search for other traces. Several dives in July and August 1991 enabled them to discover the cave paintings and to make films and photos with the help of Thierry Pelissier and Gilles Sourice (Fanny Broadcast – Les films du soleil). On September 1, 1991, there was a triple fatal accident in the cave. Three divers from

Grenoble lat, Gratianopolis , commune status = Prefecture and commune , image = Panorama grenoble.png , image size = , caption = From upper left: Panorama of the city, Grenoble’s cable cars, place Saint- ...

did not find the exit of the access gallery (175 m). Henri and Yann participated in the recovery of the bodies of the three victims in the gallery. Two days later, on 3 September 1991, Henri declared the cave to the Maritime Affairs Department in

. The file was transmitted to the Direction des recherches archéologiques sous-marines (DRASM) and then to the Service régional de l'archéologie (Regional Archaeological Service) under the Ministry of Culture. An expertise took place from 18 to 20 September 1991, with the assistance of the DRASM vessel, the Archéonaute. It was conducted by Jean Courtin, a French

prehistorian Prehistory, also known as pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the use of the first stone tools by hominins 3.3 million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems. The use of ...

and experienced diver, and Jean Clottes, a French specialist in

cave art In archaeology, Cave paintings are a type of parietal art (which category also includes petroglyphs, or engravings), found on the wall or ceilings of caves. The term usually implies prehistoric origin, and the oldest known are more than 40,000 ye ...

. When the discovery was announced, doubts were raised about the authenticity of the figures. Various French prehistorians, such as Brigitte and Gilles Delluc or Denis Vialou, expressed reservations. In June 1992, a new mission allowed, among other things, the shooting of a film entitled "The Secret of the Cosquer Cave". From 2001 to 2005, five programmed archaeological research operations were organised under the responsibility of Luc Vanrell (IMMADRAS (Société de travaux sous marins) / DRAC PACA / LAMPEA (LAboratoire Méditerranéen de Préhistoire Europe Afrique)), then five others from 2010 to 2015 (no operation in 2012) under the same direction, with the collaboration of Michel Olive (DRAC PACA / LAMPEA). The Ministry of Culture and Henri Cosquer are involved in a dispute, which is based on the law on preventive archaeology of 17 January 2001, which grants the inventor compensation – a lump-sum payment or a thirty-year profit-sharing scheme – paid by the operator on the basis of the evaluation of the archaeological interest of the cave. Henri Cosquer also claimed a reward and the recovery of part of the proceeds from the sale of books of photographs of the cave.

Prehistoric paintings

Four fifths of the cave, including any cave wall art, were permanently or periodically submerged and destroyed by sea water. Nearly 500 instances of cave art remain which date back to two distinct periods during the

Upper Paleolithic The Upper Paleolithic (or Upper Palaeolithic) is the third and last subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age. Very broadly, it dates to between 50,000 and 12,000 years ago (the beginning of the Holocene), according to some theories coi ...

. The first phase, from around 27,000 years BP (the Gravettian Era), is represented by art consisting of 65 hand stencils, 44 in black and 21 in red. Art from the more recent period dates to 19,000 years BP (the Solutrean Era) and features much more complex depictions of various animals and human figures. In total there are 177 animals drawings found in the cave these include 63

horses The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million ...

, 28 ibex, 17

deer Deer or true deer are hoofed ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. The two main groups of deer are the Cervinae, including the muntjac, the elk (wapiti), the red deer, and the fallow deer; and the Capreolinae, including the ...

, 10

bison Bison are large bovines in the genus ''Bison'' (Greek: "wild ox" (bison)) within the tribe Bovini. Two extant and numerous extinct species are recognised. Of the two surviving species, the American bison, ''B. bison'', found only in North ...

, and 7

aurochs The aurochs (''Bos primigenius'') ( or ) is an extinct cattle species, considered to be the wild ancestor of modern domestic cattle. With a shoulder height of up to in bulls and in cows, it was one of the largest herbivores in the Holocene ...

. There is also the more unusual depiction of 16 marine animals including 9 seals and 3

great auks The great auk (''Pinguinus impennis'') is a species of flightless alcid that became extinct in the mid-19th century. It was the only modern species in the genus ''Pinguinus''. It is not closely related to the birds now known as penguins, w ...

as well as some

jellyfish Jellyfish and sea jellies are the informal common names given to the medusa-phase of certain gelatinous members of the subphylum Medusozoa, a major part of the phylum Cnidaria. Jellyfish are mainly free-swimming marine animals with umbrella- ...

and various figures which could be either

fish Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% ...

or ceteceans. Of the human figures there are numerous sexual symbols but also one example of "the killed man" motif which can be seen in other caves such as at

Lascaux Lascaux ( , ; french: Grotte de Lascaux , "Lascaux Cave") is a network of caves near the village of Montignac, in the department of Dordogne in southwestern France. Over 600 parietal wall paintings cover the interior walls and ceilings of ...

References

External links

Cosquer’s Cave
Grotto Cosquer
Prehistory and coastal karst area: Cosquer Cave and the “Calanques” of Marseille
* Official French Ministry of Culture pages o
Submarine archaeology
*
The Cosquer Cave
Prehistoric Images and Medicines Under the Sea by Jean Clottes, Jean Courtin and Luc Vanrell {{Authority control Prehistoric sites in France Caves of France Rock art in France Caves containing pictograms in France Landforms of Bouches-du-Rhône Tourist attractions in Bouches-du-Rhône Prehistoric art in France Landforms of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Massif des Calanques

Description

Discovery and history

Prehistoric paintings

See also

References

Further reading

External links