This week we went to Lauscaux II and Font de Gaume caves. Lascaux and Font de Gaume are located in France in the Vezere valley. The caves were formed in an area of limestone rock. cro-magnon man made the cave paintings. The paintings were made 17,000 years ago. Lascaux II is actually a copy of the Lascaux cave. Why? Lascaux cave was closed to the public because the ‘white disease’ from too many visitors was making the paintings disappear. Lascaux II is made of concrete and iron, and artists made copies of the original cave paintings. Lascaux cave has 900 animal paintings. There are paintings of bulls, horses, deer, goat, and wooly rhino. Font de Gaume is a real cave that people can walk into and look at real prehistoric cave paintings. Font de Gaume used to have a lot of stalactites, but people took them out to make it easier to walk into the cave. Font de Gaume has 230 animal paintings. There are pictures of mammoth, horses, bison and deer. Cro-magnon man used red, orange, white, black and brown colors made from minerals to paint. Cro-magnon man engraved the rock, used animal skin dabber brushes, blow pipes from animal horns, and their fingers to apply paint. I think cro-magnon man painted the animals as Art and to promise good hunting.