The Grotte Chauvet is world renowned for the quality and diversity of its Palaeolithic art. Fire was particularly important to the occupants, providing light and producing charcoal for use in motifs. Charcoal samples were taken systematically from features associated with the two main occupation phases (Aurignacian and Gravettian). Analysis showed it to be composed almost entirely of pine (Pinus sp.), indicating the harsh climatic conditions at this period. No distinction in wood species was found between either the two occupation episodes or the various depositional contexts. The results throw new light on the cultural and palaeoenvironmental factors that influenced choices underlying the collection of wood for charcoal production.

Some of the painted caves in southern France preserve human footprints from the Ice Age of 17,000 years ago. Research has so far dealt with them sparsely and through a morphometric approach only. In 2013 three indigenous hunters/trackers from the Kalahari had an opportunity to read several spoor accumulations in four caves on the basis of their indigenous knowledge. As a result of this morpho-classificatory approach to track reading they produced new hypotheses on prehistoric cave visitors. Most spectacular is the narrative which the trackers generated from the footprints not far from the clay bison at Tuc d’Audoubert. Further research is planned to inspect more tracks and look into the epistemological status of the indigenous tracking method.

We print here the text of the Sixth McDonald Lecture, which Dr Jean Clottes delivered in Cambridge in November 1995. Dr Clottes is well-known as a leading figure in the study of Palaeolithic art, and has been closely involved with the recent discoveries at the Grotte Cosquer and Grotte Chauvet. In this article he discusses the key trends and advances in this field.

We present the first results of an accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon intercomparison program on 3 different charcoal samples collected in one of the hearths of the Megaceros gallery of Chauvet Cave (Ardèche, France). This cave, rich in parietal decoration, is important for the study of the appearance and evolution of prehistoric art because certain drawings have been 14C dated to the Aurignacian period at the beginning of the Upper Paleolithic. The new dates indicate an age of about 32,000 BP, which is consistent with this attribution and in agreement with the results from the same sector of the cave measured previously at the Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement (LSCE). Six laboratories were involved in the intercomparison. Samples were measured in 4 AMS facilities: Center for Isotope Research, Groningen University, the Netherlands; the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, UK; the Centre de datation par le carbone 14, Univ. Claude Bernard Lyon 1, France (measured by AMS facilities of Poznań University, Poland); and the LSCE, UMR CEA-CNRS-UVSQ, France (measured by the Leibniz-Labor of Christian-Albrechts-Universität Kiel, Germany).

The article by Bahn and Pettitt (above) carries the suggestion that the diverse dates obtained for Candamo in some way throw doubt on those for Chauvet and by implication on the performance of the Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement (LSCE) at Yvette-sur-Gif (Gif). The authors respond. Readers might also like to note the article by Marian Scott and colleagues which follows.

Further work inside the Grotte Cosquer, the Palaeolithic painted cave near Marseilles only accessible by a deep-water dive, improves our knowledge and makes it clear there can be no artificial entrance made to create a dry-land access.

Trustworthy dates on charcoal from the classic European painted caves have given a sharper view of images and their making in the later Palaeolithic. The new Grotte Chauvet has its own original themes, revealing a striking and an unexpected Aurignacian art with — again — dates from charcoal in which one can have confidence.

The discovery of Palaeolithic wall paintings and engravings in a cave whose entrance lies below the present sea-level near Marseilles has created considerable interest – and no little controversy. The paper describes and analyses the remarkable find, with special attention to its authenticity.

During the Pleistocene there were large variations in sea-level under the influence of glaciations and inter-glacial warm episodes. During the Late Wurm glaciation in the Upper Palaeolithic the sea-level dropped to 110–120 m below its present level (Lumley 1976: 311). At that time the Lerins islands, the Hyeres islands and the Frioul archipelago and the islet of Planier off Marseilles were linked with the coast, and much of the Golfe du Lion was occupied by a vast plain.

The complex system of subterranean passages at Montesquieu-Avantès in the foothills of the central French Pyrenees through which the River Volp flows is conventionally divided into three caves, Le Tuc d'Audoubert to the west, Les Trois-Frères in the centre and Enlène to the east. While the east two are connected by a narrow corridor, no usable passage connects Tuc d'Audoubert with Trois-Frères and the only current means of access is by boat. At Tuc d'Audoubert the galleries lie on three levels, the lowest carrying the River Volp, the ‘median’ with decorated galleries (La Salle Nuptiale, La Galerie des Gravures) and the upper with further decoration (La Chatière, Salle des Talons) terminating in the Salle des Bisons containing the celebrated modelled clay bison (Bégouën and Clottes 1984b). The position of Trois-Frères and Enlène approximates to the upper level of Tuc d'Audoubert. Trois-Frères has numerous galleries with several possible original entrances, although the only certain Magdalenian access was through Enlène. Whereas Trois-Frères contains one of the most prolific arrays of wall art (Galerie des Mains, Chapelle de la Lionne, Galerie des Points, Salle du Grand-Eboulis, Sanctuaire, Galerie des Chouettes, Galerie de l'Hémione), Enlène has none. However excavations at Enlène have revealed a considerable range of engraved bones and stone plaquettes from occupation deposits (Bégouën and Clottes 1984a).

While lively debate has gone on about the meaning and function of Palaeolithic parietal art, the intractable and essential questions of its dating have been less in the foreground. With Leroi-Gourhan's interpretations goes his identification of styles and their chronology, published in 1965. Now one period, the Late Magdalenian of his Style IV, is looked at closely with chronology in mind

Les Trois-Frères, in the French Pyrenees, is one of the classic sites of palaeolithic cave-art, and of Abbé Breuil's recording of it. A new survey, and new recording methods, are giving a different and a fuller picture of its art.