The Cosquer cave near Marseille astonished the diver who discovered it with its ancient depictions of sea and land animals. Now it has been painstakingly recreated
t was in 1985 that the diver Henri Cosquer discovered, along the coast from Marseille, what has been called an “underwater Lascaux” after the famous cave network in the Dordogne. After several failed attempts, he managed to follow a narrow tunnel, 120ft below the surface of the sea, for almost 400ft and emerged in a stunning decorated chamber.
Geologist and prehistorian Jacques Collina-Girard, who lectures at Aix-Marseille University, said a number of things made the cave unique. It was the first grotto decorated with prehistoric paintings found in Provence, and “a sanctuary of its type demonstrated that a significant population lived in the area”.
“The national institutions created the numerical data about the cave and gave us all the documents, all the 3D data,” says Cosquer Méditerranée’s director, Frédéric Prades. “We committed ourselves to setting up a scientific committee made up of eminent historians, geologists, etc [led by Collina-Girard]. They followed the whole working process. It’s a guarantee that the result is scientifically faithful to the original.