In 1985 diver Henri Cosquer discovered a submerged cave entrance in the Mediterranean near Marseilles. Exploring over the next six years he discovered a chamber filled with prehistoric art.

Conditions in the caves and the submerged passages leading to it are extremely dangerous: three divers lost their lives exploring the caves.

Efforts to map the cave structure using traditional techniques proved impossible, but with modern 3D scanning and photogrammetry tools, replicas of key works from the cave have been created on land, spreading knowledge of the caves to future generations.

Guests

Luc Vanrell: professional diver and independent underwater archaeologist. Former Scientific Manager of the Cosquer cave for the French Ministry of Culture

Alain Dalis: prehistorian and visual artist, responsible for the reproduction of the painted and engraved walls of the Cosquer cave replica in Marseille

Bertrand Chazaly: land surveying engineer, digital and 3D expert at Fugro

Resources

The original paper describing the discovery of the caves.

Luc Vanrell, Jean Clottes, and Jean Courtin’s description of the caves.

A study of handprints in caves around the Mediterranean, arguing that most may have been my women.

Academic papers on Cosquer, and other subjects, can be accessed with a free independent researcher account on JSTOR.