How are underwater murals formed?

There are many natural caves on the land, where there are mysterious and deep stalactites of different shapes, some like bamboo shoots, some like ice hanging, some like swords ... which make people linger.

There are also many caves under the sea, some of which are wonderful. Some caves are full of fountains, some caves glow with blue light, some caves are inhabited by protozoa, some caves become the graves of turtles, and some caves can make fierce sharks extremely gentle. ...

The wonderful sight of underwater caves attracts people. In recent years, there has been an upsurge of cave diving in Europe. Although some people got lost after going in and couldn't find the exit, people still took submersibles, compasses, communication ropes around their waists and spotlights on their helmets, and kept sneaking into caves to experience the feelings of astronauts and find new excitement.

In Casis, near Marseille, there is a diving instructor named Henri Cusqui who has been diving in the Mediterranean for over 10 years. With good diving skills, he often goes into caves for diving exploration.

1989 One morning in September, Kusky found a black hole 40 meters under the sea at the foot of a collapsed rock in the Mediterranean Sea. He dived into the cave carefully, only to see the hole surrounded by corals and sea fans. Wearing a diving suit made of synthetic rubber and carrying an oxygen bottle, he groped his way in a cave 1 meter wide. He muttered to himself, "I really don't know how deep this hole is."

Kusky groped for about 50 meters in the cave, when the tunnel gradually widened to 2 ~ 3 meters. However, once the fine sediment at the bottom of the cave is stirred, the turbid seawater spreads everywhere, making the cave darker. He gritted his teeth and got up the courage to move on150m. After 30 minutes, his head suddenly surfaced. He looked around and found himself at the edge of a cliff only waist deep. In front of his eyes is an arched cave, about 60 meters wide and 2 ~ 5 meters high. The cave walls are painted white, blue and ochre, with stalactites, stalagmites and tall limestone columns on them.

Cusqui wants to continue exploring caves, but he is worried about limited oxygen. He wants to unload his diving equipment, and he doesn't know if the air in the hole is poisonous. He knows that a mixed gas is harmful to human body. He had learned this gas before when searching for sunken ships. Nevertheless, he decided to give it a try. He resolutely took off his breathing mask, took a sip, didn't exhale for a while, and tasted it. There seems to be nothing wrong. He took another deep breath, his throat didn't sting, his head didn't feel dizzy, and the air could breathe. He walked on for a while, but there was still no end in sight. Considering that he could come again in the future, he retired.

Three years later, Cusqui has been busy with the diving training school and failed to take time to explore the cave. It was not until July 1992 that he entrusted two diving friends, Mark and Baynard Winesby, to plan to explore the cave. After the two brothers entered the cave, although they walked a little farther than Kusky, they still failed to reach the finish line.

1On July 9, 1993, Kuskwei finally re-entered the cave, together with three members of the diving association, namely his niece Sandrine Kuskwei, 23, Yang Gogan, 27, and bhaskar, 3 1. They are all experienced divers.

There are many people. Go straight ahead. When they surfaced, they were fascinated by the beautiful scenery in the cave and immediately photographed it with a waterproof camera. Then, they entered another cave and stood by the water.

"I'm going down to see if there is another cave." After that, Cusqui dived into the water, groped for every recess in the cave wall, concluded that there was no exit, then surfaced and put the lamp on a big stone. "Hey, look! What's that? " He said loudly. The original light shone on the cave wall, and I suddenly saw the figure of a hand.

"We have to take pictures of it. Maybe a prehistoric painting? " Sandling said.

Two days later, Cusqui went to the photo studio to develop the photos, and found that there were not only one hand in the photos, but three. He thinks this is probably a mural painted by the ancients. After returning, he consulted many archaeological books and found no information about murals.

Four days later, the four of them sneaked into the cave again. This time, they brought floodlights, cameras and waterproof cameras. Sure enough, a bumper harvest. First, they saw a row of small black horses on the waterline west of the main cave, and then they saw a slender black horse painted on the opposite cave wall. These paintings are sketched with something similar to black charcoal, and the picture is covered with a translucent calcite.

Under the floodlight, they searched carefully and found a picture of a huge black goat with horns, a stag full of calcite and a galloping horse at the top of the cave. There are two big bison and many palm prints on the cave murals in the east, some with less than five fingers, a cat's head and three penguins. There are also some antelopes, a seal and some weird geometric symbols between horses and bison. Count it, there are dozens. They all recorded it one by one.

But they decided to be airtight, collect as much information as possible, and then send it to the maritime safety administration for review. However, they entered the cave several times and were all seen. Some people follow their example and explore caves. Three people died due to inadequate preparation. At this time, Kusky decided to make their findings public.

He strode into the office of the Maritime Safety Administration in Marseille with photos and reported to an official that they had found a cave with prehistoric murals under the Mediterranean Sea.

The official was a little incredulous, so he excused himself, saying that there were various forms for people to fill out in the ocean discovery, such as sunken ships, sunken steps, large tanks during the Roman Empire, Greek treasures and so on. , but the prehistoric remains are not filled in the form. The official said, "I'm sorry, please look elsewhere."

Kusky came to the undersea archaeological research department. At first, some experts did not believe it. Because the physical evidence is only photos, and cave murals have never been found in southeastern France. Kusky was very annoyed. Fortunately, two experts Keside and Courdin supported his work. However, after hearing the news, the French Ministry of Culture still refused to draw a conclusion and decided to send experts to the scene first.

On September 19, an archaeological research ship sent by the navy sailed above the cave. Some experts, frogmen and naval demining experts got on board. Of course, Kusky and Kurdin are here. They also brought many advanced instruments for measuring, lighting and collecting cave wall samples.

Kusky and an undersea expert first sneaked into the cave wall. Pull up the sign line of the hanging lamp. Later, Kusky said to Kurdin, "What do you think?"

"I have never seen such a beautiful scenery." Courdin was surprised. The scene is exactly as described by Cusqui, and the powerful floodlight also shows murals that have never been seen before. Kurdin speculated that the little black horse in the painting belonged to the late Paleolithic species, and the remains of this horse were unearthed in Provence in the southeast of France. He also found two complete small fireplaces. He congratulated Kusky and said, "Your discovery is really amazing. This is a major appearance in the history of French archaeology. You will be famous. "

The appraisal was carried out for 4 days. At this point, no one doubts any more. Keside fully believed the information brought back by Kurdin. He said: "murals and sculptures of horses, bison and goats. All these have the characteristics of the Paleolithic Age, even drawn according to the conventions of prehistoric art ... For example, at that time, the horns of wild horns and goats were always bent or half-bent, hooves were never drawn, and the last leg was always missing. This shows that these paintings are earlier than the famous paintings of Lascaux Cave. "

Kaside's preliminary judgment was quickly confirmed by laboratory tests. According to carbon isotope determination, the history of these paintings is 6.5438+0.844 million years, and the charcoal used for painting is Norwegian pine and black pine. These two kinds of pine trees grow along the coast of this area. Microscopic observation also found that the collected soil samples contained alder fossils and pollen born along the Mediterranean coast at that time.

This cave is obviously the place where ancient people held ceremonies. Humans generally live outside caves. There are no tools, arrows, animal bones and other relics in this cave, which proves that European ancestors probably held religious ceremonies here. Paintings on cave walls are like icons and crosses in churches today, and palm prints may be part of symbolic language.

Cusqui's discovery is of great significance, because it proves that there are Paleolithic arts in southeastern France. Kurdin said: "We have thus obtained new archaeological evidence and increased our understanding of the history of that era."

Archaeologists and oceanographers all over the world have asked the French government to provide this information.

Today, the French Institute of Archaeology has named the cave "Kusky Cave".