Castle, Caves, and a Bat
Jun. 18th, 2025 08:59 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
smokingboot8, maybe even 9 out of 10 for Chateau de Beynac as a haven in the zombie apocalypse. In true 12th century fashion it’s very defensible, commands a phenomenal view of the surrounding countryside/river plus room for livestock/growing things; only drawback is a possible lack of well, but if there’s a freshwater source in the castle grounds, medieval zombie killers could sleep sound here.
I met a bat there. Poor thing tumbled down crashing to earth in the heat. A lady and I scooped it up carefully using ripped bits of brochure (lots of warnings from those around us not to touch it) put it in the shade of on an old wooden table under the stone wall and gave it some water. Came back later, it was gone. I thought it was maybe a happy ending, but on examination of my single photo of it, I noticed some little red stains. They may have been already on the table, or perhaps poor bat was wounded. Vote for the happy ending; it would be very strange if the janitor left the associated bits of torn brochure, paper cup, and spilt water while just sweeping the bat away. Votes against; my heart’s misgivings.
Then it was time for Lascaux. I had approached this with a certain level of grump. One cannot actually enter the caves and see the paintings in situ, these have been shut off since 1963. What you can do is see the perfect projection/reproduction of these in a simulation of the cave, which sounds heartless and dead until experienced. Then it astounds. By the end, I understood that this was not just about preserving an antiquity for humanity’s future, but respecting the creations for what they were, not to be destroyed by our curiosity. These artists fill me with awe. 17,000 to 22,000 years ago, making light, painting, crafting. I wonder what all this was for, the decoration of a living space, or a place of worship, or entertainment, or teaching… I wrote a short story about this ages back and will try to dig it out. Dashes and dots and grids among the images, signs we are told would have meant something to the onlookers. Were these the beginnings of words /pictograms/proto symbols that might, millennia later, become codes like ogham? Were they numbers? Right here would be my first stop in the Tardis. Photos cannot express the depth and beauty of these creations, though I may add some later, just so I never forget.
When we came out, I cried for a while. Most of it was for Lascaux and some was for the bat.
I met a bat there. Poor thing tumbled down crashing to earth in the heat. A lady and I scooped it up carefully using ripped bits of brochure (lots of warnings from those around us not to touch it) put it in the shade of on an old wooden table under the stone wall and gave it some water. Came back later, it was gone. I thought it was maybe a happy ending, but on examination of my single photo of it, I noticed some little red stains. They may have been already on the table, or perhaps poor bat was wounded. Vote for the happy ending; it would be very strange if the janitor left the associated bits of torn brochure, paper cup, and spilt water while just sweeping the bat away. Votes against; my heart’s misgivings.
Then it was time for Lascaux. I had approached this with a certain level of grump. One cannot actually enter the caves and see the paintings in situ, these have been shut off since 1963. What you can do is see the perfect projection/reproduction of these in a simulation of the cave, which sounds heartless and dead until experienced. Then it astounds. By the end, I understood that this was not just about preserving an antiquity for humanity’s future, but respecting the creations for what they were, not to be destroyed by our curiosity. These artists fill me with awe. 17,000 to 22,000 years ago, making light, painting, crafting. I wonder what all this was for, the decoration of a living space, or a place of worship, or entertainment, or teaching… I wrote a short story about this ages back and will try to dig it out. Dashes and dots and grids among the images, signs we are told would have meant something to the onlookers. Were these the beginnings of words /pictograms/proto symbols that might, millennia later, become codes like ogham? Were they numbers? Right here would be my first stop in the Tardis. Photos cannot express the depth and beauty of these creations, though I may add some later, just so I never forget.
When we came out, I cried for a while. Most of it was for Lascaux and some was for the bat.
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Date: 2025-06-18 11:28 am (UTC)Ben—my X-husband—had a really splendid tattoo of the Lascaux dawn horses tattooed across his back.
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Date: 2025-06-19 04:36 am (UTC)My poetic sense is satisfied by your mention of Ben’s tattoo. These were deeply magical images to me and I can imagine he might find a resonance there,