Henri Cosquer Research Paper

In September,1985 a professional diver named Henri Cosquer made an amazing discovery. He had discovered a cave. At Ardeche department, on the Mediterranean coast, close to the mouth of the Rhone River miles from Marseilles. The cave was discovered by accident. After Cosquer discovered the cave, he made the amazing cave a secret, however ,he went back several times. One day when Henri went with a group of divers to the cave Henri discovered the paintings. So he decided to contact an archaeologist. He asked Jean Courtin to come observe the paintings, however , Jean Courtin responded and said he couldn't do it due to the fact that he wasn’t a diver. So Jean Courtin contacted Jean Clotte an archaeologist and a diver he accepted to go to the cave, …show more content…
The young men had decide to go see what they had been doing. When they left they put on their scuba materials and suits and went to the entrance of the cave. However these young men were not professional divers, so when they were leaving the cave they got lost because their flippers were touching the floor and making smoke. So they couldn’t see and they didn’t know where to go they were stuck there. Three of the young men died however one survived and they managed to get out. When he got out he contacted the police that three men had died and because of that accident the cave soon became known to public. Due to carbon dating, scientists found out that the animal paintings were 18,000 years old and the hand prints where 28,000 years old. Scientists believe that the 10,000 year difference was that the cave was discovered abandoned and then rediscovered. Archaeologists determined the age of the paintings by counting the atom number of the radioactive carbon in the painting scrapes. Painters went in during the Ice Age so the water was miles away from there so the entrance was wide open so they could just walk in because there were ice glaciers and the sea level was very