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of such genius limited themselves to the paintings of horses, bulls, deer, ibex, and bear, and did not seek to depict their landscapes and settings, or indeed themselves. Art and humanity are so closely entwined that the urge to portrait, whether in the statues of ancient Greece or in the paintings of the Renaissance, seems to be a logical and even inevitable part of the artistic process. But there are prehistoric images of the human form, in statuettes and in the caricatures of faces engraved at a Marche, near Poitiers. The lifestyle I ascribe to the people who created Lascaux, which seems to have borne great similarity to that of the North American Indians and Siberian tribes like the Evenk, is based on the fractional achaeological and anthropological evidence. The work and theories of l’Abbé Breuil and of André Leroi-Gourhan, allowing for fictional embellishment, are much as I describe. Without their efforts, we would know far, far less than we do, and M. Leroi-Gourhan, and Arlette Leroi-Gourhan, and Brigitte and Gilles Dellux have been, along with Ann Sieveking’s The Cave Artists and the museum at Les Eyzies, my constant guides.

Finally, there is nothing outlandish about my suggestion that there remain undiscovered caves that could contain artistic riches to rival Lascaux. Two or three new caves are discovered, or rediscovered, in southwestern France each year. In 1994, cave explorers in the Ardeche region of France discovered what is now known as the Chauvet cave, containing over four hundred paintings and engravings that are at least thirty thousand years old. And in the year 2000, another magnificent cave gallery of engravings dating from a similar period was discovered at Cussac, near le Buisson, within strolling distance from the house at which this novel was being written. The Cussac cave, some 900 yards long, also contains some silhouettes of women, and erotic designs. Who knows what might emerge next in this cradle of humanity that the people of Périgord call the Vallée de l’Homme? It remains the small, enchanting part of Europe that has known the longest continuous human habitation. And anyone who knows its climate, its geography, its food, its people and their generous welcome will understand why after over thirty thousand years it is still going strong. And as the English learned in the fifteenth century, the Germans in the twentieth, and successive governments based in Paris have always known, the people of Périgord have an admirably tenacious disinclination to be run by anybody but themselves. It has been a privilege to get to know them, and to admire the courage of people who tried to stop a panzer division with nothing more than guns, grenades, and petrol bombs. As M.R.D. Foot has suggested, they may have decided the outcome of the D-Day invasion and thus of World War II. And as far as we know, their ancestors at Lascaux were the first to assert the extraordinary creative potential of humankind.

Martin Walker

Périgord, 2000

Table of Contents

Chapter One Time: The Present

CHAPTER 2 The Vézère Valley, approximately 15,000 b.c.

CHAPTER 3 Arisaig, Scotland, 1943

CHAPTER 4 Time: The Present

CHAPTER 5 The Vézère Valley, 15,000 B.C.

CHAPTER 6 The Audrix Plateau, Périgord, 1944

CHAPTER 7 Time: The Present

CHAPTER 8 The Vézère Valley, 15,000 B.C.

CHAPTER 9 Périgord, 1944

CHAPTER 10 Time: The Present

CHAPTER 11 The Vézère Valley, 15,000 B.C.

CHAPTER 12 Périgord, 1944

CHAPTER 13 Time: The Present

CHAPTER 14 The Vézère Valley, 15,000 B.C.

CHAPTER 15 Périgord, 1944

CHAPTER 16 Time: The Present

CHAPTER 17 The Vézère Valley, 15,000 B.C.

CHAPTER 18 Périgord, May 1944

CHAPTER 19 Time: The Present

CHAPTER 20 The Vézère Valley, 15,000 B.C.

CHAPTER 21 Périgord, June 1944

CHAPTER 22 Time: The Present

Author’s Note