Episode 125: Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010)

Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010) is a surreal documentary by Werner Hertzog offering viewers an unprecedented glimpse of Europe’s oldest Palaeolithic art inside France’s Chauvet Cave. As we step into the cave, we cross a threshold between present and past, waking and dreaming, fact and truth... sanity and insanity... A place where juggling archaeologists dream of lions, perfumers find caves by smell, and nuclear crocodiles draw closer every year. Get in touch with us! Bluesky: @sotsapodcast.bsky.social Facebook: @SotSAPodcast Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/sotsa/ Website: https://screensofthestoneage.com Email: [email protected] ArchPodNet: APN Website: https://www.archpodnet.com APN on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/archpodnet APN on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/archpodnet APN on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/archpodnet Merch Store: https://archpodnet.com/shop In this episode: Watch Cave of Forgotten Dreams: https://watchdocumentaries.com/cave-of-forgotten-dreams/ Rock art from at least 67,800 years ago in Sulawesi: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09968-y Oldest cave art found in Sulawesi: https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abd4648 The timing and spatiotemporal patterning of Neanderthal disappearance: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature13621 Neanderthal hashtag: https://theconversation.com/is-that-rock-hashtag-really-the-first-evidence-of-neanderthal-art-31238 Mask of La Roche Cotard: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mask_of_la_Roche-Cotard Majkić et al. (2017) Sequential Incisions on a Cave Bear Bone from the Middle Paleolithic of Pešturina Cave, Serbia: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-017-9331-5 Life Drawing and the Chauvet Lions: https://doi.org/10.4000/palethnologie.2677 The Crocodile Farm: https://www.lafermeauxcrocodiles.com/ Viminacium Archaeological Park: http://viminacium.org.rs/en/ Our review of The Lost City (2022): https://screensofthestoneage.com/podcast/episode-64-the-lost-city-2022/ Kathy Reichs’ Temperance Brennan Series: https://www.goodreads.com/series/43556-temperance-brennan Hertzog explains “ecstatic truth” vs. “accountant’s truth”: https://www.indiewire.com/news/general/werner-herzog-fesses-up-to-the-fake-mutated-albino-crocodiles-in-cave-of-forgotten-dreams-118193/ Azéma and Rivère (2012) Animation in Paleolithic Art: https://doi.org/10.4000/palethnologie.2094 Neanderthal perfume: https://neandertal.eu/