When another old cave is discovered in the south of France , it is not usually news. Rather , it is an ordinary event. Such discoveries are so frequent hundreds of scenes showing how people lived thousands of years ago. The scenes show people hunting animals , such as bison or wild cats. Other images depict birds and , most noticeably , horses which appear in more than 300 wall images , by far outnumbering all other animals. Early artists drawing these animals accomplished a monumental and difficult task. They did not limit themselves to the easily accessible walls but carried crawling into narrow passages in the Lascaux. Unfortunately , temperature changes , which easily wear the images away. Because the Lascaux caves have many entrances , air movement has also damaged the images inside. Although they are not out in the open air , where natural light would have destroyed them long ago , many of the images have deteriorated and are barely recognizable. To prevent further damage , the site was closed to tourists in 1963 , 23 years after it was dis