This project would allow scientists for only the fourth time since prehistory to analyse the inaccessible parts of the cave and its contents, and a selection of the general public, to access those deep galleries for the first time ever. Pascal Alard, Director of the Niaux Cave, in association with the French Ministry of Culture, and guided by the world renowned and resident Dr Jean Clottes, supervised the draining of several lakes in the Niaux Cave complex, to temporarliy expose the Galerie Cartailhac - named after one of Niaux's earliest archaeologists - and the Reseau Clastres. In June 2006, to celebrate the cave's centenary year, the Bradshaw Foundation helped fund an unprecedented exploratory project in the The Niaux Cave Complex. Now, through radiocarbon dating of the charcoal, we know the rock art is at least 14,000 years old.
It was not until 1906, once the cave paintings in the main chamber of the cave - Salon Noir - were acknowledged as prehistoric, that the preservation of the cave and the study of the paintings began. The curiosity continued in to Victorian times when considerable plundering of its stalagmites took place. Niaux Cave has been visited since the 17th century - as shown by the graffiti, dated as early as 1602.
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