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Grand old man

21 October 2000

In the spirit of Dava Sobel’s Longitude, Clark Blaise takes an
unsung scientific hero of the past and charts his triumph against adversity. Sir
Sandford Fleming was the man who—against the better judgement of the
British Association for the Advancement of Science—persuaded us to abandon
local times and link up to a global system of time zones. A civil engineer and
scientist, he built the railway linking Atlantic to Pacific across Canada. He
also designed Canada’s first postage stamp. Time Lord is published by
Weidenfeld and Nicolson, £14.99, ISBN 029784136X.

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Lascaux Cave is a Palaeolithic cave situated in southwestern France, near the village of Montignac in the Dordogne region, which houses some of the most famous examples of prehistoric cave paintings. Close to 600 paintings ??? mostly of animals - dot the interior walls of the cave in impressive compositions. Horses are the most numerous, but deer, aurochs, ibex, bison, and even some felines can also be found. Besides these paintings, which represent most of the major images, there are also around 1400 engravings of a similar order. The art, dated to c. 17,000 ??? c. 15,000 BCE, falls within the Upper Palaeolithic period and was created by the clearly skilled hands of humans living in the area at that time. The region seems to be a hotspot; many beautifully decorated caves have been discovered there. The exact meaning of the paintings at Lascaux or any of the other sites is still subject to discussion, but the prevailing view attaches a ritualistic or even spiritual component to them, hinting at the sophistication of their creators. Lascaux was added to the UNESCO World Heritage Sites list in 1979, along with other prehistoric sites in its proximity. Valley, France.

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