Jean Clottes is the leader of the Chauvet Cave research team and an internationally recognized specialist on cave paintings and Palaeolithic art. For many years he has worked for the National Heritage Office of the French Ministry of Culture, and now acts as a consultant for UNESCO and the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS). His many books include The Cave Beaneath the Sea: Paleolithic Images at Cosquer (with Jean Courtin) and The Shamans of Prehistory: Trance and Magic in the Painted Caves (with David Lewis-Williams).