Amazing Altamira

www.paleolithic-.com It is no surprise to find Paleolithic cave Subspecies? paintings also in . We know that homo Was the Cro-Magnon Man a subspecies? I sapiens moved about 200,000 years ago from don’t think so. But in comparison he was taller, Africa via the Middle East and finally arrived in his skull was less rounded, his jaw bones about 50,000 years ago. were longer and he had a much shorter life expectancy than homo sapiens. He passed the German part of the ancient Danube valley north of the Alps where he He was a semi nomadic hunter-gatherer and left many artistic traces in numerous lived in comfortable , but not in caves. It around Ulm. But here he carved very skillful is possible that the Altamira paintings were figurines out of mammoth ivory. Also the created by Cro-Magnon people same as earliest musical instruments such as flutes images. They really look very similar were discovered here. in and color.

Cro-Magnon Man Daily Life Only in southern He was living in homo sapiens started to families or group very natural looking of families with a animals on cave walls. permanent base and Excellent examples are mobile seasonal the caves of Chauvet and hunting camps. An Lascaux just to name the organized social most important. But there culture with beliefs are many more caves and rituals was decorated by the so-called important to him. Cro-Magnon Man culture This is where the in this natural cave rich cave paintings come area. His motifs were into the picture. animals, hand prints, as His staple diet was as male and female reindeer meat, genitals. marrow and offal,

2 plus fish, berries, leaves, Preserved by Rock Fall roots, acorn, walnut, and The Altamira paintings give hazelnut. His elaborate the impression to have flint consisted of been so well preserved blades, lamellar blades, over thousands of years scrapers, burins and with fresh looking colors piercers. As weapons he and contours. How was used heads, spear this possible? There is a straighteners, spear very simple answer, the throwers and possibly entrance of the cave was also bows. sealed off by a natural rock fall about 13,000 years ago. Altamira Geology Therefore no air and water Similar in the mountainous flow or damage by animals Pyrenees and coastal area nor man entering the cave of northern Spain. Here did happen thereafter. the Altamira Cave near Santander is the best The same is true for example. It was created the famous caves of through natural collapses Chauvet and Lascaux. At in the calcareous rock Altamira the entrance was structure. discovered by accident when a tree fell and created Nevertheless the original an opening. At some time cave consists of various thereafter a hunting dog chambers and winding finally made this very passages covering an important discovery. area of over 5,500 square meters. With a total depth Excavations of close to a kilometer First excavations took Altamira is actually a rather place as early as 1902-04 deep cave. Paintings were and again twenty years created over the full length later in 1924. A third of the cave. excavation project started 1968. There were several Early Discovery discoveries of stone tools It was already discovered which supported the early in 1869 by coincidence. dating of the Altamira And Altamira is the first Paleolithic cave paintings. cave discovered in Europe Ten years ago uranium with important Paleolithic thorium dating tests paintings created by our showed that Altamira was ancestor homo sapiens. used over 20,000 years as ritual place for ceremonies Despite the fact that for a and for that paintings must long time experts disputed have been created. if not negated that such skillful paintings could Destroying Fungus really be that old. They At that time little was based the argument on known about the negative the fact that the common effects breath and belief our ancestors at the sweat of the many visitors time were rather primitive can have. It created a creatures was true. And fungus which started to therefore they were unable destroy the cave paintings. to create such works of art. That happened also to

3 Important Chamber One of the chambers is called Capilla Sixtina del Arte Cuaternario. It contains various interesting images including sixteen bison images in various forms, , and . The largest animal depiction is that of a doe measuring over two meters. The Grand Sala and the Techo de los Policromos chamber show red claviform signs which possibly are the oldest and dated to the Lascaux many decades later. fauna depictions and unknown Period. So the cave had to be closed in structural forms. 1977. A re-opening in 1982 for Colors Used a limited number of visitor did Beautiful Paintings Over time various colors were not help. The newly installed The paintings are used such as black wooden hand rails created the oldest and date around earth for the oldest paintings to a new type of fundus in this 36,000 BP. But the majority or . Ochre was moist environment and the are polychrome paintings mixed with fat and egg original cave was closed again from the later and to create variances in color. in 2002. periods. These So we can see , red and are dated around 18,500 years even shades. These Replica Cave ago and the latter between skilled Paleolithic painters Based on these experiences 16,500 to 14,000 years. It already knew how to use Chauvet, which was seems that for these two certain techniques to create discovered only twenty years thousand years in between no impressions of intensity and ago, was never opened to paintings were created. Did shade by diluting . the public. Also for Altamira these hunter-gatherers just a replica cave was built next moved on with their pray? Lying Bison to the original cave. The Like in other caves we also see replica cave shows about one third of the original cave paintings. This area is about 300 meters long including the entrance hall, one gallery and a side chamber. It includes the famous Capilla Sixtina del Arte Cuaternario.

UNESCO Site Altamira is the most complex cave in Spain covered with valuable Paleolithic paintings. Therefore in 1985 Altamira became a UNESCO world heritage site and a museum was built at the site. There are about 930 pre-historic paintings of near perfect quality being created over various periods. These include animals images, hand prints,

4 at Altamira how ancient artists prints were used here, but of hunters. But every angel we used cave wall contours to human figures and faces were look at poses more questions. create three-dimensional not drawn at that point in effects. This is best time? Their creators certainly Mythology & Rituals demonstrated by the picture had the needed artistic skills We know that all decorated of a sleeping bison painted on and talent to depict human caves were used by a raised oval rock surface like figures with faces. ancient man as sanctuaries rolled together in embryonal reserved for rituals like pose. Mythical Underworld? initiations, shamanic cults But was it too early in their and mythological rites, Painted Ceilings mythical development? transmission ceremonies Like in Lascaux which falls Hand prints might have and search of contact to in the same Magdalenian served as proven contact gods. These rituals possibly Period at Altamira the ceilings with the mythical underworld included shaman dances to were covered with wonderful by touching these walls to reach the state of trance and painted. These ceiling connect with deities. Or was go through the envisaged compositions are remarkable it the human contact with man-animal or living-dead and show for example a herd mother earth in the depth of ancestors and underworld of bison with each animal in a cave seen as her vulva for transmission. a different pose. In addition fertility reasons? there are horses, a wild boar, What was the Message? goats and doe. Or Initiation Ritual? What meaning do the animal But this is an assumption representations have and Important Hand Prints as it could be any hand of a should tell us? What was They were typically created clan member. Some of these the mystic message their by blowing color pigments on rituals it is assumed could be creators wanted to preserve? the creator’s hand. We call initiation ceremonies leaving We should have discovered this a negative hand print. The the hand print of the youth enough examples of cave art question arises, why hand now initiated to join the group to be able to interpret them. But all explanations are still assumptions with various experts having different opinions how to best answer these questions.

Stick to the Facts Archaeologists are fact finders and without total proof there are only theories. Just imagine again Paleolithic cave art persisted for over 25,000

5 years, or close to 1,000 offers a permanent generations. So it might exhibition, with objects take more generations from Altamira and and future other caves such as El to be invented to give Morin, El Juyo and El our offspring the chance Rascano. to find the needed proof to give the right answers. Other Spanish Caves The cave of Las Aguas Meaning & Interpretation is located near the town Paleolithic cave art is of Novales. Its only possible through includes bison carved strong beliefs, important and painted in red plus rituals, deep seated does and horses. These shamanic cults and resilient ancestors. Nevertheless some belong to the Magdalenian tradition of passing knowledge periodic human occupational Period. down to younger generations. traces were found in the cave entrance. La Clotilde is situated in Spiritual Closeness the town of Santa Isabel The images show the spiritual In northern Spain there are de Quijas. Its Aurignacian closeness between animals next to Altamira 17 other caves paintings include depictions and their creators. Scientists which are decorated with of animals and other believe that our hunter-gatherer Paleolithic cave paintings. symbols of unknown nature. ancestors in their spiritual world The dating spans over the full did not differentiate between spectrum of Paleolithic rock art La Estación is near La man and animal nor the living from Aurignacian, , Clotilde. Its paintings and non-living. Therefore Solutrean, Magdalenian and in a large room include animal depictions express this starting 35,000 years horses and other signs spiritual closeness between ago. not identifiable. They man and beast here. were created during the Nevertheless Altamira is the Aurignacian or Gravettian Conclusion most important cave based periods. The caves were never used on its variations in artistic as living quarters but only styles using black, red and Cualventi is located in the for rituals and ceremonies. polychrome colors as well as town of Peralada. Here the Homo sapiens lived in the an interesting realism of its technique of buffered spots area which was rich in hunting animals being depicted. to depict a huge bison animals. And the close by was used all attributed to ocean provided ample sea The Altamira Museum on site the Magdalenian period. food to add to the menu of our includes the replica cave and Depictions of goats, deer

6 and horses are very similar La Garma is situated north of Busta. One of the galleries to those of El Pendo and the village of Omono. It shows shows a group of animal motifs Covalanas. Magdalenian wall paintings such as goats, bison and ibex. and fossils in the Lower There are various geometrical Cullalvera is situated near Gallery. forms of lines plus vulvas. Ramales de la Victoria. Remains of a small water Hornos de la Pena is found Los Marranos is found in and rock art both on a hill near the village of Venta de Fresnedo. It has a from the Paleolithic Period Tarriba. The most notable spacious entry decorated with have been found here. paintings are a bird-- Paleolithic rock art consisting man at the end of the cave, mainly of carvings in . Chufín is found in the village a headless bison, horses of Riclones. Here different and other images at various La Meaza is located near levels of occupation were levels in the first chamber. Comillas. At the bottom of discovered, the oldest being The second set of 35 figures the cavity some remains of around 20,000 years old. Even consists of animals such as Paleolithic rock art can be though the cave is small it horses, bison, , goats seen, although they have not shows red paintings of deer, and others. These belong to been kept too well. goats and cattle. These are the Magdalenian period. very schematically done Micolon is situated on the verge similar a large number of Sovilla is located near the of the Palombera reservoir. It is symbols. The so-called sticks cave of Hornos de la Pena. Its a cavity 500 meters long with a group accompanies the animal paintings show deer, horses, narrow labyrinthine structure. images. There are also a large bison and reindeer from the Several examples of rock art, number of pointillist drawings. Magdalenian period. including 22 rock carvings Including some around holes in and several red paintings in the rock which are interpreted El Linar is situated near La a chamber near the entrance as a representation of can be seen including a vulva. deer, horses and tectiform inscriptions. Fuente del Salín cave is located near The cave complex of Val de San Vicente. Del Monte Castillo It is accessible only includes the caves in times of , El Castillo, Las because it lies along Chimeneas, Las an underground river. Monedas & La Rock art and several Pasiega. negative handprints are visible in a Del Porquerizo lies chamber, in addition in the town of Celis. to positive handprints There are Paleolithic in other chambers. cave paintings dated

7 between 20,000 and 17,000 years. Including red pinpoint style images and some indistinct carvings.

El Portillo del Arenal is located in the village of Velo. It contains well-preserved Paleolithic rock art.

In conclusion to all these caves in northern Spain, Altamira is still the most important as it offers a long period of Paleolithic activity over more than 20,000 years. This is seldomly found in pre-historic caves in Europe.

Travel Tips Fly to Santander and take a rent a car and visit Altamira and minimal two to three other caves on the way. The list below will help you to selct the best caves for your travel plans.

I do not know if there is still the opportunity on a Friday to visit the original cave. Because on those days five persons are drawn to visit the original cave in overalls for 30 minutes. This is a chance of a live time for Paleolithic affictionados!

Weblinks www.culturaydeporte.gob.es/mnaltamira/home

Picture Credits We thank the Altamira authorities for making available some of their pictures.

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