El Salitre, grotte

Le siteLa grotte d’El Salitre se trouve à proximité du village d’Ajanedo (commune de Miera, province de Cantabrie), sur la rive droite du fleuve Miera, non loin de sa confluence avec le Portillo de Lanada. L’entrée de la grotte se trouve au pied d’une falaise qui domine la plaine de Collado de los Lobos, à 200 m au-dessus du fleuve, qui débouche 20 km plus loin dans la baie de Santander, à la hauteur de Somo.L’entrée de la grotte a des dimensions considérables, avec près de 20 m de large (fi..

To be or not to be: reassessing the origins of portable art in the Cantabrian Region (Northern Spain)

The characterization of the frist portable artistic depictions in Cantabrian Spain is crucial for comprehension of the symbolic development of Neandertals and Homo sapiens in the context of the passage from the Middle to the Upper Paleolithic. How ever, despite the importance of these frst graphic representations, their study has tended to lack the application of suitable methodologies to be able to discriminate between graphic activity and other kind of alterations (use-wear, taphonomic, or post-depositional). The present study has examined a significant sample of Middle and Upper Paleolithic lithic and osseous objects from Cantabrian Spain that have been cited as evidence of graphic activity in the literature. The contexts in which the objects were found have been considered, and the objects have been analyzed through the microscopic observation of the marks to distinguish between incisions, pecking, and engraving made for a non-functional purpose (graphic activity) and those generated by diverse functional actions or taphonomic processes (cutmarks, trampling, root marks, percussion scars, and use-wear). The results show that some regional Middle Paleolithic osseous objects display incisions that are neither functional nor taphonomic and whose characteristics are similar to graphic evidence attributed to Neandertals in Europe and the Near East. In turn, the frst portable art produced by Homo sapiens in the Cantabrian Spain seems to be limited mostly to linear signs, and no figurative representation can be recognized until the Gravettian. This appears to indicate a particular idiosyncrasy of the region in the Early Upper Paleolithic, which, in comparison with other regions such as south-west France and the Swabian Jura, shows a later and less abundant production of portable art.Open Access funding provided thanks to the CRUE-CSIC agreement with Springer Nature. The study presented in this paper was funded by the research project of the Spanish Science Ministry “Learning and developing artistic skills in anatomically modern humans: a multidisciplinary approach” HAR2017-87739-P, led by Olivia River

Unravelling the skills and motivations of Magdalenian artists in the depths of Atxurra Cave (Northern Spain)

Atxurra cave has a decorated assemblage composed of more than a hundred engraved animal depictions. All of them are located in deep parts of the cave and most of them are hidden in raised areas, away from the main path. The main sector is the “Ledge of the Horses”, located at 330 m from the entrance of the cave. It is a space of 12 m long and 1.5 m wide, elevated 4 m above the cave floor. This area includes almost fifty engraved and painted animals accompanied by a dozen flint tools, three fireplaces, and around one hundred charcoal fragments from torches. This extraordinary archaeological record allows us to value the complexity of the artistic production inside the caves during the Upper Palaeolithic. Our study has confirmed that there is planning prior to artistic production, both in terms of the iconographic aspects (themes, techniques, formats), its location (visibility, capacity), and the lighting systems. Furthermore, the data indicates the panel was decorated to be seen by third parties from different positions and was expressly illuminated for this purpose. This evidence supports the role of rock art as a visual communication system in Upper Palaeolithic societies.The authors wish to thank the Cultural Heritage Service of the Diputación Foral de Bizkaia for funding the 4-year multidisciplinary study project (2016–2020) “Study of rock art in Atxurra cave” directed by Dr Diego Garate. The present study has been carried out within the framework of the research project "Before art: social investment in symbolic expressions during the Upper Palaeolithic in the Iberian Peninsula” (PID2019-107262GB-I00), PI: Diego Garate, funded by the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (Spain), the research projet “Scientific virtual reality for the study and dissemination of the scenarios of artistic creation in Palaeolithic caves (RealCaveART)” (PDC2022-133124-I00), PI: Diego Garate, funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and the European Union Next Generation EU/PRTR, and the research project “Creation and perception in Anatomically Modern Humans: analysis of the biological, cognitive and social skills linked to the production of Paleolithic art (ArtMindHuman)” (PID2021-125166OB-I00), PI: Olivia Rivero, funded by the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (Spain). I. Intxaurbe’s PhD research is funded by a grant for the training of research personnel (PIF 2019) at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU). M.A. Median-Alcaide developpes lighting system analyses inside the framework of her “A-Light” project of the HORIZON-MSCA-2021-PF-01-01 (101066376)

Premagdalenian mobiliar art in Cantabrian Spain: a complete view

ABSTRACT The Cantabrian Spain is known to be one of the places in which we can find some of the most relevant evidences of the rock art. But not only the caves were decorated, the daily objects were usually recorded with different motives and some of them were often used as pendants or ornament. This work attempts to analyze these objects during the early Upper Paleolithic which is really complicated due to the poor number of evidences we have. In spite of these difficulties, our evidences show a significant art in which we can find important works. The cantabrian mobiliar art in Premagdalenian is dominated by no figurative evidences which are close to the abstract behaviors while the figurative works are too unusual. This issue makes the cantabrian mobiliar art different or strange compared to the rest of Europe, which does not diminish the importance. To sum up, our task attempts to define a really complex art world.Grado en Histori

Figurative portable art in Cantabrian Spain: Critical and updated review

Máster en Prehistoria y Arqueologí