The Paleolithic Age is also called the Stone Age and it was a period that started about 40,000 years ago when mankind started to make tools and weapons. It also is a period of time when cave dwellers were expressing themselves with cave art.
Discovery of Ancient Artwork
Recently, some of that Paleolithic artwork was discovered inside of a cave in the northern area of Cantabria, Spain, that featured geometrical shapes, some stains, and disks painted with ochre and red colors.
The paintings were located in Aurea Nota, which can be found in the Desfiladero de La Hermida Mountains about fifty meters from the Deva River in Peñarrubia. The Aurea Nota cave slopes downward and then branches out to form thin passages and tiny rooms.
The artwork in the cave covers the floors and shows animals of that time, though some of the work has been covered with growing stalagmites. There are also rows of vertical dots that appear to be made by dipping the fingertips in some sort of reddish dye.
Due to a layer of smooth, white calcite, the cave walls are considered to be a great canvas for artwork. The Cantabria government has said that the cave paintings closest to the cave entrance are damaged badly and almost gone, but that those in the deeper rooms inside the cave are in much better shape.
The first studies done on the paintings say that it appears to be dated to a pre-Magdalenian society of humans living in the Paleolithic era. The access to the cave has been blocked off so as not to allow the paintings to be destroyed or damaged.
The government of Cantabria says that this discovery is vital for both science and culture, especially since it is the first cave paintings of this type and ever found in this region of the Deva River area. Thereby, it embodies this era’s contribution to the heritage of Cantabria.
However, there are about 60 other places in the Cantabria area that have cave paintings and ten of them have already been declared as UNESCO World Heritage Sites. In fact, an example of one of the Earth’s most famed cave painting sites is in the area, which is in Altamira.
When it comes to the type of humans living in this timeframe, research says that they were hunter-gatherers who were always moving around looking for food. They were known to create both portable and stationary artwork by making things from bone, clay or stone, as well as the type of cave art being seen in this newest discovery in the Cantabria area.
Cave art was usually done in mediums like ochers as seen in this example, as well as blood, tree sap, animal fat, charcoal, and burnt bone meal. Pictures were usually made of the types of animals they saw or hunted, and had stick figures of hunters in some of them.
The bottom line is that this Cantabria cave art is a great discovery that will help researchers to learn more about the Paleolithic Age and the people that lived during that time.
