Cave of Altamira is located near the town of Santillana del Mar in Cantabria, Spain. The cave art at Altamira may be divided into three types: colored paintings, black drawings and rock engravings. The subjects of the paintings are animals; and geometric signs and symbols; with 8 figures having human characteristics. Altamira cave paintings were discovered in 1878 though they were declared to be authentic only in 1902. The paintings of bison are perhaps the most famous artworks from the cave.
Table of Contents
S1 – Discovery
Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola was a Spanish jurist and amateur archaeologist. In 1878, he was excavating a cave named Altamira on his property, looking at the floor for flints and animal bones. According to legend, while he was expecting to make all his discoveries on the floor, his 12-year-old daughter Maria shouted: “Papa, oxen”. She had recognized one of the paintings of bison on the cave ceiling.
On first accessing the paintings at Altamira, experts considered them to be too sophisticated and dismissed Sautuola’s discovery as a hoax. He died in 1888, in a swirl of controversy and suspicion. However, by the end of the 19th century, there were multiple discoveries of cave paintings. Some of these were of animals long extinct. In 1902, there was a meeting of the great prehistorians of the day and the Altamira cave paintings were declared to be authentic.
S2 – Description
The paintings of bison at Altamira were created from memory. They demonstrate the acute powers of observation of their unknown creators and their skill to translate memory into image. The various paintings show the bison as they behave in the wild: standing at rest, bellowing or rolling on the ground. Subtle shading has been used to express the volume of the bison’s belly. Moreover, the forward contour of their far leg is often rendered with a lighter hue to suggest distance.
S3 – Age
in 2008, researchers found out that prehistoric paintings in Altamira were probably created over a span of 20,000 years. They used uranium-thorium dating to arrive at this conclusion. Another study in 2012 confirmed that there was at least a difference of 10,000 years between different paintings in the caves.
There were primarily two cultures who created the art at Altamira: Solutrean (around 21,000 to 17,000 years ago) and Magdalenian (around 17,000 to 11,000 years ago). These terms are used for sub division of the period in the Upper Paleolithic Era. The famous painting of Altamira Bison was created during the late Magdalenian, close to 11,000 BP.
S4 – Prehistoric Rock Art Purpose
S5 – Paleolithic Art Overview
Main Sources
S1:-
White, Randall. (2003). “Prehistoric art: the symbolic journey of humankind.” p45.
S2:-
Janson, H. W.; Davies, Penelope J. E. “Janson’s History of Art: The Western Tradition”. p4.
S3:-
Stewart, Jessica. (Jan 13, 2020). “6 Incredible Facts About the Prehistoric Altamira Cave Paintings”. My Modern MET.