Altamira, a cave in Spain: description, history and interesting facts

Altamira Cave is a world-famous limestone cave in the Cantabrian mountains of northern Spain, the study of which has changed the opinion of scientists and archaeologists about the life and art of ancient people of the Paleolithic era. The discovery was made by a little girl - the daughter of an amateur archaeologist Marcelino de Sautuola.

Find History

The cave was discovered by chance in 1868 near the town of Santander by one of the locals. When the information reached the amateur argeologist Marcelino de Sautuola, he showed interest and came to inspect it. On the first day, he found the remains of animal bones and skeletons, as well as ancient human tools.

After 3 years, after visiting an exhibition on archeology in France, Sautuola decides to explore the cave in more detail, trying to open the upper layers of the soil. Excavations were begun by him in the autumn of 1879, during which hatchets, details of dishes, deer horns and other interesting things were discovered.

During the next expedition, Marcelino brought his daughter to look at her work, which was admired and tried to make her findings. Due to her small stature, the girl could make her way to those rooms where too low a ceiling did not allow an adult to pass. She made an important discovery in one of the side grottoes of the Altamira cave: rock paintings that covered the walls and ceiling, where very large 2-meter bulls, horses and other animals were depicted very realistically.

A fake or a coup in history?

Marcelino de Sautuola began to study the vaults of the cave more thoroughly: in the next room he also found geometric images and drawings of animals. In the land near the walls, the archaeologist was able to detect ocher of the same shade as in the pictures, which proved the local origin of cave painting. All this was a sign of the life of primitive people.

He also collected evidence that the cave was abandoned for many thousands of years, which means that all the objects inside belonged to ancient people who were previously considered incapable of communication through speech, and especially art.

Realizing that what he found is a world sensation and discovery in the field of archeology and history, Sautuola decides to inform the scientists about the find. To this end, in 1880 he sent a manuscript with a description of the cave and cave paintings to the editorial office of the famous magazine in France, Materials on the Natural History of Man, which specialized in such publications.

Scientists and archeology enthusiasts begin to come to the cave, but their reaction to Marcelino’s findings turned out to be sharply negative, he was even accused of falsifying the data. The only person who believed in such a miracle was a geologist, professor at Villanova University of Madrid. Together with Sautuola, he visited the cave: among the artifacts found in the upper layer of the earth, there was also a stone shell in which a talented ancient artist made paints.

According to the editor of the magazine E. Kartalyak, the scientific world was frightened of the new and the unknown that completely turned over the idea of the development of mankind in ancient centuries. Therefore, Villanova’s speech at the congress of anthropologists with a report on the find was failed. All the leading scientists declared the wall painting of the Altamira cave to be falsification, accusing the forger of the Spanish amateur archaeologist.

Discovery of other caves

While historians debated the authenticity of Sautuola's drawings and other finds, several more similar caves were discovered in Europe in which objects, tools, sculptures and cave paintings were dated from the Upper Paleolithic.

So, in 1895, the French archaeologist E. Riviere in the cave of La Mout explored drawings of fossil animals and tools, the antiquity of which was confirmed by the impossibility of access to these layers of modern people. Elsewhere, Dalo scientists also found images of mammoths and other Paleolithic animals. All of them were buried under a layer of earth, which testified to the antiquity of the finds.

Similar discoveries were made in Europe, Asia, the Urals, and Mongolia. However, all this happened already years after the death of Sautuola and Villanova.

The man who was able to openly admit his mistakes and change the fate of the Altair cave was Kartalyak, who in 1902 called on the entire scientific world "not to make a fatal mistake" and begin research on ancient cave paintings.

Description of the cave

After recognizing the reliability of the findings in Altamir, scientists several times excavated in it: in 1902-1904, in 1924-1925. and in 1981. Other caves were examined, in total, modern scientists counted about 150 such finds in the territory of Western Europe alone.

The cave of Altamira in Spain (La cueva de Altamira) has been open for many years to all scientists and tourists interested in archeology. It consists of several rooms, side walkways and double corridors, the total length of which is 270 m, in some very low ceiling (about 2 m), in others - up to 6 m.

The main hall reaches 18 m in length. All the drawings are polychrome and made with charcoal, ocher, hematite and other ancient natural paints using not only fingers, but also special devices. They are located on the walls and ceiling of all underground rooms.

Current carbon analysis data date rock painting of Altamira cave 15-8 thousand BC. e. and reckon it to Madeleine culture (the period of the Paleolithic era). Since 1985, it has been recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The art of primitive artists

In total, more than 150 images of fossil animals were found: bison, deer, wild boars, horses. All of them are executed in motion: while running, in a jump, during an attack or on vacation. Also found are the handprints of ancient people and a schematic representation of their figures. Many drawings were created at different times, some layered on top of each other.

Primitive artists used the relief of walls and ceilings to create 3D images. Moreover, the volumetric effect was achieved by a peculiar manner of drawing: the dark contours of the figures painted inside with various shades of colors.

The largest in area - ceiling painting in the Great Polychrome Hall, where on an area of 180 square meters. m painted more than 20 animal figures. Many of the images are made almost life-size.

The most famous drawing is the bison of the Altamira cave (Spain), the uniqueness of which also lies in the fact that in nature this kind of woolly bison is already absent, they died out many millennia ago.

The location of the cave, and how to get there

Altamira Cave is located in Cantabria (Spain), near Santilana del Mar, which is located 30 km west of Santander, a town in the north of the country on the Atlantic Ocean. The entrance to the cave is located on a hill with a height of 158 m at a distance of 5 km from Santillana del Maar, where the signpost for the highway directs.

In the 1960s and 70s, this place was very popular among tourists, because of which there was an increase in temperature and humidity in underground rooms, mold appeared on the walls. In the period from 1977 to 1982, the cave was closed for restoration, further visits by tourists were limited to 20 people per day.

In 2001, a museum complex was created near the cave, where copies of many images are exhibited. Now tourists can get acquainted with cave painting, without making a descent underground.

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