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Stone Circles, a Modern Builder's Guide to the Megalithic Revival

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<< Our Photo Pages >> Cueva de La Pasiega - Cave or Rock Shelter in Spain in Cantabria

Submitted by coldrum on Friday, 23 February 2018  Page Views: 6162

Natural PlacesSite Name: Cueva de La Pasiega
Country: Spain Region: Cantabria Type: Cave or Rock Shelter
Nearest Town: Puente Viesgo  Nearest Village: Puente Viesgo
Latitude: 43.291030N  Longitude: 3.9643W
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
no data Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
no data Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
3 Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
4

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Cueva de La Pasiega
Cueva de La Pasiega submitted by dodomad : A drawing of the red ladder symbol from the La Pasiega cave. Dating shows it has a minimum age of 64,000 years but it is unclear if the animals and other symbols were painted later. Illustration credit:: Breuil et al (Vote or comment on this photo)
Cave with rock art in Cantabria. Discovered by H.Obermaier and P. Wernet while excavating in the nearby Castillo Cave, in 1911. A cavity more then 400 meters long split into in four galleries, containing 300 figures of animals, also 300 other signs and non-figurative rock art.

More at http://grupos.unican.es/arte/Ingles/prehist/paleo/l/Default.htm

Note: Dating evidence from this cave and two others in the region suggests Neanderthals - not modern humans - were the first artists. More details in the comments on our page
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Cueva de La Pasiega
Cueva de La Pasiega submitted by durhamnature : Ibex and Chamois, from "Prehistory" by Miles Crawford Burkitt, 1921, via archive.org Site in Cantabria Spain (Vote or comment on this photo)

Cueva de La Pasiega
Cueva de La Pasiega submitted by durhamnature : Horse, from "Prehistory" by Miles Crawford Burkitt, 1921, via archive.org (Vote or comment on this photo)

Cueva de La Pasiega
Cueva de La Pasiega submitted by durhamnature : Point-drawing, said to be a bear, from "The Prehistoric Puzzle..." by Elaine Mills, via archive.org The short legs are more like a badger. Site in Cantabria Spain (Vote or comment on this photo)

Do not use the above information on other web sites or publications without permission of the contributor.

Nearby Images from Flickr
IMG_5001T
IMG_4999T
CELUCOS-4351 copia
Senda de los pescadores, Puente Viesgo.
Senda de los pescadores, Puente Viesgo.

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Nearby sites listing. In the following links * = Image available
 171m NW 325° El Castillo (Cantabria)* Cave or Rock Shelter
 358m SW 228° Cueva de Las Monedas Cave or Rock Shelter
 6.3km WSW 238° Cueva Hornos de la Peña* Cave or Rock Shelter
 11.6km NNE 21° El Pendo Cueva* Cave or Rock Shelter
 14.0km S 177° Castro de Monte Cildá* Ancient Village or Settlement
 14.4km NNW 344° Cueva de Cudón Cave or Rock Shelter
 15.8km NW 307° Altamira* Cave or Rock Shelter
 15.9km NW 307° Cueva de Estalactitas Cave or Rock Shelter
 17.2km NW 316° Montealegre Dolmen Burial Chamber or Dolmen
 23.0km NE 34° Museum of Prehistory and Archaeology of Cantabria* Museum
 23.2km NNE 34° Sopena Cave or Rock Shelter
 23.8km SSE 158° Pedruecos Standing Stone (Menhir)
 24.5km SSE 157° Lastrón Burial Chamber or Dolmen
 27.8km ENE 62° La Garma Cave or Rock Shelter
 29.3km W 259° Carmona 1 Round Barrow(s)
 29.6km W 272° Albericias Round Barrow(s)
 30.6km SSE 156° Ahedo de las Pueblas Round Barrow(s)
 31.4km SSE 159° Robredo de las Pueblas Burial Chamber or Dolmen
 33.4km SSE 153° Busnela Dolmen* Burial Chamber or Dolmen
 35.2km W 281° La Raíz 3 Round Barrow(s)
 35.3km W 281° La Raíz tumuli* Round Barrow(s)
 36.1km SSW 200° Retortillo Juliobriga Ancient Village or Settlement
 36.2km S 179° Quintanilla Necrópolis Barrow Cemetery
 36.5km W 281° Cotero de la Mina* Burial Chamber or Dolmen
 37.3km W 259° Chufin* Cave or Rock Shelter
View more nearby sites and additional images

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"Cueva de La Pasiega" | Login/Create an Account | 4 News and Comments
  
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Dating evidence suggest Neanderthals - not modern humans - were the first artists by Andy B on Friday, 23 February 2018
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More than 65,000 years ago, a Neanderthal reached out and made strokes in red ochre on the wall of a cave, and in doing so, became the first known artist on Earth, scientists claim.

The discovery overturns the widely-held belief that modern humans are the only species to have expressed themselves through works of art.

In caves separated by hundreds of miles, Neanderthals daubed, drew and spat paint on walls producing artworks, the researchers say, tens of thousands of years before modern humans reached the sites.

In a study published in Science on Thursday, an international team led by researchers in the UK and Germany dated calcite crusts that had grown on top of ancient art works in three caves in Spain. Because the crusts formed after the paintings were made, the material gives a minimum age for the underlying art.

Measurements from all three caves revealed that paintings on the walls predated the arrival of modern humans by at least 20,000 years. At La Pasiega cave near Bilbao in the north, a striking ladder-like painting has been dated to more than 64,800 years old. Faint paintings of animals sit between the “rungs”, but these may have been added when Homo sapiens found the caves millennia later.

More at
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/feb/22/neanderthals-not-humans-were-first-artists-on-earth-experts-claim
[ Reply to This ]
    So Neanderthals made abstract art? This astounding discovery humbles every human by Andy B on Friday, 23 February 2018
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    Scientists say cave paintings in Spain, thought to have been by our ancestors, were actually by Neanderthals. So did they teach us everything we know? by Jonathan Jones

    https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2018/feb/23/neanderthals-cave-art-spain-astounding-discovery-humbles-every-human
    [ Reply to This ]
    Paper: U-Th dating of carbonate crusts reveals Neandertal origin of Iberian cave art by Andy B on Friday, 23 February 2018
    (User Info | Send a Message)
    Papers:
    U-Th dating of carbonate crusts reveals Neandertal origin of Iberian cave art

    It has been suggested that Neandertals, as well as modern humans, may have painted caves. Hoffmann et al. used uranium-thorium dating of carbonate crusts to show that cave paintings from three different sites in Spain must be older than 64,000 years. These paintings are the oldest dated cave paintings in the world. Importantly, they predate the arrival of modern humans in Europe by at least 20,000 years, which suggests that they must be of Neandertal origin. The cave art comprises mainly red and black paintings and includes representations of various animals, linear signs, geometric shapes, hand stencils, and handprints. Thus, Neandertals possessed a much richer symbolic behavior than previously assumed.

    The extent and nature of symbolic behavior among Neandertals are obscure. Although evidence for Neandertal body ornamentation has been proposed, all cave painting has been attributed to modern humans. Here we present dating results for three sites in Spain that show that cave art emerged in Iberia substantially earlier than previously thought. Uranium-thorium (U-Th) dates on carbonate crusts overlying paintings provide minimum ages for a red linear motif in La Pasiega (Cantabria), a hand stencil in Maltravieso (Extremadura), and red-painted speleothems in Ardales (Andalucía). Collectively, these results show that cave art in Iberia is older than 64.8 thousand years (ka). This cave art is the earliest dated so far and predates, by at least 20 ka, the arrival of modern humans in Europe, which implies Neandertal authorship.

    http://science.sciencemag.org/content/359/6378/912

    Symbolic use of marine shells and mineral pigments by Iberian Neandertals 115,000 years ago

    Cueva de los Aviones (southeast Spain) is a site of the Neandertal-associated Middle Paleolithic of Europe. It has yielded ochred and perforated marine shells, red and yellow colorants, and shell containers that feature residues of complex pigmentatious mixtures. Similar finds from the Middle Stone Age of South Africa have been widely accepted as archaeological proxies for symbolic behavior. U-series dating of the flowstone capping the Cueva de los Aviones deposit shows that the symbolic finds made therein are 115,000 to 120,000 years old and predate the earliest known comparable evidence associated with modern humans by 20,000 to 40,000 years. Given our findings, it is possible that the roots of symbolic material culture may be found among the common ancestor of Neandertals and modern humans, more than half-a-million years ago.

    http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/4/2/eaar5255
    [ Reply to This ]

Re: La Pasiega by durhamnature on Tuesday, 20 November 2012
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Unesco gives 43.2889, -3.9658 [Updated]
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