Featured: How and why the ancients enchanted Great Britain and Brittany

How and why the ancients enchanted Great Britain and Brittany

A Guide to Stone Circles (New Edition), Aubrey Burl

A Guide to Stone Circles (New Edition), Aubrey Burl

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<< Our Photo Pages >> Caves of Nerja - Cave or Rock Shelter in Spain in Andalucía

Submitted by Andy B on Sunday, 12 February 2012  Page Views: 8990

Natural PlacesSite Name: Caves of Nerja Alternative Name: La Mina
Country: Spain Region: Andalucía Type: Cave or Rock Shelter
Nearest Town: Nerja
Latitude: 36.761667N  Longitude: 3.845833W
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
4 Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
5 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.
4 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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Caves of Nerja
Caves of Nerja submitted by Andy B : The newly dated cave painting featuring two seals from the Caves of Nerja Image copyright the Caves of Nerja (Vote or comment on this photo)
The Caves of Nerja are a series of caverns close to the town of Nerja in Andalusia. Stretching for almost 5 km the caverns are one of Spain's major tourist attractions.

The caves were re-discovered in modern times on 12 January 1959 by five friends, who entered through a narrow sink hole, known as "La Mina". This forms one of the two natural entrances to the cave system. A third entrance was created in 1960 to allow easy access for tourists. The cave is divided into two main parts known as Nerja I and Nerja II. Nerja I includes the Show Galleries which are open to the public, with relatively easy access via a flight of stairs and concreted pathways to allow tourists to move about in the cavern without difficulty. Nerja II, which is not open to the public comprises the Upper Gallery discovered in 1960 and the New Gallery discovered in 1969.

In February 2012 it was announced that cave paintings have been discovered in the Caves or Nerja. Carbon deposits connected with the paintings have been dated to 42,000 years old, which would make them the earliest human paintings ever found. What's more there is no evidence of modern humans in the area at the time, leading to the '' possiblity that the paintings were created by Neanderthals.

More about the caves at Wikipedia and on their official web site.

Note: Dating suggests earliest ever human paintings found - more than 42,000 years old and possibly painted by Neanderthals!
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Caves of Nerja
Caves of Nerja submitted by Creative Commons : Formations in the caves of Nerja Creative Commons image by Dave Challender via Flickr (Vote or comment on this photo)

Caves of Nerja
Caves of Nerja submitted by Creative Commons : A wide view of the caves of Nerja Creative Commons image by iDip via Flickr (Vote or comment on this photo)

Caves of Nerja
Caves of Nerja submitted by Creative Commons : Formations in the caves of Nerja Creative Commons image by iDip via Flickr (Vote or comment on this photo)

Caves of Nerja
Caves of Nerja submitted by Creative Commons : Seeing the light Creative Commons image by Dave Challender via Flickr (Vote or comment on this photo)

Caves of Nerja
Caves of Nerja submitted by Creative Commons : Formations in the caves of Nerja Creative Commons image by Dave Challender via Flickr (Vote or comment on this photo)

Caves of Nerja
Caves of Nerja submitted by Creative Commons

Caves of Nerja
Caves of Nerja submitted by Creative Commons : Archaeological dig in the cave. Creative Commons image by Son of Groucho via Flickr

Caves of Nerja
Caves of Nerja submitted by Creative Commons : Artefacts from the Caves of Nerja Creative Commons image by Marcus and Sue via Flickr (1 comment)

Caves of Nerja
Caves of Nerja submitted by Creative Commons

Caves of Nerja
Caves of Nerja submitted by Creative Commons : Map of the Caves of Nerja Creative Commons image by Marcus and Sue via Flickr

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"Caves of Nerja" | Login/Create an Account | 3 News and Comments
  
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First Neanderthal cave paintings discovered in Spain by Andy B on Sunday, 12 February 2012
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Cave paintings in Malaga, Spain, could be the oldest yet found – and possibly the first to have been created by Neanderthals.

Looking oddly akin to the DNA double helix, the images in fact depict the seals that the locals would have eaten, says José Luis Sanchidrián at the University of Cordoba, Spain. They have "no parallel in Palaeolithic art", he adds. His team say that charcoal remains found beside six of the paintings – preserved in Spain's Nerja caves – have been radiocarbon dated to between 43,500 and 42,300 years old.

That suggests the paintings may be substantially older than the 30,000-year-old Chauvet cave paintings in south-east France, thought to be the earliest example of Palaeolithic cave art.

The next step is to date the paint pigments. If they are confirmed as being of similar age, this raises the real possibility that the paintings were the handiwork of Neanderthals – an "academic bombshell", says Sanchidrián, because all other cave paintings are thought to have been produced by modern humans.

Neanderthals are in the frame for the paintings since they are thought to have remained in the south and west of the Iberian peninsula until approximately 37,000 years ago – 5000 years after they had been replaced or assimilated by modern humans elsewhere in their European heartland.

Until recently, Neanderthals were thought to have been incapable of creating artistic works. That picture is changing thanks to the discovery of a number of decorated stone and shell objects – although no permanent cave art has previously been attributed to our extinct cousins.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn21458-first-neanderthal-cave-paintings-discovered-in-spain.html|First
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Re: Possibly the earliest human paintings ever found by Andy B on Sunday, 12 February 2012
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Some links in Spanish

http://www.cuevadenerja.es/index.php?modulo=nac_rupestre

http://www.diariocordoba.com/noticias/cultura/la-cueva-de-nerja-podria-albergar-primera-obra-de-arte-de-humanidad_694682.html

http://www.heraldo.es/noticias/cultura/la_primera_obra_arte_humanidad_175317_308.html
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Possibly the earliest human paintings ever found by Andy B on Sunday, 12 February 2012
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According to new dating tests, these are the first paintings ever made by humans. They are seals painted more than 42,000 years ago, located in the Cave of Nerja, in Málaga, Spain. And they may change our ideas about humanity's evolution.

Until now, archeologists thought that the oldest art was created during the Aurignacian period, by modern humans. But these are way older, way more primitive than the ones in Chauvet-Pont-d'Arc Cave, the 32,000-year-old paintings featured in Herzog's Cave of Forgotten Dreams.

According to the latest dating of the charcoal found next to the paintings—used either to make the paintings or illuminate them—these seals may have been made more than 42,300 years ago. In fact, they may be as old as 43,500 years.

It's a mindblowing academic discovery, according to project leader José Luis Sanchidrián, professor at the University of Córdoba, one that can revolutionize our understanding of our history, culture and evolution.

According to Sanchidrían, all the available scientific data shows that these pictures could only have been made by Homo Neanderthalensis instead of Homo Sapiens Sapiens, something completely unthinkable until this finding. "The charcoals were next to the seals, which doesn't have any parallelism in paleolithic art" said the professor, "and we knew that neanderthals ate seals." And there is no proof of homo sapiens in this part of the Iberian Peninsula.

More at
http://gizmodo.com/5883082/this-is-the-first-painting-humanity-ever-made
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