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How and why the ancients enchanted Great Britain and Brittany

Art as Metaphor: The Prehistoric Rock-art of Britain

Art as Metaphor: The Prehistoric Rock-art of Britain

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<< Our Photo Pages >> El Castillo (Cantabria) - Cave or Rock Shelter in Spain in Cantabria

Submitted by coldrum on Sunday, 13 October 2013  Page Views: 12406

Natural PlacesSite Name: El Castillo (Cantabria)
Country: Spain
NOTE: This site is 5.35 km away from the location you searched for.

Region: Cantabria Type: Cave or Rock Shelter
Nearest Town: Puente Viesgo  Nearest Village: Puente Viesgo
Latitude: 43.292287N  Longitude: 3.965515W
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.
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.
5 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
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Average ratings for this site from all visit loggers: Condition: 4.5 Ambience: 5 Access: 4.5

El Castillo (Cantabria)
El Castillo (Cantabria) submitted by dodomad : These hand stencils found in the El Castillo cave in Cantabria, Spain, were probably made by a man (left) and a woman (right), respectively. Photographs by Roberto Ontanon Peredo, courtesy Dean Snow Site in Cantabria Spain (Vote or comment on this photo)
Cave in Cantabria. Part of a UNESCO World Heritage group of caves with prehistoric occupation, El Castillo has one of Europe’s largest ensembles of prehistoric pictographs. Several hundred figures of bison, wild bulls, horses, and a mammoth can be seen here, as well as the outlined forms of hands.

Cave with rock art: Cuevas Prehistóricas de Cantabria

Note: New study finds three-quarters of handprints in ancient cave art were made by women
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El Castillo (Cantabria)
El Castillo (Cantabria) submitted by okopin : Cueva del Castillo inside (Vote or comment on this photo)

El Castillo (Cantabria)
El Castillo (Cantabria) submitted by durhamnature : Elephant with short, straight tusks, from "Prehistory" by Miles Crawford Burkitt, 1921, via archive.org Site in Cantabria Spain (Vote or comment on this photo)

El Castillo (Cantabria)
El Castillo (Cantabria) submitted by durhamnature : Engraving of deer, from "Introduction to Prehistoric Art" via archive.org Site in Cantabria Spain (Vote or comment on this photo)

El Castillo (Cantabria)
El Castillo (Cantabria) submitted by durhamnature : Engraving of head of deer, from "Introduction to Prehistoric Art" via archive.org Site in Cantabria Spain (Vote or comment on this photo)

El Castillo (Cantabria)
El Castillo (Cantabria) submitted by durhamnature : Bison and hand prints, from "Introduction to Prehistoric Art" via archive.org Site in Cantabria Spain

El Castillo (Cantabria)
El Castillo (Cantabria) submitted by durhamnature : Plan of the cave, from "Introduction to Prehistoric Art" via archive.org Site in Cantabria Spain

El Castillo (Cantabria)
El Castillo (Cantabria) submitted by durhamnature : Elegant horse, image from "Men of the Old Stone Age" via archive.org Site in Cantabria Spain

El Castillo (Cantabria)
El Castillo (Cantabria) submitted by okopin : Cueva del Castillo entrance

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 171m SE 145° Cueva de La Pasiega* Cave or Rock Shelter
 415m SSW 204° Cueva de Las Monedas Cave or Rock Shelter
 6.3km WSW 237° Cueva Hornos de la Peña* Cave or Rock Shelter
 11.5km NNE 22° El Pendo Cueva* Cave or Rock Shelter
 14.1km S 176° Castro de Monte Cildá* Ancient Village or Settlement
 14.2km NNW 345° Cueva de Cudón Cave or Rock Shelter
 15.6km NW 307° Altamira* Cave or Rock Shelter
 15.7km NW 307° Cueva de Estalactitas Cave or Rock Shelter
 17.0km NW 316° Montealegre Dolmen Burial Chamber or Dolmen
 23.0km NE 34° Museum of Prehistory and Archaeology of Cantabria* Museum
 23.2km NE 34° Sopena Cave or Rock Shelter
 23.9km SSE 158° Pedruecos Standing Stone (Menhir)
 24.7km SSE 157° Lastrón Burial Chamber or Dolmen
 27.8km ENE 62° La Garma Cave or Rock Shelter
 29.2km W 259° Carmona 1 Round Barrow(s)
 29.5km W 271° Albericias Round Barrow(s)
 30.8km SSE 156° Ahedo de las Pueblas Round Barrow(s)
 31.5km SSE 159° Robredo de las Pueblas Burial Chamber or Dolmen
 33.5km SSE 153° Busnela Dolmen* Burial Chamber or Dolmen
 35.1km W 280° La Raíz 3 Round Barrow(s)
 35.2km W 280° La Raíz tumuli* Round Barrow(s)
 36.2km SSW 200° Retortillo Juliobriga Ancient Village or Settlement
 36.3km S 179° Quintanilla Necrópolis Barrow Cemetery
 36.4km W 281° Cotero de la Mina* Burial Chamber or Dolmen
 37.2km W 259° Chufin* Cave or Rock Shelter
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"El Castillo (Cantabria)" | Login/Create an Account | 6 News and Comments
  
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The Technology Of The Non-figurative Red Paintings From El Castillo Cave, Spain: by Andy B on Tuesday, 07 September 2021
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The Technology Of The Non-figurative Red Paintings From El Castillo Cave, Spain: Invasive And Non-invasive Analysis
Abstract author(s): Dayet, Laure (Travaux et Recherches Archéologiques sur les Cultures, les Espaces et les Sociétés, UMR5608
CNRS-Université Toulouse Jean Jaurès) - d’Errico, Francesco (PACEA, Préhistoire, Paléoenvironnement, Patrimoine, UMR 5199
CNRS-Université de Bordeaux; Department of Archaeology, History, Cultural Studies and Religion, University of Bergen) - García
Diez, Marcos (Department of Prehistory, Ancient History and Archaeology. Complutense University of Madrid) - Pitarch Martí,
Africa (PACEA, Préhistoire, Paléoenvironnement, Patrimoine, UMR 5199 CNRS-Université de Bordeaux; Seminari d’Estudis i Re-
cerques Prehistòriques - SERP, Departament d’Història i Arqueologia, Universitat de Barcelona) - Zilhão, João (Seminari d’Estudis
i Recerques Prehistòriques - SERP, Departament d’Història i Arqueologia, Universitat de Barcelona; Institució Catalana de Recerca
i Estudis Avançats - ICREA)

With the expansion of archaeometric studies and in situ non-invasive analytical methods, a renewal of technological studies is
being observed in rock art. However, in European cave art, the study of paint technology is hampered by conservation regulations.
Furthermore, in situ analyses have several limitations that have already been discussed in detail in the literature. The technology of
non-figurative red paintings in European cave art thus remains poorly investigated in comparison with other Paleolithic depictions
such as black animal representations. Some of the red disks and hand stencils from El Castillo Cave are among the earliest known
cave paintings. They constitute a major cultural heritage from the Palaeolithic and are inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
Here, we combined non-invasive and minimally invasive methods to study the composition and the technological features of the red
non-figurative paintings of El Castillo. We carried out microscopic, elemental (SEM-EDS) and mineralogical (XRD, Raman spectrom-
etry) analysis of a few micro-samples along with in situ microscopic and elemental (XRF) analysis of a wide range of red paintings.
We compared the results obtained with observations derived from experimental replication for methodological and technological
inferences. Non-invasive XRF analyses provide minimal information despite the application of several signal processing methods.
Fe-based pigments are identified. Fe content is sometimes correlated with As and Mn contents. The analysis of the micro-samples
suggest that Mn likely comes from secondary recrystallizations or repaints. SEM-EDS results show that at least two paint recipes
were prepared. This difference could relate with ergonomic constraints and suggest that the red disks correspond to an accumu-
lation through time of panels made by different persons who shared neither the same technical know-how nor, very possibly, the
same symbolic system.

Source; EAA Conference Paper 2021
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Re: The Oldest Lunar Calendar on Earth by Andy B on Friday, 15 December 2017
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Songs of the Caves
Posted on August 29, 2014 by Rupert Till

This short film was created as a part of the Songs of the Caves research project. This AHRC/EPSRC funded project aimed to explore the sounds of 5 caves that are part of the Cave of Altamira and Palaeolithic Cave Art of Northern Spain World Heritage Site. In the caves of La Garma, El Castillo, Las Chimineas, El Pasiega and Tito Bustillo a team of archaeologists, acousticians, artists and musicians explored the acoustics of the caves and their relationships with the cave art present.

The art in the caves is up to 40,000 years old, and the team tested whether there was any evidence that sound played a part in where these visual motifs were placed. In addition various instruments were played and recorded in the caves, to demonstrate the acoustics and see what the caves might sound like with different sound sources. Many of the instruments were reconstructions of archaeological finds, including bone flutes which were made up to 30 or 40,000 years ago. Recordings from this project are available on this website here.
https://musicarchaeologyrecordings.wordpress.com/recordings/palaeolithic-painted-caves-northern-spain/

Aaron Watson directed and filmed the film, with a soundtrack by Rupert Till. Overall the film aims to try to show what it might have felt like to be in the caves in prehistory.

Songs of the Caves


Songs of the Caves from Rupert Till on Vimeo.


https://vimeo.com/95451937

More from Rupert 'Chill' Till here: https://soundcloud.com/rupert-chill
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New study finds three-quarters of handprints in ancient cave art were made by women by Andy B on Sunday, 13 October 2013
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Women made most of the oldest-known cave art paintings, suggests a new analysis of ancient handprints. Most scholars had assumed these ancient artists were predominantly men, so the finding overturns decades of archaeological dogma.

Archaeologist Dean Snow of Pennsylvania State University analyzed hand stencils found in eight cave sites in France and Spain. By comparing the relative lengths of certain fingers, Snow determined that three-quarters of the handprints were female.

"There has been a male bias in the literature for a long time," said Snow, whose research was supported by the National Geographic Society's Committee for Research and Exploration. "People have made a lot of unwarranted assumptions about who made these things, and why."

Archaeologists have found hundreds of hand stencils on cave walls across the world. Because many of these early paintings also showcase game animals—bison, reindeer, horses, woolly mammoths—many researchers have proposed that they were made by male hunters, perhaps to chronicle their kills or as some kind of "hunting magic" to improve success of an upcoming hunt. The new study suggests otherwise.

"In most hunter-gatherer societies, it's men that do the killing. But it's often the women who haul the meat back to camp, and women are as concerned with the productivity of the hunt as the men are," Snow said. "It wasn't just a bunch of guys out there chasing bison around."

More at National Geographic
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/10/131008-women-handprints-oldest-neolithic-cave-art/
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Oldest cave art by new dating method by bat400 on Friday, 15 June 2012
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A smudged red disk in northern Spain has been crowned the world’s earliest cave painting. Dated to more than 40,800 years ago, the shape was painted by some of the first modern humans to reach the Iberian Peninsula — or it may have been done by Neanderthals, residents of the Iberian peninsula for more than 200,000 years.

“There is a very good chance that this is Neanderthal,” says Alistair Pike, an archaeological scientist at the University of Bristol, UK, whose team dated dozens of paintings in 11 caves in northern Spain. But Lawrence Guy Straus, an expert on the caves who is based at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, calls that “a pretty wild speculation,” because it is based on a single date that could overlap with human occupation.

Until now, Chauvet Cave in central France, which is plastered with images of bears, lions and horses, held the title of the world's oldest cave paintings. The oldest images there are dated to around 39,000 years old, but this is controversial as the assessment relies on radiocarbon dating of charcoal pigments, which are susceptible to contamination from other sources of carbon.

To solve this problem, Pike’s team dated the calcite patinas that slowly form over cave art as mineral-rich water trickles over the paintings. The water contains trace levels of radioactive uranium, but not the water insoluble thorium into which the uranium steadily decays. The relative levels of uranium to thorium thus form a clock that records when the calcite layer was formed. The layers can take anywhere from several hundred to several thousand years to form, providing a minimum date for the art, Pike says.

His team collected 50 calcite scrapings from 11 caves, and came up with dates as old as 40,800 years, a minimum age for the disk in El Castillo cave1. That image, as well as other slightly younger disks from Castillo and a club-shaped image from Altamira cave, would have been painted at around the time the first modern humans, called the Aurignacian culture, reached the Iberian Peninsula. Younger paintings in the Spanish caves, including handprints and figurative drawings of animals, date to later human occupations.

Determining just who created the earliest cave paintings will factor into debates over the relative mental capacities of the two species. Cave paintings appear in Palaeolithic Europe before anywhere else in the world. But beginning around 100,000 years ago, humans in Africa began making shell beads and other ornaments that have been interpreted by archaeologists as evidence for the symbolic thinking that underlies language, art and even religion. There is a lot less evidence, such as beads and ivory pendants, for symbolic behaviour among Neanderthals in Europe, and some archaeologists have raised fresh questions over whether Neanderthals created these artefacts.

The only way to determine who created the earliest paintings is to do more dating, Pike says. If his team can find cave art that predates the arrival of modern humans in northern Spain, currently pegged at around 42,000 years ago, there can be little doubt that Neanderthals dabbled in art.

However Tom Higham, an archaeological scientist at the University of Oxford, UK, points out that only the oldest date, 40,800 years old, butts up against that start of modern human occupation in Iberia. “I think it is far more likely that all of the art in European sites was simply being made by modern humans,” he says.

For more of this article and photos, see http://www.nature.com/news and Pike's team's paper, "U-Series Dating of Paleolithic Art in 11 Caves in Spain,"
at http://www.sciencemag.org.
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The Oldest Lunar Calendar on Earth by coldrum on Sunday, 04 October 2009
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The Oldest Lunar Calendar on Earth

The Oldest Lunar Calendars and Earliest Constellations have been identified in cave art found in France and Germany. The astronomer-priests of these late Upper Paleolithic Cultures understood mathematical sets, and the interplay between the moon annual cycle, ecliptic, solstice and seasonal changes on earth.

The First (Lunar) Calendar –

The archaeological record’s earliest data that speaks to human awareness of the stars and ‘heavens’ dates to the Aurignacian Culture of Europe, c.32,000 B.C. Between 1964 and the early 1990s, Alexander Marshack published breakthrough research that documented the mathematical and astronomical knowledge in the Late Upper Paleolithic Cultures of Europe. Marshack deciphered sets of marks carved into animal bones, and occasionally on the walls of caves, as records of the lunar cycle. These marks are sets of crescents or lines. Artisans carefully controlled line thickness so that a correlation with lunar phases would be as easy as possible to perceive. Sets of marks were often laid out in a serpentine pattern that suggests a snake deity or streams and rivers.

Many of these lunar calendars were made on small pieces of stone, bone or antler so that they could be easily carried. These small, portable, lightweight lunar calendars were easily carried on extended journeys such as long hunting trips and seasonal migrations. Hunting the largest animals was arduous, and might require hunters to follow herds of horses, bison, mammoth or ibex for many weeks. (Other big animals such as the auroch, cave bear and cave lion were well known but rarely hunted for food because they had special status in the mythic realm. The Auroch is very important to the search for earliest constellations.)

The phases of the moon depicted in these sets of marks are inexact. Precision was impossible unless all nights were perfectly clear which is an unrealistic expectation. The arithmetic counting skill implied by these small lunar calendars is obvious. The recognition that there are phases of the moon and seasons of the year that can be counted – that should be counted because they are important – is profound.

“All animal activities are time factored, simply because time passes, the future is forever arriving. The reality of time factoring is objective physics and does not depend upon human awareness or consciousness. Until Marshack’s work, many archeologists believed the sets of marks he chose to study were nothing but the aimless doodles of bored toolmakers. What Marshack uncovered is the intuitive discovery of mathematical sets and the application of those sets to the construction of a calendar.” (Source #1, p.10)

Bone is the preferred medium because it allows for easy transport and a long calendar lifetime. Mankind’s earliest astronomy brought the clan into the multi-dimensional universe of the gods. Objects used in the most potent rituals had the highest contextual, cultural value and were treated with great reverence.

The Earth orbits the Sun but as seen from Earth, the Sun moves on the pathway of the ecliptic (red) on the celestial dome. When the Sun seems to pass through the vernal equinox (longitude 0°), the longitude of the Earth is 180° degrees.

Calendars record events whose location in time is important to the clan. The time scale used on these earliest calendars is the phases of the moon because they are reliable and predictable, easily described with clarity and require only minimal artistic skill to draw. The few powerful ‘cosmic truths’ that were judged to be the most potent of all would be available to a few exceptional initiated adults in the clan. After all, upper level management has to maintain its power base :)

Upper Magdalenian lunar notations sometimes were carved on bones with animal and mythic imagery. The importance and meaning attached to the earliest constellations and the zodiac might have

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