The Palaeolithic Art Museum Cave of Altamira and Paleolithic Cave Art
Altamira is a Paleolithic cave located in Santillana del Mar (Cantabria region) in northern Spain, containing prehistoric paintings. The cavern was inhabited for millennia then, besides Paleolithic cave fine art, it contains remains of the daily activities of the prehistoric population. It was declared a Earth Heritage Site past UNESCO in 1985.
Nowadays, the cave is 270 m long and the archaeological site tin exist plant within the cavern, well-nigh the entrance, however, there are as well remains outside since the original cave entrance fell down. The cave can be divided into three sections:
- the cave entrance
- the great room or polychrome room
- the gallery.
The archway is the part where people used to alive; archaeologists constitute there remains of fauna bones, ash belonging to continuous fireplaces, and flint objects such as knives, axes, and flintstone fragments, indicating human activeness in this part of the cave. Given the fact that archaeologists accept found these types of remains located in unlike layers of sediments, it seems reasonable to assume that the cave was inhabited for long periods of fourth dimension. The so-chosen polychrome or swell room, painted in several colors, can be found in the inner part of the cavern, where there is no natural light. The entrance and the polychrome room form a not bad hall, but since the cave is a narrow gallery in that location is little room for large spaces, except for the larger chamber. The end of the cave is a narrow gallery with hard admission, only it also contains Paleolithic paintings and engravings.
History of the Cave
The cavern was discovered in 1868 by a hunter, Modesto Cubillas, who told Marcelino Sanz de Sautola, a nobleman in the region, near it. Notwithstanding, Sanz de Sautola did not visit the cave until 1875 and the first excavation works at the site simply started in 1879. He found objects made of flintstone, bone, and horn, equally well equally colourants, animal, and shells that allowed the dating of the cave paintings. These works but took place at the entrance of the cave. Sanz de Sautola published his Breves apuntes sobre algunos objetos prehistóricos de la provincia de Santander ("Notes on some prehistoric objects in the Santander region") a year subsequently. At the time of the discovery, the primary inquiry on Prehistory was carried out in France by scholars who did non have the authenticity of the paintings since they did non show the same patterns and features of those caves studied in France. Sanz de Sautola was considered a liar, and Altamira was forgotten. In 1902, E. de Cartailach, a French prehistorian, published Les cavernes ornées de dessins . La grotte d'Altamira, Espagne. «Mea culpa» d'un sceptique ("The caves decorated with drawings. The cavern of Altamira, Espana. «Mea culpa» of a sceptical") and, from that moment, the cave gained a primal role in the international prehistoric enquiry.
The cave, with viii distinguished levels of human occupation dating from Middle Magdalenian to Gravettian, WAS INHABITED For MILLENNIA.
Later on, in 1903, H. Alcalde del Río continued the excavations and discovered two consecutive levels: one from the Upper Solutrean and another from the Lower Magdalenian, both of them belonging to the Paleolithic Period. These data were confirmed in the excavations made by Hugo Obermaier in 1924 and 1925, and J. González Echegaray and Fifty. G. Freeman in 1980 and 1981, where they discovered a bigger complication of the archaeological annals. The studies and dating of the C14-AMS made in 2006 showed the different stages of man occupation of the cave. Eight levels were distinguished, from Centre Magdalenian (15,000-10,000 BCE) to Gravettian (25,000-20,000 BCE).
Paintings
Based on the archaeological research, experts assume that the paintings and engravings on the cavern walls were made past the people who inhabited the cavern during the different periods. Virtually of the paintings and engravings of Altamira, ranging from animals to hands, are located in the polychrome room. The oldest paintings are located on the right of the roof and they include horses, positive and negative images of human hands, abstract shapes, and a series of dots; mostly drawn past using charcoal. There are also 'masks' created by drawing eyes and mouth on the natural contours of the rock walls, which accept been dated to the Lower Magdalenian menses. Even so, the majority of the paintings from this period represent deer.
On the correct of the roof, we can observe the 25 coloured images of the cave (mostly in cerise and black): large representations of horses, paintings of bison, and a female deer that measures more than two meters. The drawing technique employed was engraving the wall with a flintstone object and, and then, cartoon a black line using charcoal. Later, information technology was coloured with ruby-red or yellow. The details, such as hair, were fabricated with a charcoal pencil while elements like optics or horns were engraved. Although they may seem uncomplicated figures, bumps and cracks on the roof were purposely used to give volume to the animals.
Paleolithic Cave Painting in Altamira Cave
The narrow gallery contains a special set of masks representing animal faces, for example, deer and bison. The technique employed is simple and astonishing at the aforementioned fourth dimension. The artist took reward of the natural contours and the perspective to create a whole face with uncomplicated elements such as eyes and lines representing the mouth or the nose.
Altamira Today
Present, Altamira cave is closed to the public due to preservation problems. As said before, the archway barbarous over and covered the cavern, creating a stable climate inside that ensured the preservation of the paintings, but when it was discovered, the air started inbound from the outside and caused changes in humidity and temperature. Furthermore, during the 20th century, walls and paths were built inside the cavern to accept hundreds of thousands of visitors. All these changes affected the paintings, also as the human presence. Between 1997 and 2001, measures were taken to control the state of the cavern. In 2002, the Castilian National Enquiry Quango (CSIC) started an exhaustive conservation plan and, from 2011, an international committee of experts studies the feasibility of giving access to a restricted number of visitors without affecting the preservation of the paintings.
Even though the original cave cannot be visited, archaeological studies and experts fabricated possible the re-creation of the cave that can exist visited as well as the Altamira Museum which contains a permanent collection of objects from Altamira and other surrounding caves.
This commodity has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication.
Source: https://www.worldhistory.org/Altamira/
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