AltamIra: 21st February

The Altamira cave paintings were designated a World Heritage Site in 1985. The caves themselves were discovered in 1868, and from 1879 an archaeologist called de Sautuola started examining the paintings on a scientific basis. He was the first to propose that paintings of this type, also being discovered elsewhere in Europe and Africa, were from pre-history, in this case late Stone Age. Other experts disagreed as they believed that people of those times had neither the talent nor imagination to create such fine works of art.

A few examples below illustrate the quality of the work, notably the use of charcoal and red ochre to produce colour. The first animal is recognisably a bison, and the second a deer.

Modern research has of course confirmed that de Sautuola was right: these works are from the Stone Age (no Flintstone jokes, please), more precisely from 15,000 to 13,000 years ago.

It appears they had a technique for blowing paint onto the walls enabling hand outlines to be created.

The above photos are all authentic reproductions rather than originals. Cave visits were unrestricted until 1977 when it was clear that the volume of visitors was substantially affecting the condition of the paintings. The caves were then closed completely to the public, but since then small numbers only are allowed to see the originals. Currently, 5 visitors are chosen each Friday by ballot and taken on a 90 minute tour, all kitted out in special overalls and shoes. We weren’t lucky in the selection, but the Brit lady next to us was first out of the hat.

We did however see examples of the painstaking excavations where different levels reveal occupation artifact from different dates.

Most of the finds are very fragile, but some remarkably complete objects have emerged. This flute, made of animal bone, is from the period 38,000 to 28,000 years ago.

From a slightly more recent period is this selection of harpoons.

Now two more carvings from this same later period, 28,000 to 18,000 years ago.

Both were carved and decorated for art’s sake, and the flute was to make music. Just because these folks had no written language doesn’t mean they were savages. They would have had a spoken language, with customs and practices passed down by stories and word of mouth. In fact, a life-style similar to primitive tribes surviving to within recent times e.g. the Eskimos, the Aborigines, the Bushmen of the Kalahari.

So maybe the modern day sophistications depicted in the Flintstones cartoon weren’t too far off the mark!