What if found in altamira

One sign consists of four irregular ovals divided up internally. Another sign, 3 metres in length and formed by long red bands of parallel lines crossed by small transversal lines, is tucked under an inaccessible rock prominence. Magdalenian Black and Engraved Figures. Photo P. All of the black figures in Altamira were drawn with charcoal. This has allowed some of them to be dated by AMS radiocarbon.

The age - Lower Magdalenian - together with certain stylistic and technical uniformity charcoal as the pigment and a linear style suggests they are belong to the same ensemble, even though they were probably created at different times. Themes in Magdalenian art are varied; horses, aurochs, bison , ibices, red deer stags and hinds, semi-human faces and signs.

There are only four aurochs in Altamira, but all with similar styles. On the main ceiling, a large bull measuring almost 3 metres in length is partially hidden under a polychrome bison. The outline of the forehead and the line of the belly follow natural cracks in the rock wall.

The dorsal line is a wide charcoal band with numerous engraved marks. For a depiction of a bison, a natural rock feature becomes the starting point for a composition - a strip of calcite marked in black acts as the horn. Nearby, and using natural forms in the rock, human-like faces known as 'masks' were created with a minimal use of marks to suggest eyes, eyebrows and mouths.

Engraved representations are found throughout Altamira. The red deer is the species most often represented with this technique. One large group of engravings seem to belong to the same family. The date of this monochrome bison No. It displays an artistic style and manner of execution that has matured; a selective application of charcoal, a smudging of the charcoal to achieve shading.

With the collapse of the cave entrance soon after - and the impossibility of re-entering the cave - it is intriguing to wonder how this sacred space would have continued to evolve artistically.

Having been sealed due to a rock fall, the cave was rediscovered in by a local hunter. Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola, a local resident who was an amateur archaeologist, heard of the discovery and visited the cave in In he began exploring the cave in earnest, having become inspired by a recent visit to the Universal Exhibition in Paris where he had seen exhibits from the Stone Age.

The timing here was important - the study of prehistory as a science was in its infancy, and many of the ideas based on the scientific evidence were considered controversial by a society entrenched in rigid religious beliefs. To push the creation of art further and further back in time was meeting fierce scepticism on two fronts.

Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola, however, felt certain that the paintings were from the Palaeolithic. Indeed, the paintings in the cave were considered to be modern forgeries.

Whilst the concept of 'the caveman' had become accepted, that same 'caveman' was certainly not sophisticated enough to produce works of art of this calibre. The fact that the art may have been created by women as well as men had not even been entertained. Public humiliation for Sautuola followed. It was not until , when several other findings of prehistoric paintings had served to render the hypothesis of the extreme antiquity of the Altamira paintings less shocking and forgery less likely , that the scientific society retracted the opposition to Sautuola's suggestion.

That year, the leading French archaeologist Emile Cartailhac, who had been one of the leading critics, emphatically admitted his mistake in the famous article, 'Mea culpa d'un sceptique', published in the journal L'Anthropologie.

Tragically, this vindication was too late for Sautuola, who had died 14 years earlier. It was only then that his proposal was considered pivotal. The cave of Altamira was the first place in the world where the existence of rock art from the Upper Palaeolithic age was identified.

Its uniqueness and quality, the stunning conservation, and the freshness of its pigments meant its acceptance would be delayed by a quarter of a century. At the time, it was a scientific anomaly, a discovery that constituted a giant leap and not an incremental step, and the phenomenon was difficult to understand for the society of the nineteenth century, gripped by extremely rigid propositions.

The airbrushes were made from three segments of bones from the leg or wing of a large bird a raptor or a wading bird. They display de-fleshing and cut marks in the form of transverse grooves. Two of the pieces are now understood to fit together because they are part of the same bone. Because they exhibit traces of pigment on both outer and inner surfaces, researchers believe them to be tools used to apply red liquid paint. The bone pieces would have been placed at right angles to each other; by blowing through one section, the other section would absorb the paint and spray it outwards.

Red deer scapula with two finely-engraved superimposed heads of hinds. The end of an archaeological level measuring 20cm thick was located in the outer limit of the collapse, preserved from the erosive processes that had removed the level in the area next to it. It yielded numerous shells, faunal remains, lithic and bone objects, and a red deer scapula with two finely-engraved superimposed heads of hinds.

These dates refer to a very precise time, and are of special interest for Altamira as they make the striated engravings of hinds in the cave passages contemporaneous with the polychrome bison on the ceiling in the Hall of the Paintings.

But while all three are Unesco World Heritage Sites, both of the French caves are strictly off limits to visitors — Lascaux because the paintings were nearly lost through deterioration, and Chauvet because it was only found in and never opened to the public at all. We believe that Unesco and other international organizations dedicated to preserving cultural heritage should take note of the dangers that political decisions pose for the conservation of Altamira.

This is what happened in Lascaux. Caves with Paleolithic art are very fragile and you need to be very conservative in their management. That is why there is an excellent replica of Altamira. Guillermo Altares. Copy link. A group of visitors enters the Altamira cave as part of an experimental program last year. Five randomly selected visitors will be allowed into the cave each week for 37 minutes.

The story of this discovery is at once a delight and a tragedy. The cave itself was discovered in by a local hunter, but it was just over ten years before the true magnificence of what was in the cave would come to light. A brief and initial sighting of the meaningless black signs was made in by Don Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola, the owner of the cave. As they did not look like much and certainly did not make any sense to him he dismissed them.

In de Sautola was visiting the Universal Exhibition in Paris when he saw pieces of carved bone. Excited by the prospect of finding similar objects in his cave, de Sautuola and Juan Vilanova y Piera, an archaeologist from the University of Madrid, began excavating the deposits in Maria Sanz de Sautuola. The following year de Sautuola published a very modest account of his work in Altamira.

In it he described in detail the artefacts recovered during his excavations. He also identified the exquisitely painted bison, and linked these to the carvings of bison he had seen in Paris a year or so earlier. He concluded that the paintings were executed by the same people who were responsible for the stone and bone artefacts being excavated from the caves.

Sadly, he was ridiculed for his conclusions and was even accused of making the paintings himself. He died in a ridiculed and broken man.

Not until did prehistorians accept what Don Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola had suggested more than two decades previously, that the painted bison in Altamira were many thousands of years old. And, archaeologists still today do not always react well to outsider or amateur interventions. De Sautuola was an amateur, not a member of the establishment.

In four boys searching the cave of La Mouthe in the Dordogne found another bison. Following this discovery excavations in the cave produced a stone artefact that was interpreted as a lamp — it had an ibex carved on the underside.

The publication in of copies of engravings from Les Combarelles , also argued to be Palaeolithic in age, finally broke the sceptics. Personal status and religious attitudes finally gave way to rational thought and mounting evidence. A change too late for Don Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola, who was at best dismissed as naive or worse branded a fraud. Sadly, but perhaps quite understandably, Maria would later say her discovery was as much a disappointment as it was a great adventure.

In February pilot study was carried out during which each week for a year five members of the public were chosen at random and given a very short tour of the cave. As there seemed to be no return of the bacterial growth that caused the cave to be closed to the public in , the scheme was extended. Sadly because of the global situation in , Altamira — the cave, neocave and museum were all closed to the public. But for safety reasons the lottery draw that would take place each Friday morning has been suspended.

The authorities are now contacting those people who were on the waiting list when the cave was closed in and offering them places to visit the original Altamira cave. This special access visit now takes place on Saturdays. The same protocols are being observed. Visitors will have to wear a bio-hazard suit and follow strict guidelines for their time in the cave.

The tour begins at the neocave, where the geology and the archaeology and history of the cave is explained. Not only is the overall time spent in the cave strictly monitored, so is the time spent at each stop in the cave.

Of the 37 minutes in the cave, eight are spent beneath the polychrome ceiling — in silence. The guide then takes the lucky five to a few more stops to see engraved depictions and other paintings, but the tour stops short of the final narrow gallery known for its depictions of masks.

This information is available, in Spanish and English on the official website. For the lucky people who get to enter the cave, their visit is carried out under strictly observed conditions including wearing a bio-hazard suit.

The ceiling in certain area of the cave is very low — at places less than a metre above the floor.