Caves in Cantabria

The tradition & historical record

The Cantabrian caves' unique location make them an ideal place to observe the settlements of early humans thousands of years ago. The magnificent art in the caves includes figures of various animals of the time such as bison, horses, goats, deer, cattle, hands and other paintings. Archaeologists have found remains of animals such as bears, the remains of arrows and other material indicating a human presence; these artifacts are now found mostly in the Regional Museum of Prehistory and Archaeology of Cantabria. ¹

The cave of Las Aguas is located near the town of Novales, in the municipality of Alfoz de Lloredo. This cave contains rock art, including two bison carved and painted in red, a doe, a horse, a clavate (club), a sign on the grill and several more configurations. These remains have been dated to the early or middle Magdalenian period. ¹

The Cave of Altamira is located near Santillana del Mar. This cave, called the "Sistine Chapel of Quaternary", is relatively small (270 m (890 ft)) and contains the rock paintings of sixteen bison, several depictions of deer, the largest of which is 2.25 m (7.4 ft) tall and of horses. The cave has been included in UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites since 1985. ¹

The Cave of la Clotilde is located in the town of Santa Isabel de Quijas in the region of Reocín. Remains suggest that this area was occupied during the Magdalenian period; its cave paintings date from before the Aurignacian period, which include representations of animals and other symbols of unknown nature. ¹

The cave of Cualventi is located in the town of Peralada, in Oreña in the municipality Alfoz of Lloredo dating approximately to the Magdalenian age. Several red spots can be found using the techniques of "buffered" and "spot" to depict a huge bison, goats, deer and horses very similar to the Cave of El Pendo, Cave of Covalanas and other Cantabrian caves. ¹

Cullalvera Cave is located in the municipality of Ramales de la Victoria, capital of the comarca of Valley of the Asón River. The entry for this cave near the village arises from a Cantabrian oak, and it is part of a karstic complex about 12 km (7.5 mi) in size, in which a multitude of geological forms shaped by water over the course of thousands of years can be found. These forms in conjunction with other prehistoric remains make the cave one of the most visited of the region. Remains of a small reservoir and rock art, both from the Paleolithic have been found here. ¹

The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Caves in Cantabria”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence. ¹

Caves in Cantabria is caves in Spain, according to the structured record cited below. This entry was generated automatically from that record and has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition. ²

The source record links this tradition to 1 external register, which can be verified through the citation. ²