Who painted the Altamira cave paintings in Cantabria, Spain?
The painters of Altamira
Los pintores de Altamira
between 17000 BC and 12000 BC. In a cave near Santillana del Mar, in Cantabria, Stone Age hunters painted bison, horses and deer, using the bumps of the rock to give them shape.
Where: Spain, Cantabria
What happened
In a cave near Santillana del Mar, in Cantabria, Stone Age hunters painted bison, horses and deer, using the bumps of the rock to give them shape. The famous ceiling of red and yellow bison belongs to the Magdalenian period, roughly 19,000 to 14,000 years ago, though dating studies differ, and a red sign in the same room has been dated to about 36,000 years ago. In 1879 María, the young daughter of the landowner Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola, noticed the paintings on the ceiling. Most experts refused to believe that prehistoric people could paint so well until 1902, when the French scholar Émile Cartailhac publicly admitted his mistake. To protect the paintings, visitors today see an exact copy, the Neocueva.
Say it
En la cueva de Altamira hay bisontes pintados en el techo.
In the cave of Altamira there are bison painted on the ceiling.
Why it matters
Altamira was the first place where Ice Age cave art was recognised, and it tells learners that the land of Spanish has a human story tens of thousands of years older than the language.
There today
- See
- At the Museo de Altamira in Cantabria you can enter the Neocueva, an exact copy of the cave, and look up at the red and yellow bison of the ceiling as the Stone Age painters left them.
- After: The Phoenicians found Gadir
Sources
- Chronology – Cave of Altamira — Museo Nacional y Centro de Investigación de Altamira (Ministerio de Cultura)
- The discovery of Altamira — Museo Nacional y Centro de Investigación de Altamira (Ministerio de Cultura)