Cave of Altamira
Cave Painting from Altamira
The Altamira cave near the town of Santillana del Mar in Cantabria, Spain, 30 km west of Santander is known for its stone-age cave paintings. It belongs to the radius of the Franco-Cantabrian cave art and is part of the UNESCO world heritage.
The cave and its history
The Altamirahöhle arches over an area of more than 5500 square meters and has been used by 16,000 BC to the collapse of the entrance 11,000 BC. It was discovered in 1868 by the disappearance of a hunting dog of a hunter who reported the discovery immediately to the lord of Santilana, the scientist Don Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola ( 1831-1888 ).
The paintings were discovered by Don Marcelino's five -year-old daughter Maria, who could commit the cave upright while images of " cattle " constituted on the ceiling. Marcelino began systematically in 1879 in the cave to dig and published a brief description of the " prehistoric objects in the province of Santander ". Even the Spanish King Alfonso XII. was invited into the cave. However, the scholarly experts doubted the authenticity of the cave paintings.
The French prehistorians Émile Cartailhac described the paintings as " vulgar prank a Schmierers " that are not even wanted to see him and his contemporaries. The discovery had to wait for their recognition nearly 23 years. Only when similar paintings in the cave of Font- de - Gaume in Les Eyzies -de- Tayac- Sireuil were known in the Dordogne ( France) in 1901, the setting of the French research and Cartailhacs that the symbol of the archaeological ignorance changed been. Cartailhac apologized in 1902 in an essay ( Mea culpa d'un sceptique ) the Marquis de Sautuola.
The cave is since 1979 no longer open to the public, as caused by the warm breath of the visitors severe damage and the newly mounted wooden railing the paintings began to get moldy. In 1998, therefore, the Spanish Geography Institute was commissioned to replicate the 1500 m² large entrance faithfully. The cave was measured with approximately 40,000 measurement points per square meter and simulated with foam sheets and faithfully painted mats. The imitation is about 500 meters from the historic cave away. More faithful copies can also be seen at the Deutsches Museum in Munich and the Archaeological Museum Nacional de España in Madrid.
Pictures
The cave contains approximately 930 images, including engravings, pure charcoal drawings and colorful presentations. Pictured are deer, bison, deer, horses and wild boars. Were used charcoal and red chalk, black manganese earth and different tinted ocher, which was mixed with fat or protein. As probably brush springs were used. But you also had crayons and bones through which the dye was inflated, and could also wipe with your hand.