14,500-Year-Old Prehistoric Cave Paintings Discovered in Spain

Spain boasts of some of the most spectacular cave paintings in the world, including those in the Altamira Caves. The recent cave paintings discovery however sparked a lot of interest mostly due to their large number and most importantly, variety and quality.

In 2014, Diego Garate, a Spanish archaeologist and a cave explorer, Inaki Intxaurbe, discovered a rare set of cave paintings in the Atxurra cave situated in northern Spain. At least 70 cave paintings were discovered- which is a significantly large number compared to previous discoveries.

Sources say that the cave was first discovered in 1929 and explored between 1934-1935, but it wasn’t until 2014 when the archaeologist and his partner discovered the paintings which were estimated to be between 12, 500- 14, 500-year-old. These were more recent creations compared to the 40, 000-year-old paintings discovered on the Indonesian Island of Sulawesi.

One of the reasons for their late discovery is that they are located nearly 1000-feet inside, which is a bit too difficult and dangerous to explore. Because of this, public access to the cave has been prohibited. Also, the paintings are hardly visible, especially to the untrained eye- which explains why it took too long for anyone to see them.

The Rare Findings

The cave paintings, which are estimated to have been created in the Upper Paleolithic era (12500-14500 –years), feature the famous bison, buffalo, horses, deer, goats, as well as hunting scenes. The archaeologist made an interesting discovery on one of the buffalo paintings, claiming that it’s not clear why there were more lances stuck in it compared to other hunting drawings- it had about 20 lances while most drawings have only 4 or 5.

Diego and Inaki found some interesting evidence regarding their creation- the engravings and paintings may have contained black coal dust, and there was a high possibility they were made with flint tools. According to Jose Yravedra, a professor at Madrid’s Complutense University, “No one expected a discovery of this magnitude. There are a lot of caves with drawings, but only a few have this much art and this much variety and quality.”

Experts point out that although it’s a little bit too early to determine whether the Atxurra cave paintings deserve a recognition as one of Spain’s most important prehistoric cave art site, it looks very promising.

Sanctuary Cave Art Site

Because of its hidden location, a large number of engravings and paintings as well as great variety and quality of the drawings, the must have been classified as a “sanctuary” or a “very special” Paleolithic meeting ritual place, just like those at Altamira and Lascaux  in France.

Ancient cave paintings are such incredible sights to behold and the Spain’s Atxurra paintings are no exception. Sadly, preserving such exceptional works for future generations has proven to be a challenge due to their fragile nature.

All the same, these paintings have revealed a lot about the lives of our ancient ancestors.