Introduction to Plaeolithic Cave Paintings in Northern Spain

From 1997 to 2004, we executed Photographic VR shooting of Palaeolithic cave paintings in 23 major caves and about 150 Mobile Arts in 5 museums in Northern Spain as a co-project between the University of Cantabria, Spain and Texnai, Inc., Japan and the result was published in Spanish and English in 2003 by GOBIERNO de CANTABRIA as "ARTE PALEOLITICO EN LA REGION CANTABRICA, PALAEOLITHIC ARTS IN NORTHERN SPAIN" with a DVD ROM of the image database. This book is published based on these book and database in POD(Publishing On Demand) format. For this publishing, the images of cave paintings and mobile arts are scheduled to be published as the catalog editions in POD so that readers are able to see those images without PC.

And on June 15, 2012, an extremely interesting report on the cave paintings of Northern Spain was published in Science. The report was written by Prof. Alistair Pike of University of Bristol, UK and his colleagues and it was reported that Uranium-series disequilibrium dating was executed that year for calcite deposits overlying art found in 11 caves in Northern Spain and the results demonstrated that some paintings of El Castillo extended back at least to the Early Aurignacian period, with minimum ages of 40.8 thousand years for a red disk, 37.3 thousand years for a negative hand. It was surprising because if this dating is correct, the red disk becomes about 4.000 years earlier than the paintings of Grotte Chauvet that has been said to be the world's oldest, and not only that, it can not be ruled out that the earliest paintings were created by Neanderthals, which were estimated to present in the Cantabrian regions until at least 42,000 to 36,000 years B.P. This is our main reason why we decided to publish this book in POD.

[Contents] 1. The Art of Upper Paleolithic hunters. Introduction to cave art in the Iberian Peninsula.
2. Everyday art. Upper Paleolithic decorated objects in the Cantabrian Region.
3. The western Cantabrian Region. Introduction to Paleolithic Cave Art in Asturias.
3.1. Cueva de la PeÒa de Candamo
3.2. Cueva de La Lluera I
3.3. Cueva de Tito Bustillo
3.4. Cueva de El Buxu
3.5. Cueva de El Pindal
3.6. Cueva de La Loja
4. The Central Cantabrian Valleys. Introduction to Paleolithic Cave Art in Cantabria.
4.1. Cueva de ChufÌn
4.2. Cueva de Altamira
4.3. Cueva de Hornos de la Pe ñ a
4.4. Cueva del Castillo
4.5. Cueva de Las Chimeneas
4.6. Cueva de La Pasiega
4.7. Cueva de Las Monedas
4.8. Cueva de Sant í an
4.9. Cueva de El Pendo
4.10. Cueva de La Haza
4.11. Cueva de Covalanas
4.12. Cueva de Pondra
5. The End of the Cantabrian Corridor. Introduction to Paleolithic Art assemblages in the Basque Country.
5.1. Cueva de Venta de la Perra
5.2. Cueva de Arenaza
5.3. Cueva de Santimami ñ e
5.4. Cueva de Ekain
6. General Bibliography

About the Author: César Gonzáles Sainz: Prof. of University of Cantabria, Specialits of Paleolithic Arts in Northern Spain. Thèse de Doctorat en Préhistoire El Magdaleniense superior-final de la región cantábrica. Universidad de Cantabria (II-1987) (Premio Extraordinario de Doctorado de la Facultad de Filosofía y Letras de la Universidadde Cantabria, sección de Historia, convocatoria de cursos 1985/86-1986/87). Enseignements Paleolítico y Epipaleolítico de la Península Ibérica, Arte Prehistórico, Prehistoria ambiental y económica. Thèmes de recherche Recherches sur le Paléolithique supérieur et l'Epipaléolithique de la Région Cantabrique et sur l'activité graphique au cours de ces périodes. Etudes sur le Magdalénien récent ou sur l'art pariétal de la Région Cantabrique: grottes de Las Brujas, El Otero, Los Emboscados, Sotarraña, La Pasiega, Covalanas y La Haza, Sovilla, Cueva Grande de Otañes, Cullalvera, Pondra, El Morro del Horidillo, Arco A, Arco B-C, Sotarriza, Galeries inférieure et intermédiaire de La Garma, La Luz, etc. Actuellement: les centres rupestres de La Llosa et de El Salitre (Cantabrie) et grottes de El Rincón y Santimamiñe (Viscaye).