A NEW DISCOVERY OF SPANISH CAVE ART HAS BEEN REPORTED:

Site archaeologist Diego Garate
looking at cave paintings representing
horses in the Axturra cave.
Photograph: AFP/Getty Images.

A story by Ciaran Giles, writing for Associated Press in Madrid, Spain, on May 27, 2016, outlines the discovery of new cave art in northern Spain.

"Spanish archaeologists say they have discovered an exceptional set of Paleolithic-era cave drawings that could rank among the best in a country that already boasts some of the world's most important cave art." (Giles 2016)

Bison image from Axturra Cave.

(Diputacion Floral de Bizkaia.)

Outlined bison image from Axturra

Cave. (Diputacion Floral de Bizkaia.)

"Chief site archaeologist Diego Garate said Friday that an estimated 70 drawings were found on ledges 300 meters (1,000 feet) underground in the Axturra cave in the northern Basque region. The engravings and paintings feature horses, buffalo, goats and deer, dating back 12,500 - 14,500 years ago." (Giles 2016)

"The cave was discovered in 1929 and first explored in 1934-35, but it was not until 2014 that Garate and his team resumed their investigations that the drawings were discovered." (Giles 2016)

"'No one expected a discovery of this magnitude,' said Jose Yravedra, a prehistory professor at Madrid's Complutense University. 'There are a lot of cave with drawings but very few have this much art and this much variety and quality.'" (Giles 2016)

Bison image with what the chief site

archaeologist identified as 20 lance

wounds. (Diputation Floral de Bizkaia.)

Outlined bison image with what the chief

site archaeologist identified as 20 lance

wounds. (Diputation Floral de Bizkaia.)

"Garate highlighted one buffalo drawing, which he said must have the most hunting lances stuck in it of any such drawing in Europe. He said most hunting drawings have four or five lances but this had almost 20 and it's not clear why." (Giles 2016) For the record I count more than twenty.

I find it to be marvelous, and very exciting, that such discoveries are still being made with such frequency. The more we discover, the more remarkable our ancestor's deeds really were.

REFERENCE:

Giles, Ciaran,

2016     https://www.yahoo.com/news/spain-cave-art-trove-found-1-000-feet-144318822.html?nhp=1

The photographs that accompanied the article being reviewed were provided by Diputation Floral de Bizkaia.