Altamira's cave paintings are fie examples of Solutrean to Magdelanian parietal art, dating to between 18,540-13330 bp. Occupations within the cave are dated from 14,000 to 12,000 years old. The cave walls are decorated with multi-colored ("polychrome") paintings of animals, stenciled hands, and sculpted humanoid masks.
The cave was discovered in 1868 by Modesto Cubillos; the paintings were identified in the 1879s. It was declared a World Heritage site in 1985. The most recent work on the cave have been attempts to fend off natural and cultural environmental damage to the cave's paintings.
Sources
This glossary entry is part of the About.com Guide to Prehistoric Cave Art and the Dictionary of Archaeology.
Conkey, Margaret W. 1980 The identification of prehistoric hunter-gatherer sites: The case of Alta-Mira. Current Anthropology 21:609-630.
Sánchez, Miguel A., Alberto Foyo, Carmen Tomillo, and Eneko Iriarte 2007 Geological risk assessment of the area surrounding Altamira Cave: A proposed Natural Risk Index and Safety Factor for protection of prehistoric caves. Engineering Geology 94(3-4):180-200.
