#ARQ LA SKIN#

We are faced with an archaeological document that is unique in the world, both because of its richness and extension, and because it is a document that has been prepared by a team of specialists from various academic institutions in Spain and other countries (France, United Kingdom, Germany, United States, Canada).

The project is conceived from a perspective that gives priority to conservation over any other approach. A large team of specialists from various academic institutions in Spain and other countries (France, United Kingdom, Germany, United States, Canada) are collaborating on it. In order to ensure its adequate knowledge and conservation, an ambitious research project coordinated by the University of Cantabria has been carried out since 1996. SauraĪll of the above makes the Lower Gallery of La Garma one of the most relevant sites of the Palaeolithic world, and probably the most promising of those currently being documented. Magdalenian horse superimposed on red signs. In the Lower Gallery the graphic manifestations are located on walls and ceilings adjacent to the Magdalenian floors, and in these numerous archaeological remains have been found that are linked to the execution of some of the paintings and engravings (signs of the preparation of the colourings, for example) or to their frequentation (footprints, paths…) No less important is the existence of fundamental information about the context of art. La Garma also stands out for its impressive collection of Palaeolithic cave art, the most important discovered in Cantabria after the First World War, with more than 500 paintings and engravings, including almost a hundred animal representations (deer, horses, bison, goats, aurochs, mega-cars, carnivores…), forty hands in negative, three “masks” and around a hundred geometric motifs or signs.

#ARQ LA SKIN#

In one of the latter, the use of a l ion’s skin from the caves has been found, a large feline that became extinct at the end of the last glaciation. Saura and Olivia Riveroīut not only can thousands of objects be seen (it can be estimated that some 76,000 are in plain sight), but even the remains of at least nine constructions which, according to all indications, correspond to huts made of perishable material used as dwellings and in some cases probably also as ritual spaces. Relief representation of bear and Magdalenian cut-out.

Magdalenian spatula with representation of a mountain goat in relief. These include one of the most relevant collections of movable art in Europe, with more than thirty first-rate objects, some as remarkable as a magnificent bone spatula with a representation of a mountain goat in relief, a uro phalanx in which a specimen of this species of wild bull has been engraved in relief, associated with a sign and a human head, or a magnificent outline cut out in the shape of a mountain goat’s head.įrom left to right and from top to bottom: Uro phalanx with a representation of a bull and an anthropomorphic figure. This is a cave whose original entrance was blinded by a collapse during the last glaciation, which has made it a real prehistoric “time capsule”where, without the need for excavations, the remains of the activities of the Palaeolithic hunters can be observed, just as they were left by their last inhabitants some 16700 years ago. On the other hand, La Garma houses a unique site in the world for the documentation of the ways of life, ritual and symbolism of the groups of the Paleolithic: the Lower Gallery. In very few places can one find such a long and complete archaeological sequence. The Garma documents the oldest evidence of human presence in the Cantabrian region, occupations from all stages of the Upper Palaeolithic, excellent paintings and engravings from the latter period, two shells and a Mesolithic tomb, Neolithic remains, funerary structures from the Chalcolithic and Bronze Ages, a castro from the early Iron Age, and tombs and other evidence from the Visigothic and Early Middle Ages. On the one hand, from the extraordinary variety of archaeological evidence found, which covers practically the entire past of the Cantabrian region, from the pre-Andertal groups of the Middle Pleistocene (around 400,000 years ago) to the 13th century AD. The scientific and patrimonial importance of La Garma derives fundamentally from two facts. Its exceptional value has made it worthy of being included, since 2008, in the UNESCO World Heritage List. This place houses, in several caves and galleries of a complicated karstic system and in several open air sites, one of the richest and most spectacular archaeological sets in Europe. La Garma is a hill of 186 m high located next to the village of Omoño (Ribamontán al Monte, Cantabria), 11 km east of the city of Santander and about 5 km from the current coast.

Arq la