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Prehistoric Graphic Activity research group in the International Institute of Prehistoric Research of Cantabria - IIIPC (University of Cantabria).

Aug 6, 2021, 13 tweets

Hi there! This #FridayPaleoArt we are on holidays, so we woke up late! 🤭Let's go!

Cave: #Cualventi
Place: Oreña, Alfoz de Lloredo, Cantabria
Motif: Deer
Chornology: #Magdalenian

🗺️Cualventi Cave is located in the district of Perelada (Oreña, Alfoz de Lloredo, Cantabria), 2 km from Altamira. The cave opens in the wall of a wide and shallow doline, inside a small valley close to the coast.

⁉️ It's a large rock shelter with two openings. The lower one, #LaCovacha, is a small cave linked with the karst system and was obstructed during the Magdalenian. The upper one, #Cualventi, is located 4m above and provides direct access to the fossil floors of the karst. 🤔

❗️Cualventi contains a powerful archaeological site that is important for our knowledge of the Cantabrian Late Glacial period. It was dug by M. A. García Guinea in the 1980s. The sequence covers a time period between 17,000 and 11,000 BP.

➡️García Guinea's work recovered an almost complete perforated stick on which a representation of a deer was engraved.
#ParecidosRazonables This piece has close parallels in other caves in Cantabria such as El Castillo, El Pendo or El Valle.📸

📖Excavations at the site were resumed in 2003. A rich Lower Magdalenian level was identified with abundant remains, including decorated items and decorated pieces.

The other area of archaeological interest is #LaCovacha. It's a room with red dotted paintings, probably Gravettian, and some Magdalenian engravings, which was sealed during the middle/upper Magdalenian. In the upper passage of #Cualventi there are also red paintings.

❗️➡️Group of dotted red paintings: 18 red paintings have been identified, poorly preserved and with a predominance of stains and punctuations. Several animal figures can be identified: doe, goat, bison in flat ink, horse's cervical line and an undetermined animal.

😌👉👉In the same area there is another small panel in which five fine engraved representations have been identified: a complete hind head, an indeterminate quadruped and three goats, two of them very brief and reduced to the head and the other almost complete.

📚The chronology of the cave paintings can be divided into two main periods. The red paintings are very characteristic of the Cantabrian tradition of dotted red paintings identified in numerous caves in Cantabria, such as Covalanas, El Pendo, El Arco a and B, El Salitre.

The engravings, based on technical and stylistic similarities, can be attributed to the Lower Magdalenian, similar to others found in caves such as El Juyo, Altamira, Cobrantes and El Castillo. Furthermore, these depictions are directly related to the occupations identified there

❗️In short, Cualventi is an important archaeological site where numerous archaeological remains have been documented. Of particular note are decorative elements and objects of portable art.

The rock art, despite being small and poorly preserved, contains characteristic manifestations of the graphic traditions identified on the Cantabrian Spain, such as the red dotted paintings.

S. Salazar (@SergioSC_91)

End of thread!!!👋😉

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