Thread by @PreGraphity

👋😉Hi! Today is #FridayPaleoart, and instead of a single site, we are going to visit an entire valley!!! #KarrantzaHarana 🏞️

Cave: #ArcoB cave
Place: Pondra, Karrantza river valley, Ramales de la Victoria, Cantabria (Spain)
Motif: Mammoth
Chronology: #Premagdalenian

➡️⁉️The Carranza River is a short river that rises in Karrantza (Bizkaia) and connects with the Asón River in Ramales de la Victoria (Cantabria). The Carranza gorge is the only way out of the valley and is characterized by an abrupt karstic orography plenty of caves and shelters.

❗️📚More than twenty archaeological sites are known (27) although the archaeological information in many cases is deficient. There are 7 decorated caves, 5 in Cantabria and 2 in the Basque Country.

💻📖They are in placed in less than 1 km2, being one of the most significant concentrations of decorated caves in the Cantabrian Region and the SouthWestern Europe.

➡️Let's to see them!

1⃣Morro del Horidillo

This small cave is the westernmost of the decorated caves in the gorge. Small red stains and a painted circle of about 20 cm in diameter, difficult to being dated, have been found.

2⃣Sotarriza

Located on the southern slope of the gorge. There are some black stains and a horse depiction painted in black. 👨‍🔬Dated (#C14AMS) in GifA-98170: 8.890+- 90 BP, maybe too recent due to mild pretreatment, it can be attributed to the advanced phases of the UP.

3⃣ Pondra

Cave with double entrance to a large vestibule and a 130 m gallery. The depictions are distributed there. Several decorated panels: one with 2 engraved horses superimposed on a red line. Two hinds painted in yellow, red dotted deer’s head and yellow horse head.

4⃣ Arco B-C

Two caves that lead to the same shelter in which archaeological remains attributable to the MP UP and Recent Prehistory have been found. Several animal figures (2 or 3 ibex and a hind), Cantabrian quadrilaterals signs and non-figurative motifs, all painted in red...

...with different application procedures. In another room, remains of red pigment, a hind head and an almost lost quadruped accompanied by non-figurative engravings can be identified. In the background there is an engraved mammoth (🦣) with typical conventions of ancient phases.

5⃣ Arco A

On the same slope as B-C, It's 66m long. Some industries attributable to the MP and UP have been found. 1st room: complete horse associated with a possible deer painted in red. Another room: 2 bison painted in red very deteriorated...

...In the end of the cave complete engraved ibex and remains of non-figurative traces.

6⃣ Venta la Perra

With a large mouth (7m high x 10 wide), in 1904, L. Sierra located an engraved bear in the vestibule of the cave being the first discovered decorated cave in the Basque country. It contains evidences of MP and UP undefined occupation...

... Rock-Art: 5 bison, 1 bear and 1 deer and 6 indeterminate engravings. All of them have been traced using the deep engraving technique, which abound in the Western Cantabrian region (especially in Nalon valley). There are no traces of paint...

...There is a consensus to attribute this graphic tradition to the early or middle UP, without a greater precision for the moment. In this way, this cave supposes the most oriental example of this particular group or style. #KarrantzaHarana #GrabadoExteriorProdundo #VentaLaPerra

7⃣ El Rincón

It's the easternmost cave, with another big entrance, 12 m high by 8 wide, although it becomes too narrow soon. The first mentions of its archaeological site date from 1983, materials attributed to the Paleolithic are collected (Muñoz et al. 1991)...

...The rock art was discovered in 2004 (Montes et al. 2005), with 1 aurochs and 1 deer, 3 indeterminate engravings and 11 groupings of points, lines or spots of red paint....

...The representations of the Rincón cave do not offer such obvious direct parallels as in the case of Venta Laperra. In the absence of more precise information, this type of group can be impreciselly attributed, to the #Solutrean (González Sainz and Gárate 2006).

The art of this Gorge is characterized by its technical and thematic diversity. Frequent themes are found (bison, horse, deer, goat), as well as less frequent evidences (mammoth). Non-figurative motifs characteristic of the Cantabrian Region (quadrilaterals) are also identified.

📖Technically, different procedures can be identified, such as painting, mainly red but also yellow or black, applied in different ways (dotted lines, flat ink), as well as engravings of different types (deep and fine).

Chronologically, all the assemblages can be attributed to the phases to Premagdalenian phases (except Sotarriza), identifying graphic traditions representative of the Cantabrian coast in those phases of the Upper Palaeolithic (dotted red depictions and external deep engravings).

Curiosity: two very graphic traditions of the Cantabrian Region coincide
1.Dotted red figures: usual in the central-eastern sector (e.g. #Covalanas or #ElPendo).
2.Exterior deep engravings: usual in the western area (e.g. #LaLluera or #Chufín).

💻📚 If you want to know more, look at this review of César González Sainz and Carmen San Miguel Llamosas: books.google.es/books?id=-TR-b…

S. Salazar (@SergioSC_91)

End of thread!!!👋😉