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Preserving Ancient Artwork
More than 40,000 years ago, humans living in Europe left evidence of the beginnings of society and culture. In addition
to the everyday rigors of hunting, gathering and simple survival, the prehistoric people began to document their lives
and environment. Some of this documentation remains today, in the form of drawings and pictographs in the caves
where the people lived. This early artwork—typically on cave walls or other large natural facades—is known as parietal art.
In the Catabria region of the Principality of Asturias in northern
Spain, two caves—La Lluera and El Pindal—are home to an
array of paintings, inscriptions and sculptures created during
the Paleolithic Era. The region is designated as a World
Heritage Site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific
and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Part of this designation
calls for local organizations to preserve the artifacts and
conduct scientific research that protects the sites and shares
the historical information. In support of this effort Ramón
Argüelles, a student at the University of Oviedo, conducted
studies and surveys of the artwork in the La Lluera and El
Pindal caves.
Ancient Artisans
Parietal art provides important clues to how humans lived
during the Paleolithic Era. It often depicts the animals encountered
by the humans as well as outlines of human hands
and fingers. Artists used chisels, scrapers and other stone
tools to produce drawings and diagrams that have lasted for
millennia. They created colors by mixing local minerals with
animal fats, applying the color to the walls using fingers or
brushes made from plant fiber or bundles of hair. The art in
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the La Lluera and El Pindal caves consists of drawings of fish,
aurochs (an ancestor of modern cattle), deer, horses, goats—
and possibly a mammoth.
The art in the two caves is interesting because it is threedimensional.
The ancient artists combined carving with
painting to create images of animals. They prepared the
work surface, sometimes by fashioning a chiseled “canvas”
on which they then painted the figures. In other works,
artists incorporated the rock’s natural texture into the
drawn or chiseled figure. The most notable art in La
Lluera is called the Gran Hornacina, a natural cavity that
Paleolithic artists stained with ocher stripes mixed with
gray-blue accents. In one location, the artists engraved a
panel 3 m wide and 1 m high (9.8 by 3.3 ft). It contains the
most beautiful images of the cave: a group of six or seven
aurochs and a horse. The animals appear to be descending
a hill, surrounded by natural furrows in the stone wall.
Archaeologists estimate that the Gran Hornacina art was
created between 16,500 and 21,000 years before present
times (BP). The El Pindal art was done between 12,000 and
14,500 years BP.