Cave of El Castillo

About

The Cueva del Castillo contains both a decorated cave and an archaeological site, within the complex of the Caves of Monte Castillo, in Puente Viesgo, Cantabria, Spain.

The archaeological stratigraphy has been divided into around 19 layers, depending on the source they slightly deviate from each other, however the overall sequence is consistent, beginning in the Proto-Aurignacian, and ending in the Bronze Age. El Castillo was discovered in 1903 by Hermilio Alcalde del Río, a Spanish archaeologist, who was one of the pioneers in the study of the earliest cave paintings of Cantabria. The entrance to the cave was smaller in the past and has been enlarged as a result of archaeological excavations. Alcalde del Río found an extensive sequence of images executed in charcoal and red ochre on the walls and ceilings of multiple caverns. The authors of the first monograph (H. Alcalde del Rio, H. Breuil, L. Sierra, Les cavernes de la région cantabrique (Espagne), Monaco, 1911) catalogued about 200 motifs. In 2012, uranium-thorium datings on discs of the cave have given dates older than 40,000 years. This could be consistent with the tradition of cave painting originating in the Proto-Aurignacian...