Cueva de Altamira

The Altamira Cave

The Sistine Chapel of Palaeolithic Art

Useful Information

photography — Bison, Cueva de Altamira, Spain. Public Domain.

Location:	Near Santillana del Mar, Cantabria, northern Spain. 30 km west of Santander. Motorway A-67, exit Santillana del Mar, National highway 611 and Autonomic road 6316 to Santillana del Mar. Follow the signs to Altamira Museum. (43.377452, -4.122347)
Open:	Museum and replica: MAY to OCT Tue-Sat 9:30-20, Sun, Hol 9:30-15. NOV to APR Tue-Sat 9:30-18, Sun, Hol 9:30-15. Closed 01-JAN, 06-JAN, 01-MAY, 16-SEP, 24-DEC, 25-DEC, 31-DEC. Cave: After appointment, 5 persons per week. The waiting list is closed and new applications are not accepted. [2021]
Fee:	Museum and replica: Adults EUR 3, Children (0-18) free, Students EUR 1,50, Researchers EUR 1,50, Disabled free, Seniors (65+) free. No fees Sat 14-15, Sun 9:30-15. No fees on 18-APR (International Day of Monuments and Sites), 18-MAY (International Museum Day), 12-OCT (Columbus Day), 06-DEC (Constitution Day). Cave: free. [2021]
Classification:	Karst cave Painted Cave Cave Replica
Light:	Incandescent Electric Light System
Dimension:	L=270 m.
Guided tours:	self guided
Photography:	not allowed
Accessibility:
Bibliography:	Margareta Benz-Zauner, Hansjürgen Müller-Beck, Christian Züchner (1995): Altamira, Höhlenmalerei der Steinzeit. Deutsches Museum, ISBN 3-924183-29-5. () Pedro a Saura Ramos (1999): Cave of Altamira, Paperback, 180pp, Harry N. Abrams, (September 1999), ISBN: 0810919893. amazon.com
Address:	Altamira, E-39330 Santillana del Mar, Cantabria, Tel: +34-942-818005, Fax: +34-942-840157. +34-942-818005 Museo Nacional y Centro de Investigación de Altamira, Avenida Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola, s/n, 39330 Santillana del Mar, Cantabria, Tel: +34-942-818815, Fax: +34-942-840157 E-mail: E-mail:
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then. Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History

1868	cave discovered by chance by the hunter Modesto Cubillas.
1875	first exploration by Marcelino Sanz de Santuola, a nobleman from Santander.
1879	the first paintings were discovered by Maria, the daugther of Marcelino de Santuola.
1880	first publication of the paintings by Marcelino de Santuola: Breves apuntes sobre algunos objetos prehistóricos de la provincia de Santander (Brief notes about some prehistoric objects of the Santander province).
1902	the prehistoric age of the Altamira paintings was recognized, public apology by Abbe Breuil.
1962	first copy of the cave made by the Deutsches Museum.
1964	second copy made for Madrid.
1977	closed for the public.
1982	reopened on a strictly limited basis.
1985	inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
1991	first dating of the paintings with the C14-dating resulted in about 14,000 years.
17-JUL-2001	Altamira II, a nearby artificial reproduction inaugurated by Spains King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia.
2002	cave closed again.
2014	cave opened for 5 persons per week by lottery.

Description

a replica at the Deutsches Museum (German Museum), Munich, Germany.

The Altamira Cave consists of a series of rooms and passages shaped like an S. The main hall lies about 30 m from the entrance and measures about 18 by 9 m. The world-famous feature of this cave is found on the ceiling: coloured paintings, mainly from the beginning of the Magdalenian period, about 15.000 years ago. Most paintings show bison, but there are also two wild boars, some horses, a hind, and some other figures in a simpler style. There are eight engraved anthropomorphic figures, various hand prints, and hand outlines.

In 1879, Don Marcelino Santiago Tomás Sanz de Sautuola (*1831-✝1888) visited a cave on his property called Altamira. His eight-year-old daughter María looked up and saw paintings on the ceilings, exclaiming "Papa, torros!" ("Dad, bulls!"). She was a little girl, and she was able to walk through the cave, with the ceiling about 1.20 m above the ground. All adults had to stoop, and hence they never looked at the ceiling before, but the little girl walked in, looked up to the ceiling and mentioned three-dimensional bisons in red and black!

They were so well done, the archaeological establishment judged the cave art to be a crude joke or a hoax. The discoverer was said to be a fraudster, because at the time of the discovery he had a guest on his castle who was painter. De Sautuola nevertheless published his find between 1880 and 1882, but most of his opponents refused to even inspect the site. This destroyed his life, and he died prematurely six years later, a broken and bitter man. Later archaeology evolved, and the professors who first laughed at Sautola apologized for their error. The most famous was the Frech Abbe Beuil, who publicly apologized in 1902 and once said that this was probably the biggest mistake he ever made as an archaeologis. At the beginning of the century, the scientific community accepted them as unadulterated, after several comparable remains from the Stone Age were discovered in this area.

The surprising quality and exceptionally well-preserved state of the paintings caused the specialists to doubt whether they were genuine. This extraordinary artistic quality is the reason why Altamira is still the most exceptional evidence of the Magdalénian culture in southern Europe.

The oldest paintings from the cave were even dated to be 35,000 years old. The habitation of the cave starts in the Aurignacian (Perigordian) period, to which the first figure-like symbols etched in the walls belong. It was used more intensely in the Solutrean and Magdalénian periods. Proof of the habitation are the abundant stone material and the organic remains dated with the C14-dating. Numerous such dating attempts since the mid-20th century have proven their authenticity without any doubt, with an age around 17,000 BP for the spectacular bison ceiling.

The drawings show bisons, horses, red deer and boar. The animal figures are large scale, e.g. the red deer is 2.20 m long. It is surprising because the artists very painstakingly depicted their specific and sexual features. Basically, the pictures are dynamic and the movement of the animals comes to life through the thoughtful use of the reliefs and uneven surface of the walls, thus creating a breathtaking effect.

Another outstanding aspect is the variety in the texture of the furs and manes of the different species painted on the rock surface. It is created with a minimum of facilities and with the restrictions imposed by the use of only three shades of colour: ochre, red and black.

In the complex of painting in the cave, bisons in different positions are most common and carried out most expertly. Other drawings, described as anthropomorphous, show humans with animal heads as well as different signs, such as hands or comb- and step-like symbols difficult to explain.

Like in Lascaux, an artificial copy of the cave exists, which is part of the nearby Museo Nacional y Centro de Investigación de Altamira (National Museum and Research Center of Altamira). It was built by the spanish Architect Juan Navarro Baldeweg and is a complex containing a museum of prehistoric art, a research institute, a restoration laboratory and the original size reproduction of the central room of the cave which is 9*18 m big and contains dozens of images. The whole complex cost 25.5 Million EUR. It was inaugurated by King Juan Carlos of Spain and Queen Sofia on the 17-JUL-2001. The new replica of the cave was truly a success: 200,000 visitors during the first four months are really exceptional!

In 2008 British scientists dated the paintings with the U/Th method. Before the carbon of the charcoal in the paintings was used to determine the age of the paintings using the C14 method. Obviously, this works only for the black parts of the paintings which contain carbon. Uranium decays to thorium and this process happens in any kind of calcite deposit. This method measures the uranium and thorium content in flowstone crusts which grew on top of the painting. As a matter of fact, this method only gives a minimum age, but it is usable also for engravings and paintings without charcoal. The results are astonishing: parts of the artworks are between 25,000 and 35,000 years old.

The access to the original cave is extremely restricted. The carbon dioxide CO₂ breathed out by visitors damages the old paintings, dust from the clothes covers the rocks, the pigments start to decay, and seeds of plants grow in the electric light. As a result, the cave was closed in 1977. But the demand to allow at least a nominal number of visitors was high, so the cave was reopened in 1982. The number of visitors was drastically limited, only 160 visitors per week were allowed to the cave, the tours were booked out for three years in advance. With the opening of the replica, the cave was closed again in 2002. In 2010 the Spanish government planned to reopen the cave, but after a multidisciplinary international group of conservation experts was set up to determine what impact human presence has, this plan was changed. Nevertheless, in 2014 the cave was reopened for five persons per week, the tickets were allocated by lottery every Friday. Visitors had a 37-minute time slot with pre-planned time periods for each room. All visitors have to wear appropriate clothing: disposable overalls, cap, masks, as well as special footwear provided by the museum. And the list of all visitors which visited the cave in the last years is published on their website.