Hundreds of Ice Age Rock Art Engravings Discovered Hidden in Plain Sight
Researchers identified 280 prehistoric motifs, including 55 animal figures, and dated the assemblage to at least 19,000 years ago.
- Archaeologists Josep Maria Vergès and Míriam Salas-Altès identified 280 Palaeolithic engravings in Catalonia's Cova de la Font Major, with findings published this week in Antiquity.
- Although the cave served as a popular tourist destination since 1993, modern graffiti and poor lighting caused visitors to overlook the prehistoric markings, which were first identified in 2019.
- Located approximately 820 feet from the entrance, the assemblage includes 55 animal figures like horses, deer, and a rare bear, carved into soft rock layers with grooves 3 to 7 millimeters wide.
- The site ranks as the third-largest known Palaeolithic cave art collection along the Iberian Mediterranean coast, challenging longstanding assumptions that northeastern Iberia lacked significant Palaeolithic art.
- Researchers suggest blocked sediment galleries within the cave could hold additional hidden artwork, and the team intends to use uranium-series techniques on calcite deposits to further refine dating.
20 Articles
20 Articles
The magazine 'Antiquity' publishes the results of 280 graphic motifs located in a cave in L'Espluga de Francolí
Kreiszeitung
The Cova de la Font Major cave in Catalonia has so far been considered a researched and even popular tourist attraction – but also free of any prehistoric cave art. It is precisely in this cave that the third largest collection of glacial rock paintings along the Mediterranean coast of the Iberian Peninsula was discovered.
In the Cave of Cova de la Font Mior, archaeologists discovered 55 images of animals and dozens of abstract symbols of the ice age, and visitors walked past ancient drawings for decades without seeing them.
Spanish archeologists revealed about 280 stone inscriptions dating back to the ancient Stone Age, inside the cave of the Mount Mayor of Catalonia.
Coverage Details
Bias Distribution
- 56% of the sources are Center
Factuality
To view factuality data please Upgrade to Premium
