'Major' Paleolithic Cave Art Site With Over 100 Paintings, Engravings Found

Archaeologists have discovered a "major" Paleolithic cave art site in Spain that contains more than a hundred individual designs.

The collection of prehistoric paintings and engravings is thought to be, at least in part, more than 24,000 years old, according to a study published in the journal Antiquity.

The artwork was found in a 1,600-foot-deep cave known as "Cova Dones"—or "Cueva Dones"—located in the municipality of Millares in Spain's eastern Valencia region.

A preliminary analysis of Cova Dones indicates that the cave is arguably the "most important" Paleolithic rock art site ever discovered on the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula, the researchers said.

The number of motifs found in the cave and the variety of unusual techniques used to create them, such as painting with clay, are unprecedented in the region.

The cave site is well known by locals and has often been visited by hikers and explorers. But the existence of Paleolithic paintings at the site was not documented until experts from the University of Zaragoza (UZ) and the University of Alicante, both in Spain, made an initial discovery in June 2021.

That summer, an informal exploration of the cave site identified four painted motifs, including one of the head of an auroch, an extinct cattle species. Further investigations in 2023 uncovered many more designs, enabling the researchers to identify the site as a "major" Paleolithic art sanctuary.

The latest study describes the findings at the site and highlights its significance, given the quantity and variety of motifs.

"When we saw the first painted auroch, we immediately acknowledged it was important," study author Aitor Ruiz-Redondo, who is affiliated with UZ and the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom, said in a press release.

While Spain is the country with the largest number of known Paleolithic cave art sites to date, most of them have been found in the north, such as in the region of Cantabria. Few such sites have been documented in the east of the Iberian Peninsula so far.

"The actual 'shock' of realizing its significance came long after the first discovery. Once we began the proper systematic survey we realised we were facing a major cave art site, like the ones that can be found elsewhere in Cantabrian Spain, southern France or Andalusia, but that totally lack in this territory," Ruiz-Redondo said.

The researchers said the site probably contains the largest number of individual designs, or motifs, discovered at any Paleolithic site in Europe since the 2015 findings at the Atxurra cave in Spain's northern Basque region.

In total, the researchers have documented more than 110 "graphic units" at Cova Dones, including at least 19 confirmed representations of animals.

These animal designs include depictions of hinds, horses, aurochs and deer. Most of the paintings were usually made using clay—a rare find at Paleolithic sites. This could be explained by the fact that the technique was not often employed or that such works have been preserved only occasionally.

"Animals and signs were depicted simply by dragging the fingers and palms covered with clay on the walls," Ruiz-Redondo said.

"The humid environment of the cave did the rest: the 'paintings' dried quite slowly, preventing parts of the clay from falling down rapidly, while other parts were covered by calcite layers, which preserved them until today," he said.

Aside from the animal designs, the rest of the artwork in the cave consists of conventional signs, such as rectangles, isolated lines and poorly preserved unidentified paintings, among other forms.

The researchers estimated the age of the artwork at the site based on "style" but also by the presence of thick stalagmitic crusts covering several of the motifs, along with other evidence. This led the team to conclude that the works could have a minimum age of around 24,000 years.

Research at the site is still in its early stages, and many parts of the cave have not been thoroughly explored or documented. As a result, it is likely that more findings will emerge in the coming years.