C A N T A B R I A   U N I V E R S I T Y
 
 
   
 
  PALEOLITHIC ART      
Covalanas (Ramales)  
    Hinds   Covalanas cave was known since ancient times as "la cueva de las herramientas" (Tols Cave) by the area inhabitants because of the use they gave to it. But, it was not until September 1903, when Hermilio Alcalde del Rio, Director of the school of Arts of Torrelavega, on his part and Lorenzo Sierra on his, discovered the paintings inside. In the decade of the 80s, a team from the Area of Prehistory of the Historic Science Department of the University of Cantabria leaded by Dr. Manuel R.González Morales, Dr. César González Sainz and Dr.Alfonso Moure Romanillo, made a new study of the cavity.

Covalanas is located in the South-Western hillside of the Pando mountain, very close to the village of Ramales de la Victoria. The entrance does not have large dimensions and its access is very easy. From here two galleries continue, though only one of them presents palaeolithic decoration. In a deep zone of the gallery, and in a space inferior to 12 meters length, the largest group of representationsin the cave is located, it has 22 figures, of which 18 are hinds , characteristic animal in the Cantabrian decorated caves, one horse , one reindeer (escarcely represented animal in the region of Cantabria), one aurochs and one animal difficult to identify. There are some signs, also. There are some black traces scattered all over the cave and some indecipherable remainings of red paintings can be seen in the terminal area All the representations, except the black marks mentioned, were made with red paint, some of the figures including engraved traces. The employed technique for the figures representation is the inkpad, which consists of the contruction of lines by yuxtaposition of dots. This type of technique appears in few ocasions and always in red colour in Arenaza cave (Galdames, Vizcaya), La Haza cave (Ramales), La Pasiga cave (Puente Viesgo) and Pondra (Ramales). Given the limited use of this technique, some authors have thought of a possible "Escuela de Ramales" (School of Ramales), stablishing chronologially this kind of paintings between 20.000 and 14.400 years.

 
   
 
Hind
 
   
 
Reindeer
 
   
 
Hinds
   
 
Hinds
 
   
 
Horse and hind
   
 
Hind
   
                               
  P R E H I S T O R I C   A R T