C A N T A B R I A   U N I V E R S I T Y
 
 
   
 
  PALEOLITHIC ART      
Las Chimeneas (Puente Viesgo)  
    Quadrilateral signs   Chimeneas cave was located by J. Caballo and A. García Lorenzo during an exploration made able on the Castillo Mountain. From a split, the investigations were able to get in a cavity from where they could descend to an inferior gallery, where the paintings are located. The actual structure of the cave is therefore very different to what it was when the paintings were made, in which the entry to the cave would be in the gallery where the decorations are located.

Three decorated zones can be differenciated. The first one, and the closest to the primitive entry has got several figures of animals made by finger engraving. Deeper inside, in a second room a group of quadrilateral signs made in black linear trace. Finally , the third zone is a panel with several figures of deers in black paint.

The traditionally atributed chronology to this group is situated in the III style (between 20000-17000 BP). Recently, direct datations have been made about some of these figures pigments in the "Documentación del arte rupestre en el sector central de la costa cantabrica. Una evaluacion de tecnicas de trabajo"", leaded by A. Moure Romanillo,C. González Sainz, V.Cabrera Valdés and F. Bernardo de Quirós". To be exact two samples of the lines that appear by the signs and one of the deers. The obtained dates were 13940 ± 140 BP and 15070 ± 140 BP. These results contrast with the traditionaly admited chronology for this group situated in the Solutrean. However, if we accept the radiocarbon dates, it should be delayed until the Magdalenien. On the other hand, the consideration that the paintings have been made in a brief period of time goes against the interval that separates both dates of 14C , superior to a millennium.

 
   
 
Deer
 
   
   
 
Signs
 
 
 
   
 
Deer and auroch
   
                               
  P R E H I S T O R I C   A R T