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La Garma cave,
located in the mountain with that same name in the
Cantabrian village of Omoño, is part of a complex
karstic system of galleries situated at different heights
and sometimes comunicated between them by vertical
chasms. Besides these galleries, other caves are known,
some of them since the beginning of the century (El
Truchiro, El Mar...) and others that long time ago could
have been conected to this karstic system, were recently
discovered. The gallery in which
we are interested because of its parietal representations
is the inferior one. It was found the 2nd of November of
1995 during the excavation that a team from the University
of Cantabria
leaded by P. Arias Cabal and R. Ontañon Peredo, was
realizing in La Garma A and B caves. During these works,
J.M. Ayllón and M.L. Serna, speleologist, got ready to
explore the inferior galleries to study the topography of
the system that connected with Garma A, when they
localized the rupestrian drawings and the superficial
deposit in the inferior gallery. The fall that closed the
old entry to this gallery has permitted the conservation
of the superficial deposit and the rupestrian drawings.
During the first documentation works of
the artistic representations, 4 different areas have been
segregated. In the entrance area, several figures have
been found, pointing out the figure of a horse, which remains the Ekain cave in Guipúzcoa,
and a possible carnivore, one bison, and
other figures of animals and signs. Farther, in the entry
to a small room, that gets open in the right side, the
engraved figure of a hind has been
found. This figure was partly covered by a concretion on
its rear half. Several engraved and black painted
representations have been found inside the room: hinds,
goats and one bison that takes up a whole wall deep down.
Farther inside, a second area with
paintings is situated. In one of the room´s niche, one
red drawn hind is located, the style reminds the ones of La
Pasiga A and C, Covalanas, Arenaza, etc. Farther inside in the cavity, in
an area where the floor is covered by fauna remains and
Magdalenien industries, a horse figure has been
located. This figure was drawn with black linear trace
and partial flat tint, and it takes advantage of the rock
shape to represent the cervical-dorsal line.
Close to the chasm that nowadays serves
as the access to the gallery, we again find several
panels. In the first of these panels, one red painted
aurochs, two caprids, one female megalocero bellow the
aurochs and one non-identifiable quadruped are located. A
mask is situated close to this panel, this
representation takes advantage of the rock natural
shapes, to which the eye and the the mouth have been
added with black paint. This figure is similar to others
that appear in El Castillo and Altamira caves.
The rest of the figures are located in
the deep inside galleries. Non-figurative traces, matched finger tracings, etc... have been represented in a linen on the
left wall. This is similar to the ancient stage of the
Llonin cave, in Asturias. Opposite to this panel, and in
other situated farther inside, several negative hands
have been represented.
Finally, more negative hands have been represented where a chasm connects
with the system´s inferior gallery, through which a
subterranean river runs. Opposite to this hands, in
vertical positions there is a black painted bison. The position of this bison is forced becausse
of the author´s desire of taking advantage of a fissure
on the wall as the cervical-dorsal line of the bison.
The first valuation of this group made
by the investigators has brought them to think that the
cave has been decorated at least in three different
moments. The first decoration could have been made during
the Gravettian: negative hands and non-figurative traces
panel. In another more advanced moment, in the Solutrean,
the red paintings would have been made, while the black
figures and most of the engravings would be from the
Magdalenien.
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