by Lynn Remly; Hudson, OH
They were “only” Stone Age ancestors, yet they produced the most refined art the world has seen within the far depths of winding caves, lighted only by torch and oil. How? Why? When?
I was one of 20 people who traveled to Europe in October ’11 to appreciate this art and muse on these questions on the “Prehistoric Cave Art of Spain and France” tour offered by the Archaeological Institute of America (Boston, MA; 800/748-6262). Our group included people ranging in age from 50s to 80s, all bound by a common interest in archaeology in general and cave art in particular. We were not disappointed.
Starting in Spain
The tour ($6,995 per person, double occupancy, land only) started in Bilbao, Spain. As usual, I arrived a day early to rest and prepare for what promised to be a strenuous trip. I stayed at the Bilbao Airport Holiday Inn Express (phone 34 94 4868240). A single room cost €69 ($89), which included a substantial hot breakfast and free shuttle service, departing every 15 minutes to and from the airport.
The next day, we all found our guide, Conchita Garcia, and our tour leader, archaeologist Paul Bahn, at the airport information desk, then headed off on the drive to Santillana del Mar, an exquisite small town in the Cantabria region of Spain.
Warning — don’t miss the first group meeting. At least two people were confused about the meeting day and had to pay about $350 each for a taxi to Santillana.
Because car and bus traffic is restricted in the historic town center, we walked a short distance from our arrival point to the Parador de Santillana Gil Blas in the historic Old Town center. Our luggage appeared in our rooms shortly afterward as we settled in to enjoy the amenities of this lovely parador for two nights.
Operated by the Spanish government, the paradores are former medieval castles, palaces, convents or other historic buildings that now serve as luxury hotels famed for their accommodations and cuisine.
The Gil Blas is the ancestral home of the Barreda-Bracho family and is located near the central square of this eighth-century town. The entire town has National Monument status, and at night, when the tourists depart, the area is extraordinarily quiet.
We spent the afternoon on a walking tour of the town’s cobbled streets and 14th- to 16th-century buildings, including the Romanesque monastery of Santa Juliana. That evening we gathered for our welcome dinner at the hotel, the first of many opportunities to sample the excellent wine produced by Spain (all included) as well as the local cuisine. Several of us had dietary restrictions (vegetarian, gluten-free, etc.), all of which were handled easily throughout the tour.
Altamira
In addition to being in a very beautiful part of the world, Santillana is a perfect jumping-off point for a visit to Altamira II, an exact replica of the true Cave of Altamira.
One of the great benefits of taking this particular tour was being accompanied by a professional archaeologist who was knowledgeable about not only the art but the area’s history. His running commentary — informative and often amusing — filled out the experience of seeing the cave art.
The story of Altamira’s discovery is justly famous. In 1879, local amateur archaeologist and Renaissance man Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola took his 12-year-old daughter with him as he poked around in the cave, which was well known in the area. She looked up to the ceiling and exclaimed, “Look, Papa. Bulls!” He replied that the images were bison, not bulls, and the lid was off prehistoric cave painting.
Few believed that such exquisite art could have been created by “primitive” men, and Sautuola’s findings were rejected. It was only in 1902, after the discovery of other cave art, that the experts began to accept his conclusions about when the Altamira paintings were created, which was 14,000 to 16,000 years ago.
Unfortunately, no one in the early 20th century understood that the paintings’ level of preservation was due to the fact that they had been largely separated from the outside world, so when visitors flocked to see the art, its quality declined.
The carbon dioxide exhaled by the many visitors to the cave caused so much visible damage that the cave was finally closed to the public in 1977, though it was reopened on a limited basis in 1982.
The backlog of excited visitors caused the authorities to construct an exact replica and museum, completed in 2001. There is an ongoing study of the conditions inside the Cave of Altamira, which once again is closed to the public (since December 2010).
Altamira was a wonderful introduction to the caves we would visit on our tour. The brilliant polychrome paintings, done in shades of red and black, often took advantage of the natural contours of the rock, enhancing the lifelike quality of the figures and clearly showing a high level of artistic ability. But the visit was almost too easy, especially when compared to what came next on our trip.
The replica cave is lighted, there are handrails and there is a proper floor, all of which make moving around easy. In fact, many of us laid on the floor to look up at the famous Polychrome Ceiling, which showed a herd of extinct bison in different poses plus two horses, a large female deer and other animals.
An important note — no photography is permitted in any of the caves or shelters, not even without flash. It is best to purchase one of the many professional accounts of cave art or the brochures or guidebooks available at the French sites.
AIA provided a reading list, including books that feature many pictures, and we each received a copy of Paul Bahn’s “Cave Art” book as well.
In Spain, Altamira is really the only place that offers high-quality souvenirs of the caves. No books and very few, if any, postcards — to say nothing of other materials — are available at any other Spanish sites, so if you see something at Altamira that you want, buy it!
The real thing
Our exploration of Las Monedas and Cueva de El Castillo came as a reality check after the ease of our visit to Altamira II.
AIA’s itinerary made it very clear (in capital letters) that visits to the true caves, as opposed to the modern reproductions, require walking over uneven and slippery terrain, generally without handrails and often with minimal lighting. Participants must be in good physical condition and must supply a doctor’s approval in order to take part, and claustrophobia, in my opinion, should be considered a disqualification.
Several of us had brought collapsible walking sticks, and we were allowed to use these in the caves. Since touching the walls is strictly prohibited, my walking stick gave me a little extra stability, and I was glad to have it.
Las Monedas and El Castillo are among several caves in the Monte Castillo complex. Indeed, one of the mysteries of Paleolithic art is why so many richly decorated caves are to be found clustered together in northern Spain, southwestern France and the Pyrénées. To be sure, the limestone substratum gives rise to many caves, but limestone caves abound throughout the world, and yet nothing like this concentration of art, created over thousands of years, has been found anywhere else.
Las Monedas (The Coins) takes its name from a small cache of coins from the era of Ferdinand and Isabella (around 1563) found in a sort of pit in the cave.
After moving through hundreds of stalactites, stalagmites and columns, we finally saw the 12,000-year-old images of animals — horses, reindeer, bison, ibex and a bear — in a side hall. The charcoal-outlined figures have always raised certain basic questions, Why these animals? Why only in a side chapel? Why were they drawn at all? Unfortunately, no one has the definitive answers.
We were on our own for dinner that evening, but so strenuous had been the day that I had just soup and a granola bar before taking a hot shower and turning in. Since we were on the go from 8 or 9 a.m. to 8 or 9 p.m. every day, I typically didn’t have much energy left over for lengthy nights on the town.
I must add, however, that either lunch or dinner was included in our tour (along with daily breakfast) almost every day, and the quality of the restaurants we visited was superb.
Back to Bilbao
We returned to Bilbao the next day, driving in our large, clean, spacious bus through the scenic Carranza Gorges to visit Covalanas Cave. According to our guide, the good news was that the cave entrance was only 400 yards away from our parking area; the bad news was that it was straight up — well, not quite, but the steep walk up the path to the cave underscored the accuracy of AIA’s insistence that this trip is not for everyone.
Again, we were well rewarded for the climb with amazing images in the cave, this time created by the so-called “inkpad” method, which involved creating the lines by means of dots of red pigment.
Well back in the cave were hidden the most spectacular images, including a horse whose outline was actually defined by the rock, itself. This is a recurring motif in cave art: the cave, itself, is part of the decoration, making it seem as if the figures are emerging from the rock.
Back in Bilbao we checked into our hotel, the new Silken Gran Hotel Domine, located just a stone’s throw from the iconic Guggenheim Museum, which we visited next.
Designed by Frank Gehry, the structure includes his signature titanium “wings” spreading out from the central core. The 19 galleries run out from the core, making it possible to visit parts of the museum without having to go through all of the rooms.
We stayed at the SGHD for two nights, and, although the hotel has all the modern conveniences and offers breakfast on a spectacular balcony overlooking the city, it also has the modern penchant for allowing disruptive noise.
A wedding party on the second floor was enough to literally shake the floor of the rooms above on the third floor, and two of our group members had to call and even go down to the desk at 3 a.m. to try to get some relief. The staff was either not willing or not able to control the noise from the wedding party, so these two travelers were moved to a room on the fourth floor.
Likewise, guests with outside rooms complained that street noise kept them awake until all hours. If you’re booking this hotel, I suggest that you insist on a room on one of the upper floors, away from the street.
Atapuerca
After breakfast, we went to see the excavations at Atapuerca, where archaeologists have found evidence of the earliest hominids in Europe. Again, the AIA preliminary information correctly informs prospective participants that they must be able to climb five stories without help, and the scaffolding at the site proved this point.
The gently rolling Sierra de Atapuerca includes a large system of limestone caverns which, for about 1,000,000 years, sheltered humans and their ancestors. The lengthy fossil record left in the hills and caves is the focus of the Atapuerca excavations, which actually came about in 1890 when the Sierra Company began to build a railroad through the region, cutting a deep trench into the land.
We walked through this trench, the Gran Dolina, which exposed the hillside and is now home to several archaeological dig sites. Together with the Sima de los Huesos (the Pit of the Bones), the trench has provided evidence of hominids who lived 800,000 to 1.2 million years ago, part of the first wave of early humans to leave Africa and move north and west during the Ice Age.
These hominids have been classified as a new species, Homo antecessor, and are probably the first hominids to have populated Western Europe.
After clambering around the excavations, we headed to the new Museum of Human Evolution in Burgos to see the Atapuerca material in a larger context. Level one of the museum is dedicated to the archaeological and paleontological complex in the Sierra de Atapuerca, including a reproduction of the Pit of the Bones. Darwin’s theory of evolution and the history of human evolution fill out the other levels.
On to France
We headed for France the next day, stopping at San Sebastián on the way for a couple of hours’ free time to walk around the city. Later in the afternoon we arrived in Bordeaux, known both for its classical architecture and its importance in the French wine trade. A brisk walking tour took us to the Musée d’Aquitaine, which presents the history of Bordeaux and the Aquitaine region from prehistoric times to the present.
Our interest, naturally, centered on the prehistoric artifacts, including the celebrated Venus of Laussel, or Venus with a Horn, from the Dordogne. One of many such representations emphasizing female fecundity, the relief sculpture also testifies to the skill of Paleolithic artists, as does a bone carefully carved to show a line of deer which manages to catch the characteristic lope of the animals.
We overnighted at the new Hôtel Burdigala in Bordeaux and in the morning headed for the cave of Pair-non-Pair in the Dordogne. One of many caves discovered by accident, this one owes its celebrity to a cow that, reportedly, got its hoof stuck in an opening into the cave in 1881.
The cave abounds in animal images, including two facing ibex, two facing bison, horses, a megaloceros (an extinct deer with giant antlers) and a mammoth whose eye is actually a fossilized shell imbedded in the wall. Anyone who thinks that Cro-Magnon Man was a knuckle-dragging simian needs only to look at cave art to realize how ultramodern our ancestor was.
Most decorated caves did not serve as dwellings, but Pair-non-Pair clearly did. Visitors can still see various alcoves apparently used for different everyday activities, such as flint knapping and food storage. A ring dug into the rock may have been used to hang animal hides to keep out the winter winds.
More than 15,000 objects, including tools, pendants and flutes, were found there in the course of excavations.
Les Eyzies
Later we drove through the indescribably beautiful countryside, filled with acres and acres of vineyards surrounding golden limestone buildings, to arrive at St. Émilion.
One of the things I appreciated about this tour was the variety of things we saw and did. Though the overwhelming emphasis was on the caves, we also visited castles, churches, museums and towns of interest for other reasons.
We headed to the Périgord region next and settled into our hotel, Les Glycines, in Les Eyzies for four nights. After our hectic schedule, a longer stay in one place was welcome.
And what a place it was! Several of us were ready to sell our homes in the States and move into this lovely, historic village.
Half of our group headed to the National Prehistoric Museum of Les Eyzies while the other went straight to the cave of Font-de-Gaume, where visits are strictly limited to fewer than 200 per day. We then exchanged venues.
At Font-de-Gaume, only 30 of the 230 paintings and engravings can be seen by visitors, starting at the decorated part of the cave, the so-called “Rubicon,” which is marked with red dots on the wall.
Immediately, 12 mammoths and bison (black for male and red for female) could be seen gracing the walls. Farther on, a male reindeer is shown licking a kneeling female reindeer, the tongue clearly visible as it brushes her forehead.
While the art is immediately accessible — no one could not appreciate it — the reasons behind its creation are entirely opaque.
The Museum of Les Eyzies, marked by the statue of a Neanderthal outside, is relatively new and contains a magnificent collection of prehistoric artifacts, 18,000 of which are on display, with about six million others in storage.
The permanent galleries include the various material cultures that followed each other from 400,000 to 10,000 BC, showing early tools and other artifacts, all beautifully displayed.
One of the highlights of the visit, for me, was our trip to nearby Cap Blanc, a shelter (not a cave) featuring a high-relief sculpture of life-size horses. The shelter is covered, of course, to protect the art, but the resulting low light and the slippery footing made this as difficult to navigate as many of the caves, except that there was no great distance to walk.
Discovered in 1909, Cap Blanc is, today, the only frieze of prehistoric sculptures in the world accessible to the public.
Lascaux II and Rouffignac
I had expected that our next destination, Lascaux II, would be the high point of our tour, but, in fact, we had seen so many wonderful things that Lascaux became another among many.
Discovered in 1940, the cave complex was opened to the public in 1948. Within less than a decade, however, the carbon dioxide produced by more than a thousand visitors per day in addition to bacteria tracked in on shoes began to damage the art, and the cave was closed again in 1963. In 1983, Lascaux II, a replica, was opened about 200 yards from the original.
Since 1998, fungus and black mold have infected Lascaux I, probably due to a faulty air-conditioning system and the lights used. The sad story of Lascaux reads like a parade of folly on the part of French bureaucrats, but it provided a cautionary tale for the preservation of other caves and for the construction of Altamira II.
Lascaux II replicates only two of the six decorated areas of Lascaux, the Great Hall of the Bulls and the Painted Gallery, but replicas of other Lascaux artwork can be admired at the Centre of Prehistoric Art at nearby Le Thot.
As in the other caves, the Lascaux paintings show no representation of any landscapes, only animals — about 900 of them. The Great Hall of the Bulls features four black bulls (aurochs), one of which is 17 feet long, the largest animal drawing known in cave art.
We went on to visit Le Thot, a museum and animal park containing living examples of species similar to those that occupied the area during the Upper Paleolithic: reindeer, Przewalski’s horses, ibex and deer. The park is attempting to “breed back” certain species, like the aurochs, to their earlier forms.
Our next cave, Rouffignac, featured a small electric train to carry visitors deep inside, where black-outlined mammoths, rhino, ibex, horses and bison “roam.” Abstract signs abound, including house-like (tectiform) and snake-like figures. In addition, finger flutings, traces made by dragging fingers on the wet walls, decorate the walls and ceilings.
One archaeologist concluded that children, some as young as three years old, created the flutings.
As in many caves, claw marks on the walls testify to the presence of cave bears at one time.
On the way back to our hotel, we stopped at the Abri Pataud, a shelter best known for the small bas-relief limestone carving of a female figure, a “Venus.” Though more slender than other “Venus” figures, this one seems to indicate a pregnant woman.
Exceptional individuals
Our final tour day brought a contrast between the truly ancient and the medieval. We drove to the cave of Cougnac, where, in addition to seeing mammoth and megaloceros paintings, we were treated to an introduction to Michel Lorblanchet, one of the principal researchers into cave art and a close friend of our guide, Paul. Now retired, Lorblanchet lives in the Cougnac area and agreed to drive over to meet our group to answer questions about his research and future trends.
A note on our group — our tour members were interested in everything and enthusiastic about the whole itinerary, even though the main focus was the caves. Everyone was well educated, well informed, sociable, punctual and resilient.
Granted, such a group is self selected, in that an esoteric tour would attract only a certain type of traveler, but this bunch was still remarkable. I can’t imagine traveling with a better, more congenial group of people.
We wandered next into the cave at Pech Merle, which once had a river flowing through it that cut underground channels. Finally, after almost a mile of toiling along, we saw the cave’s famous spotted horses, along with wooly mammoths, reindeer, handprints and an enigmatic “speared man” image.
Footprints of children, preserved in what was once clay, have been found more than half a mile underground. Along with the handprints, these human signs give a feeling of being close to people — people like us — who lived between 12,000 and 25,000 years ago.
Toulouse
Our final hotel stay was in Toulouse (at the Crowne Plaza), the base from which we explored Niaux, our final cave. Typically, visits to the cave are strictly regulated and, as a further means of protecting the paintings, the only inside light comes from the flashlights distributed to visitors.
The flickering of 22 lights, which probably approximated the light in which the decorations were originally seen, made walking difficult, not to mention the wet cave floor, which was very uneven and slippery in places (though, as throughout the trip, we all made it through fine).
Anyone with even a touch of claustrophobia will notice it here.
Most of the cave’s images are in the Salon Noir, situated 500 feet from the entrance, but some are hidden forever by underground lakes.
In 2006, the director of the Niaux Cave, in association with the French Ministry of Culture, supervised the draining of several lakes in the complex to temporarily expose the galleries beyond. The Galerie Cartailhac and the Réseau Clastres contain charcoal animal drawings, including a stylized weasel, unique in prehistoric art.
Claviform signs and other red and black geometric signs — dashes, bars, lines and series of dots — abound. The meaning of the signs is long lost, but they are carefully placed and clearly had some kind of function.
Our last day was a feeding frenzy, literally, with a huge breakfast and lunch and a gigantic farewell dinner. Most people faced an early-morning return home and couldn’t deal with so much food anyway, but we did our best to bid farewell.
Overall, this was one of the best trips I’ve ever taken, and I’ve been traveling for 50 years. The itinerary as well as our guide and archaeologist; driver, David; group; hotels; restaurants, and additional sightseeing were as close to perfect as could be, and I recommend the trip to anyone with even a scrap of interest in prehistoric art.