Spain [antikvár]

HISTORY AND CULTURE HISTORY AND CULTURE Bulls The cave of Altamira was discovered in 1868 by a hunter whose dog had become trapped and had to be rescued. It was by no means unusual to find caves in the Icarstic area of Santillana del Mar. But by chance the hunter was the servant of Don Marcelino, a scholar from Santander with an interest in the positivist study of prehistory: Knowledge was to be deduced from observation of ancient weapon and tool fragments and other ephemera. On hearing about the cave, Don Marcelino decided to take a trip there with his eleven-year-old daughter to look for flints. They entered the cave with a carbide lamp. The child crawled through a passage which was too low for adults. And suddenly her father heard her shout: "Look, papa, bulls!" And there they were, the famous bisons of Altamira. But when Don Marcelino told the world about his discovery, no one believed its authenticity. Even the new science could not imagine that 20,000 years ago in the middle of the Paleolithic Age human beings had been able to paint with such amazing esthetic perfection. About 100 animals are depicted on the walls of the cave. The artist made use of the contours of the rocks when drawing their outlines and stances. And it is almost as if the rocks were made for them, as if the artist only had to look carefully at the rocks to read the shapes of the bison from their stone disguises. Sculptors including Michelangelo and Renoir did exactly the Preceding pages: El Barco de Ávila. Barcelona fishermen. Toledo skyline. Left: Cán-tiga by Alfonso the Wise. The Virgin Uary taming the wild bull. same thing as these ancient artists, that is, finding the shape already extant in a piece of marble or other material. Don Marcelino died with the sad reputation of being a charlatan and of falsifying prehistoric research. The discovery of the cave at Lascaux in France, however, revived interest in Altamira. But within half a century the breath of innumerable visitors began to harm what had been preserved for more than 20,000 years. Today, anyone hoping to visit the cave has to submit a formal application at least six months in advance. In front of the Archeological Museum in Madrid, German technicians built an exact copy to give visitors an idea of the culture from which the paintings originate. Scientists think that the humans of the time had already made considerable technical progress: They were hunters who made axe handles, harpoons and fishing rods from bone or horn. Pictures of this kind are found all over the mountains and hills in the north of Spain: Puente Viesgo (Santander) and El Pindal (Asturias) are the most important. This culture began declining as of the 7th millennium when devastating climatic changes transformed whole regions into deserts. Their populations fled to the Mediterranean coast where conditions were better. In the Iberian mountains in the south of Aragón and Catalonia there are other paintings. They are not inside caves, but have been painted on rock faces. They show hunting scenes and ritual dances and use only one color. The most interesting paintings are located at Cogull (Lérida), El Navazo and Albarracin (Teruel). The Northern Ethnic Groups Before the great migration of Indo-European tribes took place during the Neolithic Age, the peninsula was inhabited by Iberians and Basques. Very little is known of the origins of these peoples. Some experts believe they came from 15 ; i 'i! • ¦ i ' , i' : . i: y M 'Kíi'í-á