Not only Chauvet: Dating Aurignacian rock art in Altxerri B Cave (northern Spain)

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Abstract

The discovery and first dates of the paintings in Grotte Chauvet provoked a new debate on the origin and characteristics of the first figurative Palaeolithic art. Since then, other art ensembles in France and Italy (Aldène, Fumane, Arcy-sur-Cure and Castanet) have enlarged our knowledge of graphic activity in the early Upper Palaeolithic. This paper presents a chronological assessment of the Palaeolithic parietal ensemble in Altxerri B (northern Spain). When the study began in 2011, one of our main objectives was to determine the age of this pictorial phase in the cave. Archaeological, geological and stylistic evidence, together with radiometric dates, suggest an Aurignacian chronology for this art. The ensemble in Altxerri B can therefore be added to the small but growing number of sites dated in this period, corroborating the hypothesis of more complex and varied figurative art than had been supposed in the early Upper Palaeolithic.

Introduction

In recent years, our understanding of the beginnings of Palaeolithic graphic activity has advanced considerably. Since the ‘shock’ produced by the first dates for Grotte Chauvet (Clottes et al., 1995), new discoveries and analytical methods have enlarged the repertoire of parietal art in the early Upper Palaeolithic, to include such sites as Aldène (Ambert et al., 2005), Fumane (Broglio and Dalmeri, 2005), Arcy-sur-Cure (Baffier and Girard, 1998), Coliboaia (Clottes et al., 2010/11), Castanet (White et al., 2012), Baume Latrone (Azéma et al., 2012) and Tito Bustillo, Altamira and Castillo (Pike et al., 2012). At the same time, the chronology of ‘exterior’ ensembles in Dordogne and Quercy (Delluc and Delluc, 2003, Lorblanchet, 2007) and Cantabrian Spain (Gonzalez-Sainz, 1999, Garate, 2008, Ruiz-Redondo, 2011) have tended to set back the origin of this aspect of figurative expression.

The resistance of some researchers to accepting the paradigm shift suggested by the latest advances has fed a double debate that is still on-going. One of them is methodological, about the veracity and reliability of these dates (e.g., Züchner, 1996, Pettitt and Bahn, 2003, Combier and Jouve, 2012). The second debate is more anthropological, cultural and evolutionary, and concerns the great complexity of graphic expression already existing in the Early Aurignacian (e.g., Conard, 2003, Sauvet et al., 2008, Moro-Abadía and Garate, 2010). This aspect is of key importance as it completely disrupts a chronological arrangement of Palaeolithic art from the simplest representations to the most complex (cf. Leroi-Gourhan, 1965). Ultimately, even the possibility of ‘Neanderthal art’ has been proposed (Tejero et al., 2005, Bednarik, 2007, Pike et al., 2012).

This paper summarises the main results of the study of rock art in Altxerri B Cave and its chronological context. Although it has not been possible to obtain direct dates for the representations (they are all painted with red ochre and are not covered by layers of calcite), the chrono-stylistic approach has been refined as far as possible (with clear parallels in Chauvet and Arcy-sur-Cure) and 14C-AMS dates have been obtained for their closest archaeological context. The results indicate an Aurignacian chronology for the graphic activity in Altxerri B, and they are in fact the oldest radiocarbon dates for the context of European Palaeolithic cave art.

Section snippets

Archaeological and historical context

Altxerri Cave is located in the east of the northern Spanish coast, in the town of Aia (Basque Country, Spain) (Fig. 1). The present entrance (the original entrances collapsed) was uncovered by quarrying in 1956, and the first graphic representations were found in 1962. The cave system consists of three levels, connected by shafts and chimneys, where the modern entrance leads to the intermediate level. The important Magdalenian art ensemble in this level has been published in two monographs (

Results of the exploration

The nature of the only modern access to Altxerri B, up a vertical chimney about 14 m high from the intermediate passage (Fig. 2), suggests that when the upper part of the cave was occupied, an entrance that has since collapsed must have reached this level directly. This entrance may have been where an alluvial cone now enters from above, in the chamber where the bison vertebra was found. This would once have been the entrance hall of the cave. The cone of limestone boulders is now covered by a

Discussion

The results of the research provide arguments to propose an Aurignacian chronology for the parietal ensemble in Altxerri B.

Conclusion

Although it could not be dated directly (which has only been possible in Grotte Chauvet for the Aurignacian), the parietal art in Altxerri B displays technical, iconographic and stylistic characteristics that are typical of graphic activity in the Aurignacian. As they were found in a closed system, currently only accessible by a 14 m-high chimney from Altxerri A, and are clearly different from the Magdalenian art identified in that intermediate passage, it may be inferred that the ensemble is

Acknowledgements

The 14C determinations were funded by the Sociedad de Ciencias Aranzadi. We are grateful to the IIIPC for the technical and human resources provided. The results presented here form part of the project ‘Study of the parietal graphic manifestations in Altxerri’ authorised by the Regional Government of Gipuzkoa and the Basque Government, and partly funded by a FPU contract for A. R.-R. at the University of Cantabria. We would like to thank our colleagues Dr. David Cuenca-Solana, Dr. Joseba

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