Highest-altitude prehistoric cave art found in Pyrénées

Also the northernmost cave drawings ever discovered in the country, they were unearthed inside two niches in the mountains of the Góriz Valley – part of the Ordesa and Monte Perdido National Park in the province of Huesca, Aragón, in the Spanish Pyrénées.

Co-director of the archaeological project, Javier Rey, says the coloured carvings date back to the Neolithic era, meaning they are about 7,000 years old.

They would have been created between the years 4,000 and 5,000 BC.

Rey says the drawings are in keeping with what is known as ‘schematic Iberian art’, which typically features very simple symbols depicting typical scenes from the authors’ life and economic activity.

In these, the human figure and animals are the main subjects, and are shown in hunting and livestock-herding scenes.

According to the details of the paintings studied by the archaeological team – which includes members of the High Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) and Barcelona Autonomous University (UAB) – the original artists were probably shepherds who were in the cave area in summer when they could take advantage of the lush grass for grazing.

Given the altitude, permanent year-round settlements in Pyrénéen caves would have been impossible, as it was too cold and the grass was too sparse for animals to feed off.

During the warmer weather, shepherds and other livestock farmers used these caves as shelter for themselves and their herds.

Their paintings are at different stages of conservation, although they are nearly all clear enough to be able to easily identify their subjects; those which are less-well preserved have simply lost some of their colour, which is predominantly black, white and a red-orange tone.

Cave paintings are frequent in Spain, especially in the provinces closest to the Mediterranean – although the most striking feature of the Ordesa and Monte Perdido art is its altitude, since it is evidence of the presence of human populations at the peaks of the Pyrénées thousands of years ago.

The group has been prospecting the site since 2015, during which time it has documented numerous settlements from different historical eras – one of which, in Fanlo, is 1,650 metres (5,413 feet) above sea-level.

Photograph by the High Mountain Archaeological Group (Grupo de Arqueología de Alta Montaña, or GAAM)