Sites

Cueva de Hornos de la Peña

Wikipedia logoThis page is sourced from Wikipedia

Wikipedia data hasn't been reviewed for accuracy by the Gignos Research Team

Site type:
Cave
Site function:
Decor cave
Lat/Long:
43.26, -4.02
Country:
Spain
Hide

Cueva de Hornos de la Peña is an archaeological site in Cantabria with occupational levels ranging from the Middle Palaeolithic to the Neolithic, for more than 30,000 years. It is one of the caves included in the list of UNESCO World Heritage since July 2008, within the set "Cave of Altamira and Palaeolithic rock art of the Cantabrian coast".

It is located next to the neighborhood of Tarriba (in the municipality of San Felices de Buelna) and in it are known occupations of Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons. What makes it peculiar is that it only has engravings, without any painting. In the outer shelter are the oldest known rock representations on the Cantabrian coast, dating from the Aurignacian period. Among them stands out a deeply engraved horse and, although they no longer exist, it is known from photographs of the early twentieth century that there were representations of bison, horses, deer, etc.

In the interior area, from 60 meters deep, there are representations of bovids, deer, goats, and even a reindeer in different rooms, all engraved with their fingers on the clay or with a burin in the rock. Quite a few of them would be characteristic of the Upper Magdalenian. In the area where the cave ends, there are anthropomorphic representations.