The cave of Altamira is one of the Palaeolithic

wonders of the world, a prehistoric art gallery

where Stone Age fauna can be found depicted

in careful detail by the cave-dwelling artisans.

The vivid colours and charcoal were preserved

by a landslide that sealed the opening for millennia

until discovered in 1868 when during a hunt,

a gun dog scrambled its way inside the cave.

Once discovered, access was unrestricted.

I visited the cave almost a century later

in 1966 and still remember marvelling

open-mouthed at how bright the paintings

of the polychromatic bison and aurochs looked

and how the bulges in the rock were used

to make the beasts appear three-dimensional.

For the last twenty-four years, to preserve it

from the damaging effect of visitors’ breath

on the ochres and charcoal of the murals,

the cave has been closed to tourists.

To prevent the paintings from deteriorating,

the cave is now open only to researchers

so that they can determine the techniques

employed by cave dwellers of the Palaeolithic.

They have revealed that the shapes of the animals

were first outlined with a flint tool, and then painted

over a period that lasted some twenty thousand years.

It’s as if the themes of an artist like Rosa Bonheur

had magically stretched all the way back for millenia,

to be suggested by those gifted Palaeolithic artisans.

Tony Dawson, 7 August 2026