June 2026 Cave Art Sites in Spain

In May and early June 2026 I took New Scientist-sponsored tours of neolithic sites in Turkey and Mesolithic cave art sites in Spain, with a 5 day hike of Cinque Terre on the coast of Italy. Spain 2026 Tour of Cave Art sites in Spain The Guide, Beatriz, is loud, enthusiastic, and, like the guide in Turkey, deeply caring. The science expert, Emily Wilson, is a science-educated novelist and science writer, who previously worked on the staff of New Scientist as editor-in-chief. There was a total of 12 guests, all quite knowledgeable. I arrived too late for the first dinner and introductory lecture, checking into the hotel at 11 p.m. (the only direct flight from Milano), still steeped in the language and concepts of the metaphor conference. I was assigned one of the worst rooms in the hotel – one small window behind a curtain in the corner, opening out onto a dingy alley, dim lighting, obviously designed for the decrepit elderly (with a bathing chair in the walk-in shower, and a door stop next to the toilet – miraculously, in two days’ stay I managed to avoid stubbing my toe on that tripping hazard even when I got up in the night.) The room was so claustrophobic, dark and depressing that, during the hour-long “rest period” at the end of the first very long day, I had to take my laptop out and sit in the lobby. The caves El Pendo Cave. Very large chamber – was flat with a large opening to the daylight; roof collapsed covering several layers of occupancy dating back 80,000 years. Unfortunately visitors are not allowed to take any photos, even without flash. The back wall is covered with 19 drawings of animals, many of them incorporating features of the rock (bulges or cracks suggestive of an animal’s back or neck, with the rest of the shape either sketched or filled in by charcoal or mineral pigments (ochres), estimated dating 20,000-25,000 years ago. Some are very evident; the guide pointed to several others, helped us see the outline. Once a viewer’s eyes are trained on what to look for, most of these stand out. A few are so faint that they remained ambiguous. Several images of horses and deer, very elegantly done. One less realistic image believed to be human, not as elegant. It was quite cold (I’m wearing my jacket and beanie from now on!) but I could happily have spent another hour drinking it in. We were on a metal walkway – not allowed down on the jumbled rocks, partly for safety reasons, but also probably partly to keep tourists from breaking the rules and touching or photographing. We had to imagine looking up at them from the cave floor (now covered in a massive jumble of fallen rock.) Different periods of habitation are marked by layers of dark grey, charcoal from the wood fires, interspersed with brownish and reddish layers of mud and rock. The early stages, 80,000 BCE to about 45,000 BCE were inhabited by Neanderthals; from 40,000 BCE to the end of the ice age by Homo Sapiens – here they seem not to have overlapped. This cave apparently provided shelter; may also have served as a gathering place. Whether the art had other purposes beyond creative expression and decoration is uncertain; it is clear that the depicted animals were culturally significant, both food sources and some predators (lions). Most are so beautiful it is difficult to avoid supposing that we are looking at the work of prehistoric Michealangelos and Picassos. One of the group, Julie, had an attack of heart palpitations, had to be taken to the ER. While we were waiting around the guide suggested we could walk down to the village for coffee if we wished, so five of us se3t out. The sidewalk was paved with some odd little tiles, many of which had been pushed up by roots. I caught my toe on one of these and sprawled face down, landed on my right knee and elbow and, to protect face and head rolled over to my hip (into the edge of the roadway, apparently). I slightly skinned the elbow and knee (no blood) and badly bruised the hip and knee. The others, including the guide when she was told about it, wanted me to see a doctor, but it was apparent to me (after prodding the various wounded areas) that none of it was serious – just one more in a life-long series of tripping over unseen or unnoticed hazards. I walked without pain or limping, and the pain from the scrapes and bruises quickly faded. Santander Archaeological Museum. Among other attractions, they have a great collection of “portable art,” images mostly engraved on bones and bone fragments and found buried in the caves. I spent most of the hour we had before the museum closed at 2:00 p.m. examining these small objects. Some of the images were too faint to see clearly (they were all inside glass enclosures; the light in the room very dim). I discovered, once again, how much better the iPhone sees, so I took pictures of most of them. [The only time I’ve found to write this is on the bus on the way to the next site – very hard not to be distracted by the gorgeous scenery, green hills with farms and woods and small villages.) A few of the photos were spoiled (blurred or over-saturated with light) but most came out quite well. In several examples the artist incorporated features of the bone. I failed to photograph the explanatory labels but I believe they are from later than the art in the caves, possibly around 20,000 BCE or even later, near the end of the ice age. In the evening we enjoyed a feast, 8 courses spread over two hours. Great conversation and regional specialties I will probably never have again but I drank too much wine, ate too much food, and didn’t get to bed until 11, with an 8 a.m. departure. The mismatch of “dinnertime” cultures was a problem throughout the trip, as it so frequently is. I also woke up with pain in my knee and hip and had to get up to take some Motrin – should have known to take it before going to bed. When I woke up for good at six, the pain had not returned – and I handled the descents and ascents into caves without difficulty – Two 6 mg doses apparently did the trick. 2. El Pindo There are two sets of images 30 or 40 meters apart. They both have some abstractions – dots, vertical lines with attached blobs facing right. One has deer and a buffalo. Another seemed to me to be an image of a wild pig with the face formed of a projection from the wall – but the guide explained it as a deer, and indeed the head of a doe was also visible, in an upright position, disproportionately small. The buffalo had what appeared to be a spear embedded in its side. Farther along was an image of a mastodon, with the back and trunk quite clear, but legs and tusks less clear (even when the guide pointed to them I was unable to make them out.) This cave was once more accessible, and it suffered from some damage from people touching the stone (skin oils contain acids that attack the pigments.) For lunch I went with some of the others to a local café recommended by Beatriz, who helped me select two safe local specialties, a goat stew and a salad of shredded lettuce, olives, tomatoes and cubes of some local cheeses including one blue cheese. It was all good, but I skipped the potatoes and still managed to eat only 2/3 of the meat, leaving a long tough strand and the (probably delicate and tasty) morsels tucked in and around the knee joint. Tito Bustillo. This cave was discovered by a group of adolescents who found the small entrance remaining from a collapse of the original large cave entry – one of them died 3 weeks later in a different cave, so the cave was named after him. There are several galleries with important paintings, but many are restricted because of difficult access and to protect the art. We were able to visit only one gallery, considered the most important. It has several pictures of horses, including one identifiable as a breed of alpine horse – its presence suggests that the climate must have been quite cold at the time. There are also two pictures of deer, a stag and a doe. It took a while to identify all of these, but as usual once the guide pointed out the crucial outlines the fuller image became clear. The stag and one of the horses had faint lines in several places that made it difficult to see all the lines, but the others were clear, some immediately, some with a little study and others only after the crucial lines had been pointed out. One of the inaccessible chambers has several oval images with a line partway up the center, generally interpreted as a depiction of the female vulva. Others have other significant animals. Reproductions of these chambers are in the visitor center, which also contains some of the portable art and stone tools that have been found in the caves, as well as a video of a demonstration of techniques for flaking off bits of stone to create stone tools. The day ended with another dinner – with the start moved forward to 8:00 to accommodate us Anglo-Saxon wimps. (I was not the only member of the party used to eating at 6 or 7.) The Caves. Typically, entries were cut and expanded during the time when they were developed as major tourist attractions, and some steel / concrete staircases and walkways were built. But as the archaeologists came to realize how badly the tourists were damaging the art (touching it leaves skin oils and acids, People will take flash photos and even the CO2 from people’s breath damages the art. Consequently, the caves are all locked, access is restricted to a few people a day in small groups, and no photos at all are allowed – not even of the beautiful rock formations. Access to the deeper chambers is rough – hiking over uneven and sometimes slippery ground in near dark – and the newest chambers are closed entirely. They have built an imitation of Altimira, one of the best recently discovered caves, with meticulous reproductions of the art; I describe it later. Much of the art work is so faint that it is difficult to see. Often, once the guide used the laser pointer to trace even one line of an image, the entire image would pop into view, but sometimes the best I could do was see part of the animal – usually the head and sometimes the back or front legs. Many of the images are remarkably sophisticated in technique, but some are more like sketches. The artists used charcoal and minerals, iron oxide and other colored oxides, mixed with animal fats, and they worked by the light of burning animal fat with moss wicks. There is no evidence of soot in the deeper areas, indicating that they did not use torches or other wood or pitch fires. They must have worked by dim and flickering light. Many of the images are in places difficult to access; some are in quite high places, and these often use quite sophisticated perspective techniques so they look natural when viewed from below. Many of the paintings use features of the rock, suggesting that the artist first “saw” a buffalo or deer on the wall, a crack in the shape of an animal’s back or antlers, a bulge in the shape of a hind quarter or belly, and fill in the other details with charcoal, oxides, and sometimes by engraving lines into the rock. Santillana del Mar. Between cave visits and riding from one place to another on the bus we didn’t have much time to explore the charming little villages and ancient downtown areas but on the third day we had half a day in this little town, which features two streets lined with quite old houses, a 12th century monastery, convent and church. The monastery / church is guarded by two lions, made of limestone and so eroded by the frequent rains typical of this region that they are barely recognizable. I was also quite taken with a lifelike statue of a cow in a little cheese and dairy shop. During the colonial period, many residents of the town migrated to South America, most of them to Mexico. A few of these did well and returned home years later with substantial fortunes, bought or built fine houses and installed coats of arms high on the wall where it could be seen by all, evidence of their success. The one on the right is one of the larger. Several of these houses have been inhabited by members of the same family since colonial days. Art reproductions from the Altamira museum / site reproduction. The cave art varies in quality – some of the drawings and paintings have a very amateurish, almost childish quality, but many of the paintings are quite sophisticated in both conception and technique. Some images are daubed in as dots, some smeared on, as if by some kind of brush, and some take the forms of line drawings; many of them incorporate features of the rock – bulges and cracks. Some of the artists found a relatively flat wall to paint but many of the images, occupy panels interrupted by cracks and other features of the rock. It’s hard to be sure what the image to the right of the deer represents. Many of the less sophisticated images are done in an almost child-like style. Two horses in the museum are done in charcoal, in a more self-assured style, one in an interesting pose, head down and facing toward the rear. A second horse is outlined in charcoal with done in color, with reddish pigment inside; a bulge in the wall gives dimensionality to the upper neck. A similar effect is used in several of the bison paintings. Other artists achieved some very sophisticated effects with charcoal, often supplemented by a thin (or faded) wash of pigment. Many engraved images are also found, some worn away and quite faint but some well-defined and easy to read. There are not many images of humans, and those that have been found are often rather distorted and even grotesque. Everyone in the group was taken by the two on the next page, where the artist saw faces in the rock and used a few strokes of charcoal to bring them to life. On the final day, back in Bilbao, we visited the recently opened Guggenheim, part of Bilbao’s turn toward a tourism economy. There were several interesting exhibits; I was particularly taken with the work of 20th century sculptor Ruth Asawa. One of these is origami-style folded paper and the other is made with a single strand of wire. The group