Levantine Cave Art

In the Valencia region of Spain, portable cave art, as opposed to the permanently fixed art on cave and rock shelter walls, is quite common.

What is not common is the accumulation of portable cave art in one place and the means and opportunity to reasonably accurately date the pieces. Parpalló cave near Gandia in Valencia province is exceptional in that the accumulation of portable art plaques covers a period from the Gravettian period, through the Solutrean period and well into the Magdalenian period, a period of about 18,000 years.

What is even more exciting is that, rather than have the observer try to decipher barely discernible outlines on small pieces of limestone, modern spectroscopic means have been used to bring out the individual designs in great detail. Those designs have been reproduced in white on slate and the results are now displayed in chronological order at the Museum of Prehistory in Valencia city. It is possible to follow the evolution of cave art as it occurred in this region. We see how the unknown artists attempted to portray movement, perspective and anatomical features, becoming more adept as time went on. I for one, find that my understanding of the development of cave art is made much easier when seeing the various processes than it is from purely textual descriptions of the same processes.

I would like to thank the staff at the Museum of Prehistory in Valencia for constructing such an informative and detailed display and allowing Julie and myself to spend some hours photographing the plaques.