Cave of Altamira

The Cave of Altamira is a cave located close to the ancient metropolis of Santillana del Mar in Cantabria, Spain. This is famend for its numerous parietal cave art work presenting charcoal drawings and polychrome artwork of present day neighborhood fauna and human hands, created in the course of the Upper Paleolithic. The earliest paintings in the cave had been performed round 36,000 years in the past. It turned into determined through Modesto Cubillas in 1868. Aside from the placing first-rate of its polychromatic art, Altamira's reputation stems from the truth that its paintings have been the primary European cave paintings for which a prehistoric foundation become counseled and promoted.

Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola published his research with the aid of Juan de Vilanova Y Piera in 1880 to initial public acclaim. However, the guide of Sanz de Sautuola's research quickly caused a bitter public controversy amongst professionals, some of whom rejected the prehistoric origin of the paintings in view that prehistoric humans lacked sufficient potential for abstract notion. The row persisted until 1902, as reviews of similar findings of prehistoric art work within the franco-cantabrian vicinity had accrued, and the evidence could not be rejected. Altamira is positioned within the Franco-Cantabrian vicinity and d a World Heritage Site by means of UNESCO because the valuable detail of the Cave of Altamira and Paleolithic Cave Art of Northern Spain.