Cave of La Pasiega

Discovery

"In the next decade, Alcalde del Río was to assist fully in the international project that the Institut de paléontologie humaine in París sponsored, in which Abbé Breuil and H. Obermaier were prominent. That is the period in which the cave of La Pasiega was discovered. This is the most important moment in the study of Cantabrian rock art. The fruits of this labour were to feature in the monumental joint publications on the caves of the region, issued in Monaco, in the general work, and specifically on La Pasiega " — Joaquín González Echegaray

Other archaeologists

Cave paintings

Animals and symbols correspond, therefore, to the same basic formulae, logically binary and even defended by the fact that animals of the same species appear frequently in pairs, male and female, though the dispositivo is so complex that we ought not suppose an explanation purely based in the symbolism of fertility; the first element is the presence of two species A-B ; confronted with two types of signs, masculine and feminine, an attempt to attribute to the horse and bison the same symbolic value or, at least, a bivalency of the same kind as that of the symbols of the two categories

Zone D

Differences between the sanctuaries

The idiomorphs of La Pasiega

• Dotted signs: These are the simplest symbols in the cave. Generally they appear in two forms, one of which has many dots, usually not associated with animals, but with other idiomorphs to which they are complementary. They are commonest in Galleries B and C, in the latter the groups of many dots seem related to deer, but the symbols are painted and the animals engraved, from which it is possible to deduce that they are of different periods.

• Linear signs: These are more varied and complex both in their morphology and in their associations. They are sometimes associated with hinds. For example, one of the foremost panels of gallery A has these kinds of idiomorphs associated with a vulva and a hind. In the second group of Gallery C there is a bison which may have a linear sign associated, as well as some other symbol. At the side is a feather-shaped symbol grouped with other key-shaped ones which were not identified in the original monograph.

• Claviform signs: The signs called 'claviform' are fairly abundant, specially in gallery B and in Room XI, but are doubtful if not indeed non-existent in Gallery A. Those of Room XI are the most characteristic and may be associated with horses. One of these can be considered as what Leroi-Gourhan calls a 'coupled sign', made by uniting in the same idiomorph a line or bar with a key-shape. The typology and chronology of these signs is very ample.
• Polygonal signs are a varied group, a general category which includes rectangular, pentagonal and hexagonal signs. There is one in every room and, although they are few, one can draw comparisons with examples in other caves. for example there is a grill-shaped sign in Gallery B which can be compared with others in the cave of Aguas de Novales and of Marsoulas. In Gallery A there is a rectangular sign comparable to one which is found in one of the recesses at Lascaux. Lastly there is a sign formed by a pentagon and a hexagon side by side which, in the opinion of the specialist Pilar Casado, should be classified as a variant of the oval signs.
• Tectiform signs: These are without any question the most abundant signs of this cave. They have a more or less rectangular shape, with and without additions, with and without internal divisions. Despite their frequency, these signs are absent from Gallery B. Breuil established a chronology and development through all of them; according to Leroi-Gourhan they belong to Style III and they have parallels in many caves of Spain and France, the nearest being the cave of El Castillo. At La Pasiega they are found in the end area and the narrow defile of Gallery A, and in the first large group of Room XI.
• Unique signs:
• La Trampa: Mentioning this strange pictorial group in his description of Gallery C, Breuil was the first to appreciate that really it is the result of painting a symbol like a rectangular black tectiform sign, of very evolved type, superimposed upon two older red figures. Leroi-Gourhan accepted that it was the result of combining paintings of different dates, but did not think it should be thought of as a developed tectiform sign: but he thought that the repainting was intentional and concerned the effect of enclosing the animals within the idiomorph; he included it all within Style III and interpreted it as a mithogram resulting from the combination of three symbols of femininity. Jordá Cerdá and Casado López do not admit of a female symbology in 'La Trampa', which they relate, rather, to other representations of sealed enclosures which occur in Las Chimeneas and La Pileta.
• The 'Inscription' of Gallery B is even more complex and unique than these signs; such that Breuil interpreted it as an authentic inscription which contained a coded message for initiates. Leroi-Gourhan goes to some lengths to explain that, being deconstructed, the figure is composed of feminine symbols. Jordá sees in it a typical sign in the form of a 'sack' related to the sealed enclosures mentioned before, and to serpentine forms which appear at the end of its Middle Cycle. Casado López finds parallels at Marsoulas and Font de Gaume. Amelkin proposes a way to read the inscription using the symbols of the Australian Aborigines as well as the Proto-Afroasiatic pictograms.
• Human representations: This includes human images, more or less realistic, whether of a part or of the whole human anatomy. The foremost of the partial representations is the vulva: there can be identified three of oval, another rectangular and one triangular, very near 'La Trampa'. Also in this group are the hands which are painted in different ways in la Pasiega: one of these is schematic, which is called a maniform, related, as said above, to those of Santian. There is also a red hand in positive. Finally there is another positive hand, but in black, with continuing lines which may be meant to represent an arm. After this come the presumed complete human representations or anthropomorphs.
• The anthropomorphs can be counted as three, and all of them are very debatable. The most doubtful of all is in Gallery A, which could be a female representation associated with fragmentary animals which are difficult to identify. Also debatable is another, that is executed in red tinta plana, with a globular form, located in Room XI. Very near is the one anthropomorph accepted as such by all investigators, namely a figure in varied colors: the body is outlined in red, with a large mouth; by contrast the skin is black, and there are added some horns, also black : lower down the figure has a linear idiomorph in yellow ochre which Breuil interpreted as a phallus. In relation to this human shape there are two external red symbols.

Attempts of chronology