So there I was, wandering back down the hill from Las Monedas, having just seen cave paintings in real life for the first time, and there was no doubt that the world outside was very slightly different from the one I had left before entering that cave. Although I had been aware that people had been applying paint to cave walls for over 20,000 years in Europe, seeing it for real had anchored the past much more firmly in the world of now, i.e. that which exists beyond the printed page or pixelated display. And although the paintings in that cave were certainly extremely old, I was also aware that they marked the culmination of that 20,000 year-old tradition, and the painters at Las Monedas were even further removed in time from the earlier cave painters of Fumane and Chauvet, than we are from the Late Magdalenians.
But time in that sense is misleading - it seems there was a much greater stability of tradition, and thus people's lives, back in the Palaeolithic, which allowed such traditions to prevail for so many thousands of years, where social change happened here and there, but at nothing like the same rate as today. If we take just one of our traditions, Christianity, we are aware that in the 2,000 years it has been in existence, the world of the Roman empire which existed in its early days, has long since gone, and the mechanisation and subsequent digitalisation we have imposed upon ourselves has accelerated some rates of change far more greatly than has been the case at any time during the story of mankind.
I had these vague thoughts somewhere in mind as I approached El Castillo, wondering if I would be able to discern a difference of intent or purpose behind the cave paintings in El Castillo, which dated back to an estimated 28,000 years, the oldest art of its type anywhere on the Iberian peninsular. My thoughts were rudely interrupted as I caught sight of myself in a wash-room mirror, and realising I'd forgotten to shave for a couple of days, I hoped there was no strict dress code at the door to the next cave - even my Cro-Magnon and Neanderthal ancestors would probably have tutted at my appearance that afternoon.
I needn't have worried, and was greeted by my guide, who also informed me that she would be speaking in Spanish as she led the tour - except on this occasion, and much to my surprise, I was the only visitor. Just a very lucky break, as whilst we were waiting for the previous tour to end, about 20 people came out through the door, whilst the others who had been with me at Las Monedas were nowhere to be seen.
Being the only person present suddenly made the tour a lot easier, as it allowed me to converse in my faltering Spanish as we walked round, making it a much more involved experience - at Las Monedas I hadn't wanted to hold up proceedings by trying to ask this or that question in language that may not have been understood, by the guide or the other visitors, but with my very knowledgeable guide I felt much more able to ask questions and comment as we went along.
The actual cave entrance to El Castillo is now under a roof, which includes the reception centre, and the tour began there. Stood facing away the entrance door, you can see the the original excavations which descend for 20 metres, through at least 26 separate layers - when first discovered, I think the entrance to rooms at the back of the cave would have been blocked, and it is apparent from the gaping hole that a vast amount excavation by archaeologists over the years has taken place, since the initial discovery of the site in 1903.
Working through these deposits, it was determined that humans had been visiting this site for at least 150,000 years, which I think would make it one the earliest examples of humans in a European cave - most examples of cave occupation that come to mind tend to occur in the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic eras
The tour proper begins once again by walking through a locked door, present at all the caves I saw, installed in modern times to protect the caves from too many people visiting, as well as more structural damage that can be caused by careless humans, or in some cases vandals - readers will be aware that vandalism to outdoor rock sites can pose real threats to the integrity of sites, as even the cleaning process afterwards can cause damage, as well as wasting limited financial resources.
El Castillo is, like Las Monedas, a large cave comprising a number of rooms, chambers or halls, more or less on the same level, and which run into one another in a succession of discrete areas, in this instance linked by short flights of steps, each 'salle' with its own unique shape and characteristics - indeed, there are many well-known caves with rock art which instead of being a simple hollow in a mountainside, contain different sections, passages, niches, overhangs and so on.
Because El Castillo is quite a complex site, containing numerous components, I have linked to and referred from this page for greater clarification of detail. Although I have very clear memories of the cave and the images I saw, I find I'm a little hazy regarding the order in which I saw them, and their relation in space and time to one another. My guide also pointed out at the time that it was very difficult to ascribe exact dating to the paintings, although it is generally believed that the oldest hand-print may date to 28,000 years, with the more recent paintings occurring up until the Late Magdalenian, around the same time as Las Monedas, in other words, cave painting that spanned the entire Upper Palaeolithic tradition. Here's a quote by Marc Groenen, author of the linked article...
"The cave walls of El Castillo have without any doubt been decorated during the whole period of the Upper Palaeolithic; this is moreover the major difficulty to be solved. Contrary to the normal situation in prehistoric archaeology, where data come from a well-defined stratigraphic sequence, wall figures are isolated from the context that would allow their dating. Such statement is not unimportant. We are certain, today, that the motives were not distributed at random on the walls. If they have been placed intentionally one relating to the other, specifying their age becomes imperative, in order to be able to reconstitute the wall decoration state at each period."
The first image we came to was a stencilled negative of a left hand in a red ochre surround, immediately familiar and alien at the same time, floating alone on a wall, maybe greeting you, maybe saying goodbye, or just a memento of someone long ago who wanted to leave something of themselves in a place where they thought that something would remain long after they had departed this world. My guide suggested that in some cases a type of sign language might have been inherent, and that could also be the case, especially in some cases where finger appear to be missing for the stencil or print - although I'm fairly sure that all the hands I saw in El Castillo had their full complement of digits.
More figures of animals followed, including a complex frieze, and at times like these a guide with an experienced eye is essential - there are places where bison paintings in black have been effectively melded with much older red ochre hand stencils, and in others there appear to be missing parts of a say a bison, and it is only with the aid of torchlight and a pointer you realise that rather than some paintings merely being left unfinished, the artist has allowed the contours of the rock surface to complete - or even initiate - the resulting image.
In this instance, where later painting appears next to or on top of older hand stencils, it's noticeable that these hands haven't been obliterated or altered, rather they have been incorporated into the new design - Palaeolithic art does sometimes cover and otherwise detract from older times, and it's a mystery why sometimes older paintings were left intact, or incorporated into new creations, with others almost ignored as if they didn't exist.
And again, it is immediately obvious that these figures aren't just lines on a rock drawn by someone merely passing the time, or producing mindless grafitti - in each case, not only the artist could draw and paint in a skilled and assured manner, but could also visually sculpt ideas (and maybe messages) by stretching and bending 2-dimensional normality into a three-dimensional hyper-reality, taking the work beyond the mere figurative representation of the subject matter.
And then there are the semi-abstract designs, geometric patterns, dots and discs which add a few more mysteries to the caves, their walls and how they might have been perceived by those who painted them. As far as I can tell, the human habitation levels were situated at or near to the cave entrance, whilst the galleries at the back containing the paintings were not used in the course of day-to-day living - and I believe this was the case at Las Monedas also.
One particularly intriguing room had a series of red ochre discs running in a low line for a few metres - spaced too close together to be of use as a guide along a route through the caves, but each one the same as before, retaining the same shape and size - with a sudden break, followed by a few more of the same. but on a raised level. I think my guide suggested they may have represented a tally of some sort, although what was being counted is anyone's guess. Another interpretation might point in the direction of the sun, or full moons, but again, this can only be a guess. Whatever their purpose, I don't think mere decoration was the motive of the person(s) who applied the paint.
At another panel, depicting bison, someone had somehow scrubbed away the dark mineral accretion to reveal the creamy, natural colour of the rock, before painting the bison next to an earlier depiction; I can't think of another similar site where the painting surface has been prepared in this way.
Another very interesting feature I saw wasn't a painting on the walls, but a very curious altar-like feature, formed from a stalagmite, and reaching about chest height from the cave floor, which had been etched with detail in an extremely sophisticated way. It was a kind of elongated dome, the contours of which had prompted someone to add a few lines in black so as to portray a vertical bison, with a beautifully and subtly engraved eye, whilst at the bottom, almost indiscernible, was the talon of a bird. My guide opined that this may represent a shaman wearing a bison cape, whilst the bird is well known in shamanistic lore, representing the ability of the shaman to 'fly' to other realms.
I should point out here that I was extremely privileged to see this, because my guide told me that as I was the only person present, she'd show me this - apparently with a big tour group it just isn't practical to try and get around 20 people close enough to the carving for them to be able to see properly. For me this added a whole new dimension to the cave, with the idea that it had maybe been associated with magic in some way, if indeed this 'altar' (my description) did indeed represent a site visited by a shaman realising his or her ritualistic intentions.
It is notable that in virtually every depiction of an animal in the cave, the eye is included, the only exception I can think of being the red outline of the elongated muzzle of what might be a deer - sometimes it almost seems as if the eye is the intended focal point of the painting, but you're often distracted from this by flowing and elegant curves and forms created around them.
In contrast to the many depictions of bison and other creatures, there was a kind of ledge under which was a low ceiling, going back 10 metres or more. Here are to be found various negative hand stencils, near the front, and towards the back - in one instance it is clear, assuming the floor level is the same as back then, that someone would have had to be lying on their back to create their hand stencil, several metres into the confined area - if this was the case, and they were blowing red ochre straight above them onto the ceiling, some of that blown paint spray would have splashed back down onto their face. At least one of nearby hands appeared quite large, and I think it was in this location that a much smaller negative hand stencil, possibly that of a child was found,
Of course, this begs the question of whether a physical feature such as the modified stalagmite had been tied in the with the paintings on the cave walls, especially a particular frieze upon which have been interpreted to be vulvae outlined in red, and a curious plant-like drawing in black, thought to represent phallus, given the pictorial context. Sex and magic have long been intimate partners, though if, and how this had been realised within the depths of El Castillo back in the Palaeolithic, is something we can only ponder.
Yet another frieze depicted those odd geometric patterns, also seen at other caves such at Monte Castillo, as well as Altamira, a few tens of kilomteres distant, suggesting a direct link between the two locations. My thoughts were that they might possibly portray nearby settlements from where the visitors came. Although village life is commonly supposed to have begun in the later Neolithic, there has been increasing speculation that village life may have begun hundreds of thousands of years earlier, at least according to the recently reported research of Professor Helmut Ziegert.
Although some people probably did live in caves, and there are no reliable population figures, it doesn't seem unreasonable to me to suggest that people here and there, may have been living in settlements of some kind through at least the latter stages of the Palaeolithic. If there were sufficient numbers of people on the ground, it might very well have made sense to build small cluster of huts and fence them off, not so much from other humans, but marauding faunal predators.
However, I can't think of any archaeological evidence that has come to light in the area supporting this, and moreover the divisions of space don't immediately appear to conform to a logical lay-out of a settlement, so another, unknown explanation of the gridded patterns may be more likely, but the fact that they appear at more than one site suggests they weren't random graffiti, but signified something of importance to those who painted them, maybe something more along the lines of a tribal emblem, although the rows of carefully drawn dots that appear alongside seem to point once more towards the shamanistic, and specifically the trance state.
It is also noticeable that the gridded designs aren't drawn with anything like the panache of the animals, much more deliberate, almost stilted, and it would seem they represent something different or separate, from the animal depictions, and it may be in this contrast of style and application that part of the explanation for their creation lies.
That about wraps up the tour - and although I've missed out detail here and there, and the images appeared in a different order from my written description, I hope this and the accompanying pictures and more formal article by Marc Groenen will give the reader a reasonable idea of what they might expect to see on a visit of their own - I didn't have a notebook with me, and I'm not sure if it's even permissible to use writing materials within the cave, hence this rather impressionistic account, rather than a strictly accurate replication of each step of the tour. This is partly due I think, because once inside the cave and looking at the paintings, it is easy to be dazzled and disoriented with what you're seeing, that details as exactly which part of the cave you're in, or the exact sequence in which the images are presented gets lost in the moment - and for that reason, as I mentioned earlier, I've linked to a more scientifically rendered account of the cave.
As I was thanking my guide for taking me round, she darted into her office, and gave me a brochure which is not normally available - or at least wasn't included in the free leaflet stand at reception. For this I would like to thank her as well, particularly because it includes pictures of everything I saw in Las Monedas and El Castillo, which of course more than made up for not being able to take photos myself - in any event, they are far better than anything my lamentable indoor camera-work could produce. As a result, I have scanned part of this brochure, in order that readers may see for themselves some of the sights in the caves - and the linked article also contains some images.
The linked article also details a plan to create re-create a 3 dimensional digital replica of the cave, in order to take into account the relief aspect of the art in this cave, recognising that the shapes and contours of the rocks are just as important as the drawn lines and painted details - it is clear that an effort was being made to symbolically unite the efforts of the artists with the natural canvas upon which they worked, which they may have considered as being a kind of portal into a supernatural realm of the spirits, maybe the world of their dead ancestors - the point benig that the rock surface appears to have acted more than just as a utility for the bearing of random images.
So my final thoughts on my visit to Monte Castillo would be once again to sincerely thank the staff there for making the whole occasion even better and more informative than I could have imagined, as well as their kindness and helpfulness to me. The entire site is a testament to how such places could and should be run; for example there is no cafeteria or gift shop, which could easily have been included as a means of making the place financially viable - bearing in mind that the entrance fee is just over 6 euros to see the two caves, it is apparent that the decision has been taken to keep the whole site as low-key and under-commercialised as possible, which in my opinion is a very good idea, as it allows the site to maintain a degree of peace and quiet to which it has long been accustomed.
It means that visitors to these very old and fragile sites are going specifically to see the painted walls of the caves, and it is this very fragility which dictates that visitor numbers have to be kept low - which of course means that financially, the site has to run at a loss, and it is to the great credit of whoever takes care of these things, that enough money is made available not only to maintain the site in a fitting manner, but also maintain a staff of guides and curators who not only know their stuff, but are able to impart their knowledge in a clear and enthusiastic way, which not only educates the visitor, but makes them feel very welcome at the same time, and I for one would recommend a visit, and can definitely imagine making a return visit of my own.
There are to the caves at the site, La Pasiega, La Flecha among them, which also contain parietal art, although I'm not sure if they're currently open to the public - if it transpires they are open, I'll hopefully have a look at those at some point in the future - but even if they're not, I could imagine wanting to visit Las Monedas and El Castillo again, if only to instil a more accurate and coherent overview of the two sites - seeing them for the first time left more of a subjective than strictly analytic impression on me, highlighting the importance of my doing some better research into such sites before visiting them.
My overall impression of the caves and the haunting yet vital images which they project from the distant past into our world, are special in a way that I don't think could be replicated by anything we could make today. Each time I came out of a cave, it was as though I had a very slight tingle of energy that hadn't been there before, and although this was more likely due to excitement on my part at having seen their hidden sights, it's no coincidence that the area is famous for its invigorating mineralised waters.
And it is those minerals and waters, as I mentioned earlier, that have combined to construct the very backdrop of dripping limestone caves for ancient humans to apply their derived paints and contrived designs from sources within the caves, upon their walls, allowing us the most fleeting of all glimpses into a world of shadows and echoes, supporting a symbolically represented world of beliefs that prevails in the visual medium to this day.
see also: scanned images from the brochure
views of El Castillo and its immediate surroundings
article : El Castillo, Puente Viesgo, by Marc Groenen
Part 1 - Cueva de Las Monedas
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