Taking Inventory
For two years, we visited a lot of caves. So far, we’ve documented the paintings and engravings at 52 rock art sites across Europe. Our travels have taken us to four countries. We’ve recorded some of the oldest art in the world—from about 40,800 years ago. And we’ve explored caves bearing witness to the end of this way of life 10,000 years ago.
We didn’t fi nd much in El Portillo— just the two red dots. Yet we had the opposite experience in another cave, not far from the Spanish coast. T e entrance to the cave at Cudon was much more inviting than at El Portillo. A short climb down from the street brought us to a wide cave mouth framed by bushes and trees.
T e fi rst art we see is just inside the
entrance. It’s a long row of large, red dots. Each dot is about 8 centimeters across. T e dots run the length of the wall.
An ancient, underground river carved out this cave. So the passageways tend to be tall and wide, with curving ceilings. It’s a bit like walking through an old subway tunnel. T e passageway opens up to a large chamber. We come across a handprint in that same pink shade that we saw at El Portillo.
Were these divided shapes used to record or count something?
This handprint was made by rubbing iron oxide over a hand pressed to the wall.
Further in, we see another row of red dots. Gustavo off ers to take us deeper into the cave so we can look for more traces of red paint. We move beyond the chamber. T e passageway starts to narrow and the ceiling angles downward.
Before long, we’re crawling across a fl oor of jagged rock. We look up at the low ceiling. T ere’s a set of three, long dashes. T ey look like paint-covered fi ngertips were dragged across the ceiling. Another pair of these marks is nearby.
ADVENTURER
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