Taking Inventory We’ve visited a lot of caves in Northern Europe during the last two years. So far, we’ve documented the symbols at 52 rock art sites. We’ve recorded some of the oldest art in the world. And we’ve seen art that shows us a way of life that ended 10,000 years ago. We didn’t fi nd much in El Portillo. But at Cudon, things were diff erent. T e entrance to this cave was more inviting. A short climb down from the street brought us to a wide cave mouth framed by trees. T e fi rst art we see is just inside the


entrance. It’s a long row of large, red dots that run the length of the wall. An ancient, underground river carved


out this cave. So the passageways are tall and wide. T is one opens up to a large chamber. T ere, we see a single handprint on the wall.


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. 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 fi ngertips that were dragged across the ceiling. Another pair of these marks is nearby.


Were these divided shapes used to record or count something?


PPATHFINDER


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