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Archaeological cave and rock art discoveries

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2026-11-08 12:45 UTC → 2026-11-10 23:10 UTC · added ~~removed~~

Research into ancient caves continues to reveal diverse aspects of human history, ranging from prehistoric symbolic communication to historical legends. In Europe and Australia, researchers are utilizing modern methodologies to decode rock engravings that may represent early forms of complex narratives and ancestral beliefs. A significant recent discovery occurred in Catalonia, Spain, at the Cova de la Font Major, near Espluga de Francolí in the province of Tarragona. Despite the cave being a known tourist site ~~for decades,~~ since the 1950s, archaeologists identified approximately 280 Upper Paleolithic engravings that had previously gone undetected. These motifs, which may date back as far as 26,000 years to the Ice Age, include 55 animal figures such as horses, deer, bears, goats, and bovids, as well as geometric shapes, parallel lines, swirls, and abstract patterns. Researchers from the Catalan Institute of Human Palaeoecology and Social Evolution (IPHES-CERCA), including Josep Maria Vergès Bosch and Míriam Salas-Altès, identified the motifs after investigating vertical lines in a side cave. The findings, published in the journal Antiquity, represent one of the largest collections of Paleolithic cave art ever found in Mediterranean ~~Iberia.~~ Iberia, now considered the third largest concentration of Ice Age cave art on the Mediterranean side of the Iberian Peninsula. Míriam Salas-Altès suggested that the dark conditions within the cave made the ancient etchings difficult to distinguish from modern graffiti. ~~This~~ The discovery ~~is expected to challenge~~ challenges existing understandings of Paleolithic art traditions, as ~~most regional art has historically been located in~~ the style at Font Major differs from the northern Franco-Cantabrian ~~area.~~ tradition, suggesting a distinct local artistic practice.

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