Are hand stencils in European cave art older than we think?

2015

1 Department of Archaeology, Durham University, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, United Kingdom. 2 The Cantabria Institute for Prehistoric Research, University of Cantabria, Edificio Interfacultativo, Avda. Los Castros s/n, 39005 Santander, Spain. 3 Departamento de Geografía, Prehistoria y Arquelogía, Facultad de Letras, University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU, c/ Tomás y Valiente s/n, 01006 Vitoria-Gazteiz, Álava, Spain. 4 Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology Department of Human Evolution, Deutscher Platz 6, 04103 Leipzig, Germany. 5 Facultad de Filosofía y Letras UNAM, Circuito Interior. Ciudad Universitaria, s/n. C.P. 04510. México, DF. México. 6 The Cantabria Institute for Prehistoric Research Cuevas Prehistóricas de Cantabria, Carretera de las Cuevas s/n, 39670 Puente Viesgo, Spain. 7 Department of Archaeology, University of Southampton, Avenue Campus, Highfield Road, Southampton, SO17 1BF, UK. 8 University of Barcelona/ICREA, Departament de Prehistòria, Història Anti...

In 2011 we undertook an informed analysis of the context and positioning of stencils in La Garma and El Castillo caves, taking a number of observations and measurements of each visible hand stencil. By focussing on the context of hand stencils we planned to widen our understanding of stencils by exploring processes of individual decision-making made in a very specific and constrained environment. As stencils appear early in the chronology of European Palaeolithic art (Pike et alii, 2012; García-Diez et alii, 2015) this new perspective to contributes to current debates as to the origins and development of cognitively 'modern' behaviour and art in general. Most of the hand stencils of El Castillo -at least 44, of which 38 were clear enough to measure -cluster in a panel in a narrow gallery beyond the Gran Sala, although isolated examples exist further into the cave's depth (Alcalde del Rio et alii, 1911; Leroi-Gourhan 1968, 333-4, Figure 2, http://www.marcgroenen-castillo.be.). The Lower Gallery of La Garma cave contains early (Pre-Magdalenian) and late (Middle Magdalenian) stages of Palaeolithic activity (Arias et alii, 2011; Ontañón, 2003; González-Sainz, 2003). The former includes the stencils, of which we examined the 27 which were clear enough to take measurements on. We took a series of observations on each hand stencil, pertaining to their morphology, positioning and any apparent associations with natural features and with other examples of art. A more thorough account of our work has been published (Pettitt et alii, 2014). In most cases stencils were created from positions of comfort, but one example in La Garma and five in El Castillo were created in uncomfortable and impractical conditions even though more comfortable and practical locations were available to their immediate vicinity. An extreme example of this is Hand 28 at the extreme right of the Main Panel of Hands in El Castillo (figura 1). Of greater import, however, were our observations on the natural associations of stencils (tabla 1). 80% of observable stencils at La Garma and 74% at El Castillo have some kind of association, either with fissures or convex/concave undulations on the caves' surfaces. As areas of 'smooth' rock were easily accessible in each cave and within close proximity to stencils such associations cannot be entirely fortuitous. Some stencils seem to have Figura 1. The position necessary to leave the rightmost hand stencil of the Panel of hands, El Castillo. Foto: Luis Teira and courtesy Gobierno de Cantabria.

Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 2025

U-Th dating of associated carbonate crusts has been applied to date parietal art in Maltravieso cave, Extremadura, Spain. Known for its large collection of red hand stencils (≥60), one example previously dated to >66.7 ka was taken to suggest Neandertal authorship. Here we present a more detailed U-series study of hand stencils within the cave, and place the results in the context of the chronology of these motifs worldwide. Twenty-two carbonate samples overlying pigment of hand stencils were dated from the cave's Sala de las Pinturas and the Galería de la Serpiente. Minimum ages for the art range from the Holocene to the Middle Palaeolithic. Alongside published dating results from other sites, this demonstrates that Neandertals as well as modern humans could create these motifs.

Antiquity, 2014

N 0 k m 400 Hand stencils are an intriguing feature of prehistoric imagery in caves and rockshelters in several parts of the world, and the recent demonstration that the oldest of those in Western Europe date back to 37 000 years or earlier further enhances their significance. Their positioning within the painted caves of France and Spain is far from random, but responds to the shapes and fissures in the cave walls. Made under conditions of low and flickering light, the authors suggest that touch-'palpation'-as much as vision, would have driven and directed the locations chosen for these stencils. Detailed study of the images in two Cantabrian caves also allows different individuals to be distinguished, most of whom appear to have been female. Finally, the project reveals deliberate associations between the stencils and features on the cave walls.

N 0 k m 400 Hand stencils are an intriguing feature of prehistoric imagery in caves and rockshelters in several parts of the world, and the recent demonstration that the oldest of those in Western Europe date back to 37 000 years or earlier further enhances their significance. Their positioning within the painted caves of France and Spain is far from random, but responds to the shapes and fissures in the cave walls. Made under conditions of low and flickering light, the authors suggest that touch-'palpation'-as much as vision, would have driven and directed the locations chosen for these stencils. Detailed study of the images in two Cantabrian caves also allows different individuals to be distinguished, most of whom appear to have been female. Finally, the project reveals deliberate associations between the stencils and features on the cave walls.

The red disks from El Castillo Cave are among the earliest known cave paintings. Here, we combine the morphometric and technological study of red disks from two areas located at the end of the cave with the microscopic, elemental, and mineralogical analysis of the pigment and compare the results obtained with observations derived from experimental replication. Ergonomic constraints imply that a number of disks were made by adults, and the differences in pigment texture and composition suggest that they correspond to an accumulation through time of panels made by different persons who shared neither the same technical know-how nor, very possibly, the same symbolic system.

2015

The hand stencils of European Paleolithic art tend to be considered of pre-Magdalenian age and scholars have generally assigned them to the Gravettian period. At El Castillo Cave, application of U-series dating to calcite accretions has established a minimum age of 37,290 years for underlying red hand stencils, implying execution in the earlier part of the Aurignacian if not beforehand. Together with the series of red disks, one of which has a minimum age of 40,800 years, these motifs lie at the base of the El Castillo parietal stratigraphy. The similarity in technique and colour support the notion that both kinds of artistic manifestations are synchronic and define an initial, non-figurative phase of European cave art. However, available data indicate that hand stencils continued to be painted subsequently. Currently, the youngest, reliably dated examples fall in the Late Gravettian, approximately 27,000 years ago.

Quaternary International, 2017

Traditionally, studies of Palaeolithic cave art have largely ignored or directly overlooked the red marks of anthropogenic origin that do not belong to figurative categories, in spite of their importance in quantitative terms in this type of art. This paper highlights their importance for better understanding the significance of the cave remains commonly classified as "rock or cave art." To this end, we analysed these marks directly in a number of caves (Etxeberri-Pyr en ees-Atlantiques, France-, Lumentxa-Bizkaia, Spain-, Morr on-Ja en, Spain-and Nerja-M alaga, Spain-). This allowed us to differentiate between intentional and other incidental or involuntary red marks. Furthermore, depending on the intrinsic and extrinsic characteristics of these marks, as well as information provided by archaeological and ethnographic findings, we related them to the body painting of their authors. Therefore, an identifiable part of the red marks so common in Palaeolithic cave art (and which could therefore not be considered as art sensu stricto) seems to be produced involuntarily. This could be related with the customs of the Palaeolithic groups attested by the archaeological record, as the frequentation of the innermost areas in the caves or as the decoration their bodies with ochre-based paint.

Proceedings of Prehistoric Society, Cambridge University Press, 2021

Our Palaeolithic ancestors did not make good representations of themselves on the rocky surfaces of caves and barring certain exceptionssuch as the case of La Marche (found on small slabs of stone or plaquettes) or the Cueva de Ambrosiothe few known examples can only be referred to as anthropomorphs. As such, only hand stencils give us a real picture of the people who came before us. Hand stencils and imprints provide us with a large amount of information that allows us to approach not only their physical appearance but also to infer less tangible details, such as the preferential use of one hand over the other (i.e., handedness). Both new and/or mature technologies as well as digital processing of images, computers with the ability to process very high resolution images, and a more extensive knowledge of the Palaeolithic figures all help us to analyse thoroughly the hands in El Castillo cave. The interdisciplinary study presented here contributes many novel developments based on real data, representing a major step forward in knowledge about our predecessors.

2015