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Cueva de La Pasiega, or Cave of La Pasiega, situated in the Spanish municipality of Puente Viesgo, is one of the most important monuments of Paleolithic art in Cantabria. It is included in the UNESCO schedule of Human Heritage since July 2008, under the citation "Cave of Altamira and palaeolithic cave art of Northern Spain."〔Lamalfa, Carlos and Peñil, Javier, 'Las cuevas de Puente Viesgo', in ''Cuevas de España'' (Editorial Everest, León, 1991). ISBN 84-241-4688-3〕 It is located in the heart of the uniprovincial community, in the middle of the valley of the river Pas, around the cave of Hornos de la Pena and Monte Castillo, in the same group of caves as Las Monedas, Las Chimeneas, and the cave of El Castillo. The caves of Monte Castillo form an amazingly complete series, both as regards the material culture of the Old Stone Age and from an artistic point of view. La Pasiega is basically an enormous gallery, its known extent more than 120 meters, that runs more or less parallel to the slope of the mount, opening to the surface at six different places: six small mouths, the majority obstructed, of which two can be accessed for inspection. The principal gallery is approximately 70 meters and opens to deeper secondary galleries, winding and labyrinthine, which in places broaden out to form large chambers. Thus one refers to "room II-VIII", the room called "Gallery B", or "room 11" of "Gallery C", all with paleolithic decorations. The two last mentioned rooms contain some of the rock sanctuaries that will be mentioned below. The recorded remains belong mainly to the Upper Solutrean and the Lower Magdalenian ages, although older objects are also found. Throughout the cave are many 'walls' with paintings and with engraved or incised images. There are representations of equines (horses), cervids (deer, male and female) and bovines (cattle). There are also many abstract symbols (ideomorphs). ==The discovery of La Pasiega== The scientific discovery of the La Pasiega can be credited to Wernert and Hugo Obermaier. While excavating the cave of El Castillo in 1911, they received news that the workers knew of another cavity nearby that villagers called "La Pasiega." The investigators soon confirmed that the cave contained rock paintings. Later, Henri Breuil, Hugo Obermaier, and Hermilio Alcalde del Río began their systematic study of the cave. However, the study could not be finished due to Henri Breuil's ongoing work on his magnum opus.〔Breuil, H., Alcalde del Río, H., and Sierra, L., ''Les Cavernes de la Région Cantabrique (Espagne),'' Ed. A. Chêne. (Monaco 1911).〕 A separate monograph was necessary, and was published in 1913.〔Breuil, H., Obermaier, H., and Alcalde del Río, H., ''La Pasiega à Puente Viesgo,'' Ed. A. Chêne (Mónaco, 1913)〕〔Both publications were issued in Monaco because it was Prince Alberto I of Monaco who was patron of the investigations, ever since he had visited the site in 1909. It is no secret that this ruler was a great lover of archaeology, and not only did he support this excavation and others greatly, but also one of the fossil humans is named in his honour "Grimaldi Man", one of many names given to ''Homo sapiens'' fossilis): and the crowning example was his founding of the ''Institut de Palaeontologie Humaine'' in Paris.〕 The study was crucial to the advancement of prehistoric science in Spain.
Previously, the cave El Castillo was discovered by Alcalde del Río in 1903, and, as noted, Obermaier carried out excavations between 1910 and 1914. The excavations were continued at various times, intermittently, until our own times, by qualified specialists.〔Cabrera, V., Bernaldo de Quirós F. et al. (2004), 'Excavaciones en El Castillo: Veinte años de reflexiones', in ''Neandertales cantábricos, estado de la cuestión,'' vol. Actas de la Reunión Científica, Nº 20-22 (October) (Museo de Altamira, Ministerio de Cultura 2004).〕 Ultimately the investigation was taken up by the archaeologists Rodrigo de Balbín Behrmann and César González Sainz. After the discovery of "La Pasiega" and the first campaigns, the area was little visited — mainly owing to the difficult historical circumstances of Spain in the 1930s. After this, in 1952, while a eucalyptus plantation was being put in, another cave was found with a small monetary treasure of the 17th century: hence the new cave was called "Las Monedas": in it, however, was found a rock sanctuary with important pictures and drawings. In light of this, the engineer Alfredo García Lorenzo concluded that Monte Castillo held more secrets. Therefore, a geological survey was set in motion which resulted the following year in the discovery of another cave with rock paintings, "Las Chimeneas" ("The Chimneys"), and also other ''covachas'' of lesser importance such as "La Flecha", "Castañera", "Lago" etc. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Cueva de La Pasiega」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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