The mystery of the cave masterpiece

In 1875, in the cave Altamira in Spain, De Sotura discovered many flint tools, animal bones of the Paleolithic era and black frescoes on the cave walls.

Four years later, De Soture's second visit to Altamira with the hope of unearthing many new artifacts, this time he brought his new daughter up to 5. When he was still excavating in Altamira cave, his daughter played herself. alone, suddenly panicked shouting: "Buffalo! Buffalo". What she discovered was that the mural was famous all over the world in the cave Altamira. At the top of the cave and cave walls, animals are drawn full of animals such as wild boar, wild buffalo, forest deer and wild horses with different poses. The mural has been seen as the beginning of modern art.

Altamira cave is very big with a length of 400m. It is known that this cave is caused by a flow of water after many years of eroding rocks that create. The famous mural on the left of the cave is 11m long, about 5m wide, representing a total of more than 170 animal images with many different styles. The contours of the mural are very lively, reasonably arranged, beautiful colors. The talented artist was then able to take full advantage of the characteristic concave and convex features of lava to express the changes in the flesh and bones of animals. The superior tactics of the mural make people admire admiration.

The talented artist thoroughly took advantage of the characteristic concave and convex features of lava to show the change of the flesh and bones of animals ( Photo: polibea )

In 1880, De Sotura published the Altamira fresco in the book "A Brief Introduction of Prehistoric Monuments in Santander Province ". He said that the age of the old Stone Age mural. The discovery and explanation of the Sotura's frescoes sparked a fierce debate in academia. Sotura's view was supported by French professor - Gogriel de Mortilet and ancient biologist Madrit Werlannova. But the majority of academics are against Sotura's interpretation. They said that primitive people could not have such a high level of artistic expression. A deer ( Photo: rsta.pucmm ) Some even criticize Sotura as a fraud and they suspect that the paintings are fake. Therefore, the fresco in Altamira cave after being published has raised a wave of debate but quickly settled down. By 1888, when Sotura left the world, he still held regret because his great discovery was still not acknowledged by mankind.


The research results of the modern archaeological industry show that many of the cave sites that primitive people once inhabited have relics of original frescoes. The content of the mural is still mainly animals such as forest horses, wild buffalo, forest deer, lions, bears, devils . So, some people believe that cave art is the art of drawing statues. about animals. Prehistoric humans depicting these animals may be because they conceive they have a role to play with them. Some animals provide them with food to survive such as wild horses, wild buffalo or wild animals that seriously threaten their habitat such as lions, bears, tigers, . and There are also animals that provide items to make indispensable items in their daily lives such as ivory, deer horn, .

The mural " Wild buffalo is injured" ( Photo: kaliman ) From the art of art, the artistic level of primitive people is very low. The majority of painting works have rough lines that lose the mark, the color is not suitable. Even cave art, only thousands of years ago, has a very awkward painting level that cannot be compared to the Altamira cave fresco. Therefore, Western scholars have always said that Altamira cave fresco is a fake art work of mankind in recent centuries.

It can be said that the " Trau Trong wild buffalo " mural painted on top of the cave is the best of the frescoes in Altamira. This wild buffalo is very aggressive, after being wounded, the whole body curls into a block, 4 legs twitching, its horn curls up, its tail swings up, its ears stand up. The spirit of the wild buffalo is very soulful and highly artistic. The fierce pre-death state of the buffalo has been subtly shown to make people admiring the superior artistic level of the original artists.

In the Altamira cave, in addition to the true depictions, there are many stately drawings. Here, there are sketches with rough black strokes, with graphic images with soft colors but very bold, some places make people see the eyes. It is anticipated, these drawings want to express humanity's desire to conquer beasts. Maybe they are related to religious beliefs in the hunting of primitive people.

Visitors enjoy mural art ( Photo: centros3 )

However, what is hard to understand is, how could the original inhabitants of Altamira cave create such a glorious artistic achievement? So far, people have not found a satisfactory answer. It is known that Altamira cave is only limited to receiving 35 visitors daily, even planning ahead. We believe that, along with the development of science and many new discoveries of archeology, it is certain to discover the mystery of the Altamira cave mural.

Some pictures in the cave Altamira

(Photo: uned )

(Photo: grupos.unican )

(Photo: tamabi )

(Photo: grupos.unican )