‘The Bisons Gallery’: a new decorated sector in Alkerdi cave (Urdazubi/Urdax, Navarra)

Abstract

Alkerdi is the only cave with Paleolithic rock art engravings known in the Regional Community of Navarre. Located in Pyrenean foothills, its discovery was carried out by the French speleologist N. Casteret in 1930, who published it briefly shortly after (1933). The detailed study of the engravings will not take place until several decades after, by I. Barandiarán (1974) who, in the last years, has excavated the archaeological deposit of the cavity (2009). During 2014 the signers have developed a new study of the parietal art because of the finding of a new decorated gallery in which there are concentrated twenty engraved figures, mainly representations of bison, which exponentially multiply the previously known set. The conventions and formal characteristics of the figures respond to those ones of the Middle Magdalenian, and especially tie to the sets of the Pyrenean region. This new turn in the knowledge of the parietal art of the cavity forces a re-evaluation of the study in this area hinged in the western Pyrenees.

Keywords

• arte rupestre
• grabado
• paleolítico superior
• cantábrico
• pirenaico