Altamira Cave Paintings

 

1. The cave paintings are well preserved thanks to the deepness of the cave which isolates the paintings from weather damage.
2. The paintings, however, have been slightly damaged due to mass tourism from the 60's to the 70s. The visits increased temperature levels, carbon dioxide, and humidity, causing increased condensation and rock corrosion, that damaged the paintings.
3. The Altamira Cave was first discovered in 1897 by amateur archaeologist Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola.
   
4. There is no evidence of cave art later than 11,000 BP. (Not relevant to Altamira, but I thought that was interesting!)

I feel that shamanism would be a possible theory for this cave, because we tend to see animals on the horizon line and not over our heads. This cave has paintings on the walls and on the "ceiling" part of the cave.

Looking at the images, there is a repetitive use of images such as bison, but they all vary in size. Most images have a hard, black outline to them, an element that seems to repeat itself through the cave paintings.Some of the animals have implied texture to them, such as dots or lines indicating hair.

Sources:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/spain/7814327/Spain-to-reopen-Altamira-Caves-despite-risk-of-destroying-prehistoric-paintings.html

http://popular-archaeology.com/issue/september-2011/article/saving-altamira-cave

http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/310/