EL PENDO CAVE

The El Pendo cave is one of the caves included in the Unesco World Heritage List in 2008. Known since the end of the 19th century, it was only after the discovery of the Altamira paintings that scientists decided to undertake the search for engravings and cave paintings in the El Pendo cave. Traces of occupation dating from 80,000 years ago to the Bronze Age were found during the excavations and in 1907 some engravings were discovered, probably of a bird and a horse. These are not the only riches that this cave has yielded: the báston de mando (command stick), a perforated and engraved stick, has also been found, and is now on display in the Santander Museum of Prehistory and Archaeology.

During a new excavation campaign in 1997, the team of archaeologist Ramón Montes discovered, completely by chance, hidden on a wall at the bottom of the cave, under a layer of moss, a set of paintings forming a large frieze 25 metres long, with some twenty drawings painted in red. We can observe in particular a dozen hinds, a goat, a horse as well as unidentified zoomorphic figures. Note also the various forms of signs, such as disks, lines or dots, generally located outside the main panel. These dotted figures were made with a finger or a stamp, showing a certain complexity for the time. The paintings have been dated to 20-22,000 years ago.