Puente Viesgo

Puente Viesgo is a municipality in Cantabria, Spain. Caves have been discovered near Puente Viesgo that contain rock art and artefacts dating back to the Middle and Upper Paleolithic.HistoryThe various populations of Puente Viesgo are documented since the year 1000 by the abbey of Santillana del Mar. These documents describe a bridge over the river Pas, from which comes the name of the municipality.The Cave of El Castillo was discovered in 1903 by the Spanish archaeologist Hermilio Alcalde del Río and was first explored and excavated by the German prehistorian Hugo Obermaier, with further excavation taking place in 1980. There are paintings of bison and horses, and large numbers of handprints, made by blowing mineral particles onto a hand pressed against the cave wall. These are believed to be the oldest examples of rock art in the region. They could not be dated by radiocarbon techniques because the pigments contained no organic matter, but were dated by assessing the age of the calcium carbonate deposit that had formed over the surface. One red disc was found to be 40,800 years old.Another cave nearby is the Cueva de las Monedas. The paintings here are black, being made with coal, and depict horses, goats, bears, bison and reindeer. The pictures of reindeer are believed to date back to the last ice age, about 13,000 years ago.