Alfredo Maximiano Castillejo

New views on old hands: the context of stencils in El Castillo and La Garma caves (Cantabria, Spain)

Hand stencils are an intriguing feature of prehistoric imagery in caves and rockshelters in several parts of the world, and the recent demonstration that the oldest of those in Western Europe date back to 37 000 years or earlier further enhances their significance. Their positioning within the painted caves of France and Spain is far from random, but responds to the shapes and fissures in the cave walls. Made under conditions of low and flickering light, the authors suggest that touch—‘palpation’—as much as vision, would have driven and directed the locations chosen for these stencils. Detailed study of the images in two Cantabrian caves also allows different individuals to be distinguished, most of whom appear to have been female. Finally, the project reveals deliberate associations between the stencils and features on the cave walls.

Interpret the darkness: caves, rock art and analysis of simulated light through virtual scenes

Advances in digital technology have raised the capacity of capturing, processing and analyzing spatial data, bringing realistic and accurate reproductions of the elements in archaeological spaces. Current hardware and software have great potential in modelling phenomena and simulating their parameters, leading effective resources to these archaeological issues that have been hard to tackle until recent dates (intrusive techniques, heritage risk, hidden places, unavoidable impediments…). Thus, to approach contextual implications, we propose lighting simulation in aphotic sites as a procedure to study spatial relations between social agents and elements. In this paper we relate the necessary light intensity, its spatial distribution, and any derived implications for activity performing, especially in rock art production and visualization.