Una tibia con ciervas grabadas de la Cueva de La Cuelga. Cangas de Onís, Asturias.

Abstract

In the course of excavations at the cave of La Güelga (Asturias, northern Spain), with strata belonging to the Upper Palaeolithic, a decorated fragment of tibia or deer was found in the level 3 of zone A, culturally assigned to the Cantabrian Lower Magdalenian. Three heads of hind were engraved on the bone with a single, deep outline. One of the hinds («A») is similar in style to the engravings of Altamira and Castillo, chronologically assigned to the Magdalenian with no harpoons, while the style of the other two (hinds «B» and «C») is characteristic of the Magdalenian with harpoons. The coexistence of both styles in the same bone piece is an outstanding evidence against the usually rigid identification of styles and chronological periods in the study of Upper Palaeolithic art.