Overview
- A study published this week in Antiquity documents 280 engravings in Cova de la Font Major, including about 55 animal figures such as horses, deer, aurochs and a rare bear.
- The panels were first noticed during a 2019 excavation when researcher Josep Maria Vergès Bosch recognised prehistoric traits among modern graffiti that had long covered the gallery.
- Researchers say the engravings went unnoticed for decades because frontal lighting and heavy modern graffiti hid shallow incisions on the cave's uneven conglomerate walls.
- Radiocarbon samples from cave deposits show human activity around 40,800–35,400 years ago and again c. 26,300–25,900 years ago, but the engravings themselves remain to be directly dated using techniques such as uranium‑series on overlying calcite.
- Access to the decorated gallery has been restricted while teams pursue dating, conservation and expanded surveys, and researchers warn that past tourist access and vandalism likely destroyed or obscured additional Paleolithic images.