page_title: Cave of La Pasiega
section_title: The ideomorphs of La Pasiega
hierarchical_section_title: Cave of La Pasiega / The ideomorphs of La Pasiega
caption_attribution_description: La llamada «Trampa» del panel 78 en la Galería C (tercer santuario) de la Cueva de La Pasiega, en el monte Castillo, localidad de Puente Viesgo (Cantabria, España)
context_page_description: Cueva de La Pasiega, or Cave of La Pasiega, situated in the Spanish municipality of Puente Viesgo, is one of the most important monuments of Paleolithic art in Cantabria. It is included in the UNESCO World Heritage List since July 2008, as part of the inscription: "Cave of Altamira and palaeolithic cave art of Northern Spain."
  It is located in the heart of the uniprovincial community, in the middle of the Pas River valley, around the cave of Hornos de la Pena and Monte Castillo, in the same group of caves as Las Monedas, Las Chimeneas, and the cave of El Castillo. The caves of Monte Castillo form an amazingly complete series, both as regards the material culture of the Old Stone Age and from an artistic point of view. La Pasiega is basically an enormous gallery, its known extent more than 120 meters, that runs more or less parallel to the slope of the mount, opening to the surface at six different places: six small mouths, the majority obstructed, of which two can be accessed for inspection. The principal gallery is approximately 70 meters and opens to deeper secondary galleries, winding and labyrinthine, which in places broaden out to form large chambers.
context_section_description: The ideomorphs – and possible anthropomorphs – of La Pasiega are listed and classified as:
  Dotted signs: These are the simplest symbols in the cave. Generally they appear in two forms, one of which has many dots, usually not associated with animals, but with other ideomorphs to which they are complementary. They are commonest in Galleries B and C, in the latter the groups of many dots seem related to deer, but the symbols are painted and the animals engraved, from which it is possible to deduce that they are of different periods.
  In the second type, the dots can appear much more loosely grouped. Then it is certainly possible to associate them with animals without too much uncertainty. The small groups of dots always appear once or twice in each room combined with cattle. But there are two very distinct cases in Gallery A in which horses have an aureole of dots, and these are confronted one to the other as at the entrance to the room mentioned. The dotted forms are most common during the Solutrean period.
  Linear signs: These are more varied and complex both in their morphology and in their associations (there are examples shaped like arrows, branches, feathers, simple lines called rods (bastoncillos), etc.). They are sometimes associated with hinds. For example, one of the foremost panels of gallery A has these kinds of ideomorphs associated with a vulva and a hind. In the second group of Gallery C there is a bison (panel 83) which may have a linear sign associated (it looks like a javelin, but that idea is very controversial), as well as some other symbol. At the side is a feather-shaped symbol grouped with other key-shaped (claviform) ones (discussed below) which were not identified in the original monograph (but became known through an article by Leroi-Gourhan).
  Finally there is a series of signs involving rods which appear in the entries to Galleries B and C. Breuil interpreted this type of sign in relation to the topographical changes within the sanctuary, which is possible: they could be marks which the initiates followed, or which warned them of possible dangers such as clefts. Certainly the difficult areas of the cave when visited can be negotiated more easily thereby. For Leroi-Gourhan, they are male symbols in binary relation to the cave itself, which represents the female principle (discussed below).
  Claviform signs: The signs called 'claviform' (key-shaped) are fairly abundant, specially in gallery B and in Room XI, but are doubtful if not indeed non-existent in Gallery A. Those of Room XI are the most characteristic and may be associated with horses. One of these can be considered as what Leroi-Gourhan calls a 'coupled sign', made by uniting in the same ideomorph a line or bar (masculine) with a key-shape (feminine). The typology and chronology of these signs is very ample.
  Polygonal signs are a varied group, a general category which includes rectangular, pentagonal and hexagonal signs. There is one in every room and, although they are few, one can draw comparisons with examples in other caves. for example there is a grill-shaped sign in Gallery B which can be compared with others in the cave of Aguas de Novales and of Marsoulas. In Gallery A there is a rectangular sign comparable to one which is found in one of the recesses at Lascaux. Lastly there is a sign formed by a pentagon and a hexagon side by side which, in the opinion of the specialist Pilar Casado, should be classified as a variant of the oval signs.
  Tectiform signs: These are without any question the most abundant signs of this cave. They have a more or less rectangular shape, with and without additions, with and without internal divisions. Despite their frequency, these signs are absent from Gallery B. Breuil established a chronology and development through all of them; according to Leroi-Gourhan they belong to Style III and they have parallels in many caves of Spain and France, the nearest being the cave of El Castillo. At La Pasiega they are found in the end area and the narrow defile of Gallery A, and in the first large group of Room XI.
  Uniqu
caption: "La Trampa"
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