Ice Age Europe
Waving networks in the Ice Age
Weaving networks in the Ice Age is a video installation created by El Efecto Galatea on this European network, Ice Age Europe
, that brings together the efforts of so many places to go deeper and unravel the beginnings of our history. United by the heartbeat of the animals, we travel through the different museums and archaeological sites to get to know this line of research and collection of the remains of the very first European life forms. With the power of images, objects and the artistic video created by Bárbara Domínguez, from La Doncella Audiovisual Productions, we will be able to enter and walk through this great line that unites us all. Don´t miss out this adventure and join us!
Salto de línea Animals have been present in the lives of our ancestors since the beginning, as evidenced by the remains found in archaeological sites. Whether as a source of food, inspiration or fear, we find them represented in different supports and forms. This selection allows us to get closer to those who have been our travel companions for millennia and, at the same time, to visit the different museums and archaeological sites that make up the Ice Age Europe network:Salto de línea
Préhistomuseum
The Préhistomuseum in Belgium guards the Ramioul cave, a site where remains from 70,000 to 30,000 years ago have been documented. Archaeological excavations have found fauna typical of the Ice Age, such as bears, lions, cave hyenas or mammoths, like the one we see recreated in this sculpture. + InfoSalto de línea
Scladina Cave
This imposing skull belongs to a cave bear, the most represented species among the remains found in the Scladina Cave (Belgium). Associated with these remains, thirty tools made of bone by the Neanderthals were found, of which seven were arranged on the skull of this cave bear. + InfoSalto de línea
Neanderthal Museum
The Neanderthal Museum in Germany has an Ice Age Animal Park whose objective is the recovery of the fauna of the time through the selective breeding of modern species. Visitors can see, among others, the tarpan or Eurasian wild horse, considered the ancestor of domestic horses. + Info
CENIEH
The CENIEH (National Research Centre on Human Evolution) in Spain has an osteological collection of anatomy compared with replicas of Quaternary fossils. Among them, this skull of the saber-toothed tiger, the great European cat found at sites such as Gran Dolina, in Atapuerca. + Info
Solutré
La Roche de Solutré is a steep calcite cliff overlooking the Solutré valley, located in the south of the Bourgogne-France-Comté region. Large herds of migrating horses roamed the foot of this cliff, thus avoiding the marshy areas of the valley. The presence of thousands of horse remains has led us to interpret this enclave as a hunting ground for our Paleolithic ancestors. + InfoSalto de línea
Krapina Neanderthal Museum
These eight claws of the European pigard or white-tailed eagle were found at the Kaprina site in Croatia. All of them show signs of having been worked with cuts, notches and polishing, which suggests that they could be part of a necklace or bracelet worn by Neanderthals 125,000 years ago. + InfoSalto de línea
Fumane Cave
These shells appeared in the Fumane cave (Italy). Neanderthals collected them about 45,000 years ago, about 100 km from the cave. Microscopic analysis has detected hematite pigment on its surface, as well as use marks that indicate manipulation. They were probably used as pendants suspended from a thread, so they constitute evidence of the symbolic behavior of their wearers. +Info
MUSE
The Italian site of Riparo Dalmeri has provided more than two hundred stone slabs painted 13000 years ago. Today they can be seen in the Science Museum in Trento. On them, human and animal figures are represented together with other schematic ones, hand prints and colour traces. In this case, a goat and an anthropomorphic figure can be seen. Some of them have a "recognition mark" on the opposite side of the figures. + Info
Archaeopark Vogelherd
The Vogelherd Cave mammoth is an ivory figure dating back to the Aurignacian period, about 40,000 years ago. Despite its small size, it surprises with its beauty and technical perfection. This is a work of art that reveals the technical and creative capacity of our ancestors, raising many questions about its meaning. + Info
Cave of Santimamiñe and Bizkaia Museum of Archeology
The rock art of the Santimamiñe cave allows us to get closer to the animals that lived with our ancestors between 14,500 and 12,000 before the present. In this main panel of the chamber, a horse appears surrounded by bison. With the outline drawn in black, some of them show details such as the shading of the hump. + InfoSalto de línea
Museum of Prehistory Blaubeuren
Hohlenstein's lion man, about 40,000 years old, is one of the first examples of a hybrid being representation. His head evokes a cave lion, while his body is human. The appearance of this type of being, which bears witness to the spiritual world, takes us back to a time when the relationship between animals and our ancestors was special, to say the least. The figure, made of ivory, appeared in the cave of Hohlenstein Stadel in Germany. + Info
Ekainberri
The horse is the most represented animal in the rock art of the Ekain cave (Guipúzcoa, Spain). With a color palette reduced to black or black and red, delicate anatomical details such as the mane, nostrils and hooves reveal the great knowledge of animals anatomy and the technical perfection of its author. +InfoSalto de línea
Museum of Altamira
The figure of this young bison is part of the herd that houses the Polychrome Ceiling in the cave of Altamira. The charcoal of the contours and the red oxide of the interior draw a unique specimen. The change in colour of its belly reveals that the animal was lying on the ground, which caused its skin to become stained with mud.
