Cueva de los Casares

Main entrance at the Cave of Los Casares

One of the many paleolithic hierogamies of Los Casares, in that representing a sexual act.

Cueva de los Casares is a cave in Riba de Saelices in Guadalajara, Spain. Discovered in 1933, it contains a number of paleolithic cave paintings, and is most notable for a series of paintings depicting what some have argued is the earliest representation of human understanding of the reproductive process, featuring images of copulation (perhaps mediated by a mysterious shaman figure), pregnancy, childbirth, and family life. Mammoths and other animals feature frequently in the illustrations.

There are many representations of animals, anthropomorphs (human-like figures), and ideomorphs (including penises, vulvas, tools, and more abstract images).

The cave and its paintings are little known to scholars outside Spain.

External links

• Cave art in the Iberian peninsula