# Archaeologists identify 280 engravings in Catalonia cave

- Published: 2026-11-06 14:04 UTC
- Section: Science › Research
- Tags: Cova de la Font Major, IPHES-CERCA, Palaeolithic engravings, cave art Catalonia, Verges Bosch, Salas-Altes
- URL: https://realtech.media/news/rt-06ec04b18498bcebda0b2917_archaeologists_identify_280/

**Researchers from IPHES-CERCA documented 280 Palaeolithic art motifs in the Cova de la Font Major, dated back around 26,000 years.**

![Archaeologists identify 280 engravings in Catalonia cave](https://sgzwpqqelzmajkcubgkl.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/rt-media/2026/11/8e8e23a4fe444b65.jpg)
*Vas Globus, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0*

Archaeologists from the Catalan Institute of Human Paleoecology and Social Evolution (IPHES-CERCA) described hundreds of rock-art engravings dating back around 26,000 years in the Cova de la Font Major in Catalonia, Spain, reporting the findings in Antiquity as covered by Nature [1]. Archaeologist Josep Maria Vergès Bosch first spotted prehistoric engravings among modern graffiti during a planned excavation in 2019 [1].

## Catalogued motifs

Vergès Bosch and archaeologist Míriam Salas-Altès documented 280 Palaeolithic art motifs throughout the site, including 55 depictions of animals [1]. The identified etchings include figures of a horse, a bear, and an aurochs, accompanied by numerous swirling lines [1]. The authors reported that ancient artists integrated natural fissures and wall contours into their work, using one natural line to represent the ground surface underneath a horse [1].

## Cave environment

The underground system comprises more than 3.5 kilometres of subterranean passageways that have been occupied multiple times across human history [1]. The site has been open to the public for some seven decades and became a museum in the 1990s [1].

Salas-Altès stated that the depressions remained difficult to spot under direct illumination [1]. Documenting the shallow lines required directing light from varied angles to reveal the depressions beneath modern markings [1].

## Sources

1. [Nature](https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-03585-z)

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Source: RealTech, realtech.media — https://realtech.media/news/rt-06ec04b18498bcebda0b2917_archaeologists_identify_280/