Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jasrep New discoveries of pre-Magdalenian cave art in the central area of the Cantabrian region (Spain) Roberto Ontañón a, ⁎ , Vicente Bayarri b , Elena Castillo c , Ramón Montes d , José Manuel Morlote e , Emilio Muñoz e , Eduardo Palacio f a Instituto Internacional de Investigaciones Prehistóricas de Cantabria – Museo de Prehistoria y Arqueología de Cantabria, Spain b GIM Geomatics, S.L. C/ Conde Torreanaz, 8, Ent-Izq, 39300 Torrelavega, Spain c Instituto Internacional de Investigaciones Prehistóricas de Cantabria – Universidad de Cantabria, Avda. Los Castros, s/n, 39005 Santander, Spain d Itinerario Cultural del Consejo de Europa PRAT/CARP, C/ Luis Riera 2 – Parque Empresarial Piasca, 39012 Santander, Spain e GAEM Arqueólogos, C/ José María Cosío, 1, 39600 Camargo, Spain f Servicio de Patrimonio Cultural, Dirección General de Cultura, Consejería de Educación, Cultura y Deporte, Gobierno de Cantabria, C/ Vargas 53 1°, 39010 Santander, Spain ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Cave art Early Upper Palaeolithic Northern Spain Cantabrian region 3D technology Image processing techniques ABSTRACT Evidence of the potential occurrence of Palaeolithic red paintings has been found in several caves in Cantabria since the 1980s. Awareness of those references led us to propose a research project aiming at exploring the caves with the most recent methods and techniques of graphic data acquisition and processing to the Government of the Autonomous Community. Encouraged by the discovery of Cueva Auria in 2015, the project started in 2016. In a first stage, seven caves were selected for study with the systematic integrated application of lasergrammetry, photogrammetry, microphotography and multispectral imagery. This high-resolution study has been able to confirm the existence of six new Palaeolithic cave art sites in Cantabria. The preliminary results of the project, programed to last for another two years, are most interesting from a scientific perspective. The new cave art sites, as in the case of Cueva Auria, can be assigned to an archaic phase within Palaeolithic Art, that is to say, to a pre-Magdalenian age. With the exception of El Rejo Cave, where the main panel includes some animal figures, and an imprint of a hand of La Brazada Cave, none of the new assemblages contain either zoomorphic or human representations. Apart from parietal testimonies which could be linked to the human frequentation of the caves and not properly, to the category of graphic expressions (such as stains, small marks, imprints and other coloured traces), these small ensembles constitute an interesting group of cave art sites mainly formed by isolated dots or integrated in geometric compositions, discs, spots, isolated or paired strokes, and, in two cases, by complex rectangular signs. The new discoveries imply a significant increase in the number of Palaeolithic Cave Art sites in the Cantabrian region, which could be related to other assemblages in the same region and other proximate areas. All together, they demonstrate the great variability of the regional parietal record in the Early Upper Palaeolithic. We can be optimistic that further research, applying the systematic approach developed by this project, will continue to improve knowledge of pre-Magdalenian cave art in northern Spain. 1. Introduction Evidence of red paintings, probably Palaeolithic in age and pre- viously unknown, has been found in several caves in the Autonomous Community of Cantabria in recent years. The study of the parietal art in Cudón Cave, from 2011 to 2014 (Montes et al., 2015) and Cueva Auria (Peñarrubia) in 2015 and 2016 (Ontañón et al., 2018) are the immediate antecedents of the present project. They both announced the great potential of assemblages like those two sites within Upper Palaeolithic graphic expression; that is to say, sites decorated in early stages of the Last Glacial period without figurative motifs in their iconographic repertory. The interest in assessing the heritage value of these sites and doc- umenting them with scientific methodology was unquestionable in the field of rock art research, but also in aspects related to conservation and dissemination of archaeological heritage. Their study would improve our knowledge of cave art in the region and also enable public ad- ministration to adopt the necessary measures to guarantee their https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2019.102020 Received 2 May 2019; Received in revised form 20 August 2019; Accepted 30 September 2019 ⁎ Corresponding author at: C/ Ruiz de Alda 19, 39009 Santander, Spain. E-mail address: ontanon_r@cantabria.es (R. Ontañón). Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 28 (2019) 102020 2352-409X/ © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. T