Arenaza I (Galdames, Bizkaia)
The cave Arenaza I is located in the middle basin of the Barbadun river, next to its tributary the Galdames stream located in the municipality of the same name, in the Southwest corner of Alto de la Arena and half a dozen kilometers from the current line of coast. The entrance, high and with an arched shape, presents a naturally illuminated and spacious hall, which connects with a main gallery about 20 meters wide and 10 meters high, from which small transversal corridors develop along the Approximate 500 meters of development. From that point on, the natural cave has been strongly altered by mining action.
The cave is part of the Atxuriaga system made up of the physical union of the Arenaza I, Bortal, Artekona, Fragua and Buena cavities, which add up to a development of more than 59 kilometers of galleries explored by the Burnia speleological group. The natural accesses to it are the entrances of Arenaza I, La Glaja (nowadays destroyed by the quarry), Rosario 5 and Artekona, with other artificial ones such as Mina Matilde II, Mina Augusta, Mina Impensada, Mina Fragua, Mina Buena, Arenaza III and Cantera Vieja.
The Palaeolithic parietal art of the Arenaza I cave was discovered in 1973 when P.M. Gorrochategui and his four sons entered the cave and identified a series of paintings in red that they soon recognized as animals. They then contacted M. Grande, who at that time was director of the Historical Museum of Vizcaya, who carried out a first assessment (1974). That same year, J.M. Apellániz also approached the study of the paintings and shortly afterwards, in 1978, he compared the paintings of Arenaza I with those of other sanctuaries, grouping these sites under the denomination of Escuela de Ramales. In 1982 he published a more complete study than the previous ones with a more extensive description of the formal characteristics of the representations, also providing photographs and tracings of the same. More detailed works have recently been published (by X. Gorrotxategi and D. Garate), with important contributions regarding the archaeological deposits inside the cavity and the expansion of the known graphic catalog, which still offers news. Likewise, analyzes of the pigments used to create the letters have been carried out (Garate et al. 2004).
The archaeological site of the cave was discovered in 1962 by E. Nolte, A. Guezuraga and F.J. Guezuraga through a test pit in its entrance hall. The archaeological excavation of the site began in 1972 under the direction of J.M. Apellaniz and J. Altuna (this one only until 1974). Initially, the excavation is restricted to a limited area of about 12 m2, but later it is extended to approximately 180 m2. The campaigns continue until 1993, the year in which the excavation, directed by J.A. Fernández Lombera for the last 3 years. The Palaeolithic levels will only be excavated during the first campaigns until 1980 and in a reduced area. Despite the time that has elapsed after the completion of the excavation of the Arenaza I cave site, the information available in this regard is very scarce. It is only worth mentioning the brief preliminaries corresponding to each campaign and the summaries published in Arkeoikuska. The paleobotanical and faunal data have been the subject of partial publications, as well as some specific dates outside the excavation project. Recently, a re-study of the site has been carried out, with the continuation of the excavations under the direction of J. Fernández-Eraso.
On the other hand, by X. Gorrotxategi and independently of the main excavation project, another intervention was developed in 1981 in a gallery hanging at the height of the panel of the aurochs, inside the cavern, about 100 meters away from the entrance. Both the materials and the dates obtained for this area, as well as for an accumulation of bones in another small cubicle hanging in the access to the cat flap that leads to the hinds’ dressing room, indicate a chronology belonging to two different phases, around the 4th and 7th millennium BP, and only some specific materials offer an appearance closer to Palaeolithic times.
Currently, the graphic device of the Arenaza I cave is made up of 27 units, which are broken down as follows: 20 red paintings (12 deer, 1 deer, 3 groups of isolated dots, 1 group of aligned dots, 2 spots and 1 rectangular sign), one black (indeterminate lines), 5 engraved (2 bovids, 1 horse, 1 possible anthropomorphic and a group of indeterminate lines) and one engraved and painted in red (1 aurochs).