The reappropriation of symbolic underground spaces during the Upper Palaeolithic. A methodological proposal based on the caves of El Castillo (Cantabria), Tito Bustillo and La Peña de Candamo (Asturias)

PhD researcher: Lucía Díaz González

PhD supervisor: Diego Garate Maidagan

Lucía María Díaz González’s research focuses on how Upper Palaeolithic human groups reused and appropriated caves that already contained rock art. Her work addresses a gap in traditional historiography, which has focused more on symbolic interpretations than on the systematisation of spatial recurrence behaviours. Under the premise that decorated walls functioned as ‘living walls,’ she seeks to understand how the past was integrated into the symbolic present of these societies.

The central objective is to generate and validate a quantifiable methodology that allows us to infer features of social behaviour through art. To do this, she uses cutting-edge tools such as 3D modelling, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and computational analysis.

The project is being carried out in the Cantabrian region, the area with the greatest abundance of caves with complex panels and overlaps from different decorative phases. The researcher will apply her methodology in three exceptional caves: La Peña de Candamo, Tito Bustillo and El Castillo, using combined techniques of 3D photogrammetry, GIS spatial analysis and computational data analysis.
This research not only seeks to reconstruct how these spaces were graphically organised, but also to advance our knowledge of hunter-gatherer societies by studying their symbolic reappropriation of the environment.

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