280 figures: These 7,400 year cave drawings hid in plain sight for decades, finally getting recognition

A discovery in familiar surroundings

Cova de la Font Major has drawn tourists since 1957, but a large group of figures on its walls went unnoticed. The cave is in Espluga de Francolí, a Catalonian village known for ancient finds and surrounded by limestone caves.

During a 2019 excavation, a team led by Josep Maria Vergès and Míriam Salas-Altès found 280 motifs scratched into soft rock. The figures are difficult to see unless light reaches them at certain angles, and graffiti left by visitors also concealed them.

The scale of the find

The newly identified motifs form the largest known concentration of Paleolithic figures on a cave wall in Catalonia. Across the eastern Iberian Peninsula, the assemblage ranks third in size.

The researchers also considered whether the artists incorporated natural variations in the stone. Vergès and Salas-Altès said the idea remains uncertain, though some features align with anatomy and similar elements recur among the images.

Many eras inside the cave

Evidence points to human activity at the site across a long span of time. Charcoal found deeper inside the cave has been dated to 26,000 years ago, though it may indicate human presence rather than establish when the drawings were made.

The cave was later used for burials around the late Neolithic, near the beginning of the Bronze Age. A human femur found before the cave opened to visitors was dated to 5,600–5,700 years ago; nearby discoveries included Bronze Age objects such as an axe, a dagger and decorated pins.

In the Iron Age, people used another section of the cave for rituals. Ceramic vessels that may have been offerings, along with metal objects and food remains, were left there.