Hundreds of stunning Ice Age drawings discovered inside Spanish cave

November 5, 2026

2 min read

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The find includes 280 pieces of art, including 55 depictions of animals

By Jackie Flynn Mogensen edited by Claire Cameron

For decades, Cova de la Font Major has been a tourist destination in northeast Spain. Despite all the visitors who have passed through the cave, only now are archaeologists revealing its secret: hundreds of stunning Ice Age rock engravings, including a rare depiction of a bear.

In a new study published in the journal Antiquity this week, researchers describe the discovery of 280 Paleolithic engravings at the large, underground cave in Espluga de Francolí, Spain. The cave was first excavated in 1957—since then, thousands of people have likely been in it, some even graffitiing the walls without realizing they were disturbing Ice Age art, the researchers say.

The find is amongst the largest collections of cave art on the Iberian Peninsula. The engravings include 55 animal figures such as horses, deer and at least one bear, as well as less recognizable forms, such as parallel lines and an unusual group of loops.

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It’s unclear how the engravings went so long without being noticed. In a dark cave, it may have been harder to spot the etchings than other forms of rock art such as paintings, says Míriam Salas-Altès, a co-author on the paper and a PhD student at University of Rovira i Virgili and the Catalan Institute of Human Paleoecology and Social Evolution (IPHES-CERCA), in Spain.

Even wearing a helmet with a forward-facing light might not fully illuminate markings either. And the walls are “full” of graffiti, Salas-Altès says. To the untrained eye, Paleolithic engravings may have been difficult to differentiate from modern markings, she adds.

This type of cave art is also rare for this part of Spain. Before now, most Paleolithic cave art in the area has been found in the Franco-Cantabrian region, an area spanning the border of Spain and France. Just two cave figures had previously been found in Catalonia, Salas-Altès says.

“It was a big surprise,” she says.

Today, access to the cave has been limited to tourists to protect the engravings, which were first discovered in 2019.

Salas-Altès hopes to continue working to decipher the 280 engravings as well as understanding the history of human presence in the cave. It’s unclear whether early humans used this cave simply for shelter, ritual practices or something else, she says.

And there may be more engravings to find—some galleries within Cova de la Font Major, for instance, have been filled with sediment over the years, Salas-Altès says, and opening them up could reveal even more rock art.

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