Age of the artistic representations: At present, the studies carried out on the artistic graphic manifestations documented in the Cueva de la Victoria fall into three main phases:
Upper Palaeolithic Archaic phase: Aurignacian/Gravetian (between 40,000 – 25,000 years old): where aniconic graphic expression (without naturalistic figures) was captured through red pigments applied directly with the fingers or blown. The “positive” and “negative” hands, punctuations, strokes, airbrushed surfaces and stains stand out. This is probably a mode of expression that preceded figurative Palaeolithic art, and is of great scientific importance due to its age and subject matter, which places it on the chronological border between the last Neanderthal human groups and the first sapiens that occupied southern Iberia.
Upper Palaeolithic figurative phase: Gravetian/Solutrian/Magdalenian (between 24,000 and 13,500 years old): with naturalistic representations of the fauna of the land/maritime environment of the Cantal. In the galleries that can now be visited, species that served as food for these hunters and fishermen settled in the Bay of Malaga were depicted, such as: an equine, two goats, a deer and a bovine; along with marine animals such as a cetacean and a fish figure (generic). The figure of a long-necked bird has also been documented, which could be a cormorant.
Neolithic Schematic phase (between 6,400 and 4,500 years old): with around a hundred human sketches, executed in white, which were painted on two facing walls of one of the rooms in the Victoria cave which contained, in its central space, a collective ossuary during the Neolithic period. In this case, the graphic/artistic display is totally linked to death. The funerary world in this type of natural cavities precedes the megalithic phenomenon and remains a practice parallel to the construction of large tombs for several millennia.
General description of the destination: A natural cave with a 400-metre long gallery. It has two access shafts, located at the ends of its cavern, the first 3.5 metres deep and the second 8 metres deep (which is not used during visits). Two large spaces, separated by a series of galleries and small rooms, preserve Palaeolithic and Neolithic (schematic) cave art. The Cueva de la Victoria can be visited in its entirety, given that it has sufficient support measures for speleological progression to facilitate the visit for people from 10 years of age.
The visitor service office facilities are located in the same space that functions as the Interpretation Centre of the Cuevas del Cantal/Cueva del Tesoro.
History of the site: The Cueva de la Victoria was discovered in 1918 by the prehistorian Henri Breuil on one of his trips to Malaga. In 1924 he published one of his white paintings and several red Palaeolithic naturalistic figures, discovered in the adjacent “Cueva del Higuerón”. From 1941 onwards, the archaeologist Simeón Giménez, responsible for the excavations in Malaga, excavated the Sala del Dosel and extracted various Neolithic archaeological pieces which he deposited in the Malaga Museum. In 1972, the archaeologist Francisco Javier Fortea carried out scientific archaeological excavations in the Sala de las Conchas, which revealed Upper Palaeolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic occupations, the latter being attributable to a funerary use.
An update of the rock art preserved in the Cueva de la VIctoria was presented at the International Congress on the Strait of Gibraltar by María del Mar Espejo and Pedro Cantalejo in 1987. Subsequently, these same researchers have applied new technologies to the rock art, obtaining an inventory with more than 125 graphic motifs, published in 2007. At present, the Cave Art of the Cueva de la Victoria is being analysed by means of a series of analytical samplings that are making it possible to determine its chronology and pictorial composition (pigments). The new methodologies applied to the rock art represent a great advance for scientific knowledge and cultural dissemination of the site at the present time.
Museographic resources description: The Cueva de la Victoria shares with the Cueva del Tesoro its museum and visitor reception resources:
– It has 7 car parks for vehicles, duly signposted.
– A large semi-circular porticoed atrium for the reception of visitors, with the two visitor offices of both caves (the atrium is shared with the Cueva del Tesoro), with staff available in Spanish and English.
– Exhibition area with panels and maps of the Cantal caves.
– Three areas of archaeological display cases with materials from the prehistoric caves.
– In the outdoor area and in the Mediterranean Archaeological Park, visitors to the Cueva de la Victoria will find various information panels on the prehistory of the Cantal, maps of the Bay of Malaga and a life-size reproduction of the main panel of the prehistoric paintings in the Cueva de la Victoria.
