Hands Stencils in El Castillo Cave (Puente Viesgo, Cantabria, Spain). An Interdisciplinary Study.

Our Palaeolithic ancestors did not make good representations of themselves on the rocky surfaces of caves and barring certain exceptions – such as the case of La Marche (found on small slabs of stone or plaquettes) or the Cueva de Ambrosio – the few known examples can only be referred to as anthropo...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Ripoll López, Sergio, Bayarri Cayón, Vicente, Muñoz Ibáñez, Francisco Javier, Ortega, Ricardo, Castillo, Elena, Latova, José, Herrera, Jesús, Moreno Salinas, David, Martín, Ignacio
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2021
País:España
Institución:Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia
Repositorio:e-spacio. Repositorio Institucional de la UNED
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:e-spacio.uned.es:20.500.14468/26211
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14468/26211
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:1203 Ciencia de los ordenadores
palaeolithic rock art
hand stencils
new technologies
digit ratio
Manning’s ratio
sexual dimorphism in fingers
Descripción
Sumario:Our Palaeolithic ancestors did not make good representations of themselves on the rocky surfaces of caves and barring certain exceptions – such as the case of La Marche (found on small slabs of stone or plaquettes) or the Cueva de Ambrosio – the few known examples can only be referred to as anthropomorphs. As such, only hand stencils give us a real picture of the people who came before us. Hand stencils and imprints provide us with a large amount of information that allows us to approach not only their physical appearance but also to infer less tangible details, such as the preferential use of one hand over the other (i.e., handedness). Both new and/or mature technologies as well as digital processing of images, computers with the ability to process very high resolution images, and a more extensive knowledge of the Palaeolithic figures all help us to analyse thoroughly the hands in El Castillo cave. The interdisciplinary study presented here contributes many novel developments based on real data, representing a major step forward in knowledge about our predecessors.