Pigments in parietal and portable Upper Palaeolithic art of La Garma(Cantabria, Spain)

La Gorma Cave is an Upper Palaeolithic site located ca 15 km from Santander (Cantabria, Spain). The lower gallery, which is accessible thanks to two wells, keeps paintings on the walls and numerous objects laying on the floor, objects made in bone or antler Which are carved, engraved and painted. The analysis of more than 50 samples taken from the walls or the objects (37 red, 11 black, five yellow, two brown, one purple) takes part in the global project of the "chaine operatoire" comprehension of the prehistoric painting activity. The analysis is aimed also to understand the organisation of La Gamin cave, looking for the various steps of the decoration of the different rooms. The results bring to light the modulated realisation of the wall paintings: few figures were painted rapidly without any specific intention, the majority, on the other hand, were realised after a complex preparation of the painting matter with the use of specific paint pots. (C) 2011 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.