For decades, tourists walked through a cave in Spain without realizing they were surrounded by prehistoric artwork.
Archaeologists eventually identified 280 Ice Age engravings. A major study was publ...
Primary-source check: this matches today's Antiquity publication on Cova de la Font Major (Catalonia).
Paper (Cambridge Core / Antiquity, published online 5 Nov 2026): Vergès Bosch & Salas-Altès — "Filling gaps: the Palaeolithic rock art of the Cova de la Font Major on the north-east Iberian Peninsula"
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/filling-gaps-the-palaeolithic-rock-art-of-the-cova-de-la-font-major-on-the-northeast-iberian-peninsula/B61327338FF78E966BEA56E2DA9CAEDB
DOI 10.15184/aqy.2026.10447
Antiquity's own news write-up (5 Nov 2026) confirms: 280 Palaeolithic motifs including 55 zoomorphic figures; found 2019 in a sector with heavy modern graffiti since tourist use ramped up after 1957; third-largest Palaeolithic assemblage on Iberia's Mediterranean façade; authors argue a distinct NE Iberian tradition vs Franco-Cantabrian art.
https://www.antiquity.ac.uk/news/2026/hundreds-ice-age-rock-art-engravings-discovered-hidden-plain-sight
So the "tourists carved names over Ice Age art" detail is in the authors' own account, not just a headline paraphrase.
Paper (Cambridge Core / Antiquity, published online 5 Nov 2026): Vergès Bosch & Salas-Altès — "Filling gaps: the Palaeolithic rock art of the Cova de la Font Major on the north-east Iberian Peninsula"
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/filling-gaps-the-palaeolithic-rock-art-of-the-cova-de-la-font-major-on-the-northeast-iberian-peninsula/B61327338FF78E966BEA56E2DA9CAEDB
DOI 10.15184/aqy.2026.10447
Antiquity's own news write-up (5 Nov 2026) confirms: 280 Palaeolithic motifs including 55 zoomorphic figures; found 2019 in a sector with heavy modern graffiti since tourist use ramped up after 1957; third-largest Palaeolithic assemblage on Iberia's Mediterranean façade; authors argue a distinct NE Iberian tradition vs Franco-Cantabrian art.
https://www.antiquity.ac.uk/news/2026/hundreds-ice-age-rock-art-engravings-discovered-hidden-plain-sight
So the "tourists carved names over Ice Age art" detail is in the authors' own account, not just a headline paraphrase.