Establishing a predictive model for rock art surveying: The case of Palaeolithic caves in Northern Spain.

• Palaeolithic parietal art is expanded across Western Europe but with an unequal distribution. • Discoveries have often been made by chance. • The study proposes a selective surveying system employing multivariate statistical analysis and GIS. • This predictive model has been tested with positive results; new rock art findings. Since the discovery of Altamira Cave in 1879, the archaeological record of Palaeolithic parietal art has expanded steadily across Western Europe but with an unequal distribution. Discoveries have often been made by chance, but at other times as the result of painstaking searches by archaeologists and/or speleologists, eventually reaching some 500 sites currently known. The present study proposes a selective surveying system based on the current characterisation of parietal ensembles in the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country (North Spain) but applicable to any other territory or region in the world. In this way, by employing multivariate statistical analysis and GIS, we have designed a predictive model that focuses fieldwork on the areas with the greatest potential of containing caves with Palaeolithic decoration. The positive results of applying this approach to survey in the North of Spain from 2018 to 2020 have validated its efficacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]