Saving Altamira Cave

September 2011, Daily News

By Dan McLerran Thu, Oct 06, 2011

Policy and science are at loggerheads about opening the world-famous Altamira Cave to the public.

If the famous Paleolithic rock paintings in Altamira Cave could speak to the throngs of admiring tourists that passed before them during the visiting heydays of the 1960s and 1970s, they would have said "you're killing me". Scientists and managers of the World Heritage Site of Altamira Cave might agree with that. They are deeply concerned that recent calls to reopen the cave, closed to mass tourism since 1977, would lead only to the cave paintings' ultimate destruction.

Recent studies have shown that the intense human traffic led to the deterioration of the paintings, which were produced by modern humans living in or near the cave in the Cantabria region of Spain between 18,500 and 14,000 years ago. Scientists studied the impact of visitors on the cave by developing models based on data from hundreds of visits that took place between 1996 and 1999, visits that occurred during a time when only limited general public access was allowed to the cave. According to the research results, the visits led to increased temperature levels, carbon dioxide, and humidity, acting together to increase condensation and rock corrosion, that damaged the paintings.

It is therefore not surprising that regional political and economic pressures in Spain to reopen the caves to mass tourism have elevated warnings from these scientists and site managers who maintain that going back to the days of the 1960s and 1970s would recreate conditions that would accelerate the damage and lead to the loss of a priceless World Heritage Site, something that they contend nobody really ultimately wants.

The Altamira Cave was first discovered in 1897 by amateur archaeologist Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola, who interpreted the paintings as belonging to the late Paleolithic era. His interpretation and claims, however, were controversial among members of the scientific community until several other similar sites were discovered in 1902. The artwork, which includes images of bison, dear, wild boar, horses, goats, abstract shapes and handprints, was created from pigments made from ochre, haematite and charcoal, and is considered among the most complex Paleolithic art ever found. Although it is traditionally considered to be created by humans who occupied the cave system during a period between about 18,500 and 14,000 years ago, in 2008 scientists, using Uranium-thorium dating techniques, have determined that some of the artwork may be dated to between 25,000 and 35,000 years ago.

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A partial view of the painted ceiling in one of the best preserved areas of Polychrome Hall. This section of the painted ceiling shows several bison. [Image © MNCN-CSIS, Spain]

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In the center of this image you can see the famous deer present in the painted ceiling of Polychrome Hall. In the lower left are the temperature, humidity and wind speed sensors located a few inches from the ceiling to detect any changes in the microclimate. [Image © MNCN-CSIS, Spain]

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The Polychrome Hall ceiling. This image shows an overview of the best preserved area of the Polychrome Chamber. At the end are members of the research team and micro-environmental monitoring station. [Image © MNCN-CSIS, Spain]

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More about the issues and science behind the Altamira Cave controversy can be obtained from the paper, "Paleolithic Art in Peril: Policy and Science Collide at Altamira Cave," by C. Saiz-Jimenez; V. Jurado; E. Porca at IRNAS-CSIC in Sevilla, Spain; S. Cuezva; D. Benavente; J. C. Cañaveras at Universidad de Alicante in Alicante, Spain; and A. Fernandez-Cortes and S. Sanchez-Moral at MNCN-CSIC in Madrid, Spain, published in the October 5, 2011 issue of Science, a publication of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Photo, Top Left: Painting from Altamira Cave. Wikimedia Commons

By Dan McLerran

As Founder and Editor of Popular Archaeology Magazine, Dan is a freelance writer and journalist specializing in archaeology. He studied anthropology and archaeology in undergraduate and graduate school and has been an active participant on archaeological excavations in the U.S. and abroad. He is the creator and administrator of Archaeological Digs, a popular weblog about archaeological excavation and field school opportunities.

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