Cave of Altamira
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How it came to be
The Cave of Altamira, near Santillana del Mar in Cantabria, is about 270 m long. Uranium-thorium dating puts its oldest sign, a large red club-shaped symbol, at about 36,000 years ago, and the paintings were added over a very long span. The floor holds remains of Solutrean occupation (about 18,500 years ago) and Magdalenian occupation (about 16,590 to 14,000 years ago), and a rockfall sealed the entrance around 13,000 years ago.
A local man, Modesto Cubillas, found the cave in 1868. In 1879 the landowner Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola was led inside by his eight-year-old daughter María and realised that the marks on the ceiling were paintings of bison and other animals. His 1880 publication with Juan Vilanova y Piera called them Palaeolithic, but leading experts rejected the idea and he was accused of forgery.
Opinion changed in 1902, once similar finds had piled up, but Sautuola had died 14 years earlier. Visitors' breath damaged the paintings, so the cave was closed in 1977, reopened to small numbers in 1982 and closed again after green mould appeared in 2002; a replica and museum nearby were completed in 2001. Altamira was listed in 1985, and the listing was later extended to 17 more decorated caves in northern Spain.
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