Reopening Altamira cave causes a row

The cave of Altamira in northern Spain contains some of the world’s finest examples of Paleolithic art. For years, visitors came to see the bisons, horses and mysterious signs painted and carved into the limestone as far back as 22,000 years ago.

But in 2002 the cave was closed to the public when algae-like mold started to appear on some paintings. The damage was attributed to the presence of visitors and the use of artificial light to help them see the works.

Now Altamira is being partially reopened and in the process reviving the debate over whether such a prehistoric site can withstand the presence of modern-day visitors. Since late February, a group of five random visitors a week, clad in protective suits, has been allowed inside the cave, part of a scientific study whose goal is to determine “if there is a form of public visiting that is compatible with the adequate conservation of Altamira,” José Antonio Lasheras, the director of the Altamira museum, said in an interview in his office.

The last group of visitors, who are chosen by lottery, will enter the cave in August and the results of the study are to be released in September. Still, despite Lasheras’s caution, some scientists who studied Altamira and backed its 2002 closure have been upset by the study. They say politicians want to use the cave to promote tourism, potentially endangering it.

“All the data indicate the fragility of the cave and its propensity to suffer a fungal infection if it is opened,” said Cesáreo Sáiz Jiménez, a research professor at the Spanish National Research Council. “We’re certain of our data and don’t understand a debate over Altamira that has emerged more for political reasons than technical or scientific ones.”

Shrouded in controversy

Altamira has been the source of controversy since its paintings were first discovered in 1879 by an amateur botanist and archaeologist, Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola, during an exploratory visit. For decades, his find was mostly dismissed as fake. But in 1902 a French study of Altamira confirmed that its striking black-and-red paintings were prehistoric, turning Altamira into a major tourism destination.

By the 1970s, Altamira was attracting more than 150,000 people a year. The site was closed in 1979 to allow for a lengthy investigation to determine the tourism impact, and then reopened, but with a quota limiting access to 8,500 visitors a year. In 2002, Altamira was completely closed, with visitors offered instead access to a nearby museum that contains an exact replica of part of the cave. Even with the original cave closed, the Altamira museum and its replica cave welcomed 250,000 people last year.

The scientists who oppose any kind of reopening argue that visitors alter temperature, humidity and carbon dioxide levels, helping spread microbial colonization on the walls and ceiling of the cave, while air currents caused by visitors erode wall and sediment surfaces.

Still, it would be “a major disappointment” if the latest scientific study concluded that the cave should remain shut, said Mar González, the official in charge of tourism in the neighboring town hall of Santillana del Mar. Even if it only reopened to a very limited number of visitors, she argued, “it would be amazing to at least have the chance to see this magical cave.”

But even a limited reopening would set Altamira apart from other prehistoric painted caves, like that of Lascaux, in southwestern France, long closed to the public after suffering serious fungal damage. Both Altamira and Lascaux are on Unesco’s list of World Heritage sites.

Muriel Mauriac, the curator of Lascaux, said that “we feel our cave is much too fragile to think beyond strict conservation, like for an old lady who is recovering from an illness.” She said she was following developments at Altamira. “I trust the Spanish authorities will ultimately take the right decision,” she said. Lasheras also noted that “the caves that have been discovered in the last 40 years have not been opened to the public.”

The only difference between visiting the original cave and its replica, Lasheras said, was emotional, something akin to a “cultural conditioning reflex” that people feel when they know that they are looking at prehistoric art rather than a modern copy. “It is the kind of difference in emotions that we might feel when we look at a painting of Rembrandt or the sunflowers of van Gogh but are then told that the paintings are in fact fakes,” he said.