Bison watching humanity

Contemplating the reddish form of a bison painted by our ancestors in the rock of the Altamira caves 15,000 years ago is an overwhelming experience. The survival of these paintings is guaranteed by the launch in 1997 of the Altamira Museums Project. "With this project we hope to resolve the problem of conserving the monument, eliminating some of the existing risks and dealing with those that have been detected up to now in the caves. It is also a matter of satisfying the great demand for alternative types of tourism, creating an attractive museum which will contribute significantly to the development of cultural regional tourism", explains José Antonio Lasheras, director of the National Museum and Research Centre of Altamira. With regard to conservation, the project includes the implementation of criteria for preventive conservation and acquisition of a further 80,000 m2 of land owned by the state to stem environmental damage in the cave's immediate vicinity. As far as information is concerned, a faithful 500 m2 reproduction of the cave and a permanent exhibition illustrating the prehistoric cultural context have been set up. The landscape will also be restored using paleo-environmental data. Documentation relating to the cave will be renewed and an archaeological survey of the site will be launched.

last modified on November 2001