40,000 Years of Life & Death: Excavations in Spain's El Miron Cave

The Oregon Archaeological Society is pleased to sponsor the March 5, 2013 lecture titled: "40,000 Years of Life and Death in a Spanish Cave: Excavations in El Miron, Cantabria."  

The featured speaker is the distinguished Dr. Lawrence Guy Straus, the Leslie Spier Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at the University of New Mexico College of Arts and Sciences.

El Miron Cave, located in the Cantabrian Cordillera in Spain has been excavated by Professor Straus and a Spanish colleague since 1996.  Scientifically discovered in 1903, but ignored by archaeologists despite being surrounded by cave art sites, El Miron is a large cave with a strategic location.  First visited by Straus in 1973, it has yielded results beyond his wildest expectations.  

The cultural sequence begins in the late Middle Paleolithic and continues through evidence of Medieval visits, with radiocarbon dates ranging from 41,000 BP to AD 1400. As the surrounding environment changed, the evidence of human use of the cave also changed.

 The site has been the subject of numerous multidisciplinary studies of the climate, landscapes, human technology, subsistence, and artistic activity that have resulted in dozens of publications in Europe and the U.S.  Major discoveries have included dated portable art objects, rock engravings, an associated human burial, evidence of human occupation and livestock stabling, and ceramic and metal technology.

Straus has conducted excavations in Spain, France, Portugal, and Belgium, principally at Upper Paleolithic (but also Middle Paleolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic) sites.  He is particularly interested in human adaptations to the diverse and changing environments of the Last Glacial in Western Europe.  

He has authored numerous publications and has been the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Anthropological Research since 1995. He has been given lifetime achievement awards by the Stone Age Institute at Indiana University and the Sociedad Prehistorica de Cantabria, and has held offices in the international unions for Quaternary Research (INQUA) and Pre- and Proto-historic Sciences (UISPP).

The presentation is at Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) is free and open to the public. A general business meeting begins at 7 PM, followed by the lecture.

See www.oregonarchaeological.org/events or call 503-727-3507 for more information.

Good News From Lascaux!

The latest issue of the International Newsletter on Rock Art (INORA 62-2012) arrived with the wonderful news that the creeping decay of the cave's stunning images is, for the most part, in remission!

This is great news after years of frustration in fighting the nasty micro-organisms that were attempting to literally "eat" the 19,000 year-old paintings.

All the images (click them to enlarge) in this post were taken by the French Ministry of Culture and Communication on June 1, 2011 and are used with permission (please do not copy or reproduce them). The photos and captions are as they were originally published in INORA.

Although access to the cave is severely limited I was privileged to enter the original Lascaux in July, 2001 and view the images displayed here. These recent examinations and photos are very reassuring in that they show little or no apparent change since I saw the paintings 11 years ago...of course 11 years is insignificant in the lifespan of these ancient paintings...but the paintings were under aggressive attack by fungi and bacteria at the time.

French scientists, with advice from the international scientific community, have been fighting the degradation of the images since the 1960s. The cave, discovered in 1940 and opened to the public in 1947, was closed to the public in 1963 (an excellent reproduction, Lascaux II, is available and has been visited by millions of people). Scientists installed new ventilation systems, applied fungicides, antibiotics and even lime as they fought the algae, fungi, bacteria and molds that plagued the cave.

It appears that what finally stabilized the cave is a policy of non-intervention that has been in effect since 2008. The author of the INORA article, Pedro Lima, calls this a "natural remission" and it is supported by the current Lascaux Scientific Council. There is still some controversy about this approach but the images are being watched closely and any resurgence of problems would be quickly noted.

Via the internet you can view an excellent virtual tour of the cave by clicking Lascaux.

We offer a guarded congratulations to the scientists and the French government on this success in stabilizing Lascaux. With luck and continued vigilance we hope these unique paintings will be safe for another 19,000 years.

Referenced Article:
Lascaux: Back to Balance
by Pedro Lima
INORA No.62-2012, Pages 1-7

Thanks to Dr. Jean Clottes, Lascaux Curator Muriel Mauriac, and Dr. Jean-Michel Geneste for information and permissions used to create this post.

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