Natural ‘cathedral’ found
Spectacular huge cave was a dwelling for ancient bears
WHEN Murcia university (UMU) lecturer Ignacio Martín Lerma managed to squeeze his head inside after months of excavation and shine a torch to see what was behind some rocks inside the Cueva del Arco in Cieza, his team’s suspicions that another cavity lay behind were confirmed.
However, this cave – which they thought would be no larger than about 20 metres – turned out to be hundreds of times larger, extending over 1,500 metres, making it one of the five largest in Murcia region and it still has not all been explored.
Sr Lerma has assured that this cave ‘opens a new door to prehistory’, as it was not only spectacular but also contained very important discoveries – and will probably reveal many more surprises.
The Cueva del Arco is a complex of caves concentrated in a large arc of natural rock in the Almadenes canyon in Cieza.
The first campaign of excavations there began in 2015, since when it has generated great scientific and public interest.
It has been confirmed they were occupied in the Late Neolithic (7,000 years ago), Solutrean (21,000 years ago), Gravettian (30,000 years ago) and Mousterian (50,0000 years ago) periods. This makes it one of the few sites on the Mediterranean side of the Iberian Peninsula where the
transition between Neanderthals and modern humans can be documented.
The excavations have been directed by Sr Lerma and Didac Román, of Jaume I university in Castellón, who are both doctors in prehistory, with the help of the Cieza speleology group (Geca).
During the 2018 campaign they began to suspect that a cavity clogged with sediment could be hiding the way to a larger cave.
The work was hard and slow but eventually removing some rocks revealed an orifice
from which air could be felt escaping, further indicating there could be something much larger behind.
The priority was to make this discovery safe, which required the whole perimeter of the Cueva del Arco to be enclosed so that it could be conserved as intact as possible.
The Covid-19 pandemic delayed some plans but the team contacted Professor José María Calaforra of Almería university, one of the leading international experts in subterranean geology, who assured the discovery was of global significance.
The enormous chambers, some up to 20 metres high, were the highest in the region, with stalactites that are almost unparalleled worldwide, some three metres long and just one centimetre in diameter – illustrating the practically unrivalled stability of the conditions they grew in, thanks to the cave being isolated for many millennia.
Bear tracks
Furthermore, the archaeological potential of this space is enormous, given that tracks have been documented from bears over three metres in size, of a species it was thought had not ventured further south than the area where Madrid stands now.
“The identification of cave bear paw prints on many of the walls makes the cave a great example of a dwelling for these great mammals in southern Europe, something really unique,” said Sr Lerma.
In order to keep this ‘natural treasure’ intact, there can be no public visits until all the scientific studies have been completed.
“This cave is of great geological and archaeological importance, both for the formations and the perfect conservation of everything it contains, which has been maintained thanks to the strict protocol we followed for its exploration,” he assured.
“It has exceeded all our expectations.”
The formation of the cave must have been related to deep flows of water, possibly thermal but with no direct connection to the exterior, making it a singular example of the geological evolution of aquifers in the area.
Professor Calaforra also emphasised the unique nature of this ‘virgin space’, unaltered by human activity, saying it represents ‘an unmatched opportunity for paleoclimate research and progress in knowledge about climate change’.