cueva la pileta

we have reservations for the 1300 English tour of these prehistoric caves. pileta is a Roman pool. these caves were discovered in 1904 by a local farmer Jose bullon Lobato when he noticed thousand of bats 18,000 coming out of the caves in the eve. he was after the guano to fertilize his olive trees. eventually a French anthropologist visited in 1912 and the caves have been well known ever since. the original farming family who discovered it are still the caretakers and visits are restricted to 20 per visit and maybe 5 tours a day. there was a bus on this narrow winding road ahead of us and we wondered if they were heading to the cave...they were it was a bus full of school kids. the caves are 15 degrees and humid. there are rails and you have a light between 2 people. you have to be careful as the stairs are very slippery but what a magical place. there are stalagmites that grow up at a rate of 1 cm every 100 yrs and stalacites, drapery that hang down. there are drip stones cascading down. the mountain is limestone and calcium carbonate is the mineral that precipitates out to form these structures. there is iron in some of them causing a red/brown colour, black in others from manganese. there is also black caused by black smoke of the prehistoric inhabitants. the 1755 earthquake caused some of these stalacites to break off. the paleo art dates from at least 30,000 yrs ago. there is ongoing dating research verifying the dates using both carbon 14 methods and uranium. a Quebec university is involved and took samples 3 weeks ago. they take the pigment from the paints to check when that pigment was created. animal fat is used as a binder. ochre for red, black is used later in neolithic period , and I'm not sure what the brown pigment was. they would actually clear a space on the walk to create a canvas to create their images. many images of horses, goats and even fish in paleo. considering we are a bit away from the ocean this is interesting. there has been a bit of rope found. I wondered how they got into these caves as there are many off shoots. there is also evidence of them using oyster shells as a type of candle.
there is both paleolithic 30,000 yrs with the red paintings and then neolithic with black paintings and more black lines they think to make lunar calendars. there was also a birdman.....very similar to ones we have seen at writing on stone and at mesa verde.
there are pottery shards from bronze or copper age, and stone mills similar to what we saw in mexico...so maybe in the early agriculture era. our guide said the earliest inhabitants paleo were probably an extended family group of 40 people the later groups were only around 11. they calculate this based in excrement analysis and charcoal from the hearths. there was one point where the guide 'played' the stalacite. and it had a beautiful harmonic sound depending on where the fingers tapped. early paleo music??? this spot was opposite a pic of a stick man with a bow and arrow so neolithic at least. the next hall, the hall of fishes he had had us all turnout the lights for 10 sec and be perfectly quiet. it was so quiet. I dont know how they would have found their way if their candles went out...the guide also stamped his foot on the floor....after the lamps were back on and the echo was amazing. like a big base drum. under this hall of the fishes that is open to the public there is another cave that descends down 40m called the big pothole. these areas are under study and they have found skeletal remains. the skeletal remains are 5.000 yrs old for human and there are also animal bones. The walkway in was built in 1941 by the son of the discovered Tomas did with just a hammer and chisel. there are no photos in the caves, just the torchlight of the guide to illuminate the images.Read more