The Board maintains Altamira experimental visits to the … – RTVE

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The Five successful in the lottery held at the Museum of Altamira to be able to visit the rock cave . EFE / Pedro Hoyos Bridge

RTVE .com / AGENCIES

The Board approved on Friday Altamira maintain the regime of experimental visits until February 2015 to the cave, in order to determine the impact of human presence in his paintings, a group that makes up the great treasure of the Spanish rock art.

Thus, groups five people chosen by lottery the weekly visitors to the museum can visit the cave following the protocols established access. These set the duration of the visit in 37 minutes with an itinerary with residence times defined for each room and adequate clothes with disposable coveralls, hat, masks and special footwear.

As announced in a press conference team principal investigators, Gäel of Guinchen , experimental visits that began in February this year, have had a “minimal impact” almost imperceptible ” in the cave that is in a “fragile but stable” condition.

It will be in February 2015 when he can establish a proposal of scientific equipment if the caves visitors close, remains the current regime or the number of people to access, both citizens and researchers are allowed increases.

Güinchen stressed that the impact of the experimental visits not damage paints , to the extent that it has been found that one of the control areas affected by the problem of the infiltration of water from the roof, pigment loss was less than two square millimeters.

It also indicated that the conclusions of the study specifies that Cave suffer inevitable deterioration processes of natural origin , to which others are added by human action, since both the cave and its surroundings have undergone major changes since the time of its discovery.

The Board meeting began with a minute of silence for the death of businessman Emilio Botín until now vice president of this body, who recalled his contribution to the work of this entity in the conservation of Altamira.

President of Cantabria, Ignacio Diego . has described as an “exercise prudence” maintenance for six months of the current regime of experimental access to the cave, but pointed out that the “healthy ambition” of the Executive is that the number of visitors is expanded, “provided this not jeopardize heritage conservation. “

Meanwhile, the Secretary of State for Culture, José María Lasalle , has advanced the commitment of the Ministry of Culture to continue the study of preventive conservation of the Cave of Altamira until September 2017, in order to “consolidate information” available to date on the evolution of the internal conditions of the cavity.

The meeting of the Board has Friday coincided with the entry of the last group of five studio was launched in February this year, including a British citizen and a young torrelaveguense had come to draw on six previous occasions without achieving be chosen to access the cave.