Now it is called the "Sistine Chapel of Primitive Art". The Altamira Cave is the pride of Spain, its national treasure. Those who once wanted to wait three years in line to see the famous multi-colored bulls "grazing" on its ceilings. Now Altamira is closed to the public: the painting of primitive people does not withstand the onslaught of our contemporaries. But next to it there is a museum with copies of rock paintings. Its traffic is 250,000 visitors a year. But there is a fly in the ointment in this honey barrel: the person who gave Altamira to humanity, at one time and could not prove its authenticity and died with the stigma of "deceiver" …
AMATEUR
Marcelino de Sautuola was far from poor. His family owned vast lands in the province of Cantabria, in northern Spain. Marcelino received an excellent legal education, but his true passion was antiquity. As a child, he dreamed of finding some kind of treasure and dug up a good part of his parental possessions. As for archeology, his love for it woke up in him at the Paris World Exhibition - in the summer of 1875. Already being a noble hidalgo, Don Marcelino experienced almost childish delight at the sight of miniature images of animals that emerged from the "workshops" of the Stone Age. He looked where these artifacts were found, realized that his native Cantabria might once have been a haven of primitive people, and decided upon returning home to properly examine the surroundings. But first - to re-read the works of leading archaeologists from Germany, France,England. Marcelino subscribed books from abroad and carefully studied them in his family estate of Siero Mortero. And the more I read, the more I became convinced: Cantabria is an ideal place of residence for a primitive man. There are many limestone caves, and the nearest one is just a stone's throw away: some 6 km! The search was almost immediately crowned with success: in the petrified clay, Marcelino found sharply sharpened shells, animal bones, among which were the remains of a wild horse that had long disappeared in Europe. He hastened to share his discoveries with the scientific community and … for the first time he faced the fact that he was treated as an amateur and an amateur, and therefore all his findings were not taken seriously. But the negative reaction of pundits only provoked him. A new archaeologist explored cave after cave,looking for convincing evidence of the ancient people in Cantabria. And in November 1879 he finally reached the Altamira cave …
DAD LOOK
Strictly speaking, he was already in it, four years ago - when rumors reached him that a certain goat hunter had discovered a cave near Siero Mortero, the entrance to which was covered by a landslide. Then the way to Altamira had to be cleared with a pick and crowbar, and a cursory examination revealed the stone tools of the Paleolithic man. So, nothing special. And yet something made Marcelino return - this time with her 9-year-old daughter Maria. And while her father was concentrating on digging in the ground, the girl carelessly ran through the cave, looking around with curiosity. Actually, in fact, it is Maria de Soutuola who should own the laurels of the discoverer of the "queen of painted caves", because it was she who raised her head and exclaimed: "Daddy, look, painted bulls!" And then Marcelino, for the first time in his entire search, looked up, and not at his feet, and saw a herd of animals,filling the entire space of the vault of the cave …
Soutuola began counting the bulls. The archaeologist did not take into account images damaged by time or hidden by stalactite growths. It turned out that the fantastic herd consists of 23 animals.
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Even in the dim light of the lamp, the paints were striking in their brightness and color: it seemed that all these animals were painted only yesterday. All the bulls were different: some were running, others were tensely waiting for something, others were lying, the fourth were preparing to attack …
But everyone, as one, amazed with their grace, precision of details, expressiveness of performance. One glance at them was enough to understand: the great master painted!
SENSATION OR FOCUS OF THE SPANISH JESUITS
Canonical science asserted: ancient people used paint only for practical and ritual purposes. And that's all. This was the maximum of their abilities and capabilities. The discovery of Soutuola sounded all the more sensational. After all, he had no doubt - polychrome (multicolor) painting belongs to the Upper Paleolithic era!
The Spanish king Alfonso XII himself came to Altamira, looked at the fantastic bulls and even left his autograph in the cave - inscribed his name on the wall with torch soot. The find in the Pyrenees was discussed at social events in all the capitals of the world. But from the very beginning, the brilliance of the painting and the high level of skill in its execution aroused suspicion. And the further, the more. And when it became known that a certain artist was visiting the family estate of Soutuola Sierra Mortero, they began to talk not about a mistake, but about a crime - deliberate falsification of finds. The artist immediately printed a rebuttal in which he explained that he worked in the Sierra Mortero to copy the wall paintings, since Southuola himself did not know how to paint at all. In vain. The painting was declared a forgery, and Marcelino himself was nicknamed "the inventor of Altamira."For the proud Spanish grandee, this was a serious blow to his pride. But he didn't give up.
He wrote to the leading magazines of "prehistoricists" throughout Europe, proving the authenticity and antiquity of rock art. On the side of Southwola was only one person - the professor of geology at the University of Madrid Villanova. He was not too lazy to come to the cave, investigated it and even found a shell that once served as a palette for the primitive artist. Villanova fully supported the findings of the self-taught archaeologist. But, even acting together, they were powerless.
The church joined the crowd of condemners: it simply could not recognize the very age of painting, since the whole history, according to the Old Testament, was no more than 7000 years old. But, of course, it was not the churchmen who played the first violin in this accusatory concert.
The 19th century belonged to Darwin and his theory of evolution, which implies development from simple to complex. The supporters of the theory of the struggle of species could not allow the slightest spiritual needs in the ancient homo sapiens. It simply did not fit in the heads of scholars that a primitive man from the Stone Age could have both a sense of beauty and taste, and - most importantly - a talent worthy of admiration.
Therefore, all well-known experts in antiquities furiously exposed the "tricks of the Spanish Jesuits." One of them - the French paleontologist Arles - even came to the cave to examine Altamira's paintings. Southwola gladly received a specialist who became interested in fantastic bulls, not knowing that Arle had only one purpose: to finally expose the "magicians". By and large, he might not even come: the verdict had already been passed. But - for the purity of the experiment - Arles still visited the cave. The paleontologist's conclusions left Soutuola no chance.
Arles curled his fingers. First, artificial lighting is required to create frescoes - after all, all images are in darkness, daylight does not reach them. Meanwhile, in the cave, there are no traces of the use of lighting means, for example, soot from torches.
Secondly, the paint of the paintings is fresh, even wet in places. It is impossible for such colorful images to survive for many centuries.
Finally, thirdly. Ocher, with which bulls are painted, is found not only in the Paleolithic layer, but everywhere in this area, locals even coat their houses with it. The conclusion suggests itself: the drawings are a remake, and their discoverer is a charlatan.
From this blow, Marcelino de Sautuola did not recover until the end of his life. He died 9 years after his amazing discovery, and for all nine years he was forced to defend himself and prove that Altamira is an original, a real masterpiece of ancient art of amazing expressiveness and preservation …
AUTHORITIES CHANGE
Scholarly disputes gradually died out, and the Altamir cave was consigned to oblivion. Only occasionally did reports of discoveries in ancient painting in France and Spain flashed in tabloid newspapers. The serious scientific press did not react in any way to the archaeological sensations of the late 19th century. And those rare comments that nevertheless appeared, inevitably abounded with the epithets "unconvincing", "unacceptable", "false", "far-fetched."
This continued until 1895. Until the French archaeologist Émile Riviere found the drawings engraved on the walls of the La Mute cave in the Dordogne.
Their antiquity was not in doubt. But here in the memory of Riviera - one of the opponents of Soutuola - the circumstances of the discovery of the latter and their consequences surfaced. Riviera did not want to be branded as the "inventor" of La Muta. Then he started to trick. He closed the entrance to the cave and invited archaeologists Gabriel de Mortilla, Emile Cartallac and other antiquities to inspect La Mute. The authorities unanimously recognized the drawings as Paleolithic and left for Paris. But on the way, apparently, they changed their minds. Just a couple of days later, a fresh Parisian gossip reached Riviera's ears: it turns out that the images in the La Mute cave were drawn by one of his assistants! Now it's Emile Riviera's turn to despair: his career is at stake! But he turned out to be much more cunning than the Spanish hidalgo and went to the bottom. And along the way, he continued his exploration of the La Mute cave and discovered … a stone lamp dating from the Upper Paleolithic era. So this is how, it turns out, ancient artists illuminated the vaults of the caves! This was the only question that Sautuola and Villanova could not answer at one time …
It would seem: that's it, I must admit that the "Spanish Jesuits" did not even think to play tricks! Be that as it may: no one heard Riviera's arguments, and he did not insist, not wanting to share the fate of the Spaniard …
I was insane
In the fall of 1901, the young archaeologist Henri Breuil came to visit the recognized authority in the field of prehistoric archeology, Professor Emil Kartalliak, and in combination - an implacable opponent of the recognition of ancient art. Word for word - and persuaded him to visit the newly discovered caves Font de Gaume and Cambarell. For many millennia, access to the caves was closed: rock falls, lime incrustations, eroded and petrified clay blocked the entrances. But now they have been cleared - and Kartalyak and Breil could get there …
Kartalyak could not resist the temptation. And having penetrated into Font de Gaume, I saw there that which he had denied during all his scientific activities: rock painting. The professor even managed to clear the image of a bison, painted in the "pointillism" technique, unthinkable for a primitive man - splashes of paints of different colors.
As if a veil had fallen from the professor's eyes. When he recovered from the shock, his first impulse was to go to Altamira. He asked Breuil to go with him. At the estate they were met by the adult daughter of Soutuola - Maria. The young woman took the scientists to the cave, took them to the place where she had once exclaimed: "Daddy, look, painted bulls!"
Now it's time to open Kartallac's eyes. And, standing in the middle of Altamira, the mesmerized professor admitted: "I was a madman!" He found the strength and courage to visit the grave of Marcelino de Soutuola, this time refusing to accompany Breuil. He preferred to talk privately with his longtime opponent, with whom he was now on the same side …
Soon in the journal "Anthropology" appeared an article by Kartalyak "The Repentance of a Skeptic." In it, he admitted: "I was complicit in a mistake made 20 years ago, as well as injustice, which now must be confessed and corrected." Cartallac - this time impartially - outlined the essence of the discovery of "a Spaniard of noble birth, Monsieur Marcelino S. de Suotuola." The tricks were over - justice was done!
Vlad ROGOV