Idiot vandals lay waste to prehistoric paintings

More pics belo(europasur.es)

TARIFA Unfortunately this is hardly news any more. There are several hundreds of caves in the Campo de Gibraltar that contain prehistoric paintings. For various reasons most, though not quite all, remain unguarded and unprotected. One of them, known as Cueva de la Paloma, in the municipality of Tarifa and first discovered in 1929, have been subjected to acts of vandalism that defy logic and define idiocy. A group of walkers recently reported the facts to the local authorities. One of them was the widow of Lothar Bergmann, a German resident of the area for many years who made several discoveries and dedicated his active retirement to the protection of these priceless historical jewels.>>>

This same cave was vandalised some years ago but the perpetrators, youths of the area, were caught and fined.

This time there shouldn't be too much trouble finding them either, as full names have been carved into the limestone rock. But it would never have happened if the more accessible caves such as this, had been closed off and protected, as Bergmann had been promised many times they would be.

The paintings at Cueva de la Paloma have been dated at 20,000 years ago, the Paleolithic era. More recent ones, of the Schematic period, are dated at about 5,000 years old.