A Map showing the position of Sala Keimada in relation to the Cueva Palomera entrance and Sala de las Pinturas. View of the Chamber, with the black geometric figures in the centre of the photograph. C: narrow Access Crawl leading to the sanctuary. D: the junction of the Access Crawl with the higher roof in Sala Keimada. Credit: Survey by G. E. Edelweiss, modified by A. I. Ortega. Photographs by M. Á. Martín
The Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana (CENIEH) has participated in a study published in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports on Sala Keimada, one of the rock art sanctuaries in Cueva Palomera, the main cave of the Ojo Guareña Karst Complex (Merindad de Sotoscueva, Burgos, Spain).
Led by Ana Isabel Ortega Martínez, from the Royal Burgos Academy of History and Fine Arts—Fernán González Institution, the study presents 18 previously unpublished dates indicating that the chamber remained in use from around 13,500 years ago to more than 2,000 years ago.
The site, discovered in 1976 by the Edelweiss Speleological Group, was mentioned in several popular publications in 1986 and 2013. However, it had remained unpublished in the scientific literature because of the difficulty of access, which requires visitors to crawl through a narrow passage, and the lack of dates allowing it to be placed within a chronological framework.
