Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola, a lawyer by profession, was a man of many interests. His intellectual curiosity led him to take an interest in such sciences as entomology, history, geology and botany.
In 1875 he heard about a cave in Altamira meadow. When he visited it, he saw shells, bones and some drawings that attracted his attention. He knew of the first studies about prehistory being published by different European scientists, and also the work and publications of the Spanish geologist Juan de Villanova.
In 1878 Sautuola visited the Great Exhibition in Paris. "Pricked by my interest in these studies, and excited by the collections of prehistoric objects that I had seen in Paris, I decided to carry out some research in the province."
Shortly afterwards, in 1879, while he was digging in Altamira Cave, his nine year old daughter Maria wandered a little further inside. There she saw what she thought were the paintings of oxen. Sautuola recognised the figures at once; they were not oxen, but bison. In his book "Brief Notes on some Prehistoric Objects in the Province of Santander", published in 1880, he did not hesitate in relating the paintings with the prehistoric finds already known. "From the above it can be deduced that the caves belong, without any doubt, to the period known by the name of Palaeolithic, that is, the Old Stone Age."
The idea of prehistoric men generally held at that time made it difficult to accept that they could be the artists responsible for the paintings. Furthermore, the freshness and spectacular conservation of the paintings seemed suspicious.
The elite of French prehistorians rejected the authenticity of the paintings, although Juan de Villanova defended Sautuola's theory and his honesty in several international congresses. Sautuola died in 1888 at the age of 57.
Some years later, the discovery of cave paintings in France revived the interest in Altamira, which had remained forgotten about during that time. Now, no one could dispute the true age of the paintings.
Emile Cartailhac wrote in his "Mea culpa of a sceptic": "Some twenty years ago I was guilty of an error, and of an injustice that must be acknowledged and repaired publicly. It is necessary to admit the facts, and it is my duty to do justice to Marcelino de Sautuola."
There were no further doubts or reticence. The scientific deduction of Sautuola had been correct, and the paintings in Altamira were Palaeolithic.
