Cova eiros (Triacastela, Lugo) houses the sample oldest rock art Northwest Peninsular documented to date and is one of the paleontological remains of major cave bear of the Iberian Peninsula. Despite being considered the jewel of archeology and paleontology of Galicia, various groups warn that the whole is threatened. The origin of this danger put it at a mine that after ten months paralyzed in recent weeks received a controversial permission to resume the activity.
Cementos Cosmos, the Brazilian group Votorantim, exploited since 1978, a quarry limestone which is north facing very near Cova eiros and Galician Administration itself recognizes, in a report by the Directorate General of Cultural Heritage, the “high risk” posed to the conservation of the site using explosives exploitation.
While assumes that danger, the same report endorses the legalization of the quarry opinion, one of the documents on which the City relies Triacastela to give permit activity. After learning its content, has revived the controversy over the adequacy in the Save Cabana association warns that Cova eiros “is seriously threatened” by the proximity of mining activity: the use of explosives ” has damaged the integrity of the cave “and have increased moisture levels,” which are very harmful “to the conservation of paintings.
This threat hanging over Cova eiros also reach Parliament Galicia through an initiative of the Alternative Galega de Esquerda (AGE), which urges the Xunta de Galicia for the immediate cessation of activity on the farm based, among other arguments, that the license was granted conditional upon the prerequisites that have not been answered.
In this regard, the cultural association Iribio O, whose complaint had reason prior stoppage, asks Mayor Triacastela, Olga Iglesias, act “immediately” to prevent illegal committed by Cementos Cosmos after verifying that restarting the work is in breach of these requirements and mandatory conditions, several of them prior to the resumption of activities.
O Iribio cultural group and the Association for Ecological Defense of Galicia (Adega) and each requested in 2012 that the site was declared of Cultural Interest (BIC) and quedase protected from the potential dangers of Cementos Cosmos . These requests have not been answered and in the meantime, from the Union Labrego Galego, Margarida Prieto Ledo says that “there is already significant damage” in the site they are “trying to hide” and from O Iribio Marcos Celeiro alert that is removed layer of soil and rock that was on the cave and allowed to maintain a constant environmental conditions inside to preserve the paintings.
the face of these harsh criticism, the mayor of Triacastela, Olga Iglesias, argues that local authority granted the license based on favorable reports of “all organisms prescriptive” and fulfilling “strictly legal” and company sources ensures that the activity of the quarry into account all restrictions and will attend “all the requirements you have to meet.” They say “the area of the reservoir is not exploited” and “always” were respected “all indications it has to do with the cave.”
“obvious risk destruction “
The favorable opinion of Heritage includes a technical report of the Advisory Committee of the Camino de Santiago which shows that mining has a” decisive effect “on the territory in which lies eiros Cova, an “clear risk of destruction and deterioration” This archaeological site “exceptional”. Advised that due to “high risk” for conservation which is the immediacy of mining, the site “should be controlled permanently.”
Among the recommendations of the Advisory Committee include the need to develop Plan for the Protection and Conservation of the site to ensure the integrity of Cova eiros and contemplation, appreciation and study and conduct a geological study to assess the effects of exploitation on the cave and its geological stability.
The considerations are not just about Cova eiros, but its surroundings, so that estimates “highly desirable” that his statement as BIC is processed and taken into account the environmental value of land opposite the cave, while is “significant” for the reading and interpretation of the cultural values involved.
In the south of the land of Cementos Cosmos no documented Two other archaeological sites type cave (Cova Cova da da Graxeira and cabaxa) that are not yet studied, but are considered to have archaeological and paleontological interest. Above them the Way Advisory Committee also identified a “direct involvement of mining”, hence the desirability of protection.
Conditionalities
Collective contrary to exploitation are not aware of that has been taken into account these considerations and insists that AGE have not provided the conditions required in the municipal business license itself, which also affect the French Way Santiago and, specifically, the landscape impact of the quarry on this historical journey.
At this point, the reports are not considered sufficient preventative and corrective measures visual impact of the quarry has for the pilgrimage route own municipal permit and recommends the implementation of environmental correction work environment for reforestation with native hardwoods and cleaning of an existing landfill.
The permanent control of Cova eiros the Protection and Conservation Plan or security protocol recommended Heritage are also collected as conditions in the license, which, as a precautionary protective measure, said that throughout the scope in which they are located Cova da Graxeira and Cova da cabaxa “should be excluded from the operation.”
“Ideally there would be obliged to prior compliance and amendment of these requirements prior to granting of the license,” Deputy AGE considers Antón Sánchez. In this line, from Save Cabana considered “difficult to understand” that an activity is authorized on another body such as the Miño-Sil River Basin has opened disciplinary proceedings by performing works “without the necessary authorization” without a day Today has been repaired the damage.
Key Field for researchers
The Heritage report just for informing the quarry expands upon the wealth of Cova eiros where this August the seventh season of excavations was developed within the research project ‘human occupations during the Middle Pleistocene basin Miño “Study Group for Northwest Prehistory (GEPN) of the University of Santiago de Compostela (USC) and IPHES (Catalan Institute of Human Paleoecology and Social Evolution).
The mayor of excavations Triacastela advantage of these days to claim the creation of a Museum of Prehistory in environment . Appeals to the relevance of the findings made on the Paleolithic cave, dated between 80,000 and 100,000 years, with an attitude that sees the Save Cabana platform “double” on their part, because you want the site preserved after authorize a mining work that threatens their survival.
For years Cova eiros was recognized as an “outstanding palaeontological site” because of the existence of remains Ursus Spelaeus (Cave Bear) and based on the various findings of rock paintings can be considered one of the most prominent in their typology and “key scientific research of human communities during the prehistoric period of Palaeolithic” archaeological sites.
In the field of archaeological research, excavations since 2008 brought to light a sequence of levels comprising Paleolithic occupations ranging from moments framed in the final Upper Paleolithic, through the Aurignacian period to the middle Paleolithic archaeological levels with lithic and faunal materials (das cave bear remains, rhinos chamois) that reconstruct the livelihoods of human communities of Neanderthals on the northwest peninsula.
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