The Coliboaia Cave in the western Bihor Mountains, reknown for its cave drawings over 30,000 years old, among the top five oldest caves in the world, was recently included on Romania's UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List, a first step towards official recognition as a world heritage site.

The information was presented on Thursday, at a news conference, by the manager of the Tara Crisurilor Museum, Gabriel Moisa, and the archaeologist museologist Calin Ghemi, directly involved in explorations, studies and documentation of the prehistoric site.

'We have been working on these steps since 2017, when we completed the first file. Subsequently, the documentation was supplemented and revised repeatedly, so that, three years ago, it was brought back to the attention of the National Heritage Institute. The institution submitted the file to UNESCO, which accepted it on April 15 this year and published it on its official website,' said Ghemi.

Specialists consider the discovery one of the most important in Europe in the field of Palaeolithic art.

'The Coliboaia Cave is very important to us, to Romania, to Bihor, because it is a site that has entered universality, in the history of mankind. There are few moments and few places through which Romania truly reaches the heritage of universal history. Coliboaia Cave is one of them. The importance of this site goes beyond the borders of a community or a country - we are talking about a universal value, relevant to all humanity. This discovery places Romania on the map of the world's great cultural and scientific landmarks,' historical manager Gabriel Moisa told AGERPRES.

Located in the small town of Campani, on the western slope of the Sighistel Valley, at an elevation of 550 meters, the cave has over 1,066 metres of mapped galleries andceilings up to 15 metre high. Although known in the speleological literature even before 1900, the Coliboaia Cave was approached from an exploratory point of view only in 1981, when G. Halasi walked through the active gallery reaching siphon 4, impassable, due to the water, failing to notice the entrance to the 'Drawings Gallery.'

In 1997, explorations resumed by a series of speleologists from the Romanian Federation of Speleology, but nevertheless the 'Drawings Gallery' still remained unearthed until September 2009 when the drawings there were noticed. The team of speleologists notified the FRS management about the existence of the drawings, at which time measures were taken to protect it. The explorations were halted in November 2012, to protect the gallery with prehistoric drawings, with access being restricted only to specialists, under strict conditions.

'We cannot risk damaging the drawings. They are extremely fragile and have remained sealed for tens of thousands of years,' said Ghemi. The negative experiences in the Lascaux and Altamira caves, where uncontrolled tourism has affected the cave paintings, are a clear warning for Romanian specialists.

The gallery of drawings, considered the most valuable area of the cave, is about 50 metres long and is about 770 metres away from the entrance. Researchers believe that in the past, a large part of the cave was decorated, but floods and geological changes have erased many representations. On the walls of this gallery, there are13 drawings depicting rhinoceroses, bears and, probably a horse or a feline, bison and a series of unidentified figures.

Radiocarbon dating of six samples taken between 2010 and 2012 indicates an age of between 36,140 and 32,000 years, most converging to about 33,000 years. Specialists say that there is clear evidence of human presence in the early Upper Palaeolithic, belonging to the Aurignacian culture, associated with the first modern Homo sapiens in Europe.

According to researchers, the exceptional value of the cave lies in its antiquity, uniqueness and cultural importance. The discovery is considered relevant to the understanding of belief systems and parietal art in the Palaeolithic. The archaeologist even says that we are witnessing 'one of the first art openings in the world.'

In the 'Drawings Gallery,' covering about 50 metres, there are ten cave representations considered by specialists to be sketches of remarkable archaeological value. Several of them, made in charcoal, represent animals that were part of the fauna observed by Palaeolithic people tens of thousands of years ago.

Among the identified figures is a rhinoceros, suggested as a symbol of the cave, depicted with two horns, ears and well-shaped eyes. Most of the drawings are protomes, that is, partial representations of animals, but in only one case does the complete representation of a bison appear. Specialists believe that these works could be related to rituals and practices associated with the 'magic of hunting.'

Another representation interpreted by the researchers is that of a horse possibly running, although the images remain open to several interpretations. There are no perfect stylistic analogies, but the closest examples of execution technique have been identified in France, in the famous Chauvet Cave, discovered in 1994 and included in the UNESCO heritage in 2014. There, Palaeolithic artists used the natural cracks of the walls to render certain anatomical details of the animals, a technique also observed at Coliboaia.

Like the Chauvet Cave, Coliboaia is also closed to the public for the protection of the heritage, but the French model demonstrates that it is possible to make a faithful replica for visiting.

Although the inclusion on the UNESCO list could bring notoriety and funding opportunities for the area, specialists exclude the possibility of opening the cave to the general public. Microclimate monitoring has shown that the mere presence of a few people changes the temperature in the gallery and can affect the paintings.

Instead, researchers suggests to create a visitor centre or a museum near the Sighistel Valley, where the drawings and atmosphere inside the cave will be recreated. Such a project could transform the area into an important cultural and tourist spot, following the model of some communities in France that developed around Palaeolithic sites.

'We have a cave that belongs to universal history. The question is what to do with it,' say the specialists, stressing that the Bihor site is one of the rare occasions when Romania enters the circuit of great discoveries of world heritage.

Manager Gabriel Moisa mentioned that the research in the Coliboaia Cave has been supported by several institutions in Romania and France. Among the main financiers are the Bihor County Council and the Oradea City Hall, which have logistically and financially supported the project through the Tara Crisurilor Museum.

The Tara Crisurilor Museum and the Museum of Orgnac, France, contributed directly to the research, in a Romanian-French collaboration considered essential for the study of rock art. The project also enjoyed support from the National Heritage Institute, the Romanian Federation of Speleology, the French Federation of Speleology, the Apuseni Natural Park Administration, the Bihor County Directorate of Culture, as well as the speleology clubs in Oradea (Cristal), Arad and Stei. AGERPRES (RO- editing by: Eugenia Pasca; EN - writing by: Corneliu-Aurelian Colceriu)