Año 4, No. 2. julio-diciembre (2022)

Narrative of the discovery process of the important prehistoric paintings found in 1879 in a cave in Cantabria (north of Spain) called Altamira. Such a discovery, due to its high artistic value and technical perfection, could not be accepted as true by most of the scientific community at the time, led by Cartailhac, a highly influential French archaeologist. The article nar-rates all the vicissitudes that its discoverer, Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola, had to endure, who was accused of trickery and forgery of the paintings. He passed away without seeing his discovery recognized. Subsequently, the French archaeologist recognized his mistake and visited the cave and tomb of the Spanish scholar.