Finding Altamira

Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola y de la Pedrueca, in 1868, accidentally discovered Paleolithic paintings with the help of a hunter named Modesto Cubillas inside Altamira's caves, located in Cantabria, northern Spain. Trying to expose their discovery to the academic world so that they could study the paintings, Sautuola incurred the scepticism and discredit of all experts, who claimed that the caves were false and the paintings made by Sautuola himself, in an effort to get rich. Looking for the truth, Sautuola spent the rest of his life fighting to prove that those paintings were real, trying to restore his innocence from the accusations of falsehood launched against him. —Chockys