In 1987, Bruno Kowalczewski, a teenager who was a fan of speleology, discovered what might be an entrance to a large cave. For three years, taking advantage of holidays and weekends, the gallery was emptied until it reached 30 meters. And one day in the early 1990s, the vacuum widened sharply. Together with a speleologist, the next day they advanced about 300 meters to meet the strange stalagmitic structure.

The following day they accompanied the archaeologist François Rouzaud, who was in charge of studying the structure: over 400 stalagmites cut into two concentric circles, several fire points… and a piece of burnt bone! Dated using carbon 14 and according to the result was at least 47,000 years (C14 is not reliable at earlier dates). In order not to damage the structure, he decided not to excavate. But he documented, researched and published all the findings. And nobody listened to him. And Rouzaud died shortly after while exploring another cave.

According to that datation, it was to be the work of the Neanderthals, but the Neanderthals did not work so deeply, did not control the fire so much and the first artifacts made by modern man, the cave painting, were much more modern (the paintings of Ekain are about 14,500 years old and those of Santimamiñe, 13,000).

In 2014, Belgian geologist Sophie Verheyden spent her summer vacation in those areas and decided to visit the cave. It occurred to him that Estalagmiten's calcite could be dated with a thorium uranium. The work began with a team of archaeologists led by Jacques Jaubert and the method recommended by Verheyden gave an absolutely reliable and surprising result: 176,000 years. And the discovery, this time it was published in the journal Nature.

Neanderthal men, long before modern men were from Africa to Europe, were able to handle 2.2 tons of stalagmites to cut stalagmites into a precise 32 centimeter pattern, illuminate the room with 18 sures. In short, the Neanderthals created the first architectural work.