The next Sunday, day 8, they went back to the place, left some stones and entered. They found excellent cave paintings from Magdalena, which by their quality have been compared to those from Altamira and Lascaux.

The casual finding of paintings from Altamira (Cantabria, Spain) and Lascaux (Dordogne, France) has been one of the main findings. The Sima de Altamira was discovered a century earlier, in 1868, by the badger Modesto Cubillas, who was trapped in it to try to free his dog. Eleven years later, when Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola was looking for prehistoric objects in the cave, Mary, an eight-year-old girl, found the paintings. Lascaux was discovered in 1940 by four adolescent boys who were also looking for a lost dog.

But Ekain wasn't surprised. Rafael Rezabal and Andoni Albizuri were two passionate about archaeology and members of the Antxieta cultural association of the Gipuzkoan locality of Azpeitia. The area was already known and they knew it was the perfect place to house ancient human beings. “It was an ideal place, looking at the sun, and we were always talking to each other about going to look at that area,” Rezabal said in an interview held 10 years ago in Uztarria magazine.

A farmer from Sastarrain had also been asked if there was any hole, and he nodded, the rabbits were hiding in the slits.

That Sunday, 50 years ago, “we saw the hole and we started to take the stones off and we noticed that there was a wind coming out. There should be something! So, little by little, we entered cats” explained Rezabal. “Once inside, Andoni Albizuri separated us to the left and I to the right. All of a sudden, I turned around and saw a panel in front of him. I threw a horrible roar! He thought he had hurt me. He came up and ... It's an amazing emotion! You can't explain what we feel." That same day, “towards dusk, we started the Txikiteo and we counted everything.” In the coming days the discovery was reported to the Aranzadi Society of Sciences and to Joxemiel Barandiaran. “At first Barandiaran didn’t want to come because he didn’t think there was anything interesting, but in the end he came and he also rejoiced at the finding. Before anyone realizes it was decided to close the cave.”

Lascaux and Altamira caves had thousands of visitors for years, to the point of endangering the paintings. Thanks to that early decision taken in June, the treasure sought and found has been preserved as best as possible for half a century.