An analysis of the 7.6-meter long stone bridge inside the Genovesa Cave has revealed that humans inhabited Mallorca much earlier than previously thought.
Close-up of the stone bridge in the cave in Mallorca. (Photo: R. Landreth).
Scientists estimate that it was constructed nearly 6,000 years ago, according to Bogdan Onac, the lead author of the study and a professor of Earth Sciences at the University of South Florida.
The bridge is made of large, heavy limestone blocks, some measuring up to 4.2 feet (1.3 meters) wide, and it remains unclear how ancient people built this bridge.
Researchers believe that the builders of the bridge aimed to create a dry, continuous pathway connecting the cave entrance with a chamber behind a water pool inside the cave.
The cave bridge was first discovered in 2000. A few years later, a study written in Catalan estimated the bridge to be 3,500 years old based on ceramic artifacts found in one of the cave chambers.
Minerals deposited on stalactites. (Photo: M.À. Perelló).
“This suggests that humans may have used the area near the cave entrance for habitation,” Onac said. “The purpose of crossing the lake to access that area is still unclear; it might have been used as a shelter, a place for rituals, or a storage area to preserve food during the hot days on Mallorca.”
There are homes and structures made from large stone blocks in Mallorca dating back 2,000 to 4,500 years. Thus, it is likely that the cave bridge is a precursor to the larger, more sophisticated stone structures found on the island, according to Onac.
Paleontologists are still trying to determine why Mallorca was settled later than the islands in the eastern Mediterranean, despite the island being quite large and relatively close to the mainland of Spain.
