The excavation of a tunnel to build a road that would link two important regions of the country was nearing completion, months of hard work. A large bulldozer had been brought from a neighboring country to help break the solid rock of the mountain. Sweat and mud bathed the faces of the workers, their hard hats, jackets and boots were a dark brown color, glistening from the sandstone that mixed with the clay.
Walking along the last section of the newly constructed tunnel, to which a steel lining had to be attached, the engineer in charge of the work, accompanied by other workers, was checking the condition of the material. The light from their flashlights shone in the darkness, illuminating every meter of the almost 3 km of the tunnel.
A deviation in the tunnel led them to a kind of cavern, an oval-shaped chamber with gray rock walls where figures of red, ocher, black, yellow and green colors mingled. The stalactites on the ceiling created sharp shadows on the rocky floor, where a trickle of very clear water ran down the walls and accumulated forming a small river between the reddish and shiny slabs, and then fell through a hole into the depths. The men were amazed, their gazes fixed on those paintings, some approached to see them closely, to detail them and began to photograph them.
—But how is it possible that we have found this? What a marvelous discovery! —said the engineer, as he ran his gloved fingers, dirty with mud, over those images so clear that they seemed to have been made only a few years ago.
Time went on forever for those people. What they saw was going to revolutionize the history of the origin of man. Those figures of animals that were believed to be extinct when man appeared on Earth, were there, shaped by human hands, or so it seemed. Dinosaurs of different types, pterodactyls painted in ochre, with their enormous wings and sharp beaks with teeth, ferns with giant leaves, dragonflies of red and black colors and man... there among them, hunting with spears, in front of the fire, in family. Handprints of different sized hands, molded with colored paints, which had dripped down the rock. The past of men, women and children, captured in this cave. But the strangest thing were the images of other beings, with not very detailed features, thin, that were made of some phosphorescent mineral that made the paint glow. They looked like witnesses of past times.
—We have to get out of here, let's continue our work and make this discovery public, come on friends, this can't wait!, —said the engineer in charge.
The sun was already visible on the horizon, a fiery red color painted the sky over the mountains and the darkness was gaining ground, the shadows that were covering it. The machines were ready, but the work was stopped, it was necessary to decide what to do with the cavern of the paintings.
The news of the discovery spread quickly, helped by the photographs that went viral on the networks. Archaeologists arrived, the best specialists, to study the finding, samples were taken and tests were made to determine the time of these paintings. The most important questions were: How old were they? What was the access to this place now hidden in the mountain? Which culture did the men belong to? Who were the luminous beings?
The days passed while the evidence was studied, while the work of the tunnel continued paralyzed and this represented an enormous expense for the state and the companies involved.
—We have to speed up the studies of the cavern and not only that, the most important thing is to make a decision about the entrance to the cave. The tunnel has to be lined with steel and we cannot leave that segment open because it runs the risk of falling, the calculations have already been made, the project coordinator said in a meeting. I want you to give me your opinions, —he said, addressing those present.
—We would have to see if there is another access to the cave, send explorers and make studies to open an entrance through the mountain, —commented one of the attendees
—I don't think that is feasible, that mountain is solid rock, it would be very expensive.
—We could see if these paintings can be detached from the walls, what do you think, —said the engineer in charge of the work,—could we consult with the archaeological team.
—Well gentlemen, we are going to ask about this possibility, which I believe is the most feasible, was the final conclusion of the Project Manager.
Decisions are often made for economic reasons, and in this case, the construction of the work was more important than the knowledge of the past. The paintings could not be removed because they were damaged when trying to do so, and although there were worldwide protests so that the entrance to the cavern would not be closed, it remained hidden under a mountain of concrete. The window to the past that had been opened to amaze the world, remained hidden, but intact for future generations. It is possible that at some point it will again be exposed to mankind.
In the laboratory where the samples of the paintings from the dinosaur cave, as it was known, were analyzed, the results continued to surprise the scientists. The paint used on the luminous beings could not be identified. Its composition did not correspond to any known element on Earth. The paintings were made at different stages of the planet's evolution, from the age of the dinosaurs to just a thousand years ago. There are many mysteries still to be unveiled, they are the traces of a forgotten past.
Thank you for reading