Documentation and analysis of the archaeological human footprints of Galerías de las Huellas site (Ojo Guareña Karstic Complex, Burgos) from 3D laser scanner and GIS techniques

Abstract

Ojo Guareña Karstic Complex is one of the biggest interconnected cave systems in Spain of 110 km long. It contains an impressive archaeological record of human activities from Upper Pleistocene, and it was listed in 1970 as Spanish Cultural Heritage. The diversity and variety of passages and sites include living areas cave vestibules, rock art, human bones, grave goods or archaeological objects inside passages. Among these sites, the human footprints site of the “Sala y Galerías de las Huellas” is one the most singular and vulnerable archaeological sites of Ojo Guareña karst. The Sala and Galerías de las Huellas form a network of passages located inside the slope of Circo San Bernabe, at 1250 m west ward from Cueva Palomera entrance. In 1969, an important set of well-preserved human bare footprints were found, preserved in the soft clay sediments of the floor. Due to difficulty of combining the documentation and preservation of these footprints, the study of this site has not been possible until the advance of new no-invasive remote sensing techniques. In this work, we show the preliminary works carried out since 2012, focused on the accurate three-dimensional reconstruction of the human footprints site, using nondestructive 3D laser scanner methods and GIS techniques. The latter allow us to analyze the tracks and the characteristics of the human group who explored this cavity during the Prehistory. These works have been carried out combining 3D laser scanner technology with GIS methodologies, obtaining a model of the cavity floor, where the footprints and their internal morphology can be observed in detail. Currently we have identified more than 900 prehistoric human footprints and at least 16 distinct tracks, which could belong to around 8 individuals.