IRNAS’ Research Group Environmental Microbiology and Cultural Heritage studies the microbial communities of El Castillo Cave

Under the title of «Cueva de El Castillo: Estudio de las comunidades microbianas responsables de las manchas verdes que cubren el área de la cueva denominada Panel de las Superposiciones o Panel de Polícromos», the members of Irnas’ Research Group Environmental Microbiology and Cultural Heritage have submitted to the Ministry for Universites, Equity, Culture and […]

Researchers from IRNAS study the biodeterioration of the wall paintings of the Salón de Reinos

The IRNAS researchers Valme Jurado, José Luis González Pimentel, Bernardo Hermosín and Cesáreo Saiz Jiménez have just published the paper Biodeterioration of Salón de Reinos, Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, Spain in the scientific journal Applied Sciences. This study incides in the research of the microbial communities involved in the biodeterioration of the mural paintings […]

Bacillus onubensis, a new bacteria isolated from Gruta de las Maravillas

Along the last two decades, a progressive bacterial and fungal colonization has been detected in show caves and rock art caves, including the world wide known Altamira (Spain) and Lascaux (France) caves. Andalusian caves were n ot being controlled from the microbiological point of view, and for this reason we proposed the research project RMN […]

IRNAS experts show their works at the University of Bologna

Last March 22th, the members of IRNAS research group “Environmental Microbiology and Cultural Heritage” Cesareo Saiz-Jimenez and Ana Z. Miller, offered the conferences “Microbiology and Cultural Heritage: the case of Rock Art caves” and “Characterization of cave sepeleothems and associated microbe-mineral interactions” at the Department of Biological and Geological Sciences of the University of Bologna […]

First Seminar on Biotechnology Applied to Cultural Heritage, with the participation of IRNAS

Last March 10th was the first edition of the Heritage Innovation Talks (HI TALKS) in Évora (Portugal), organized by the Hercules Lab of the University of Evora. The goal of the HI TALKS is to present and discuss emerging issues in the framework of the sciences of Cultural Heritage, with the participation of key researchers […]

IRNAS researchers receive the Cueva de Nerja Award

The contribution entitled “Research applied to the preventive conservation of the karstic system of La Garma (Omoño, Ribamontán al Monte, Cantabria)”, authored, among others, by IRNAS researchers Valme Jurado Lobo and Cesáreo Saiz-Jimenez, received last October 1st the Cueva de Nerja Award to the best communication presented to the 6th Spanish Congress on Touristic […]

The conservation of the paintings of Altamira Cave, in danger

Last March 6th, the newspaper El Pais echoed the loss of pigments by washing in Polychromes Hall. This phenomenon, documented from 2014-2015, and still in action, was never detected in real time. The article is interested in the opinions of Sergio Sánchez Moral (from the Museum of Natural Sciences) and Cesareo Saiz-Jimenez, from IRNAS, […]

El Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte publica el informe del convenio para el estudio integral del estado de conservación de la cueva de Altamira y su arte paleolítico

The report, published as the number 24 of the prestigious book series “Monographs of the National Museum and Research Centre of Altamira”, has been finally published and could be assessed directly by the international scientific community. This book constitutes the crowning of the studies conducted in the cave by a research team which began working […]

El biodeterioro de los bienes culturales, a revista en Espacio Protegido

Canal Sur tv program “Espacio protegido” broadcasted last march 18th a report under the title of “The enemies of Cultural Heritage” in which Cesareo Saiz-Jimenez, IRNAS Research Professor, talked about the biodeterioration of cultural assets. In this program, he showed biodeterioration effects on three Sevillian elements of Cultural Heritage dated in the Roman times: […]

Reunión del equipo involucrado en la conservación de la Cueva Pintada de Gáldar, con la presencia de un integrante del IRNAS

The 2nd Research Seminar Cueva Pintada, under the title “The conservation at Cueva Pintada: new techniques for old challenges ” was held at Gáldar (Gran Canaria) the days 5 and 6 of March, developing the work sessions of the research team as well as moments for sharing with the public the studies to be […]