I tried to get a sample for O.S.L. dating here, but when bits of the deposit started falling down around me, I decided that hammering a metal pipe into this rock pile might not be such a good idea.

Dating from about 7, 370 BC, these polychrome rock paintings cover recesses in the near-vertical walls with imprints of human hands, drawings of guanacos and, from a later period, abstract designs.

That fall into the cave happened 1.977 million years ago, according to dating based on the rate of decay of uranium in the rock layer that holds the fossils.