Nearly 6,000-year-old bridge discovered in mysterious cave on Mallorca island

An analysis of a 7.6-metre-long bridge inside the Genovesa cave has revealed that people lived in Mallorca much earlier than previously thought.

Close-up of a stone bridge in a cave in Mallorca. (Photo: R. Landreth).

Scientists can estimate that it was built nearly 6,000 years ago, according to study lead author Bogdan Onac, a professor in the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of South Florida.

The bridge is made of large, heavy limestone blocks , some as wide as 4.2 feet (1.3 meters), and it is still unclear how the ancients built it.

Researchers believe that the bridge's builders wanted a continuous, dry path connecting the cave entrance to a chamber behind a lake 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 pottery found in a chamber of the cave.

Mineral deposits on stalactites. (Photo: M.À. Perelló).

'This suggests that humans may have used the area near the cave entrance for habitation,' said Onac. 'The purpose of crossing the lake to access that area is unclear; it could have been used as a shelter, a place for rituals or a place to store and preserve food during the hot days of Mallorca.'

There are houses and structures made from large stone blocks on Mallorca dating back 2,000 to 4,500 years, so it's possible the cave bridge was a precursor to larger, more elaborate stone structures found on the island, Onac said.

Paleontologists are still trying to determine why Mallorca was settled later than other eastern Mediterranean islands, despite its large size and close proximity to mainland Spain.