The Beniarbeig Pensioners Club was the setting for the presentation of the latest installment of the documentary series Beniarbeig: The history of a village, which this time focuses on the Bolumini cave. The mayor of the municipality, Juanjo Mas, thanked those involved for their collaboration in the project.
Mas also highlighted the importance of the cave in the field of hiking, especially on the days close to the summer solstice, when the well-known lighting phenomenon occurs.
Next, the librarian and co-director of the video, Pau Banyó Magraner, explained how the evolution of this documentary series subsidized by the Alicante Provincial Council has been, and in which year after year aspects such as festivals, old shops , the ball, the river, pigeon racing or the immigration process of Andalusians and Castilians in the middle of the last century. The turn of interventions was closed by Santi Masó, from Estudio8, as co-director and head of the technical part.
The video has a duration of 33 minutes, where the archaeologists Virgina Barciela and Josep Ahuir intervene, who explain the chronological sequence of human occupation dating back to the Epipaleolithic, about 13.000 years ago.
The part of biodiversity falls on the biologist Juli Pasqual, while the historian Robert Miralles is the one who places the etymological origin in an earthy clay called "bol armeni".
José Miguel Sanchis and Andreu Navarro, as members of the local hiking group, explain how the current path that ascends to the cave was created, while Salvador Mas and José Lull Carrió narrate the traditional use that has been made of the cave as a place of playtime. In Lull's case, he also explains how in the late 1990s, while on a hike, he noticed the sun coming in and lighting it up completely, creating quite a light show.
There were very diffuse references to this phenomenon in popular knowledge, about a cave in Segària where the sun shone on the days around San Juan, but the references were very scarce and totally insufficient to locate the exact cave or someone who knew it.
In this way, Lull's discovery made it easier for Salvador Perelló and Jesús Garcia, from the Gata Paleontological Cultural Association (Paleogeo) to disseminate the phenomenon. Already in 2010 the archaeologist specialized in archaeoastronomy José Lull Garcia carried out a study of this phenomenon.
It is Lull Garcia himself who closes the video explaining that for now, as there are few archaeological works carried out in the cave, there is no evidence that the phenomenon of illumination could have a ritual use, but that this does not close the door to Future research may provide more information on the subject.
To finish, from the City Council they wanted to remind that the documentary, together with the rest of the series, is available on the YouTube channel of the Beniarbeig Municipal Library and that in order to facilitate accessibility for all people, it has also been Added the possibility of subtitles in Valencian, Spanish and English.
