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Country: |
España |
Locality: |
Serradilla, Sierra Santa Catalina, Peña Falcón, Southern Slope |
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Region: |
Extremadura/Cáceres |
Area: |
Monfragüe's Natural Park, |
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Environment & Surface |
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Altitude:
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640 m
Open-air
Shelter
Cave
Portable
Megalithic
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Geography: |
Monfragüe is a massif mountains complex, crossed E-W by Tajo River, where we can find hills, mounts crown with sierras (max. hight....), several water courses and streams commonlly running through narrow valleys. Narrow passes and breaches along the Sierras remain as ancient pastural routes to northern and southern plain valleys. General flora corresponds to Mediterranean wood with bushy trees, mainly cistus, and autoctonal trees like ilex, cork tree. Nowadays we find also exogene spices like olive trees and euchaliptus product of agricultural use of some areas of the Park. Sierra Santa Catalina is the alignment placed on the North-eastern vertice of Monfragüe, land sourrounding is pasture woodland, cultivated land with olive trees and used for forestry. Vegetation includes bushy trees like brooms and cistus and trees like ilex and cork trees mostly. Ascending through the Portilla del Boqueron Breach, a narrow corridor between alignment outcrops of Sierra Santa Catalina, a few meters before reaching the top a narrow passage among rock crumbles leads to the Shelter 35, located on a rock terrace, third level on the line of this Sierra. The shelter, though big at the entrance soon goes narrower and lower in its depth. Paintings can be seen only on the ceiling near the oppening. |
Proximity: |
I would like to say how far is the river, in which direction and which is the visibility from the site. Besides the closeness of any traditional pastural route. Several shelters on the surrounding...Del Silencio 36 .......more or less far. |
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Geology: |
Quartzite |
Surface: |
Mostly burnt, its dark color interrupts the vision of art, posibly more than found. It presents very rough support, affected by several chips all over the surface and progresive flakening off of the rock all over tha shelter. Found paintings are located on the ceiling, central position next to the oppening border, where surface is whity grey. |
Dimensions:
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Length 3.20 m.
Width 7.90 m.
Depth 2.90 m.
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Art |
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Description: |
Engravings
Paintings
Painted engravings
High or low-relief
Sculpture
The figures are disposed in three groups in the ceiling 1.50 m high from the floor, description goes from inside to outside. The first group show, from left to right, one rest of finger spot, next a bar 5 cm long ending on a curve to the right on the lower part and last a inverted "T" irregular sign. These three could have been one single figure, for its notorious all the taces described are incomplete because of rock chips and fissures, in the case of going together the aproximate type would be zoomorphic scheme. Secondly, four new bars, first 3 cm long, next below another 8.5 cm long, to its right another 3 cm long, clarly incomplete, and a rest of colour few cms, to the right. Last group could be divided in four motives. Same conditions show them broken or incomplete so the conclusions include the posibility of broken types instead some single traces. First, a quite broken zoomorphic schem upside down composed by an horizontal bar with two perpendicular bars added (7 cm max. long-10.3 cm max.wide.). Right next to the right end of the horizontal trace a small spot could be part of the zoomorph. The third motive is another zoomorphic schem just below the former, composed by a 7 cm long horizontal trace with three vertical parallel bars (6-7 cm long) joint. The last figure is a vertical trace 5.5 cm long, next to the zoomorph on the right. All of them are painted with dark red pigment. See pictures
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Figures: |
total number 11
Bars, Finger spots, 2 or 3 Zoomorphic schems
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Chronology: |
Palaeolithic
Epipalaeolithic - Mesolithic
Neolithic
Copper Age
Bronze Age
Iron Age
Roman
Middle Age
Modern
Unknown
Schematic art in the Iberian Peninsule is a style developed from VI to I milenium A.C., Absolute data can´t be given.
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Notes: |
These shelter seem to have suffer a fire in itself. News of wood fires are not known.... |
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Bibliography |
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Conservation |
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Status: |
Public
Private
Park
Classified site
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Risk: |
Fire and smoke effects have degraded the conditions of the site. Painting may be lost because of it, though the position of described figures benefit its protection from metheoroligical phenomena. Anyway restoration labours would be needed. |
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Conservation: |
Good
Quite good
Mediocre
Bad
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Intervention: |
Three recording campaigns (1997,98,99) have taken place at Monfragüe, covering most of its sierras and stream breachs, in order to record all schematic art sites. The works, not finished, had given a number of 209 shelter with art, and the record consist in digitalizated tracings, pictures and descriptions that are also being compiled in several unpublished volumes. Monfragüe is a Natural Park where no human intervention is nowadays allowed, neither the presence of people near most of the art sites. The latter means the art is strictly preserved of any anthropical action wether it is damage or conservation works. |
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By |
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Record n. 145 / 807 |
No commercial use is allowed. Specific © is mentioned in the captions or owned by each Author or Institution |
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EuroPreArt, European Prehistoric Art, is a web-based archaeological project funded by the European Union which aims to establish a lasting data-base of European prehistoric art documentation, to launch the base of an European institutional network and to contribute to the awareness of the diversity and richness of European Prehistoric Art.
It is proposed by: Instituto Politécnico de Tomar (IPT, Portugal),
CUEBC - European University Centre for Cultural Heritage (Italy - Europe),
Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (España),
Asociación Cultural Colectivo Barbaón (España),
Université de Liège (Belgique),
Gotland University College (Sverige),
University College Dublin (Eire),
Cooperativa Archeologica Le Orme dell'Uomo (Italia),
Study Centre and Museum of Prehistoric Art of
Pinerolo (Italia),
The European Centre for Prehistoric Research in the Alto Ribatejo (Portugal),
ArqueoJovem - a youth NGO (Portugal).
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