• Co-ordination: Hipólito Collado Giraldo
• Extremadura records: Antonio Criado Vadillo, Fernando Grande Turégano, Fuentes Fernando, Milagros Fernández Algaba, Montserrat Girón Abumalham, Joanjo Pulido Royo
  

The Cultural Association Colectivo Barbaón is a team of about 20 young field investigators constituted to study Rock Art in the Extremadura region, south-western Spain, mainly. The team is composed by Historians, Art historians, Archaeologists, and Topographers basically, who work together since 1997 always under the supervision of Mr. Jose Julio García Arranz, Professor of Art History in Extremaduran University, and Mr. Hipolito Collado Giraldo, Prehistoric Art expert and Archaeologist.

General activities of Colectivo Barbaón since its creation have been mainly scientific investigations not forgetting divulgative issues. Between these activities are:

1. Arrangement and setting of an exhibition about Schematic Rock Art at Monfragüe’s Natural Park exhibited at Cáceres Provincial Museum, May-June 1999.
2. Conferences and communications of didactic character in schools and colleges and of scientific character in congresses and specialised meetings.
3. Web-site composition with all the information referent to works and projects of the Association (www.artrex.com / E-mail of Association:barbaon@eresmas.com).
4. Publications:
   Colectivo Barbaón (1998): "Nuevas Pinturas Rupestres en la Provincia de Cáceres: 42 nuevos abrigos en el Parque Natural de Monfragüe", Revista de Arqueología, nº 212, p.12-17.
   Colectivo Barbaón (2000): "El Parque Natural de Monfragüe. La mayor concentración de pintura esquemática en Extremadura". Actas del Congreso Internacional de Arte Rupestre. Vigo 1999 (edición digital)

Rock Art and specially Schematic rock art is one of the past evidences fully present in the Extremadura region Sierras and Valleys from North to South. Included in the general plans and budgets for improving and supporting knowledge and investigation of the regional department of Cultural Affairs of the Extremadura Government –Consejería de Cultura de la Junta de Extremadura- it has experimented special attention in the last 7/8 years as a cultural phenomenon of the past and an important element of Historical Patrimony valuable in present times.

The presence of this historical-anthropological manifestations is quite extensive in Spain and, particularly in Extremadura there are several nucleuses of Schematic rock art. Some of them known from first decades of XXth century and others discovered between the 70’s till nowadays, that are needing a relationated, spatial and technologically updated study. These are the lines of Colectivo Barbaon proposals and have been the lines of the promotional projects held by Cultural Affairs department in order to make possible first steps to global knowledge of the sites. In the last years there have been carried out several projects with modern methodologies and counting on technological advances to compile information of regional Rock art evidences in the way to set the basis for deeper studies.

The Extremadura contribution to EuroPreArt presents two examples of the more impressive sites of the region. The first in the Northern area, located in the Monfragüe Natural Park and the second in the South-western Area, located, in the Guadiana River Valley with an extent of 2 km.

Monfragüe’s Natural Park site contains 100 localised rock shelters with Schematic paintings along its sierras and valleys related to a Neolithic - Iron Age chronology –IV-III millennia b.C. – 700 b.C.- In this EuroPreArt archive a sample of 38 sites (35 % of site) can be found. Revision studies in this area began in 1997 and they are still in process of documentation because of the great amount of shelters dispersed in an extensive territory where field works allowed take little time for the Protected Environment status of the Park.

Guadiana Valley open air carvings site is one of the more recent studies developed in the region. It began in Jan 2001 and its been carried out along 5 months along the year leaving the impressive result of almost 600 engraved rocks that put evidence of Naturalistic, Emi-naturalistic and Schematic styles from Palaeolithic, Neolithic- Chalcolithic, Bronze Age and Iron Age chronology for those of prehistoric and protohistoric typologies, in incision and percussion techniques, though also Medieval and Modern ones are present on the site. EuroPreArt database. has been filled with a sample of 64 rocks, trying to show all types, though there are still great amount of rock-sites whose documentation is being processed.