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Country: |
España |
Locality: |
Serradilla, Sierra of Santa Catalina, "Cancho de la Cueva" sector. |
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Region: |
Extremadura, Cáceres |
Area: |
Natural Park of Monfragüe. |
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Environment & Surface |
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Altitude:
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495 m
Open-air
Shelter
Cave
Portable
Megalithic
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Geography: |
The Natural Park of Monfragüe is located in the area were two rivers, Tajo and Tietar, come across, and presents low mountains, ranges with breach and narrow valleys, and some planes. It has a Mediteranean forest, with ilex and bushy vegetation -the most frecuent, cistus-. There is also landscape with eucaliptus, olive groves, and pasture land with ilex and corks.This shelter is called "cueva del Fraile". It´s situated in the northern-slope of the Sierra,open to NE, in a middle high of a steep rock. But it hasn´t a difficult access. |
Proximity: |
Wacking to the east about 3,5 km following a small watercourse , you get to the Tajo river. And just 400 m to the west, going down 150 m, to the Helechal stream. |
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Geology: |
quartzite. |
Surface: |
All the paintings are distributed along the front wall face of the shelter, in a oranged -and sometimes grey- and ridged surface who has been blackened in some places because of the bonfires smoke. |
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Dimensions:
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Length 1.20 m.
Width 5.80 m.
Depth 1.60 m.
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Art |
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Description: |
Engravings
Paintings
Painted engravings
High or low-relief
Sculpture
On the left end of the shelter, and between 110 and 89 cm high, there are 3 figures: a fingerdot, a posible schematic zoomorph -represented with a horizontal bar and four vertical ones-, and a bar. Loocking the same wall 117cm to the right, we find a panel with 56 figures, bars and fingerdots, with a irregular distribution along a surface of 50·90cm; some of them are so close that they seems to be linked. Just 61 cm below appear -more isolated- another two bars. And beneath them 2 bars, 2 fingerdots, and (pict.2) one "Pi" figure, 3 ramifyed bars and one oval figure also ramifyed with 3 small blots inside it. Following the description of the motivs from left to right, there are more bars -3 of them have a triangular upper end- and fingerdots, and there is also a zoomorph -quadruped and with two short lines in the upper part like horns or ears- pale red. (p.4). All the figures have been made with iron oxide and thick lines.
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Figures: |
total number 97
17 bars, 73 fingerdots, 1 "Pi" figure, 4 ramityed figures, 1 zoomorf/s, 1 pectiniforme.
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Chronology: |
Palaeolithic
Epipalaeolithic - Mesolithic
Neolithic
Copper Age
Bronze Age
Iron Age
Roman
Middle Age
Modern
Unknown
VI-I milenium aC. is the general schematic-paintings cronology in Spain. (We can´t give more accurate cronology because of the few references we can obtain in this case).
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Notes: |
The Natural Park Area has been traditionaly used by shepherds. They followed all the water courses who cross the region, and they where the authors of many bonfires made inside the shelters. Now there are not shephers inside the Park, and people can´t visit many areas. |
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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: |
Many figures are pale, and the shelter presents some blakened surfaces because of bonfires smoke and the quartzite oxidation. There are also contemporary engravings, some of them over the paintings. |
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Conservation: |
Good
Quite good
Mediocre
Bad
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Intervention: |
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By |
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| Record n. 161 / 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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