PREHISTORIC CAVE PAINTINGS IN THE MARINA ALTA

Talk in the museum On November 16, at 19.30 hours, The archaeologist Juan de Dios Boronat will talk about rock art in the Marina Alta. The conference will be in Castilian, with possibility of some clarification in English. When finished, we will comment and have a refreshment.

PREHISTORIC CAVE PAINTINGS IN THE MARINA ALTA 

This talk about Prehistoric Cave Paintings in the Marina Alta will show real examples of  graphic expression as manifested by the people who lived on this land, the Marina Alta, from the emergence of homo sapiens, around 40.000 BP (Before Present), and the arrival of the Metal Age, around 3.500 BP. 

“The Prehistoric Cave Paintings of the Iberian Mediterranean Basin” have been collectively designated as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, thereby conferring on them maximum world protection.

The term Paleolithic Art denotes the graphic expression of the hunter-gatherer societies in the late Pleistocene era, the last glacial period, popularly known as The Ice Age; paleolithic art of this type is to be seen in the Cova del Comte in Pedreguer and in the Cova Fosca in the Vall d’Ebo.

The advent of our current global climate, known as the Holocene epoch, between 10.000 and 6.000 BP (Before Present), fostered the arrival of new technologies, giving rise to the Neolithic era with its agriculture and the domestication of animals; with these new skills came new ideological concepts; and these in turn engendered the art of graphic expression. 

-  Levantine Cave Paintings as seen in the Cova del Tío Mansano in Xaló (Jalón) and in Group VI of the Barranc de l’Infern in the Vall de Laguar are characteristic examples.

- Macro-Schematic cave paintings as seen in Group IV of the Barranc de l’Infern in the Vall de Laguar constitute one of the most impressive sanctuaries for this unique art form.

- Schematic Art as seen in the Cova de Barranc of the Migdía of Xàbia and the Sa Cova de ses Lletres in Tàrbena are two examples of this symbolic art form linked to the culture of the late Neolithic period.

J. D. Boronat Soler