Siega Verde
Prehistoric rock carvings in Vale do Côa and Siega Verde | |
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UNESCO world heritage | |
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Siega Verde rock carvings |
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National territory: | Portugal , Spain |
Type: | Culture |
Criteria : | i, iii |
Reference No .: | 866 |
UNESCO region : | Europe and North America |
History of enrollment | |
Enrollment: | 1998 (session 22) |
Extension: | 2010 |
Siega Verde is a site of prehistoric rock carvings along the Río Águeda in western Spain . The recognition as a UNESCO - World Heritage took place in 2010 as part of an extension of questions in 1998 under protection, about 80 kilometers in a straight line (= about 100 kilometers driven), northwest, World Heritage Site of Vale do Côa , Portugal .
location
The site is about two kilometers west of the village of Castillejo de Martín Viejo , therefore about 15 kilometers northwest of the city of Ciudad Rodrigo in the province of Salamanca .
Discovery story
The drawings had been known to the local population for a long time, but it was not until 1988 that research was carried out by two archaeologists from the University of Salamanca , Manuel Santoja and Rosario Pérez.
Rock art
A total of over 500 incised drawings were discovered at 94 sites along an approximately three-kilometer stretch of the river, but only a few of them come close to the cave paintings of Altamira or Lascaux in terms of their precision and expressiveness . Mainly horses, bulls, deer and goats are shown. It is believed that one can identify a drawing of a woolly rhinoceros . The stone was worked by scratching and hammering with other, mostly harder stones, although only the outlines of the animals are shown - the body surfaces themselves remain unworked, as is usual with rock drawings.
Dating
The age of the drawings is estimated at 13,000 to 20,000 years and attributed to the Paleolithic cultural stages of the Gravettian and the Magdalenian .
meaning
Together with the approximately simultaneous rock carvings in Parque Arqueológico do Vale do Côa in what is now Portugal, they form the most important complex of rock carvings on the Iberian Peninsula .
literature
- Juan A. Gómez-Barrera: Arte rupestre prehistórico en la Meseta castellano-leonesa. Junta de Castilla y León, Valladolid 1993, ISBN 84-7846-171-X .
Web links
- Website of the Archaeological Site of Siega Verde - Photos + Info (Spanish)
- Entry in the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites - information (English)
Coordinates: 40 ° 41 ′ 51 ″ N , 6 ° 39 ′ 40 ″ W.