To check if you have a place for the excursions, please refer to the following document: List
In order to attend the excursions, it is necessary to have registered for the congress. It is also compulsory to register using the following form:
FORM
ATTENTION! The number of places is limited, so preference will be given on a first-come, first-served basis.
Las Batuecas
The Valley of Las Batuecas, located in the southwest of Salamanca, very close to La Alberca, is one of the most important Natural Spaces of Castilla y León. The orography of the valley, surrounded by the peaks of the Sierra de Francia, made it a refuge for the local fauna and some hermits; in fact, in the centre of this valley we find the Carmelite monastery of Desierto de San José, founded at the end of the 16th century. The poet and dramatist Lope de Vega, an important writer of the Spanish Golden Age, referred to this environment as the “perpetual place of happiness”.
Apart from its natural wealth, Las Batuecas is considered to be an important site of schematic rock art, above all because of the large number of decorated rock shelters. This artistic manifestation, whose precise chronology is unknown, apart from being later than the Palaeolithic, is characterised by its great abstraction and representation of minimal traits, in a schematic manner. Its paintings were already described by A. Ponz in 1778, but it was not more than two hundred years later that they were recognised as a graphic activity of prehistoric origin. Las Batuecas also forms part of the prolific scientific production of H. Breuil, J. Cabré and E. Hernández Pacheco. In recent times, we should first add the important contribution of J. Bécares, professor at the University of Salamanca, who in a succession of research campaigns describes and discovers a large group of figures, and J. F. Ruiz-López, professor at the University of Castilla-La Mancha, in the work of updating, digitalising and documenting this rich patrimonial vestige.
The schematic rock paintings of Las Batuecas were drawn on quartzite supports in open-air shelters. Despite their obvious schematic nature, the corpus of this enclave shows a particular naturalistic tendency in the formal treatment of the quadrupeds in such representative shelters as the Canchal de las Cabras Pintadas. Thus, the quadrupeds were represented with attention to the detail of the animal’s trunk and antlers/horns, resulting in the possibility of distinguishing the painted fauna, such as goats or deer, although it is also possible to distinguish other animals such as fish. Finally, it should be noted that the iconography of Las Batuecas has another peculiarity: the use of white pigmentation (so rare in prehistoric art), generally applied to complete or highlight a specific figure
From La Alberca, take the road that leads to the valley of the river Batuecas. You can leave your car in the car park, about 500 metres from the monastery. After crossing and going up the river, it is possible to reach the cave paintings on foot, which are preserved on various panels and “canchales”. The visit is completely free of charge.
SCIENTIFIC ARTICLE WITH TRACINGS BY H. BREUIL OF THE BATUECAS
Siega Verde
The Siega Verde site, discovered in 1988 by M. Santonja and R. Pérez, is located on the banks of the river Águeda, in the province of Salamanca, very close to the border with Portugal. Together with that of Foz Côa (Portugal), its rock art is the best example of Palaeolithic rock art in the open air, which earned it recognition as an Asset of Cultural Interest in 1998 and as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2010.
The site, identified by M. Santonja and R. Pérez and researched by J. J. Alcolea González and R. de Balbín Behrmann, is made up of a total of 94 panels on slate blocks located over a distance of around 3 km along the banks of the Águeda River. The representations have been engraved using both the picket technique and the incised engraving technique. In terms of iconography, animals are the dominant motifs, mainly horses and aurochs, followed by caprids and cervids. According to stylistic characteristics, it has been possible to define both pre-Magdalenian and Magdalenian representations, in the same way as in other open-air sites such as the Côa Valley or Domingo García (Segovia).
Currently, the site can be visited both during the day and at night and has an Interpretation Centre where the creation of Siega Verde art is contextualised within the Palaeolithic chronology and its relationship with other similar sites.
In 2022, the LabTec team began a new study of the Siega Verde rock art with the aim of restoring the decorated panels three-dimensionally using photogrammetry and structured light scanning, as well as the technical analysis of the engraving. During the campaigns carried out, all the motifs already known have been identified and located using GPS, as well as including the new figures recently discovered in the inventory. The identification and inventory work has been combined with the creation of 3D models using photogrammetry and LiDAR technology, which has made it possible to create a high quality three-dimensional database very quickly. On the other hand, taking into account that this site stands out for the notable presence of pictographic figures (a technique exclusive to open-air rock art), within the PALEOARTE project (financed by the Junta de Castilla y León) we have carried out an experimental project to determine what type of tool and technique was used to carry out this type of technique.
Foz Côa
The discovery of the first engraved rock (1 de Canada do Inferno) dates back to the end of 1991. It immediately provoked a great deal of discussion, as the planned construction of a dam would cause the rock art in the Côa valley to collapse. In 1996, the Portuguese government, taking into account expert opinion on the enormous artistic and scientific importance of the Côa engravings, decided to abandon the construction of the dam and to create the Archaeological Park. Today the Côa Valley is the largest open-air collection of Palaeolithic art in the world, classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1998.
The Archaeological Park of the Côa Valley is located in the northernmost part of the district of Guarda, in the region known as Alto Douro. In the final stretch of the Côa River there are more than 80 sites with rock art and about 1200 engraved rocks. The great majority of the rock art motifs, of all chronologies, are located in schist rocks, taking advantage of the way in which the geological evolution of the Baixo Côa exposed, as a result of fluvial lace processes and tectonic fracturing, smooth vertical panels suitable for engraving.