Holiday Rentals in Spain for the Iberian Mediterranean Basin's Cave Art

For a truly enlightening experience this year book your HOLIDAY RENTALS IN SPAIN where you can study the rock art of the Iberian Mediterranean Basin. This collection of rock art sites located in the eastern half of Spain was declared a World Heritage Site in 1998 by UNESCO. This represents the largest single collection of cave art in all of Europe. Some of these sites are situated along the coast but many of them are a ways inland in such places as Aragon and Castile La Mancha. The art found in these caves has the name of Levantine art which means “from Eastern Spain”.

The art found in these caves is from the hunter-gatherer tribes dating from 8,000 BC to 3,500 BC. This period represents a time of cultural change along with an economic representation of their lifestyle as hunter-gatherers. As you trace the history of these paintings you can see a gradual introduction of a Neolithic element in their art. There are two distinct styles of art found in these caves starting with the Levantine Art and second the Iberian schematic art.

Even though Levantine Art was discovered in 1903 in the town of Teruel, it was Juan Cabre, a Spanish prehistoric art professor, who was able to study this ancient form of art which he assigned to the Palaeolithic age. This was to be later disproved when in actually the art was from the Mesolithic period.

There are a number of autonomous communities that these historic sites fall within starting with Aragon, Catalonia, Andalucia, Valencia, Murcia and Castile La Mancha. The area designated as a World Heritage Site for rock art of this period starts in the Pyrenees and covers a large area all the way to the Province of Granada; you can see why this stretch of land encompasses so many communities.

When exploring the caves and rock shelters, which is where this art form is commonly found, there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason as to where they placed the paintings. Some of these works of art are placed high on the wall and ceiling or half way up the wall. The one place it is not necessary to look is in shallow caves as the sunlight can penetrate and easily destroy the art.

While on a day out from your HOLIDAY RENTALS IN SPAIN exploring the caves where you can view their prehistoric works of art you will notice that for the most part they are not in a good state of repair. Some of the local communities have taken it up on themselves to look after the preservation of these sites for future generations. A good example of this is in Granada where they built a replica cave for people to visit taking the pressure off the real one; the number of tourists allowed in is limited on a daily basis.

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