2/14/2024 0 Comments Fire mountain jewelry findings![]() Beyond its archaeological significance, the region's small towns enchant visitors with their many cobblestone streets, quaint cafes and local markets, providing a taste of traditional Spanish culture. ![]() With panoramic views and curated interiors, each cave house tells a story of resilience and adaptation. Today, these caves not only serve as contemporary dwellings, but also stand as a living connection to the enduring history of the High Plateau region – weaving a seamless thread from antiquity to modern times.įor adventurous travellers, these caves provide an immersive lodging and cultural experience. These houses, with a troglodytic and prehistoric origin, are believed to date back to the Moorish era (beginning in 711 AD). Here, thousands of cave houses, hewn into the bedrock and hills, whisper stories of a bygone era. Even in winter, when the biting wind and low temperatures set in, enthusiasts brave the elements, heralding the onset of the ever-welcome snow.Įight kilometres west of Orce, the village of Galera emerges as a captivating testament to the past. Especially on weekends, the surrounding badlands and rugged limestone mountains attract numerous cyclists and hikers eager to explore this hidden corner of Spain. There are also several companies that offer guided tours of the High Plateau of Granada – from the local archaeological museums into the mountains – allowing people to follow the traces of Europe's earliest inhabitants. The vivid red depictions of animals and figures date back more than 6,000 years, offering a fascinating glimpse into ancient times. Another notable site is the Piedra del Letrero in the nearby village of Huéscar, a renowned cave containing elaborate paintings. Here, visitors can marvel at the innovative stone tools used by our ancestors and the awe-inspiring bones of mammoths. Additionally, the region boasts several museums dedicated to prehistory, including the Primeros Pobladores de Europa (First Settlers of Europe) museum in Orce. Thanks to its prehistoric significance and remarkable geological richness, the area of Orce was recognised in 2020 as a Unesco World Geopark. Experts believe the carvers at Barranco León had a preconceived idea of the final product, very fine motor skills and a hierarchy of carving gestures. To achieve these carved tools, early humans had to look for the appropriate raw material (fine-grained limestone) and conscientiously plan each of their strokes with a hammer-like object. These intriguing limestone tools denote high cognitive abilities, a knowledge of geometry, as well as the physical characteristics of the raw materials used. "The Silicon Valley of prehistoric times"Īs excavations continued in the years ahead, archaeologists discovered additional findings that startled them: not only was Orce found to contain the oldest human remains in Europe, but the people that inhabited this area some 1.4 million years ago appeared to have used highly innovative techniques to make their stone tools that wouldn't be used again for another 400,000 years, leading experts to declare this site "the Silicon Valley of prehistoric times".Īt the centre of this discovery are spherical-shaped stone balls known as spheroids. ![]() This fossil layer formed in an environment of freshwater ponds, near the ancient Lake Orce-Baza, where the bones were deposited by and buried in the calcareous mud that was covering them. Serrano's farm and the surrounding area soon became a working archaeological site, and as a team of experts descended near Orce in the coming years, they discovered a continuous presence of fossilised remains of large mammals dating back approximately 1.5-1.6 million years. ![]() But when three members of the Catalan Institute of Paleontology later travelled to the area and examined Serrano's findings, they confirmed that his hunch was correct: these were no ordinary stones. When he contacted local authorities, they didn't give much importance to his findings. Recognising the potential importance of his discoveries, he showed them to neighbours and relatives, explaining that he had found "stones that resemble bones". In 1976, a local farmer named Tomás Serrano began stumbling upon what appeared to be fossilised remains in his fields.
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