Post-conference trip (Palaeolithic of the Spanish northern coast)
Many delegates will probably wish to get a larger view of the Archaeology of the northern Spanish coast, especially its impressing Upper Palaeolithic sites and wall art caves. With that aim there will be a Post-conference trip on Saturday 18th and Sunday 19th September. It will include visits to some of the caves recently included in the UNESCO World Heritage List, and to the Altamira Museum.
REGISTRATION
Price: 35€ each excursion (taxes included)
September 18th (Saturday) |
September 19th (Sunday) |
|
8.30 |
Departure from Santander |
Departure from Santander |
10.00-13.00 |
Monte Castillo (Puente Viesgo), visiting |
Visit to Altamira National Museum (including the Altamira replica) |
13.00 |
Lunch at Puente Viesgo |
Lunch at Santillana del Mar (monumental town with relevant 13th to 18th centuries architecture) |
16.00-19.00 |
- Visit to El Pendo Cave (Palaeolithic archaeological sequence and wall art) |
Ramales de la Victoria caves, visiting |
19.00 |
Return to Santander |
Return to Santander |
El Castillo. Excavated between 1911 and 1914 by a team of the Institut de Paléontologie Humaine led by Hugo Obermaier, the 14 m thick stratigraphy of El Castillo rockshelter has been one of the key sites for the establishment of the European Palaeolithic sequence. It is also one on the most important wall art ensembles of Western Europe, including around 150 paintings or engravings catalogued. Since 1980 Victoria Cabrera and Federico Bernaldo de Quirós have developed an ambitious project of revision of the large archaeological collections and excavation of the remaining deposit, focusing in the Middle and early Upper Palaeolithic layers. Thus, El Castillo is one of the key sites in the current debate on the transition from Neanderthals to anatomically modern humans in Europe.
Las Monedas. One of the four sites with Palaeolithic wall art in Monte Castillo (all of them included in the UNESCO World Heritage List), Las Monedas cave shelters an important ensemble of Magdalenian painting, including high quality representations of horse and reindeer.
Covalanas. Discovered in 1903, Covalanas is the classical site for a very particular style within Cantabrian Palaeolithic wall art: the representations of animals (especially hinds) and signs using dotted red lines. Around 30 very well preserved representations of this kind can be seen on the walls of this cave, one of the eighteen Cantabrian caves included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.
El Mirón. The cave of El Mirón holds a long archaeological sequence of both Pleistocene and Holocene layers. Since 1996 a joint Spanish-American team, directed by Lawrence G. Straus (University of New Mexico) and Manuel R. González Morales (University of Cantabria) is developing an important research programme centred in this cave. Dr. González Morales himself will show the excavation to the participants in the trip.
El Pendo. El Pendo is one of the major sites of Cantabrian Palaeolithic. Excavated several times since the nineteenth century, it has provided one of the largest and finest ensembles of portable art of the European Palaeolithic, and a long stratigraphic sequence, including Middle and Upper Palaeolithic layers. In 1997, an impressive group of large Palaeolithic painting was discovered in the rear part of this cave. The latter has led to the inclusion of El Pendo among the eighteen Cantabrian caves included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.
Altamira. The National Museum of Altamira is a centre depending of the Spanish Ministry of Culture, which focuses in Upper Palaeolithic, and especially in the cave of Altamira. It includes a high quality facsimile of the Grand Plafond of the neighbouring cave.
