The cave site

EL CONJUNT RUPESTRES

Any de descobriment

+ 0

Pintures conservades

9000 -

ANYS D'ANTIGUITAT

YEAR DISCOVERED

+ 0

PAINTINGS PRESERVED

YEARS OLD

The cave paintings of the Serra de Godall mountains, declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1998, are one of the most important series of Levantine Cave Art in the entire Iberian Peninsula. Some of them were painted over 8,000 years ago, during the post-Palaeolithic period. Most of the paintings found so far have been dated to the period known as Levantine art. Schematic and abstract figures have only been found on the walls of the Dark Cave (Shelter IV).

A visit to the Ulldecona Cave Site provides an opportunity to enjoy the most complex and well-preserved example of Catalan Levantine Art, and one of the most important in the Iberian Peninsula. Its narrative-style scenes, such as the impressive “Oldest Legend in Catalonia” in Shelter I give us some idea of the society, culture and rituals of the first post-Palaeolithic society of 8,000 years ago. In addition, thanks to the new technologies, an “e-Art” augmented reality app can be used in this cave. It lets us reconstruct the scene as it was painted by the artists, gives a better idea of the magnitude of the site, its narrative and artistic complexity, and thereby improves the visitor’s experience.

History

These paintings reveal a world of beliefs or mythical stories related to hunting and involving part of society, possible heroes or legendary figures, divinities, those in charge of carrying out the rituals and the different species of animals typical of the area. The steep cliffs would have been a perfect setting for capturing animals. Furthermore, it was probably used as a meeting place and a place for celebrating certain rituals.

Painting thus became a means of communication. It marked the most significant points or “sacred” places where ceremonies were held and, at the same time, it allowed the traditions, part of the historical memory and the cultural values of the inhabitants of this territory to be maintained.

The fact that hunting scenes are common in these paintings suggests that they were painted by human groups whose means of subsistence was hunting and gathering. We know from the animal species represented that they were painted between 7000 and 2000 BC. During that period, other communities that practised agriculture and livestock farming developed in this area, with whom they may have been in contact. The community of hunter-gatherers from the Serra de Godall must have moved around this area periodically throughout the year. Throughout the almost 500 metres that the rock art of the Serra de Godall occupies, we can see more than 400 figures distributed unevenly in the different abrics.

Given the difficulty of accessing most of the cave paintings, the “Abrics de l’Ermita” Cave Art Interpretation Centre was created in 2006, designed to bring visitors closer to the numerous remains that the abricas contain. To this end, multiple graphic resources and a large number of photographs and tracings of the paintings have been used to provide the visitor with a very pleasant way of gaining an in-depth knowledge of this legacy. In addition, there is also an interactive game under the title “Nosaltres caçadors” (“We are hunters”) which, apart from its more playful part, brings us closer to the hunting strategies used 8000 years ago by our ancestors. Therefore, this interpretation centre is very interesting to visit.