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Altamira
The caves at Altamira (within walking distance of the beautiful-but-touristy
Santillana del Mar in Cantabria, Sartre's "plus jolie
village d'Espagne") have a fabulous collection of
cave paintings. Over the last couple of decades, access to
them has been increasingly limited, so that there is now a
waiting list of four years. To compensate for this, two reproductions
have been made. The earlier is an annex to the Museo Arqueológico
Nacional in Madrid. The newer one is the "New Cave"
in the Altamira Museum next to the caves themselves.
Museo
de Altamira
The official website for the museum is informative and entertaining;
it is a quibble to say that it is a tiny bit dull visually.
Apart from the caves themselves, the museum and the research
carried out there, one of the most interesting pages for visitors
is found under "Information" > "Other places
to visit," where a map of the region points out the various
other prehistoric caves explored.
Atapuerca
The Sierra de Atapuerca, east of Burgos, was already famous
for the its fossils demonstrating the existence of human settlement
in Europe as long ago as 800,000 years. Then, in 1997, the
discovery was announced of part of the skull of a young male,
identified as belonging to a new species of hominid given
the name Homo antecesor, said to be the ancestor of
both modern humans and Neanderthals. Not content with this,
in the 2003 season, the Atapuerca team found tools believed
to be nearly one-and-a-half million years old, and in 2008
announced the discovery of hominid bones over a million years
old - if true, the "out-of-Africa" history of early
human migrations may need to be rewritten.
Atapuerca
The website of this emblematic excavation has found a
sponsor, San Miguel beer, recovered an English-language version,
and is generally excellent. I particularly like the television-quality
documentary about the site under "WEN REPORT" (sic),
describing its location, geology (limestone), history (it
was exposed by a railway cutting made in the eighteen-sixties),
excavations and findings, especially Homo antecessor.
Medína Azahara
Strictly speaking, this Moorish city 5 kilometres from Córdoba
is called Madinat al Zahra, though there are different spellings.
It was built by Caliph Abd alRahman III in the tenth century,
and was considered indescribably beautiful by visitors, but
was destroyed by berbers less than 75 years later. It is said
that by the thirteenth century, when Córdoba was reconquered
by the Christians, not a trace of it remained. It has been
excavated and partially reconstructed and is well worth an
excursion from Córdoba: wear a hat if you visit in
the summer, it is very exposed to the sun.
Medina
Azahara
A section of the site of the Junta de Andalucia, logically
in Spanish only. You will find information about the place
and its history under "Presentación Conjunto,"
but I can't get the "Visita Virtual" to work in
either Firefox or Explorer. .
Mérida
The capital of the Roman province of Lusitania now has more
Roman remains than anywhere else in Spain. Many of these take
the form of visitable monuments: a Roman bridge, theatre,
amphitheatre, circus, a villa... Others are kept in the award-winning
Museo de Arte Romano, one of my favourite museums in the country.
Museo
Nacional de Arte Romano
Like the real-life museum, its website is modern, luminous
and lucid, and there is now an English-language version.
The
National Museum of Roman Art
From the Estremadura Tourist Board site, and at least
in English, though you have to guess that, Humpty-Dumpty style,
they want "The Holdings" to mean "The Collections."
Minorca
Prehistoric remains can be seen on all the Balearic Islands,
but it is on Minorca that you will see them most, often glimpsing
them from the road, perhaps in the middle of a field, surrounded
by grazing animals as if their presence had been forgotten.
They are the remains of the late-Bronze-Age Talayotic culture,
talayots being great conical mounds of rock the purpose
of which is the subject of debate, though it seems to be agreed
that they whatever they were they were not watchtowers. The
other structures you will see are navetas, cottage-sized
structures shaped like upside-down boats, which may have been
dwellings, but were probably tombs, and my favourite, taulas,
one enormous slab of rock on top of another in a t-shape,
like something out of 2001 A Space Odyssey. The best
sites are the "village" at Trepucò, within
the city limits of Mahon, on the way out to the airport, or
the Naveta d'es Tudons near Ciudadela.
Archaeology
on Menorca
A great section of Menorca.net, complete with photos and interactive
map, no longer available in English though, or even in Spanish.
Numantia
The Celtiberian city of Numantia or Numancia is legendary
for its stubborn resistance to the Roman invasion, the entire
population hurling itself to its death rather than surrender.
Its site is a long-ongoing excavation a few kilometres from
the city of Soria, in Old Castile. It is a little disappointing
for all except the most diehard dig fans, but a pleasant trip
out to the country, and a visit to the excellent Museo Numantino
back in Soria soon restores your archaeological interest.
Numantine
Links
Recópolis
Founded by King Leovigildo in 578 in honour of his son Recaredo
(don't you just love those jazzy Visigothic names?), this
used to be thought the only entirely Visigothic city in Spain
(the Visigoths occupied rather than building), It is
now known that there were at least three others, but as far
as I know, Recópolis is the only one to be excavated.
Whatever, though not as major an excavation as, say, Atapuerca,
it is ongoing (nearly 50 people work on it in the summer,
counting those on the dole). What it is more, it is an interesting
stop to make if you are visiting the south of the Alcarria,
being in the muncipality of Zorita
de los Canes, an attractive, sleepy village with a brilliant
castle on a hill overlooking the River Tagus.
Segóbriga
One reason this Roman city in Cuenca is remarkable from an
archaeological point of view in that it has been possible
to trace the process of interaction between the Roman settlers
and the native Celtiberian population.
Segovia
Except for Spaniards, who go there to eat roast suckling
pig (preferably at Mesón Candido), the main
reason for visiting Segovia is its Roman aqueduct, one of
the best preserved and most impressive in the world. And Mesón
Candido is next to it. The link above goes to my page
of selected links, annotated with the profound insight and
sparkling wit you have come to expect.
Segovia
- Photos of the Aqueduct
Lots of them, and rather good, too, from the site of a Madrid-based
professional photographer.
Tarragona
Roman traces have never actually disappeared from the capital
of the Roman province of Tarraconensis. The most emblematic
monument of the city is the amphitheatre down on the seafront,
near the city centre, but there are fascinating remains to
be found a little further away. The Passeig Arqueològic
follows the Roman/Iberian walls around the north of the city
centre, the Necropolis to the west is a must-see and the aqueduct
thirty kilometres away is, to quote Spain, the Rough Guide,
"surpassed only by those at Segovia and the Pont du Gard."
And there is much more: a circus, a praetorium, etc.
Tarragona
One of Eric Corbero's fabulous virtual tours.
Other Places of Interest - Museums
MAN
- Museo Arqueológico Nacional
There are a number of reasons why the MAN tends to disappoint,
one of which is that archaeology was one of the competencies
handed over to the autonomous regions in Spain's transition
to democracy back in the seventies and eighties. It is worth
the enthusiast's time, though, especially if you can't make
it to Cantabria to see the Altamira neocueva: the partial
reproduction made by the Deutsches Museum is a reasonable
substitute: you'll find it outside the main building of the
MAN..
Museo
de la Fábrica Real de la Moneda
The museum of the Spanish Royal Mint has recently been renovated
and is first-rate, and is now available in lots of languages
(the museum isn't, though). There is much of archaeological
interest in the collection, including Phoenician, Carthaginian,
Greek, Roman, Suevish, Visigothic and Moorish coins.
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