Siega Verde () is an

archaeological site An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology an ...

in Serranillo,

Villar de la Yegua Villar de la Yegua is a municipality located in the province of Salamanca, Castile and León, Spain. (data from INE), the municipality has a population of 198 inhabitants. The municipal territory is home to the Siega Verde Paleolithic art site, i ...

, province of Salamanca, in

Castile and León Castile and León ( es, Castilla y León ; ast-leo, Castiella y Llión ; gl, Castela e León ) is an autonomous community in northwestern Spain. It was created in 1983, eight years after the end of the Francoist regime, by the merging of th ...

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = '' Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , ...

. It was added to the Côa Valley Paleolithic Art site in the

World Heritage List A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for ...

in 2010. The site consists of a series of rock carvings, discovered in 1988 by professor Manuel Santoja Gómez, during an inventory campaign of archaeological sites in the valley of the Águeda river. Subjects include equids, aurochs, deer and goats, among the most common ones, as well as bison, reindeer and the

woolly rhinoceros The woolly rhinoceros (''Coelodonta antiquitatis'') is an extinct species of rhinoceros that was common throughout Europe and Asia during the Pleistocene epoch and survived until the end of the last glacial period. The woolly rhinoceros was a me ...

, which were not yet extinct at the time. The engravings date to the

Gravettian The Gravettian was an archaeological industry of the European Upper Paleolithic that succeeded the Aurignacian circa 33,000 years BP. It is archaeologically the last European culture many consider unified, and had mostly disappeared by 2 ...

culture of the

Upper Palaeolithic The Upper Paleolithic (or Upper Palaeolithic) is the third and last subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age. Very broadly, it dates to between 50,000 and 12,000 years ago (the beginning of the Holocene), according to some theories coin ...

(circa 20,000 years ago). There are also more recent, anthropomorphic representations, dating to the

Magdalenian The Magdalenian cultures (also Madelenian; French: ''Magdalénien'') are later cultures of the Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic in western Europe. They date from around 17,000 to 12,000 years ago. It is named after the type site of La Madel ...

age (c. 9,000 years ago). There is a total of 91 panels, spanning some 1 kilometers of rock.

References

External links

Siega Verde websitePage at Celtiberia.net

Explore the Prehistoric Rock Art Sites in the Côa Valley and Siega Verde in the UNESCO collection on Google Arts and Culture

{{Authority control Prehistoric sites in Spain Prehistoric art World Heritage Sites in Spain Tourist attractions in Castile and León Art of the Upper Paleolithic Archaeological sites in Castile and León