The Cova de l'Or site museum site and Interpretation Centreboth in Beniarrés, will close the visiting season on Sunday 14 December. to reopen again as early as mid-March.
During the visiting season that is now coming to an end, the public has been able to enjoy the extension of the exhibition space inside the site itself thanks to an investment of 65,000 euros by the Provincial Council and the MARQ Foundation.
With this performance, the public can observe the profiles up close, as well as the informative contents to understand the different moments of occupation of the cavity, to know the methodology and techniques The aim is to understand the problems of sites that have been altered, before their recovery and enhancement.
The MARQ Foundation manages together with the Alicante Provincial Council and the Beniarrés Town Council This cultural proposal offers visitors a complete tour of both the Interpretation Centre and the Cova de L'Or site itself, one of the most important archaeological sites of the Neolithic period on the Iberian Peninsula, declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. Bien de Interés Cultural.
For more than three years the site has been receiving organised groups of guided tours at weekends. An attractive route of heritage, historical-cultural and scenic interest that starts at the interpretation centre, located in the town centre of Beniarrés, and culminates with a visit to the Cova, and which has already been visited by nearly three thousand two hundred people.
In this summer's archaeological excavation campaign, the following have been located materials from different periodsThese, together with the C14, sedimentological, geological and geological analyses of the different materials found, will provide more data for a better understanding of the uses and occupations of the cave in different historical periods.
The work to improve the museographic supports, accessibility and security in the enclave also includes the future installation of audiovisual and musical resources. Likewise, the route has been adjusted by creating a new linear itinerary of about 65 metres in length inside the cave that will allow a ring route.
The Cova de l'Or de Beniarrés is located 675 metres above sea level, on the southern slope of the group of reliefs that make up the Benicadell mountain range. It contains an archaeological site of enormous importance for the knowledge and research of the Neolithic of the Mediterranean coast of the Iberian Peninsula. The quality and significance of the archaeological material found in the excavations carried out since the 1930s suggest that the cave was a place of social reference for settlers of Mediterranean origin who, at the time of the excavations, had been living in the area. mid-6th millennium BCintroduced in these valleys the practice of the agriculture and livestock farming.
In the Cova de l'Or, material elements have been found that bear witness to the importance of the occupation in the Early Neolithic (5500-5000 B.C.)The enclave was an ideal place for habitation. It is to this historical period that the wheat and barley seed accumulationsThe pottery is also found in the interior, as well as the ceramics printed with shells, especially those decorated with human figures with their arms raised, alone in a praying position or in a group evoking a dance.
The symbolism of this pottery is defined within the movable aspect of the Macroschematic ArtThis links the cave to the Rock Art sanctuaries of that chronology, such as La Sarga (Alcoy) or Pla de Petracos (Castell de Castells), and the Cova de l'Or may have been part of some kind of ritual cycle linked to these meeting and gathering places.
