Abrigo del barranco de los Robles

Town

Jalance (Valle de Cofrentes-Ayora, Valencia)

Information

Los Robles ravine rock shelter is on the right bank of the ravine beside a seasonal watercourse that flows into the River Júcar. The cavity opens to the northwest at an altitude of 740 m above sea level and is approximately 8.28 m wide, 4.6 m deep and 2.43 m high.

The presence of a manmade wall attached to the rock wall of the shelter reveals its use for beekeeping activities in recent times. This practice has also been documented in several shelters in this same ravine and in the adjacent ravines.

Its walls are very poorly preserved. The only Levantine human figure preserved is in the centre-left part of the cavity, specifically on the far left of the central niche at a height of about 70 cm. The rest of the shelter has greatly deteriorated and has lost its original surface as a result of the flaking and fracturing of the rock. These alterations have led to the disappearance of any other cave evidence originally linked to this human figure.

The site was discovered in 2012 by our team as part of surveys carried out as part of a project to study the Las Monteses site and its surroundings, funded by the Spanish Ministry of Culture. The directors of LArcHer, Inés Domingo and Dídac Román, and the archaeologists Rafael Rubio and Bruno Rives took part in this work.

Domingo, I., Rives, B., Roman, D., Rubio, R. 2013. Imágenes en la piedra. Arte rupestre en el abrigo de Las Monteses y su entorno (Jalance). Ayuntamiento de Jalance, Valencia.