Archaeological sites and rock art of the Serranía de Cuenca

From paintings to hillforts

The oldest traces are painted. The rock shelters of Villar del Humo and those of Henarejos, such as the Abrigo del Tío Modesto and Abrigo de los Oculados, with radiocarbon dates, form part of the Mediterranean Basin rock art inscribed by UNESCO in 1998. In Huerta del Marquesado, the Cueva de la Mora holds Copper Age burials, and Cerrito del Moro yielded a slate plaque idol.

The Iron Age filled the mountains with hilltop settlements: the Cerrito del Moro hillfort, the oppidum, a fortified centre, of La Plaza de Sobrarias, with its ditch cut into rodeno, the red sandstone of the south-east, Cabeza Moya above the Cabriel or Pico de la Muela, beside the Gritos. The Pajaroncillo burial mounds and Cañizares cemetery are their burial grounds; the Cueva Santa del Cabriel, in Mira, was a sanctuary between the 5th and 2nd centuries BC, and Los Casares perhaps another. The silver hoard of Salvacañete dates from that period.

Rome is present at Valeria, the Noheda villa and the Cueva del Hierro mine. For the whole thread, see the eras of memory.

Good conduct

Many sites are known only from surface survey: what is said about them is interpretation awaiting excavation. Do not touch them, disturb the ground or collect anything; if you find something, tell the town council.