Cueva de la Mora

A gallery in the gorge

Cueva de la Mora opens in the wall of the Moratón, or Pozuelo, stream gorge in Huerta del Marquesado. A single karst gallery just over 14 metres deep, up to 4 high and between half a metre and a metre and a half wide. Inside and outside are human traces from the Palaeolithic.

The campaigns

In spring 2021 archaeologists chose it to study periods far earlier than the nearby hillfort, Cerrito del Moro. They surveyed, made a drone 3D model and cave plan, and opened a 1 by 1.5 metre test trench. They found intact occupation floors rich in worked stone, pottery, animal bones and human remains.

In summer 2022 they opened a second trench. It yielded Neolithic to Bronze Age pottery, human bones burnt at very different temperatures, below 200 °C to about 700 °C, and animal remains with burning and cut marks. Two human vertebrae were dated between 2400 and 2200 BC. Excavation is only through test trenches, so the underlying rite remains unknown.

In 2024 archaeologists Santiago Domínguez and Miguel Osma of Heroica Arqueología considered it the Serranía’s oldest known cemetery; the next they cite, Escaleruela de Valdecabras, dates around 2000 BC. To them, repeated burial in one place indicates people already staying in the territory. They clarify that the dates concern funerary use: the cave has earlier traces and upper historical levels when it served as shelter. They give about twelve metres of depth, against over fourteen in other sources. They also described dating an apparently old hearth which proved only a few years old: this helped them understand disturbance of the levels. Villagers tell a short legend of a Moorish woman living in the cave and love with a local man. A grille closes the cave.

Plan your visit

Before you travel

It is an archaeological site under excavation: do not visit independently, disturb the ground or collect anything.

Combine with

The village of Huerta del Marquesado and its Molino del Batán.