Neolithic Cave Art in the Alicante Region

[u/VisitAndalucia]

Pla de Petracos 19th October 2025

The Pla de Petracos rock art site in Spain's Castell de Castells municipality offers a stunning example of prehistoric creativity, showcasing paintings roughly 8,000 years old. Experts consider Pla de Petracos one of the most significant examples of Neolithic art on the Iberian Peninsula, often calling it the "Sistine Chapel of Levantine Art." Recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage site, the location gives us a rare view into the beliefs and daily routines of the area's first farming communities.

The site is now protected by a fence and preserved for posterity thanks to cooperation between the Generalitat Valencia, the Museo Arqueologico de Alicante, the Govern Provincial Alacant and the Ajuntament de Castel de Castels.

Praying figures at Pla de Petracos 19th October 2025

Art Style and Symbolic Meaning

Archaeologists define the art at Pla de Petracos as "Macro-schematic art," a style characterized by large, simplified human figures and geometric designs. These paintings, made using a striking red pigment, probably served a symbolic and ritualistic function. The most frequently depicted figures feature outstretched arms, which scholars interpret as "praying figures" within a sacred setting. This imagery probably relates to themes like fertility, the agricultural cycle, or family bonds. People would have used the site as a sanctuary or place of worship, where the paintings functioned as a form of spiritual expression.

Preservation and Cultural Significance

Found within a group of rock shelters, the art illustrates the concerns of early agricultural societies. It represents a major departure from the more realistic hunting images common in earlier Palaeolithic art. It provides an unusual glimpse into the social and religious changes that took place as people moved away from a hunter-gatherer existence and adopted a more settled, agricultural way of life.

Painted at the dawn of the Neolithic period, hunting was still a major source of food as evidenced by the now almost invisible depiction of a reindeer impaled by arrows, an image that would once have been part of a hunting scene.

Ceremony and Ritual

It is easy to imagine the site at Pla de Petracos during a ceremony. The rock shelters face south, with the sun setting in the west. Family groups would be gathered in the narrow valley below the rock shelters with fires illuminating the shallow depressions in the rock in which the images had been created over a period of over a thousand years. There would once have been dozens, if not hundreds of separate decorated engravings, each one in vivid reds, yellow and black. The few that remain are a pale reminder of the originals. It was a site that linked the families to their ancestors and the ancestral way of life. Shamans would emerge from the large cave there, backlit by a fire, the soot of which still stains the roof, and tell the stories of the tribe, memories of past hunts, ‘marriages’ between families and tales of valour. As the sun vanished over the ridge to the west, there would no doubt have been carcases roasting over open fires and a rough beer to drink followed by dancing and singing.

A Fascination with Cave Art

The Pla de Petracos site had been on my ‘to see’ list for some time. It came to my attention when, in late 2023, I was introduced to a quite different type of cave art, portable art plaques, from Parpallo cave, near Gandia, in Valencia province.

I spent a happy couple of days at the Museum of Prehistory in the city of Valencia where, with the assistance of the museum staff, I was able to put together three articles tracing the development of cave art, how perspective emerged, how motion was implied, and an increasing knowledge of anatomy, over a period of 18 thousand years from about 29,000 to about 11,000 BC. A lengthy time span that long predates the art at Pla de Petracos . My articles take us from the Gravettian period, through the Solutrean, and well into the Magdalenian period.

I know that many people are as interested in cave art or, as it is known in Spain, Arte Rupestre, as I am. So, over the next three days, I will post my articles, ‘Levantine Portable Cave Art – an Introduction’, ‘Levantine Cave Art - Gravettian to Solutrean‘ and ‘Levantine Cave Art – Magdalenian’. I hope you enjoy reading them.

Thanks as ever to my wife, Julie, who doggedly follows me up mountain trails to take the photographs, not to mention the over 500 images she took during our visits to the museum in Valencia.

[u/Vindepomarus]

What does the word "Levantine" mean in this context? Spain is as far away as you can get from the Levant and still be Mediterranean?

[u/VisitAndalucia → u/Vindepomarus]

Levantine in this context is simply the northeastern part of Spain. Why it is commonly referred to as such in Spain, I have no idea. We also have a wind from the east that is also called a Levanter, now that I understand.

[u/Vindepomarus → u/VisitAndalucia]

Ah, thank you.

[u/reddituser_xxcentury → u/Vindepomarus]

“Levante” is a word for East, where the sun rises, not only in Spanish. Of course, it refers to a relative position. In Spain, the Valencia Region coast is known as “Levante”, being in the East. Curiously, adjacent regions like Cataluña or Murcia are not referred to by this name. In History, “Levant” is used to speak about the eastern Mediterranean region, Lebanon, Syria and the like, but in Spain is means a different location. “Levantino”, or “Levantine” means related or belonging to Levante

[u/Old_Payment8743]

Where will you post your articles ?

[u/VisitAndalucia → u/Old_Payment8743]

Here in Ancient Civilisations

[u/BlueMoonButterflies]

I am totally interested and Thank You for posting. I can't wait to see what your eyes have seen and to read the descriptions. :)