ARCHIVED - Summer excavations in the Cova de l’Or Alicante

Beniarrés was first home to crop and livestock farmers 5500 years before Christ

Archaeologists from the MARQ Archeological Museum in Alicante have recovered various flint tools and decorative accessories fashioned from bone and shells during the annual summer dig in Beniarrés, in the north of the province, on the border between the Alicante and Valencia provinces, in the Sierra del Benicadell, dominating the river valley of Alcoi.(y)

5500 years before the birth of Christ the Cova de l’Or in Beniarrés was inhabited by human beings who engaged in agricultural activity, and is one of the most important Neolithic sites in the Iberian Peninsula. A large number of artifacts have been recovered from this site during previous excavations, which first began after the cave was discovered in 1933, some of which can be seen today in Alcoy archaeological museum and the MARQ in Alicante.

The ceramics found here are particularly important, many bearing decorative incisions made by using a shell as a tool with which to incise and scratch designs.

Archaeologists continue to explore the site, an annual summer excavation continuing to amplify the area uncovered and yield further remains.

This summer’s discoveries were made during the dig in the second half of August in which visitors from Valencia and Belfast took part alongside the MARQ team, which was headed by Jorge Soler and Consuelo Roca de Togores.