This is the archaeological site that does not contain rock art. Nevertheless, the old excavations allow us to establish an archaeological context for the painted groups of the territory of Santiago-Pontones.
The shelter is located near the source of the Segura river, very close to the station with rock art of the Cañada de la Cruz. We find a large cavity, which has a length of 20 m at its mouth. The oldest archaeological levels have been dated 9,250 years before our era. It is one of the most unique human occupations in the province of Jaén, which was the subject of the first excavations in 1972 and 1974 by the Frenchman Gabriel Rodríguez, whose work revealed the existence of material evidence of the Upper Paleolithic, Epipaleolithic and Neolithic. Its stratigraphic development makes this enclave one of the most significant sites of the transition from the world of hunter-gatherers to the incipient agricultural and livestock societies.
Levantine Art in Santiago-Pontones
From the west of the province of Jaén and the north of the province of Almería to the interior of the provinces of Huesca and Lleida, numerous shelters of Levantine art have been documented, organised in four large river basins: the Segura in the south, the Júcar and Turia in the centre and the Ebro in the north. The basins of the Segura, Júcar and Turia rivers were occupied in their entirety, from their source to the mountainous areas near the coast, while the Ebro basin was never crowned. Therefore, the shelters of Santiago-Pontones, together with those existing in the neighbouring region of Los Vélez (Almería), have become the southern frontier of Levantine Art.