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CAVES OF VALERON

Caves of Valeron
native name: Cenobio de Valerón ("Monastery of Valeron")
General view of the caves
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Location	Santa María de Guía borough, Gran Canaria, Canary Islands (Spain)
Website	Template:Es Cenobio de Valeron on arqueologiacanaria.com

Caves of Valeron
Native name Cenobio de Valerón ("Monastery of Valeron") (Spanish)
Type	cave
Nearest city	Gáldar
Original use	Collective granary

Spanish Cultural Heritage
Official name	Cenobio de Valerón ("Convent of Valeron")

Valerón’s "monastery" (in Spanish cenobio de Valeron) is an archaeological site on the Spanish island of Grand Canary, in the municipality of Santa Maria de Guia, on Valerón's cliff. It is a large collective granary built and used by the island’s inhabitants until the conquest of the island at the end of the 15th century. Close to Gáldar painted cave, it is one of the emblematic sites of Grand Canary.

Location

It is located 2,000 ft (in direct line) south of the northern coast of the Gran Canary island, on the small GC-291 road, near Las Palmas (23km east) and Agaete (11km south-west) (see § "Access" for more details). Galdar is about 4 km west in direct line.

The place was chosen for its easy-to-dig tuff, for the fact that it is hidden from the sea and for its steep access slope that make good natural defences.

Description

The collective granary known as "cenobio de Valerón" is a complex system of caves on several levels: 298 compartments with surfaces between one and three square meters, distributed on 8 levels.. Altogether with silos, rooms, caves and cavities, there are more than 350 storage places. They were excavated with stone and wood tools in the soft tuff - cemented volcanic tephra - in the north-west face of the mountain known nowadays as Mountain of the Galician (“ Montaña del Gallego ”). The easy defence of the site, the natural shelter offered by a natural arch in the mountain and the conditions of temperature and dampness were making it ideal for its use.

The caves or silos are of varied forms and sizes, communicating somewhat with each other, and they are grouped on several superposed levels. The steps excavated in the rock still exist and they may have been complemented with stairs or scaffoldings and ropes, of which there are no archaeological remains.

The caves were shut with doors made of unknown material, which left traces. These are believed to have been made of wood, stone slabs or soft materials like textile or leather. Their holes, as well as other grooves, were sealed in addition by an ashen mortar. All this aimed at preserving the crops.

Within the site are found idols, paintings, ceramics, human bones and ashes, which are believed to have belonged to those who were guarding the granary.

The sheer size of the caves complex is witness to the importance of agriculture on Gran Canary and of the power of its governing casts.

Origin of the name

The name of “ monastery ” comes from the Roman belief that herein had lived some celibate priestesses called “ harimaguadas ”, with whom young women of noble class came to live until their marriage. The above mentioned vision prevailed up to the 20th century, when Guy Marcy, a French archaeologist, was the first to recognize its real use as being obviously similar to that of other structures of the island and of north Africa. In addition, some of the chronicles mention the practice of preserving the food in crags of difficult access. The North African granaries or agadires often have a common storage area, guarded by the community to which it belongs, with chambers used and maintained by individuals.

Similar structures

Other similar structures on the island are :

King's caves (Cuevas del Rey) and Roque Bentayga in Tejeda
Caves of the Granary (cuevas del Pósito) in Temisas, Agüimes
the numerous caves (Cuevas Muchas) in Guayadeque, Ingenio
Caves of the doves (Cuevas de las Palomas) in Tabuco, Ingenio
Caves of the Small Dragon (cuevas del Draguillo) in El Gamonal, between Telde and Ingenio
Cueva de la Audiencia in the Cuatro Puertas ("Four Doors") complex on Bermeja mountain, Telde
El Álamo in Acusa, Artenara
Birbique in Roque Bermejo, Agaete

Protection

Valerón's Monastery was declared Historical Artistic Monument in 1978, by royal decree 2.756/78 of October 14. Due to the current law, 16/85 of June 25 on Historical Spanish Heritage, it became a Property of cultural interest, in the category of Archaeological Zone. The site belongs to the Santa María de Guía’s municipality, being inscribed in the Municipal Inventory of Built Properties (Sp. Inventario Municipal de Bienes Inmuebles), and in the Land registry of Property of urban nature (Sp. Catastro de Bienes de Naturaleza Urbana).

Nowadays the site is open to the public as archaeological park, included in the Network of archaeological parks of Grand Canary (Sp. Red de Parques arqueológicos de Gran Canaria). The latter also includes the archaeological sets of es [Arteara necropolis] in Fataga, El Maipés de Agaete’s necropolis in Agaete, the es [Cats' valley] by Mogán’s beach in Tejeda, Roque Bentayga in Tejeda, Guayadeque's Cliff in Ingenio near Agüimes, the museum and archaeological Park of Cueva Pintada (Painted Cave) in Gáldar, and Cuatro Puertas (Four Doors) in Telde.

Access

The main access to the GC-291 road is immediately east of Albercon de la Virgen, from exit 20 on the 2 x 2 lanes "carretera Variante de Silva" GC-2 road that goes from Agaete (11km north-east) and Las Palmas (23km west); or indirectly from exit 21 (Llano Parra, GC-292, GC-70, Guia, Artenara) of the same GC-2 road. At exit n° 20 on both ways are indicated the Felix Santiago Meliàn factory, the GC-291 and the cenobio de Valeron. The cenobio de Valeron is about 4 km from the GC-2 road exit 20.
The other end of the GC-291 road (eastways) joins again the GC-2 road near San Felipe in the direction of Las Palmas (not that of Agaete), but the traffic cannot exit the GC-2 either way.

^ The uTube video Cenobio de Valerón caves archaeological site - Gran Canaria shows in details all that can be seen from outside the caves, including from 1'21 to 1'28 the view from the entrance of the caves complex ; the sea is not in sight. The beginning of the video shows the surroundings, its steep slopes and difficult access.
The cave of the Audience (cueva de la Audiencia), in the Cuatro Puertas complex near Telde, is a cave settlement hewn out of the rock by hand and has been used for various functions such as sleeping quarters, kitchens, silos, granary and others.

References

^ El Cenobio de Valerón on the site of the Unidad de Patrimonio Histórico del Cabildo de Gran Canaria. This page includes a short video showing 2 types of openings on cavities, and how some were hidden from view. It also includes a citation describing this type of caves on the islands at the time of their Spanish conquest.
^ Mederos Martin & al. 2002, p. 70.
Cenobio de Valerón, Guia, Gran Canaria, Canary Islands. UTube video of a guided tour in Valeron's caves. At 5'06 is shown an information panel on the site about the discovery of the real use of the caves.
Mederos Martin & al. 2002, p. 72.

Prehistoric technology

Tools

Farming

Food processing

Hunting

Arrow Boomerang throwing stick Bow and arrow history Nets Spear spear-thrower baton harpoon Schöningen woomera
Projectile points	Arrowhead Transverse Bare Island Cascade Clovis Cresswell Cumberland Eden Folsom Lamoka Manis Mastodon Plano
Systems	Game drive system Buffalo jump

Toolmaking

Other tools

Architecture

Ceremonial	Kiva Pyramid Standing stones megalith row Stonehenge
Dwellings	Neolithic architecture long house British megalith architecture Nordic megalith architecture Burdei Cave Cliff dwelling Dugout Hut Quiggly hole Jacal Longhouse Mudbrick Mehrgarh Pit-house Pueblitos Pueblo Rock shelter Blombos Cave Abri de la Madeleine Sibudu Cave Roundhouse Stilt house Alp pile dwellings Stone roof Wattle and daub
Water management	Check dam Cistern Flush toilet Reservoir Well
Other architecture	Archaeological features Broch Burnt mound fulacht fiadh Causewayed enclosure Tor enclosure Circular enclosure Goseck Cursus Henge Thornborough Megalithic architectural elements Midden Oldest extant buildings Timber circle Timber trackway Sweet Track

Arts and culture

Material goods	Baskets Beadwork Beds Chalcolithic Clothing/textiles timeline Cosmetics Glue Hides shoes Ötzi Jewelry amber use Mirrors Pottery Cardium Cord-marked Grooved ware Jōmon Linear Unstan ware Sewing needle Weaving Wine winery wine press
Prehistoric art	Art of the Upper Paleolithic Art of the Middle Paleolithic Blombos Cave List of Stone Age art Bird stone Cairn Carved stone balls Cave paintings Cup and ring mark Geoglyph Hill figure Golden hats Guardian stones Gwion Gwion rock paintings painting pigment Megalithic art Petroform Petroglyph Petrosomatoglyph Pictogram Rock art Rock cupule Stone carving Sculpture Statue menhir Stone circle list British Isles and Brittany Venus figurine
Burial	Burial mounds Bowl barrow Round barrow Mound Builders culture U.S. sites Chamber tomb Cotswold-Severn Cist Dartmoor kistvaens Clava cairn Court cairn Cremation Dolmen Great dolmen Funeral pyre Gallery grave transepted wedge-shaped Grave goods Jar burial Long barrow unchambered Grønsalen Megalithic tomb Mummy Passage grave Rectangular dolmen Ring cairn Simple dolmen Stone box grave Tor cairn Unchambered long cairn
Other cultural	Archaeoastronomy sites lunar calendar Behavioral modernity Evolutionary musicology music archaeology Evolutionary origin of religion Paleolithic religion Prehistoric religion Spiritual drug use Origin of language Prehistoric counting Prehistoric medicine trepanning Prehistoric music Alligator drum flutes Divje Babe flute gudi Prehistoric warfare Symbols symbolism

[[Category:Caves of the Canary Islands|Valeron [[Category:History of the Canary Islands [[Category:Gran Canaria|Valeron [[Category:Show caves in Spain|Valeron [[Category:Archaeological sites in Spain|Valeron [[Category:Prehistoric sites in Spain [[Category:Agricultural buildings in Spain [[Category:Buildings and structures in Gran Canaria [[Category:Bien de Interés Cultural landmarks in the Canary Islands [[Category:Visitor attractions in the Canary Islands