navarra

The prehistoric treasures of Spain's caves are renowned worldwide. But a recent report warns that caves in the country's Valencia region are in serious danger of being vandalised and looted. The millennia-old heritage is being disregarded in favour of more modern, tourist-friendly sites such as Baroque cathedrals and century-old buildings. They are being protected with fences and reconstruction projects, says José Aparicio, head of the archaeological service in Valencia, while the caves are left to fall apart. Sr Aparicio warns that the caves, which contain some of the world's best examples of cave painting and artefacts from daily life in prehistoric Europe.

A stone tablet discovered 16 years ago has been announced as the world's first known map, say experts. The prized artefact, found in a cave in Abauntz in the northern region of Navarra, Spain, was first located in 1993 - yet its intricate tangle of lines and swirls confounded archaeologists. Now however, the University of Zaragoza team who first found the tablet believe they've cracked its use. And team leader Pilar Utrilla believes its would have been used as much more than a mere A to Z: "We can say with certainty that it is a sketch, a map of the surrounding area," she tells the Telegraph. "Whoever made it sought to capture in stone the flow of the watercourses, the mountains outside the cave and the animals found in the area.