Caravia is a municipality in the

Autonomous Community The autonomous communities () are the first-level administrative divisions of Spain, created in accordance with the Spanish Constitution of 1978, with the aim of guaranteeing limited autonomy to the nationalities and regions that make up Sp ...

of the

Principality of Asturias Asturias (; ; ) officially the Principality of Asturias, is an autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in northwest Spain. It is coextensive with the provinces of Spain, province of Asturias and contains some of the territory t ...

, Spain. It is bordered on the north by the

Bay of Biscay The Bay of Biscay ( ) is a gulf of the northeast Atlantic Ocean located south of the Celtic Sea. It lies along the western coast of France from Point Penmarc'h to the Spanish border, and along the northern coast of Spain, extending westward ...

, part of the

Cantabrian Sea The Cantabrian Sea is the term used mostly in Spain to describe the coastal sea of the Atlantic Ocean that borders the northern coast of Spain and the southwest side of the Atlantic coast of France, included in the Bay of Biscay. It extends from ...

, on the south by Parres, on the east by

Ribadesella Ribadesella () is a small municipality in the Autonomous Community of the Principality of Asturias, Spain. Known for its location on the Cantabrian Sea, at the outlet of the River Sella, Ribadesella is a town that forms part of the Picos de Eur ...

and on the west by

Colunga Colunga () is a municipality in the Autonomous community of the Principality of Asturias, Spain. It lies on the Cantabrian Sea, and is bordered to the west by Villaviciosa, to the south by Parres and Piloña, and to the east by Caravia. Poli ...

Geography

Caravia is the third smallest municipality of Asturias. The population is centered mainly in Prado (Prau in Asturian), the municipal capital, Duesos and Duyos. It is 68 km from

Oviedo Oviedo () or Uviéu (Asturian language, Asturian: ) is the capital city of the Principality of Asturias in northern Spain and the administrative and commercial centre of the region. It is also the name of the municipality that contains th ...

, the capital of the principality. There are mountain summits in the southern parts of Caravia, with Fito (631 m) being the highest. In the north there are three main beaches: Beciella, Arenal de Morís and Espasa. The beaches are separated by great cliffs along the coast. The rest of the municipality has little variation in

orography Orography is the study of the topographic relief of mountains, and can more broadly include hills, and any part of a region's elevated terrain. Orography (also known as ''oreography'', ''orology,'' or ''oreology'') falls within the broader disci ...

. Its main watercourse is the Romeros river. Together with the municipalities of

Piloña Piloña () is a municipality in the province and autonomous community of Asturias, northwestern Spain. Its capital is the town of Infiesto. Piloña is bounded to the north by Villaviciosa and Colunga, to the east by Parres, to the west by Na ...

, Parres and

, Caravia is part of the geographic area known as Sierra del Sueve.

Parishes

* Caravia Alta * Caravia Baja

History

Paleolithic

The first humans in Caravia were during the

Paleolithic The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic ( years ago) ( ), also called the Old Stone Age (), is a period in human prehistory that is distinguished by the original development of stone tools, and which represents almost the entire period of human prehist ...

period, during the time when humans began to use stone tools. From this time period, there are ruins known as "Les Vaques" and "La Pongueta", located near Duyos, where Paleolithic humans lived near a small river and rocky escarpment.

Recent Prehistory

There is a large

dolmen A dolmen, () or portal tomb, is a type of single-chamber Megalith#Tombs, megalithic tomb, usually consisting of two or more upright megaliths supporting a large flat horizontal capstone or "table". Most date from the Late Neolithic period (4000 ...

-like

tumulus A tumulus (: tumuli) is a mound of Soil, earth and Rock (geology), stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds, mounds, howes, or in Siberia and Central Asia as ''kurgans'', and may be found through ...

(or burial mound) near Beciella beach, by the mouth of the Romeros river. Nearby, there is also the Necrópolis de la Tuerba, formed by three tumuluses located in the coastal plain.

Iron Age

The first excavations made in the Picu el Castru, were carried out August 22, 1917, by . He found a prehistoric fortification in his first dig, located two kilometers from the sea at an altitude of 380 m. This fortification had a perimeter of 225 m. From this castro-style fortification, both the sea and the mountains can be seen, making it an ideal location to oversee Caravia and Colunga. It is accessed by a meandering ramp which leads to the interior containing the foundations of rectangular huts, 4 by 3 m, separated one from another by 90 cm. According to Aurelio de Llano in his book "The Book of Caravia", the fortification contained tools, domestic utensils, and feminine jewelry. There were

fibulae The fibula (: fibulae or fibulas) or calf bone is a leg bone on the lateral side of the tibia, to which it is connected above and below. It is the smaller of the two bones and, in proportion to its length, the most slender of all the long bones. ...

made of

bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals (such as phosphorus) or metalloid ...

and

iron Iron is a chemical element; it has symbol Fe () and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, forming much of Earth's o ...

, pendants and necklaces. One notable bronze fibula was decorated with an embossed pony. Aurelio de Llano determined that the fortification dates back to the

Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

(2500 BC to 900 BC). All the pieces coming from the excavation are currently in the

Archaeological Museum of Asturias The Archaeological Museum of Asturias (Spanish language, Spanish: Museo Arqueológico de Asturias; Asturian language, Asturian: Muséu Arqueolóxicu d'Asturies) is housed in the 16th century Benedictine monastery of San Vicente de Oviedo, Saint ...

Roman Era

One important

stele A stele ( ) or stela ( )The plural in English is sometimes stelai ( ) based on direct transliteration of the Greek, sometimes stelae or stelæ ( ) based on the inflection of Greek nouns in Latin, and sometimes anglicized to steles ( ) or stela ...

exists from the

Roman era In modern historiography, ancient Rome is the Roman people, Roman civilisation from the founding of Rome, founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, collapse of the Western Roman Em ...

, known as the Stele of Duesos (La Estela de Duesos). It was discovered on the exterior of the Church of Duesos, carved in a

quartzite Quartzite is a hard, non- foliated metamorphic rock that was originally pure quartz sandstone.Essentials of Geology, 3rd Edition, Stephen Marshak, p 182 Sandstone is converted into quartzite through heating and pressure usually related to tecton ...

block. The existence of these steles, frequently embedded in Christian churches during their construction, is due to the conversion to

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion, which states that Jesus in Christianity, Jesus is the Son of God (Christianity), Son of God and Resurrection of Jesus, rose from the dead after his Crucifixion of Jesus, crucifixion, whose ...

of places where

pagan Paganism (, later 'civilian') is a term first used in the fourth century by early Christians for people in the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism, or ethnic religions other than Christianity, Judaism, and Samaritanism. In the time of the ...

religions were formerly practiced. The stele is a fragment without epigraph and it is decorated on all four sides. The decoration is divided in registers, and the head is undecorated. A recurring theme of the carving is curved radii similar to a

swastika The swastika (卐 or 卍, ) is a symbol used in various Eurasian religions and cultures, as well as a few Indigenous peoples of Africa, African and Indigenous peoples of the Americas, American cultures. In the Western world, it is widely rec ...

. It is similar to Roman steles, but maintains traditional indigenous features. Among the materials taken from the fortification, there are examples of decorations similar to the stele.

Geography

Parishes

History

Paleolithic

Recent Prehistory

Iron Age

Roman Era

Demography

Politics

References

External links