The exhibition space installed in the MARQ foyer houses a ceramic vessel found in 2004 in the Cova d'En Pardo de Planes. This cave opens up some 640 m above sea level on the southern slope of the Sierra de la Albureca. Its entrance is triangular and narrow. In Pardo, a medium-sized karstic cavity. A good-sized stalactite divides its interior into two spaces or "rooms". The MARQ excavations were carried out in the cave between 1993 and 2007, focusing the work on the right room, where this vessel was discovered at the bottom.
The excavation of the cave has made it possible to distinguish different archaeological levels. The amphoroid vase at Pardo is level VI. This level or occupation floor is characterised by a brownish-coloured sediment containing few stones. Like the one above it (level V), it contains a multitude of small ceramic fragments with a combing treatment on the surfaces and other elements such as remains of fauna, flint tools or perforated shell pendants that testify to the use of the cavity by prehistoric shepherds. A carbon 14 dating of a bovine bone and another of a human bone date level VI to 6,600 years old.
This is the chronology of this vessel. It is therefore a production from a mid-Neolithic phase which, surprisingly, has come to us in an excellent state of preservation. It has been subjected to a rigorous research process in which various specialists have participated. It is a jar with a shape reminiscent of amphorae. It was used underground, with only the neck protruding. It has a capacity of 25.9 litres. It is linked to the use that Neolithic shepherds would have made of the cave, and must have been used to take advantage of the water resulting from the dripping from inside the cave, or to contain milk that would have been consumed fermented.
Several similar vessels are known in the Valencian Community, almost all of them located in the province of Alicante. The Cova de En Pardo vessel was used by the group of shepherds who used the cave as a sheepfold between spring and summer, as part of a transhumant livestock practice that was well documented in the 5th millennium BC. When they left the cave, they left the vessel buried and covered with the intention of using it again the following season. Those who returned to use the cave for the same purposes did not find it, so the vessel has remained buried and untouched for 6 millennia.
