Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-tj2md Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-18T10:50:49.369Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Filling the Void: Rock-art Continuity Over the Pleistocene–Holocene Boundary in Eastern Iberia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 April 2022

Juan F. Ruiz Open the ORCID record for Juan F. Ruiz [Opens in a new window] ,
José Royo-Lasarte ,
José Ignacio Royo-Guillén  and
Olivia Rivero Open the ORCID record for Olivia Rivero [Opens in a new window]
Juan F. Ruiz
Affiliation:
Universidad de Castilla – La Mancha LAPTe-IDR. Dpto. de Historia Avenida de los Alfares, 44 16071 Cuenca Spain Email: juanfrancisco.ruiz@uclm.es
José Royo-Lasarte
Affiliation:
Parque Cultural del río Martín Centro de Arte Rupestre ‘Antonio Beltrán’ Tiro del Bolo, 8 44547 Ariño (Teruel) Spain Email: jroyo@parqueriomartin.com
José Ignacio Royo-Guillén
Affiliation:
Gobierno de Aragón Aragón Rock Art Inventory (IARA) Dirección Geneeral de Patrimonio Cultural Avenida Ranillas, 5 50018, Zaragoza Spain Email: jjroyo@aragon.es
Olivia Rivero
Affiliation:
Universidad de Salamanca Dpto. de Prehistoria e Historia Antigua Cervantes, s/n 37002 Salamanca Spain Email: oliviariver@usal.es
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In this paper we study several panels with incised engravings, which have been discovered in recent years, from two shelters in the area of the River Martín (Teruel), Cañada de Marco and Los Borriquitos. They are of great scientific interest for several reasons. Firstly, because they represent an expansion of the Late Upper Palaeolithic engraving facies of Mediterranean Iberia, limited until now to ten sites. In these two new sites, these incised engravings are underlying Levantine and Schematic pictographs, and occasionally are interstratified with Levantine paintings, an exceptional fact which is published in its entirety for the first time. These stratigraphic relationships reflect continuity/change dynamics during the Pleistocene–Holocene transition and throughout the Holocene artistic cycle, topics which are crucial on a European scale. Finally, we have identified iconographic continuities between Epimagdalenian engravings and Levantine art, suggesting a possible link between these two graphic expressions. These findings may constitute solid support for the hypothesis about the pre-Neolithic origin of the exceptional Levantine art of the Iberian peninsula.

In memoriam Ramiro Alloza

Type
Research Article
Information
Cambridge Archaeological Journal , Volume 32 , Issue 4 , November 2022 , pp. 661 - 687
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aubry, T., Dimuccio, L.A., Bergadà, M.M., Sampaio, J.D. & Sellami, F., 2010. Palaeolithic engravings and sedimentary environments in the Côa River Valley (Portugal): implications for the detection, interpretation and dating of open-air rock art. Journal of Archaeological Science 37, 3306–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beltrán Martínez, A., 2002. Las Pinturas Rupestres del Abrigo de Val del Charco del Agua Amarga de Alcañiz [The rock paintings of the Val del Charco del Agua Amarga shelter, Alcañiz]. Zaragoza: Prames.Google Scholar
Beltrán Martínez, A. & Royo Lasarte, J., 2005. Corpus de arte rupestre del Parque Cultural del Río Martín [Corpus of rock art in the Cultural Park of the Martín River]. Ariño: Asociación del Parque Cultural del río Martín/Centro de Arte Rupestre ‘Antonio Beltrán’.Google Scholar
Breuil, H., 1952. Four Hundred Centuries of Cave Art (trans. Boyle, M.E.). Montignac: Centre d'Etudes et de Documentation préhistoriques.Google Scholar
Bueno Ramírez, P. & de Balbín-Behrmann, R., 2016. De cazadores a productores. Transiciones y tradiciones [From hunters to breeders: transitions and traditions], in Del neolític a l'edat del bronze en el Mediterrani occidental. Estudis en homenatge a Bernat Martí Oliver [From Neolithic to Bronze Age in the western Mediterranean. Studies in honour of Bernat Martí Oliver], ed. Bonet Rosado, H.. Valencia: Diputación de Valencia, 465–80.Google Scholar
Bueno Ramírez, P., de Balbín Behrmann, R. & Alcolea González, J.J., 2007. Style v dans le bassin du Douro: Tradition et changement dans les graphies des chasseurs du Paléolithique Supérieur européen [Style v in the Douro basin: Tradition and change in the graphics of the hunter in the European Upper Paleolithic]. L'Anthropologie 111(4), 549–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Célérier, G., 1988. L'abri sous roche de Pont d'Ambon à Bourdeilles (Dordogne, France). Perspectives synthétiques [The rock shelter of Pont d'Ambon at Bourdeilles (Dordogne). Synthetic perspectives]. Paléo 10, 233–64.Google Scholar
Collado Giraldo, H., 2006. Arte rupestre en la cuenca Del Guadiana: El conjunto de grabados del Molino Manzánez (Alconchel-Cheles, Badajoz) [Rock art in the Guadiana River basin. The engravings in Molino Manzánez (Alconchel-Cheles, Badajoz]. (Memórias d'Odiana 4.) Beja: EDIA.Google Scholar
Corchón-Rodríguez, M.S., Valladas, H., Pérez, J.B., Arnold, M., Tisnerat, N. & Cachier, H., 1996. Datación de las pinturas y revisión del arte paleolítico de Cueva Palomera (Ojo Guareña, Burgos, España) [Dating and revisiting Palaeolithic cave art in Cueva Palomera (Ojo Guareña, Burgos, Spain)]. Zephyrvs 49, 37–60.Google Scholar
Coulonges, M.L., 1963. Magdalénien et périgordien post-glaciaires? La grotte de La Borie del Rey (Lot-et-Garonne) [Postglacial Magdalenian and Perigordian? The cave of La Borie del Rey (Lot-et-Garonne)]. Gallia Préhistoire 6, 1–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dalmeri, G., Cusinato, A., Kompatscher, K., Kompatscher, M.H., Bassetti, M. & Neri, S., 2009. The ochre painted stones from the Riparo Dalmeri (Trento). Development of the research on the art and rituality of the Epigravettian site. Preistoria Alpina 44, 95–119.Google Scholar
Deffarge, R., Laurent, P. & de Sonneville-Bordes, D., 1975. Art mobilier du Magdalénien Supérieur de l'abri Morin à Pessac-Sur-Dordogne (Gironde) [Upper Magdalenian mobiliary art from Morin rock-shelter in Pessac-sur-Dordogne (Gironde)]. Gallia Préhistoire 18(1), 1–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Domingo, I. & Roman, D., 2020. Beyond the Palaeolithic: figurative final Palaeolithic art in Mediterranean Iberia. Quaternary International 564, 100–112.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Domingo Sanz, I., López Montalvo, E., Villaverde Bonilla, V. & Martínez Valle, R., 2007. Los Abrigos VII, VIII y IX de Les Coves de la Saltadora [The rock art in Coves de la Saltadora, shelters VII, VIII and IX]. (Monografías del Instituto de Arte Rupestre 2.) València: Generalitat Valenciana.Google Scholar
Fábregas-Valcarce, R., de Lombera-Hermida, A., Viñas-Vallverdú, R., Rodríguez-Álvarez, X.P. & Soares-Figueiredo, S., 2015. Throwing light on the hidden corners. New data on Palaeolithic art from NW Iberia, in Prehistoric Art as Prehistoric Culture. Studies in honour of Professor Rodrigo de Balbín-Behrmann, eds. Bueno-Ramírez, P. & Bahn, P.G.. Oxford: Archaeopress, 171–80.Google Scholar
Fullola, J.M., Domingo, I., Román, D., García-Argüelles, M.P., García-Diez, M. & Nadal, J., 2015. Small seeds for big debates: past and present contributions to Palaeoart studies from north-eastern Iberia, in Prehistoric Art as Prehistoric Culture. Studies in Honour of Professor Rodrigo de Balbín-Behrmann, eds. Bueno-Ramírez, P. & Bahn, P.G.. Oxford: Archaeopress, 157–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fullola-Pericot, J.M., Viñas-Vallverdú, R. & García-Argüelles, M.P., 1990. La nouvelle plaquette gravée de Sant Gregori (Catalogne, Espagne) [A new engraved slab from Sant Gregori (Catalonia, Spain], in L'art des objets au Paléolithique. I: L'art mobilier et son contexte. Actes du Colloque international, Foix–Le Mas-d'Azil, 16–21 novembre 1987 [The art of objects in the Palaeolithic. I: Mobiliary art and its context. Proceedings of the International Seminar, Foix–Le Mas-d'Azil, 16–21 November 1987], ed. Clottes, J.. (Actes des colloques de la Direction du Patrimoine 8.) Paris: Ministère de la Culture, 279–86.Google Scholar
García-Díez, M. & Aubry, T., 2002. Grafismo Mueble En El Valle Del Côa (Vila Nova de Foz Côa, Portugal): La Estación Arqueológica de Fariseu, 55, 157–82.Google Scholar
García Diez, M., Fontanals Torroja, M. & Zaragoza Solé, J., 2002. Dues noves peces gravades del jaciment de Sant Gregori (Falset, Tarragona): La «Col⋅lecció Ramon Rodón» del Museu Municipal d'Alcover (Alt Camp) [Two new engraved slabs from Sant Gregori site (Falset, Tarragona): The Collection of Ramon Rodón in the Municipal Museum of Alcover (Alt Camp)]. Pyrenae 33–34, 165–74.Google Scholar
García Diez, M. & Vaquero, M., 2006. La variabilité graphique du Molí del Salt (Vimbodí, Catalogne, Espagne) et l'art mobilier de la fin du Paléolithique supérieur à l'est de la Péninsule Ibérique [Graphic variability in the Molí del Salt (Vimbodí, Catalonia, Spain) and the portable art of the Late Upper Paleolithic in eastern Iberia]. L'Anthropologie 110(4), 453–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gomes, M.V., 2007. Os períodos iniciais da arte do vale do Tejo (Paleolítico e Epipaleolítico) [The earlier stages of the Tagus Valley rock art (Palaeolithic and Epipalaeolithic)]. Cuadernos de Arte Rupestre 4, 81–116.Google Scholar
Guéret, C. & Bénard, A., 2017. ‘Fontainebleau rock art’ (Ile-de-France, France), an exceptional rock art group dated to the Mesolithic? Critical return on the lithic material discovered in three decorated rock shelters. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 13, 99–120.Google Scholar
Guillem Calatayud, P. & Martínez-Valle, R., 2004. Las figuras humanas del Abrigo del Barranco Hondo en el contexto del Arte Levantino del Bajo Aragón-Maestrazgo [Human depictions from Barranco Hondo shelter in the context of Levantine art in the Aragón-Maestrazgo region], in Los grabados levantinos del Barranco Hondo (Castellote, Teruel) [The Levantine engravings in Barranco Hondo site (Castellote, Teruel)], eds. Utrilla, P. & Villaverde, V.. Zaragoza: Gobierno de Aragón, 105–22.Google Scholar
Guillem Calatayud, P.M., Martínez Valle, R. & Melià Martinez, F., 2001. Hallazgo de grabados rupestres de estilo paleolítico en el norte de la provincia de Castellón: el Abric d'en Melia (Serra d'en Galceran) [Finds of Palaeolithic style rock art engravings in northern Castellón province (Serra d'en Galcerán)]. SAGVNTVM. Papeles del Laboratorio de Arqueología de Valencia 33, 133–40.Google Scholar
Jensen, T.Z.T., Niemann, J., Iversen, K.H., et al. 2019. A 5700 year-old human genome and oral microbiome from chewed birch pitch. Nature Communications 10(1), 5520.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kabaciński, J., Hartz, S. & Terberger, T., 2011. Elks in the Early Stone Age art of the northern Lowlands. Praehistorische Zeitschrift 86(2), 151–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leroi-Gourhan, A., 1971. Préhistoire de l'art occidental [Prehistory of western art] (2nd edn). Paris: MazenodGoogle Scholar
Martínez-Bea, M., 2004. Los grabados en el arte rupestre levantino [Engravings in the Levantine rock art], in Los grabados levantinos del Barranco Hondo (Castellote, Teruel) [The Levantine engravings in Barranco Hondo site (Castellote, Teruel)], eds. Utrilla, P. & Villaverde, V.. Zaragoza: Gobierno de Aragón, 73–86.Google Scholar
Martínez-Valle, R., Guillem-Calatayud, P.M. & Villaverde-Bonilla, V., 2009. Grabados rupestres de estilo paleolítico en el Norte de Castellón [Palaeolithic style rock art engravings in northern Castellón], in Arte Prehistórico al aire libre en el Sur de Europa [Open-air prehistoric art in southern Europe], ed. de Balbín Behrmann, R.. Valladolid: Junta de Castilla y León, 1–44.Google Scholar
Mateo Saura, M.Á., 2019. El arte levantino: En la frontera entre la tradición paleolítica y la innovación neolítica [Levantine art: in the frontier between Palaeolithic tradition and Neolithic innnovation], in I Jornades Internacionals d'Art Rupestre de l'Arc Mediterrani de la Península Ibèrica. XXè Aniversari de la Declaració de Patrimoni Mundial [Proceedings of the I International Conference of rock art of the Mediterranean basin of the Iberian peninsula. 20th anniversary of inclusion in the World Heritage List], ed. Viñas i Vallverdú, R.. Montblanc: Museu Comarcal de la Conca de Barberà, 29–52.Google Scholar
Naudinot, N., Bourdier, C., Laforge, M., Paris, C., Bellot-Gurlet, L., Beyries, S., Thery-Parisot, I. & Goffic, M.L., 2017. Divergence in the evolution of Paleolithic symbolic and technological systems: the shining bull and engraved tablets of Rocher de l'Impératrice. PLoS ONE 12(3), e0173037.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Newell, R.R., Kielman, D., Constandse-Westermann, T.S., van der Sanden, W.A.B & van Gijn, A., 1990. An Inquiry into the Ethnic Resolution of Mesolithic Regional Groups. The study of their decorative ornaments in time and space. Leiden: E.J. Brill.Google Scholar
Paillet, P. & Man-Estier, E., 2014. De nouvelles découvertes d'art mobilier laborien dans le Nord du Périgord [New findings of Laborien mobiliary art in northern Périgord], in Les groupes culturels de la transition Pléistocène–Holocène entre Atlantique et Adriatique. Actes de la séance de la Société préhistorique française, Bordeaux, 24–25 mai 2012 [The cultural groups of the Pleistocene–Holocene transition between the Atlantic and the Adriatic. Proceedings of the session of the French Prehistoric Society], eds. Langlais, M., Naudinot, N. & Peresani, M.. Paris: Société préhistorique française, 129–55.Google Scholar
Płonka, T., 2003. The Portable Art of Mesolithic Europe. Wrocław: Uniwersytet Wrocławski.Google Scholar
Rivero, O., Ruiz-López, J.F., Intxaurbe, I., Salazar, S. & Garate, D., 2019. On the limits of 3D capture: a new method to approach the photogrammetric recording of Palaeolithic thin incised engravings in Atxurra Cave (northern Spain). Digital Applications in Archaeology and Cultural Heritage 14, e00106.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robb, J., 2015. Prehistoric art in Europe: a deep-time social history. American Antiquity 80(4), 635–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roussot, A., 1990. Art mobilier et art pariétal du Périgord et de La Gironde: Comparaison stylistique [Mobiliary and parietal art from Périgord and La Gironde: stylistic comparison], in L'art des objets au Paléolithique. I: L'art mobilier et son contexte. Actes du Colloque international, Foix– Le Mas-d'Azil, 16–21 novembre 1987 [The art of objects in the Palaeolithic. I: Mobiliary art and its context. Proceedings of the International Seminar, Foix – Le Mas-d'Azil, 16–21 November 1987], ed. Clottes, J.. (Actes des colloques de la Direction du Patrimoine 8.) Paris: Ministère de la Culture, 189–202.Google Scholar
Royo Guillén, J.I., Arcusa Magallón, H. & Rodríguez Simon, P., 2020. Documentación de grabados rupestres mediante fotogrametría digital –SfM-: Arroyo del Horcajo (Romanos, Zaragoza) y Barranco Cardoso (Pozondón, Teruel) [Documentation of rock engravings through digital photogrammetry -SfM-], in Actas del III Congreso CAPA, 14 y 15 de noviembre 2019 [Proceedings of the 3rd CAPA Conference, 14 and 15 November 2019], eds. Lorenzo, J.I. & Rodanés, J.M.. Zaragoza: Colegio de Doctores y Licenciados/Universidad de Zaragoza, 101–14.Google Scholar
Ruiz-López, J.F., n.d. Evidences for the Mesolithic origin of Levantine rock art of Mediterranean Iberia, in Mesolithic Art – Abstraction, Decoration, Messages, ed. Grünberg, J.. Halle: Tagungen des Landesmuseums für Vorgeschichte Halle.Google Scholar
Ruiz López, J.F., Hoyer, C.T., Rebentisch, A., Roesch, A.M., Herkert, K., Huber, N. & Floss, H., 2019. Tool mark analyses for the identification of palaeolithic art and modern graffiti. The case of Grottes d'Agneux in Rully (Saône-et-Loire, France). Digital Applications in Archaeology and Cultural Heritage 14, e00107.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ruiz López, J.F., Royo Lasarte, J., Royo Guillén, J.I., Alloza Izquierdo, R., Uzal, J.M.P. & Rivero Vilá, O., 2016. Guía Cañada de Marco (Alcaine, Teruel). Alcaine: Ayuntamiento de Alcaine.Google Scholar
Sebastián-Caudet, A., 1986. Escenas acumulativas en el arte rupestre levantino [‘Accumulative’ scenes in Levantine rock art]. Bajo Aragón Prehistoria 7–8, 377–97.Google Scholar
Shea, J.J., 2019. European Upper Palaeolithic cultural taxa: better off without them? Antiquity 93, 1359–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Utrilla, P. & Bea-Martínez, M., 2007. La figura humana en el arte rupestre aragonés [The human figure in Aragonese rock art]. Cuadernos de arte rupestre 4, 163–205.Google Scholar
Utrilla, P. & Villaverde, V., 2004. Los Grabados Levantinos de Barranco Hondo (Castellote, Teruel) [The Levantine engravings in Barranco Hondo site (Castellote, Teruel)]. (Monografías del Patrimonio Aragonés 1.) Zaragoza: Gobierno de Aragón.Google Scholar
Veil, S., Breest, K., Grootes, P., Nadeau, M.-J. & Hüls, M., 2012. A 14,000-year-old amber elk and the origins of northern European art. Antiquity 86, 660–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Villaverde Bonilla, V., Martínez-Valle, R., Guillem-Calatayud, P.M., López-Montalvo, E. & Domingo-Sanz, I., 2011. ¿Qué entendemos por arte levantino? [What do we mean by Levantine rock art?], in The Levantine Question. La cuestión levantina, eds. Arranz, J.J.G., Giraldo, H.C. & Nash, G.H.. Budapest: Archeolingua, 81–115.Google Scholar
Villaverde Bonilla, V., Román, D., Pérez-Ripoll, M., Bergadà, M.M. & Real, C., 2012. The end of the Upper Palaeolithic in the Mediterranean Basin of the Iberian Peninsula. Quaternary International 272–273, 17–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Viñas, R., Rubio, A., Iannicelli, C. & Fernández Marchena, J.L., 2017. El mural de la Roca dels Moros, Cogul (Lleida). Propuesta secuencial del conjunto rupestre [The painted panel of Roca dels Moros, Cogul (Lleida). A seration proposal]. Cuadernos de arte prehistórico 3, 93–129.Google Scholar
Viñas Vallverdú, R., Rubio, A. & Ruiz, J.F., 2010. La técnica paleolítica del trazo fino y estriado entre los orígenes del estilo levantino de la Península Ibérica. Evidencias para una reflexión [The Palaeolithic technology of striated thin line in the origins of the Levantine style of the Iberian Peninsula. Evidences for a reflection]. Préhistoire, Art et Sociétés, Bulletin de la Société Préhistorique de l'Ariège 65–66, 165–78.Google Scholar
Viñas, R. & Sarriá, E., 2010. Documentació dels nous conjunts d'art rupestre del Priorat (Tarragona) [Documentation of new rock art sites in Priorat (Tarragona)]. Tribuna d'Arqueologia 2009–2010, 53–84.Google Scholar
Watté, J.-P., 2011. La Grotte du Cheval à Gouy et son contexte [The Horse Cave in Gouy and its context]. Études Normandes 60(4), 9–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zvelebil, M., 2011. Rite, ritual and materiality of information in Mesolithic Europe, in Information and Its Role in Hunter-Gatherer Bands, eds Whallon, R., Lovis, W.A. & Hitchcock, R.K.. (Ideas, Debates and Perspectives 5.) Los Angeles (CA): Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press, 181–201.CrossRefGoogle Scholar