The postglacial art of the iberian peninsula,2000-2004.

The Northwest Iberian Peninsula is not a uniform region. Geographers have divided it into two main biogeographic sub-regions: Atlantic and Mediterranean, each with its own characteristics, in terms of geomorphology and climate. The perception that these two sub-regions have distinct identities since, at least, the first half of the 3rd millennium BCE, i.e. since the Chalcolithic period, has led us to analyse separately developments in the last quarter of the 3rd millennium BCE, which is viewed as a key period for understanding the emergence of the Bronze Age. During the Early Bronze Age new settlement strategies emerged in the Atlantic sub-region, associated with the appearance of innovative pottery shapes and decorations, resettlement of high-altitude areas for burial in small cairns, circulation of new prestigious metallic icons, the emergence of new styles of rock art, such as engravings of dozens of halberds, the emergence of the phenomenon of structured depositions of metallic objects, such as the deposits of halberds, or halberds and daggers, and, consequently, new social relationships, new power structures and new places for negotiating social relations, which revealed significant structural changes compared to Chalcolithic communities. In the Mediterranean sub-region, despite new locations for certain settlements, changes seem to have occurred across a broader timeframe, including the abandonment of several community and ceremonial spaces-such as walled enclosures or shelters with collective depositions-, the emergence of metallic deposits, consisting of halberds, and the timid adoption of new iconographies in rock art. These are characterised by phenomena of continuity or social resistance, and reveal that, in this region, social changes and new scenarios of power or social aggregation occurred in a manner that differed from the Atlantic sub-region. On the basis of the analysed data it seems possible to hypothesise that, during the last quarter of the 3rd millennium BCE, together with the phenomena of social resistance and permeability to new developments, the Northwest Iberian Peninsula was subjected to multiple and distinct influences that spawned the development of a mosaic of societies, apparently united and standardised by generalised phenomena. The factors that contributed to this change were multiple and distinct in each of the two sub-regions. This includes important external factors, such as the climate conditions in the middle of the 3rd millennium BCE and events that occurred during the second half of this millennium, that had distinct repercussions on the two sub-regions; greater or lesser permeability to Atlantic contacts; 'dismantling' of supra-regional exchange networks with southern regions, as a result of social upheavals in the Southern Mediterranean. In terms of internal factors, it is worth highlighting the capacity for resilience and adaptation to changes. Phenomena such as the migration of populations of Pontic-Caspian origin during the second half of the 3rd millennium BCE, revealed by DNA studies of human remains from the South, Southeast, and Southwest Iberian Peninsula, are not proven for this region, and therefore will not be taken into account. Keywords: Northwest Iberian Peninsula, sub-regions, transition from the 3rd to the 2nd millennium BCE, continuity or change?

Alves, L. B. 2015. Review of José Julio García Arranz, Hipólito Collado Giraldo and George Nash, eds. The Levantine Question: Post-Palaeolithic Rock Art in the Iberian Peninsula—El problema ‘Levantino’. Arte rupestre postpaleolítico en la Península Ibérica (Archaeolingua Main Series 26. Budapest: Archaeolingua Alapítvány—Cáceres: Universidad de Extremadura, 2012, 425pp., 96 colour figs., 51 b/w figs., 15 maps, 9 tables, hbk, ISBN 978-693-9911-31-4), European Journal of Archaeology 18 (1): 161-165

Autores: Hipólito Collado Giraldo y José Julio García Arranz, en José Julio García Arranz, Hipólito Collado Giraldo y Gerorge Nash (eds.), The Levantine Question. Post-Palaeolithic Rock Art in the Iberian Peninsula, Budapest, Archaeolingua Foundation, 2012, pp. 227-261; ISBN 978-963-9911-31-4.

Paleolítico Superior y el periodo Neolítico constituye una línea de investigación que se viene abordando cada vez con mayor intensidad en la Península Ibérica. Ello resulta posible gracias fundamentalmente a recientes hallazgos en diversos contextos a lo largo y ancho del territorio peninsular que están permitiendo arrojar nuevas propuestas sobre aspectos referidos a técnicas, estilo y tipologías principales, algunas de las cuales incluyen al arte levantino como una de las manifestaciones más características de esta etapa. Un arte rupestre realizado en cualquier caso por grupos de economía cazadora-recolectora, herederos en el arte rupestre esquemático que, salvo puntuales excepciones, viene siendo considerado como la Bajo esta línea argumental vamos a abordar con el presente trabajo la caracterización de las manifestaciones de arte rupestre en el área occidental de la Península Ibérica encuadradas en este marco temporal que englobamos bajo la denominación de "ciclo preesquemático", tomando como base implantadas en otras áreas peninsulares.

2001

To discuss the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition in Iberia implies, first, the defining of the concepts. By Neolithic, or Neolithisation, we understand a set of tendencies towards an increasing intensification of resources exploitation, demographic growth, complexity of economic relations, social differentiation, technological improvement and the generation of a new ideology. It was not inevitable, however, and the main question is not how it occurred (even if this is a basic assessment), but why it occurred. In this process, one must not avoid the fact that it implied not only economic or demographic growth, but, primarily for the human groups that were involved in it, it meant more work and increasing alienation. Therefore, it was also a political process. And, using Braudel's (1972) notions, if the long-term is measured by the preceding infrastructure variables, the short-term, decisive changes paid tribute to social conflicts, political complexity and individual initiative. The archaeological record does not answer most of these aspects, but they remain essential, nevertheless. In this sense, the "Neolithic" begins in the late "Mesolithic", the transition period. The evidence for this early stage in Iberia includes (see Oosterbeek 1994): ❶ the Muge-Cocina sequence, spanning the 7 th , 6 th and part of the 5 th millennia 2 2. This is the "geometric" Mesolithic tradition. In the top layers of the Cave of La Cocina (Dos Aguas) and the Cabeço da Arruda shell midden (Muge), sherds of pottery relate to an evolved stage of the Neolithic; ❷ the Mallaetes sequence, not represented in Portugal, and dominated by a bladelets industry. Some ABSTRACT-Paper focuses on Mesolithic-Neolithic transition in the Iberian Peninsula by critical review of avaliable concepts and models. The obvious diversity of archeological record is taken as a strating point. Transition in this perspective is not seen as uniform and sudden economic or demographic change but as a slow political process, where different regional groups would have been forced to share the innovations while keeping their differences. IZVLE∞EK-∞lanek obravnava prehod iz mezolitika v neolitik na Iberskem polotoku s kriti≠nim pretresom obstoje≠ih modelov in konceptov. Izhodi∏≠e je o≠itna raznolikost arheolo∏kih zapisov. V tej perspektivi prehod ni hitra ekonomska in demografska sprememba, ampak po≠asen in asinhron po-liti≠ni proces, kjer razli≠ne regionalne skupine sprejemajo inovacije, a ob tem ohranjajo razlike.

2019

Der soziale Wert prähistorischer Beile: neue archäologische und archäometrische Ansätze /The social value of prehistoric axes – new archaeological and archaeometric approaches, 2024

The Iberian Peninsula has traditionally been considered a region on the margins of the distribution circuits of Alpine axes that spread across much of Europe during the Neolithic. However, the cataloguing efforts undertaken during the JADE projects have certified that, although it was a peripheral territory within the Alpine phenomenon, Iberia would not have been excluded from them. In this work, we offer a synthesis of the current knowledge on the characteristics of the Alpine phenomenon in the Iberian Peninsula. To overcome the limitations imposed by the scarcity of reliable archaeological contexts, we consider their chronology, means of distribution, and use among Iberian groups.

Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 26: 676–697, 2007

Breaking borders,crossing territories, 2022

The study of Iberian megalithic art has long demonstrated not only the contemporaneity of its engravings and paintings but also that both types of art are equally ancient in the post-glacial context. The iconography on the megaliths combines the largest amount of human images in hunting scenes, lineage and social aggregation of Iberian schematic art, if compared to the total number of sites. Interior and western regions of the Iberian Peninsula are presented here as key areas to discuss the elaboration of human imagery inherited from patterns that characterized the end of the last Ice Age. An integrative interpretation of open-air sites (engraved rocks, painted rock shelters, stelae, menhirs) and megaliths (stands, stelae, statuettes, decorated vessels) blurs classical Atlantic-Mediterranean boundaries. The role of Iberian images in Europe’s funerary contexts is then more relevant than what has been attributed to them in the inventories of the last century.

This work presents a review of current research lines, new discoveries and discussion points about Late Mesolithic and Early Neolithic art in Eastern Spain. First, we will review the post- Palaeolithic sequence to give an account of recent advances in chronology and interpretative changes in cultural affiliation of some styles. Then, we will focus on the main spatio-temporal patterns of stylistic variation at the macro-regional scale. Such a perspective is more suitable for analysing the relationship between social contexts of art production with the underlying mechanisms of the neolithisation process (spread of farming, cultural interaction between foragers and farmers, ethnicity and social networks among different Neolithic groups). We will argue that the Neolithic transition in the study area involved an abrupt change in artistic traditions and belief systems. For this presentation, we provide an updated overview of the post-Palaeolithic artistic sequence as an empirical framework for further discussions about the neolithization process in Eastern Spain. The Iberian Mediterranean region harbours one of the richest post-Palaeolithic rock art records of Southern Europe. The current data is irregularly distributed over the archaeological sequence. During the Late Mesolithic (of Castelnovian tradition), the art record is fragmentary, quantitatively meaningless and geographically sparse. Technically, it consists of linear and geometric (non figurative) motifs engraved on small slabs. To date, no parietal evidence has been definitely attributed to this chronological horizon. On the basis of technical and graphic conceptions, no phylogenetic relationships can be established regarding the engraved Upper Magdalenian or Early Epipaleolithic parietal and mobile art. In contrast, the record of figurative and geometric representations on both rock and portable art dated to the Early Neolithic is overwhelmingly higher and varied. It encompasses different rock art styles with figurative and geometric motifs, also represented in ceramic wares found in archaeological contexts. Three main styles are dated at the Neolithic period: the Macroschematic, the Schematic and the Levantine rock art. The Macroschematic art is geographically restricted to the central region of Mediterranean Spain. Its distribution is delimited by the settlement territory of the earliest Cardial Neolithic sites. It mainly consists of large representations of individual or double anthropomorphic figures with upraised arms, series of parallel curved lines and zigzags and other schematic motifs interpreted as human, vegetation or bull representations. This imagery reflects a strong symbolic and religious component, closely connected with iconographic concepts identified in the material culture of other Mediterranean Neolithic cultures. The Schematic rock art displays a wider geographical distribution and more extended chronology, from the Early Neolithic through the Bronze Age. Schematic motifs include very simplistic representations of anthropomorphic and zoomorphic figures (sheep, deer) and other geometric ones such as bars, broken lines, triangles, suns or dots created with digital imprints. Recent studies on rock art and material culture have allowed the identification of an iconographic body of Early Neolithic representations, which displays formal and conceptual similarities with the Macroschematic art. In fact, motifs of both styles are well documented on Early Neolithic ceramic decorations during the Cardial and Epicardial phases. A noticeable variability in rock art sites in terms of motifs, location patterns, number of representations and composition complexity suggest different social contexts of production and use. Finally, the Levantine style is characterized by figurative and naturalistic representations of animals and human figures often in scenes with a clear narrative sense (animalistic scenes, individual and collective hunting events, social aggregations and warfare confrontations). It is widely distributed along the Mediterranean regions of the Iberian Peninsula except for Central and Northern Catalonia. Stylistic variability within the Levantine rock art gives account of both regional variations and chronological differences also reflected in technical and composition conceptions. From a regional perspective, it suggests the emergence of intergroup identity processes that operated at different geographic scales. The chronology and cultural affiliation of the Levantine rock art has been deeply discussed during last decades. Chromatic stratigraphy, by means of superimposition of Levantine figures to Macroschematic and Early Schematic motifs, clearly indicates a Neolithic chronology. Previously accepted, Levantine mobiliar evidences on impressed ceramics have been recently discarded and attributed to the Schematic style. In addition, the representation of some objects associated with Levantine human figures, such as bracelets, some specific types of geometric microliths (crescents or long trapezes) and bifacial arrow points argues for a Neolithic chronology as well, encompassing more advanced archaeological phases (Middle Neolithic, Late Neolithic and Eneolithic). Recently, the relative chronology based on radiocarbon dating on oxalate crusts brackets the production of Levantine figures between the 6th and the 2nd millennium cal. BC.

Comptes rendues Palevol, 2021

The documentation of Palaeolithic art in the open air, together with direct dates for parietal art and the study of territories marked by the last hunter groups in southern Europe, supports new interpretations of Palaeolithic art and its continuity in the early Holocene. We provide updated information about the graphic representations in that time of transition, grouped under the term Style V. We also reflect on the chronological framework of some themes and techniques for which dates are available, from the Upper Palaeolithic to the Neolithic. These topics reveal the strength of the Palaeolithic background in more recent versions of prehistoric art, especially the schematic art associated with the first farmers. These new considerations are added to the presence of ¬Palaeolithic and Post-Palaeolithic art throughout Europe and all over the world, which shows how symbols are social traits of communication associated with human groups. The study of con¬nections through these archaeological items, with their undeniable materiality, is a future challenge that will ¬undoubtedly produce interesting results