Rock art of the Iberian Mediterranean Basin
Encyclopedia
Rock art of the Iberian Mediterranean Basin was declared a World Heritage Site
by Unesco
in 1998. This is a collection of rock art
sites in the eastern half of Spain, notable for the number of places included, the largest concentration of such art in Europe
. Its name refers to the Mediterranean Basin
; however, while some sites are located near the sea, many of them are inland in communities
such as Aragon
and Castile-La Mancha
.
The type of art characteristic of these sites is sometimes referred to as Levantine Art (meaning "from Eastern Spain").
elements into their cultural baggage".
The chronology of Levantine Art overlaps with that of Iberian schematic art
, and examples of both types of art can be found at some sites.
or Mesolithic, placing its heyday in the Neolithic period. Accepting a post-Paleolithic age for the art, Ripio devised a new chronological scheme in the 1960s, dividing the art into four stages:
The human figure (anthropomorphism
), which is rare in Paleolithic Art, acquires great importance in Levantine Art. The human figure is frequently the main theme, and when it appears in the same scene as animals, the human figure runs towards them.
The painting known as The Dancers of Cogul
is a good example of movement being depicted. There are scenes of people performing other activities typical of their time such as: hunting
, fighting, carrying out agricultural tasks, domestication of animals, gathering honey (Cuevas de la Araña en Bicorp
) etc.
In the representation of the human body there are drawings of heads with certain characteristics: the pear
-shaped, hemispherical and conical
.
The top half of the human body is shown naked. Sometimes a kind of trousers are worn; sometimes the genitals are seen and there are phallic representations.
The tools represented in Levantine Art are usually arrows
, sticks, quiver
s and bags. These objects are always associated with the human figure.
There is very little treatment of vegetation. An interesting exception is a depiction of mushrooms (possibly Psilocybe hispanica
) at Selva Pascuala.
Nature, however, is often represented, and above all fauna (zoomorphism
). Some of the animals depicted are identifiable as belonging to species we can see in the present day:
Animals appear singly or in groups. A curious feature of the representation of animals is that they are generally drawn in profile but with horns
and hooves at the front.
to the province of Granada, falling within the territory of the autonomous communities of Catalonia
, Aragon
, Castile-La Mancha
, Murcia
, Valencia
and Andalusia
. It was declared a Bien de Interés Cultural
in 1985.
The art is commonly found in rock shelter
s (protected by a natural ledge
) and not in shallow caves in which sunlight
can penetrate easily. There is no clear preference as to what part of the rock shelter is used for art, it can be placed high or half-way up the walls.
In general the state of conservation is poor.
However, various inititiatives have been undertaken to protect the sites at a local level. For example, the municipality of Villar del Humo
has designated a cultural park.
The sites are distributed as follows among the 16 provinces in the 6 regions already mentioned:
In 2006 the Committee on Culture of the Parliament of Andalusia
agreed to request that the rock art of the provinces of Malaga and Cadiz be part of the Mediterranean rock art of the Iberian Peninsula.
One of the towns where the paintings are in a better state is in Ulldecona
, province of Tarragona. In Ulldecona are also the largest set of paintings of Catalonia. This small town houses an up-to-date Interpretation Centre for rock art.
World Heritage Site
A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a place that is listed by the UNESCO as of special cultural or physical significance...
by Unesco
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
in 1998. This is a collection of rock art
Rock art
Rock art is a term used in archaeology for any human-made markings made on natural stone. They can be divided into:*Petroglyphs - carvings into stone surfaces*Pictographs - rock and cave paintings...
sites in the eastern half of Spain, notable for the number of places included, the largest concentration of such art in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
. Its name refers to the Mediterranean Basin
Mediterranean Basin
In biogeography, the Mediterranean Basin refers to the lands around the Mediterranean Sea that have a Mediterranean climate, with mild, rainy winters and hot, dry summers, which supports characteristic Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub vegetation...
; however, while some sites are located near the sea, many of them are inland in communities
Autonomous communities of Spain
An autonomous community In other languages of Spain:*Catalan/Valencian .*Galician .*Basque . The second article of the constitution recognizes the rights of "nationalities and regions" to self-government and declares the "indissoluble unity of the Spanish nation".Political power in Spain is...
such as Aragon
Aragon
Aragon is a modern autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. Located in northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces : Huesca, Zaragoza, and Teruel. Its capital is Zaragoza...
and Castile-La Mancha
Castile-La Mancha
Castile-La Mancha is an autonomous community of Spain. Castile-La Mancha is bordered by Castile and León, Madrid, Aragon, Valencia, Murcia, Andalusia, and Extremadura. It is one of the most sparsely populated of Spain's autonomous communities...
.
The type of art characteristic of these sites is sometimes referred to as Levantine Art (meaning "from Eastern Spain").
Date
There has been much debate over the dating of Levantine Art. According to UNESCO, the oldest art in the World Heritage Site is from 8,000 BC, and the most recent examples from around 3500 BC. The art therefore spans a period of cultural change. It reflects the life of people using primarily hunter-gatherer economic systems, "who gradually incorporated NeolithicNeolithic
The Neolithic Age, Era, or Period, or New Stone Age, was a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 9500 BC in some parts of the Middle East, and later in other parts of the world. It is traditionally considered as the last part of the Stone Age...
elements into their cultural baggage".
The chronology of Levantine Art overlaps with that of Iberian schematic art
Iberian schematic art
Iberian schematic art is the name given to a series of prehistoric representations that appear in the Iberian peninsula, which are associated with the first metallurgical cultures...
, and examples of both types of art can be found at some sites.
Discovery
Levantine Art was first discovered in Teruel in 1903. The Spanish prehistorian Juan Cabre was the first to study this art, defining it as a regional Palaeolithic art. Assignment to the Palaeolithic age was then challenged for various reasons including the fact that no glacial fauna was depicted. Antonio Beltrán was the first to place the beginning of this art in the EpipaleolithicEpipaleolithic
The Epipaleolithic Age was a period in the development of human technology marked by more advanced stone blades and other tools than the earlier Paleolithic age, although still before the development of agriculture in the Neolithic age...
or Mesolithic, placing its heyday in the Neolithic period. Accepting a post-Paleolithic age for the art, Ripio devised a new chronological scheme in the 1960s, dividing the art into four stages:
- naturalistic,
- stylized static,
- stylized dynamic,
- final phase of transition to the schematic.
Features
The artists appear to have used feathers, and often used red paint.The human figure (anthropomorphism
Anthropomorphism
Anthropomorphism is any attribution of human characteristics to animals, non-living things, phenomena, material states, objects or abstract concepts, such as organizations, governments, spirits or deities. The term was coined in the mid 1700s...
), which is rare in Paleolithic Art, acquires great importance in Levantine Art. The human figure is frequently the main theme, and when it appears in the same scene as animals, the human figure runs towards them.
The painting known as The Dancers of Cogul
Roca dels Moros
The Roca dels Moros or Caves of El Cogul is a rock shelter containing outstanding paintings of prehistoric Levantine rock art. The site is in El Cogul, in the autonomous community of Catalonia, Spain....
is a good example of movement being depicted. There are scenes of people performing other activities typical of their time such as: hunting
Hunting
Hunting is the practice of pursuing any living thing, usually wildlife, for food, recreation, or trade. In present-day use, the term refers to lawful hunting, as distinguished from poaching, which is the killing, trapping or capture of the hunted species contrary to applicable law...
, fighting, carrying out agricultural tasks, domestication of animals, gathering honey (Cuevas de la Araña en Bicorp
Cuevas de la Araña en Bicorp
The Cuevas de la Araña are a group of caves in the municipality of Bicorp in Valencia, eastern Spain. The caves are in the valley of the river Escalona and were used by prehistoric people who left rock art...
) etc.
In the representation of the human body there are drawings of heads with certain characteristics: the pear
Pear
The pear is any of several tree species of genus Pyrus and also the name of the pomaceous fruit of these trees. Several species of pear are valued by humans for their edible fruit, but the fruit of other species is small, hard, and astringent....
-shaped, hemispherical and conical
Cone (geometry)
A cone is an n-dimensional geometric shape that tapers smoothly from a base to a point called the apex or vertex. Formally, it is the solid figure formed by the locus of all straight line segments that join the apex to the base...
.
The top half of the human body is shown naked. Sometimes a kind of trousers are worn; sometimes the genitals are seen and there are phallic representations.
The tools represented in Levantine Art are usually arrows
Arrows
Arrows Grand Prix International was a British Formula One team active from to . For a period of time, it was also known as Footwork.-Origins :...
, sticks, quiver
Quiver
A quiver is a container for arrows. Quivers have been traditionally made of leather, bark, wood, furs and other natural materials; modern quivers are often made of metal and plastic....
s and bags. These objects are always associated with the human figure.
There is very little treatment of vegetation. An interesting exception is a depiction of mushrooms (possibly Psilocybe hispanica
Psilocybe hispanica
Psilocybe hispanica is a species of fungus in the Strophariaceae family. It produces small brown mushrooms with conical to convex caps up to in diameter and stems long by thick. Reported as new to science in 2000, it is only known from the Pyrenees mountain range in northern Spain and...
) at Selva Pascuala.
Nature, however, is often represented, and above all fauna (zoomorphism
Zoomorphism
Zoomorphism is the shaping of something in animal form or terms. Examples include:*Art that imagines humans as animals*Art that portrays one species of animal like another species of animal*Art that creates patterns using animal imagery, or animal style...
). Some of the animals depicted are identifiable as belonging to species we can see in the present day:
- deerDeerDeer are the ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. Species in the Cervidae family include white-tailed deer, elk, moose, red deer, reindeer, fallow deer, roe deer and chital. Male deer of all species and female reindeer grow and shed new antlers each year...
, - goats, the animal most frequently depicted in the illustrations.
- cattleCattleCattle are the most common type of large domesticated ungulates. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae, are the most widespread species of the genus Bos, and are most commonly classified collectively as Bos primigenius...
, often difficult to interpret. There is a bull (possibly an aurochsAurochsThe aurochs , the ancestor of domestic cattle, were a type of large wild cattle which inhabited Europe, Asia and North Africa, but is now extinct; it survived in Europe until 1627....
) at Selva Pascuala. - dogs, rarely depicted, but they appear to help in a hunting scene at Barranc de la Palla.
Animals appear singly or in groups. A curious feature of the representation of animals is that they are generally drawn in profile but with horns
Horn (anatomy)
A horn is a pointed projection of the skin on the head of various animals, consisting of a covering of horn surrounding a core of living bone. True horns are found mainly among the ruminant artiodactyls, in the families Antilocapridae and Bovidae...
and hooves at the front.
Location
The World Heritage Site includes rock art across an area which stretches from the PyreneesPyrenees
The Pyrenees is a range of mountains in southwest Europe that forms a natural border between France and Spain...
to the province of Granada, falling within the territory of the autonomous communities of Catalonia
Catalonia
Catalonia is an autonomous community in northeastern Spain, with the official status of a "nationality" of Spain. Catalonia comprises four provinces: Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, and Tarragona. Its capital and largest city is Barcelona. Catalonia covers an area of 32,114 km² and has an...
, Aragon
Aragon
Aragon is a modern autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. Located in northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces : Huesca, Zaragoza, and Teruel. Its capital is Zaragoza...
, Castile-La Mancha
Castile-La Mancha
Castile-La Mancha is an autonomous community of Spain. Castile-La Mancha is bordered by Castile and León, Madrid, Aragon, Valencia, Murcia, Andalusia, and Extremadura. It is one of the most sparsely populated of Spain's autonomous communities...
, Murcia
Murcia
-History:It is widely believed that Murcia's name is derived from the Latin words of Myrtea or Murtea, meaning land of Myrtle , although it may also be a derivation of the word Murtia, which would mean Murtius Village...
, Valencia
Valencian Community
The Valencian Community is an autonomous community of Spain located in central and south-eastern Iberian Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Valencia...
and Andalusia
Andalusia
Andalusia is the most populous and the second largest in area of the autonomous communities of Spain. The Andalusian autonomous community is officially recognised as a nationality of Spain. The territory is divided into eight provinces: Huelva, Seville, Cádiz, Córdoba, Málaga, Jaén, Granada and...
. It was declared a Bien de Interés Cultural
Bien de Interés Cultural
A Bien de Interés Cultural is a category of the Spanish heritage register. This category dates from 1985 when it replaced the former heritage category of Monumento nacional in order to extend protection to a wider range of cultural property...
in 1985.
The art is commonly found in rock shelter
Rock shelter
A rock shelter is a shallow cave-like opening at the base of a bluff or cliff....
s (protected by a natural ledge
Ridge
A ridge is a geological feature consisting of a chain of mountains or hills that form a continuous elevated crest for some distance. Ridges are usually termed hills or mountains as well, depending on size. There are several main types of ridges:...
) and not in shallow caves in which sunlight
Sunlight
Sunlight, in the broad sense, is the total frequency spectrum of electromagnetic radiation given off by the Sun. On Earth, sunlight is filtered through the Earth's atmosphere, and solar radiation is obvious as daylight when the Sun is above the horizon.When the direct solar radiation is not blocked...
can penetrate easily. There is no clear preference as to what part of the rock shelter is used for art, it can be placed high or half-way up the walls.
In general the state of conservation is poor.
However, various inititiatives have been undertaken to protect the sites at a local level. For example, the municipality of Villar del Humo
Villar del Humo
Villar del Humo is a municipality located in the province of Cuenca, Castile-La Mancha, Spain. According to the 2004 census , the municipality has a population of 372 inhabitants.It is an important location for prehistoric rock art...
has designated a cultural park.
List of protected sites
This is a collection of 727 rock shelters, caves, huts or ravines (as listed by UNESCO) that found a figurative representation, geometrical shapes, ranging from scenes of hunting, gathering, or war dance including human figures and animals.The sites are distributed as follows among the 16 provinces in the 6 regions already mentioned:
- Valencian Community: 301 places; main article: Rock Art of the Iberian Mediterranean Basin in the Valencian Community.
- Province of Alicante: 130 places.
- Province of Castellón: 102 places.
- Province of Valencia: 69 places.
- Aragón: 132 places.
- Province of Teruel: 67 places.
- Province of Huesca: 47 places.
- Province of Zaragoza: 18 places.
- Castile-La Mancha: 93 places.
- Province of Albacete: 79 places.
- Province of Cuenca: 12 places.
- Province of Guadalajara: 2 places.
- Region of Murcia: 72 places.
- Andalusia: 69 places.
In 2006 the Committee on Culture of the Parliament of Andalusia
Andalusia
Andalusia is the most populous and the second largest in area of the autonomous communities of Spain. The Andalusian autonomous community is officially recognised as a nationality of Spain. The territory is divided into eight provinces: Huelva, Seville, Cádiz, Córdoba, Málaga, Jaén, Granada and...
agreed to request that the rock art of the provinces of Malaga and Cadiz be part of the Mediterranean rock art of the Iberian Peninsula.
-
- Province of Jaén: 42 places.
- Province of Almería: 25 places; main article: Rock Art of the Iberian Mediterranean Basin in Almería.
- Province of Granada: 2 places.
- Catalonia: 60 places.
- Province of Tarragona: 39 places.
One of the towns where the paintings are in a better state is in Ulldecona
Ulldecona
Ulldecona is a town in the South of Catalonia, in Montsià , near the Senia River. Ulldecona is part of the Taula del Sénia free association of municipalities....
, province of Tarragona. In Ulldecona are also the largest set of paintings of Catalonia. This small town houses an up-to-date Interpretation Centre for rock art.
-
- Province of Lleida: 16 places.
- Province of Barcelona: 5 places.
External links
- UNESCO
- Cultural Park of Martín River Rock Art in the middle stretch of the Martín River (Teruel)
- Arte Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin on the Iberian Peninsula in the web of the Spanish Ministry of Culture.
- Ministry of Culture of the Junta de Andalucía - Real World Heritage
- The Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin on the Iberian Peninsula
- The Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin on the Iberian Peninsula in the web of Archaeology of the Region of Murcia.
- The Rock Art in Castell de Castells.