Europe: Prehistoric Rock Art E

Europe: Prehistoric Rock Art 2599 E thought to follow its own story imprinted in plas- tic arts, images, and rock combined. The Europe: Prehistoric Rock Art sequence of chambers, their distance from day- light, total obscurity, oppressive dampness, and Georges Sauvet1, Cesar Gonza´lez Sainz2, low temperature condition are the soul for the Jose´ Luis Sanchidriań3 and Valentıń Villaverde4 reception of founding myths as to the justification 1Centre de Recherche et d’Etude de l’Art of the group and the mysteries with which all Pre´historique, Universite´ de Toulouse-II, conscious existence is confronted. The solutions Toulouse, France were there, revealed as soothing, real with respect 2Instituto Internacional de Investigaciones to the dangers of the path taken into the cave, and Prehisto´ricas de Cantabria (IIIPC), Universidad E unreal with respect to the secrets of life, all com- de Cantabria, Santander, Spain bined in a dazzling of physical and spiritual 3Area de Prehistoria, Departamento de Geografıá senses. Gothic windows do nothing other than y Ciencias del Territorio, Facultad de Filosofıá seduce in order to convince. And the temples of y Letras, Universidad de Co´rdoba, Co´rdoba, Science are even more suspect of soliciting, with Spain their columns, tympanums, porticos and statues 4Departamento de Prehistoria y Arqueologıá, from Antiquity. Universitat de Vale`ncia, Valencia, Spain The revelations contained in the depths of damp dark caves harnessed the suspended conscience, by adolescence as much as by the Introduction dangers overcome. But the solutions were there, in the trembling illumination on the damp walls In its broadest sense, the term prehistoric rock with bright vivid colors. Their harmony, linked art covers the whole of graphic manifestations to the scale of forms, gigantic and dancing fig- affixed by prehistoric humans on rock surfaces ures, came literally out of the darkness and of all kinds. The surfaces can be rocks out in anguish. The revelation of the mysteries of exis- the open air, walls protected by shallow tence was accorded by the seduction stimulated rockshelters, or deep cave walls in total dark- by the rhythms, color, and strangeness. Paleo- ness. For deep cave situations, the term “parietal lithic art, like man who overcame the challenges art” is often used, but these two terms cover the of earthly life, also contributes one of the culmi- same reality. The phenomenon is widespread nating points in the spiritual adventure of throughout the world, as it meets the basic civilization. needs of preliterate human societies. In Europe, prehistoric rock art extends from northern Nor- way to Andalusia and covers more than 30,000 Cross-References years, from the Upper Paleolithic to the Roman conquest. As a result, it responds to an infinite ▶ European Upper Paleolithic Rock Art: number of motivations depending on beliefs, Sacredness, Sanctity, and Symbolism systems of social organization, and types of subsistence economies. In formal terms, it uses a wide range of techniques (engraving, sculp- Further Reading ture, finger strokes in clay, line drawings, mono- chrome or polychrome painting) and a wide CLOTTES, J. 2008. L’art des cavernes pre´historiques. Paris: range of styles (from figurative naturalist art to Phaidon. schematic and to geometric abstraction). LEROI-GOURHAN, A. 1965. Pre´histoire de l’art occidental. Although the word art is sometimes criticized Paris: Mazenod. LORBLANCHET, M. 1995. Les grottes orneés de la because of its contemporary connotation, it is pre´histoire. Nouveaux regards. Paris: Errance. difficult to escape the idea that the human groups E 2600 Europe: Prehistoric Rock Art who made rock art were pursuing, in addition to Key Issues the basic motivations that animated them, an undeniable aesthetic quest, even if it sometimes Paleolithic Rock Art diverges from our own criteria. General Points Paleolithic rock art occurs throughout the Upper Paleolithic, beginning c. 35,000 BP (or earlier) Historical Background (with the arrival of Homo sapiens sapiens in Europe) and ending around 12,000 BP, shortly In the nineteenth century, there was little before the end of the glacial period. The oldest acceptance of the aptitude of prehistoric people figurative works, attributed to the “Aurignacian” to paint and engrave images onto rock. The idea culture, are the statuettes of Swabian Jura of the “primitive savage” perpetuated for a long (Germany) and the parietal paintings and engrav- time and prevented the acceptance of the full ings on the caves of Fumane (Italy), dated intellectual capacities of societies before his- between 32,000 and 36,500 14C BP, and of tory. The remarkable bison paintings on the ceil- Chauvet (France), between 30,000 and 32,000 ingofAltamira,discoveredin1879,werenot 14C BP (radiocarbon dating strongly underesti- officially recognized as a prehistoric work until mates calendar ages). 1902. There is no doubt that the aesthetic, natu- Paleolithic art is fundamentally an art of ani- ralism, and polychrome character of these fig- mals: human representations are rare and are ures impeded this recognition. It was not until most often caricature-like, in contrast to animals the second half of the twentieth century that which achieve a sometimes striking realism. paleoanthropological approaches to rock art Numerous nonfigurative drawings or “signs” meant that rock art study could acquire the status complete the iconography. Deep caves, invested of a scientific discipline within prehistoric since the beginning of the period, remained the archaeology. Today, rock art is considered most popular places until the end, to the extent a precious tool with which to address the cultures that we sometimes speak of “cave art,” even and the ideological and symbolic universe of though engravings and sculptures also decorated hunter-gatherer, then herders and farmers occupied rockshelters, and that rocks exposed to societies who succeeded on the European the open air have also recently been discovered in territory. The need to leave a lasting mark of Spain and Portugal. one’s culture on monumental mediums is An in-depth examination reveals deep regional universal. Only the forms and locations that thematic and stylistic differences and significant were selected to practice this exercise change changes over time across Europe. Several models with the subsistence economy and the prevailing of relative chronology, based on archaeological systems of thought. data, superpositions, and stylistic sequences, have In a report presented to UNESCO in 1984, the been proposed. Those of Henri Breuil (1952) and number of individual rock art graphics in Europe Andre´ Leroi-Gourhan (1965) are the better well was estimated at four million (Anati 2003). This known, but new methods for direct dating by number has easily been surpassed today. accelerator mass spectrometry and also recent Paleolithic art alone counts for more than 360 discoveries like the Chauvet Cave have forced sites, with recent discoveries of major scientific a reconsideration of the chronostylistic models interest in France (Chauvet in 1994), Portugal based on the assumption of a linear evolution (Foz Coâ in 1994), and Spain (La Garma in leading from an original schematic form toward 1995). The debate is no longer about the better controlled realism. Some advances and set- authenticity but rather about the chronocultural backs, phases of invention, and regression have attribution of these works, given the difficulty of crisscrossed over these 20,000 years and provided absolute dating. a more complex schema. Europe: Prehistoric Rock Art 2601 E Iberian Peninsula phenomenon began with the Aurignacian In the extreme southwest of Europe, the Iberian (at least in the north: La Vinã rockshelter, early Peninsula retains evidence of intense graphic phases of Castillo) and is present at the southern activity during the Upper Paleolithic, with more end (Tarifa group) from the Gravettian (Fig. 1). than 200 parietal assemblages distributed in all Paleolithic art from the Iberian Peninsula is fully regions, not including the many portable art integrated with that of Western Europe and objects (Bicho et al. 2007). The most important presents the same two formal conceptions of the concentration is that in the Cantabrian region, animal figure, a conceptual naturalism, minimal- a narrow strait between sea and mountain, open ist, in the early phases (figures reduced to at its eastern point toward the southwest French a contour with very few details and internal E region, which contains around 120 decorated elements) and, from 17,000 BP, a more visual caves covering all the periods of the Upper naturalism, attentive to anatomical details, with Paleolithic (Collective 2002; Gonza´lez Sainz a more successful treatment of volume (infills and et al. 2003;Rıós Gonza´lez et al. 2007). Centers, internal details, correct perspectives of limbs and such as Penã Candamo, Altamira, El Castillo, and horns). However, art from the Iberian Peninsula La Pasiega, have played an important role in the shows notable singularities such as engraved history of research on Paleolithic rock art. Other rocks in open air in the valleys of Atlantic rivers regions on the peninsula, which had practically with large-size figures produced by pecking no parietal evidence around thirty years ago, (Fig. 2). With few exceptions, paintings are only today present important concentrations. We can preserved in deep caves. Additionally, more tem- cite among others the spectacular rock outcrops perate climatic conditions than in the northern in open air in the Duero valleys (Domingo regions of Europe brought about a distribution Garcia, Siega Verde, Mazouco, and specially of rich fauna including horses, aurochs, stags, the 27 sites along the Coâ River), Tagus (Ocreza), does, and ibex with a gradient from north to and Guadiana (Molino Manzańez) (Baptista south: in the Cantabrian region, in addition to 2009). To these open-air sites, several caves this fauna, bison and reindeer (mostly during the need to be added: Escoural in Portugal, Magdalenian) and some very rare mammoths and Maltravieso in Extremadura, and in the interior megaloceros can be found.

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