Landscape Archaeology: a Pilot Study in Galicia, North-West Spain
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Rock art research as landscape archaeology: a pilot study in Galicia, north-west Spain Richard Bradley, Felipe Criado Boado and Ramon Fabregas Valcarce Introduction Rock art is found in many differentareas of prehistoricEurope, but it often appearsin similar contexts. It is most apparentin periods in which settlement sites have a rather ephemeralcharacter and in partsof the landscapewhich are likely to have experienceda mobile patternof exploitation(Bradley 1993: chapter 3). It is surprising,then, that studies of this phenomenonso rarelytake advantageof its connectionwith the naturalterrain. Instead, they have concentratedon the characterof the designs, and the main emphasis has fallen on questionsof style and chronology.In effect, the motifs have been separated from the rock and its place in the landscapeand treated in exactly the same manneras portableartefacts (Anati 1976;Malmer 1981). It is our contentionthat this approachhas obscuredtheir full potentialfor researchand, in particular,the contributionthat they have to offer to studiesof the prehistoriclandscape. Neolithicand Bronze Age petroglyphsare widelydistributed and occurin manyparts of Europe, from the central Mediterraneanto Scandinavia.Although there are occasional areasof overlapbetween the differentstyles of rockcarving, these have obscuredthe more importantpoint that they may have been createdunder similarconditions in a varietyof differentareas. Their interpretation has alwayspresented problems, and has usuallybeen approachedin one of two ways. In Scandinavia,rock carvings have been studiedusing the insights provided by regional ethnography,particularly the traditionalbeliefs of the mobile peoples who still live beyond the agriculturalfrontier (Helsgog 1987;Tilley 1991). Elsewhere, in Atlantic Europe, the most promising approach has been through comparisonswith other media:the distinctivedecoration applied to portableobjects and also the motifs associatedwith stone statuesor megalithictombs (Johnston1989: chapter 4; Vazquez1990; Jorge and Jorge 1991).In this paperwe suggestanother way of lookingat this material.We considerthat an equallypromising method of analysisis to reunite the carvingswith the rockitself and to studytheir detailed relationship to the local topography and its possible modes of exploitation. We shall illustrate this approach, using some evidence from north-westSpain. World Archaeology Volume 25 No. 3 Reading Art (C Routledge 19940043-8243/94/2503/374 $3.00/i Rock art research as landscape archaeology 375 The prehistoric rock carvings of Galicia Among the major groups of rock carvings in Europe are a number which are found in upland areas that might be best suited to exploitation by hunting, mobile pastoralism, shifting agriculture or transhumance. Others are located on the coast near to fishing grounds or along the routes leading between different parts of the landscape. They seem to have been created in regions of extensive land use and sometimes during periods with only limited evidence of sedentary farming. In both Scandinavia and Atlantic Europe their history comes to an end with the agricultural expansion of later prehistory (Bradley 1993: chapter 2). Although they do portray domesticated animals, they suggest a major emphasis on the use of wild resources. Certain species, especially deer, figure prominently among the identifiable images. A few examples may help to illustrate these points. In the Pyrenees, for instance, the rock art is closely linked with traditional transhumance routes (Bahn 1984: 324-31), whilst the more complex carvings in Britain and Ireland are normally on the higher ground some way above the areas with more fertile soils (Bradley 1991). At the same time, hunting scenes are very widely distributed and can be recognized in the central and west Mediterranean, in Atlantic Spain, and throughout Scandinavia. A number of writers have discussed the ways in which resources are demarcated by mobile peoples and the circumstances in which this is likely to happen (Ingold 1986; Layton 1986; Casimir 1992a). We can extend their arguments to those regions utilized on an intermittent basis by populations whose home settlements were in other parts of the landscape. There is a greater emphasis on paths and places than on the continuous boundaries that characterize areas of farmland. Significant points in that terrain may be marked in special ways: by paintings, petroglyphs or even by the creation of monuments. This does not happen everywhere. It is generally found in areas of the landscape where resources are productive and dependable but sometimes of limited extent (Casimir 1992a and b). Under these circumstances mobile people may define their rights more closely than is otherwise the case. Such arguments have often been employed in studies of megalithic monuments, and recent work has shown that they apply to sites in Galicia, at the north-west limit of the Iberian peninsula (Fig. 1; Vaquero, in press; Vaquero 1991: 165-72). In this case, however, the main groups of megalithic tombs are just as closely integrated into the general pattern of movement through the landscape (Criado,et al. in press; Vaquero, in press). Detailed studies of tomb distribution suggest that they were located at important points along routes across the terrain which are used by people and animals to this day (Infante et al. 1990). The same may be true of Galician petroglyphs, and it seems worth taking a similar approach to that material. In doing so, we can also make some use of the distinctive subject matter of the carvings. These carvings have a fairly simple repertoire. There are a series of abstract designs, ranging from simple dots or 'cup marks' to more complex circular motifs, a number of which can be joined together by a network of wandering lines (Vaizquez 1990). In addition, there are numerous representations of deer (Plate 1), and smaller numbers of recognizable horses, human figures and artefacts (Garcia and Pefia 1980: 133-43). The chronology of these designs remains to be resolved, but it seems likely that they were first created in the 376 Richard Bradley, Felipe Criado Boado and Ramon Fabregas Valcarce FigureI Map of Galicia showing the areas (stippled) with prehistoric rock art. The countours arc at 20Gmintervals. Rock art research as landscape archaeology 377 Plate 1 Carvingsof a ~~ red deer and cur- / / // * ~~~vilinearmotifs at Fen- />Jo ~ tans, CampoLameiro. Late Neolithic period and remained important during at least the earlier phases of the Bronze Age - some of the carvings may be assigned to the latter period because they depict recognizable types of weaponry, for instance halberds (Pefna 1980). Galician petroglyphs seem to have lost their significance by the Late Bronze Age and Iron Age when individual examples were buried beneath the walls of the defended sites known as castros (Pefnaand Va'zquez 1979; Pefna1992; Pefnaand Rey, in press). We can consider their distribution at several different scales. At a very general level Galician rock art belongs to a broad tradition of carvings extending along the Atlantic coastline. To the north, it shares a range of abstract motifs with sites in Britain and Ireland , and to a lesser extent in western France (MacWhite 1946; Burgess 1990). In this case the major source of inspiration may have been the art of the Irish passage tombs. The purely Iberian contribution includes depictions of what are described as 'idols' and weapons that would normally be found in areas further to the south (Va'zquez l 990). These connections provide evidence of a wider interaction sphere which is best documented between the later development of passage graves in the fourth millennium BC and the dissemination of metal artefacts over a thousand years later. Very simple carvings are found widely in Galicia, but there is also a more local axis, and it is the sites in this group that provide the subject matter of our paper (Fig. 1). Nearly all these carvings are on granite, but they do not extend across the full distribution of this rock. They focus on a compact region of the country in which three important resource zones are found in close proximity to one another. On the Atlantic coastline there are the deep inlets known as rias, which provide an extremely productive range of wild resources. Further inland are quite narrow tracts of fertile lowland soils, which are well suited to intensive cultivation, and beyond these we find extensive areas of upland which contain a number of megalithic tombs. As well as these topographical differences, all three areas show important contrasts in their climate (Fig. 2a), temperature (Fig. 2b), proneness to drought (Fig. 3a) and productivity (Fig. 3b). These might have two implications for the prehistoric pattern of land use. They would have made this area particularly productive, 378 Richard Bradley, Felipe Criado Boado and RamonnFabregas Valcarce w 9 o 1314 Figure2a The climaticregions of Galicia. The most favourablefollows the Atlanticcoast to thc northand west. To the south-westit also correspondsquite closely to the ovcralldistribution of thc rock art. (After Carballeiraet al. 1983.) Figure2b Thc annual average temperaturein Galicia in degrees ccntigradc.Note the gradient acrossthe areawith the rockcarvings. (After Carbalieiraet al. 19833.) but the concentration of different resources could have led to conflicts over their exploitation. At the same time, they would also have necessitated regular movement between these three parts of the region during the course of the