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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: [email protected]
José Royo-Lasarte
Affiliation:
Parque Cultural del río Martín Centro de Arte Rupestre ‘Antonio Beltrán’ Tiro del Bolo, 8 44547 Ariño (Teruel) Spain Email: [email protected]
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: [email protected]
Olivia Rivero
Affiliation:
Universidad de Salamanca Dpto. de Prehistoria e Historia Antigua Cervantes, s/n 37002 Salamanca Spain Email: [email protected]
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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

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