The end of the Ice Age in southern Europe: Iberian images in the Palaeolithic to Post-Palaeolithic transition

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 con­nections through these archaeological items, with their undeniable materiality, is a future challenge that will ­undoubtedly produce interesting results.

The quest for palaeolithic art in the Neris river valley, Central-Eastern Lithuania

Only a few artifacts discovered in Lithuania can be considered as examples of portable art from the Final Palaeolithic period. Three of them were found in the Neris river valley in central-eastern Lithuania: an engraved slate pebble from the Eiguliai 1А site, a notched blade from the Skaruliai 1 site, and a flint “figurine” from the Vilnius 1 site. Discovered by Rimutė Rimantienė and her father Konstantinas Jablonskis, these three finds were the first and for many years the only artifacts underpinning the discussion of art from the Lithuanian Final Palaeolithic. The debate on the tentative function of these items, initiated by Rimantienė, is reviewed in this study before presenting the results of the latest research on the subject between 2012 and 2017, carried out using a range of methods: visual examination, comparative analysis with other archaeological finds and reconstructed prehistoric tools, surface analysis under a microscope. The functional interpretation proposed as a result of these investigations in two cases disproves the identification of these artifacts as portable art.

Leroi-Gourhan and the Evolution of Forms

The prehistorian André Leroi-Gourhan envisages technological behaviour along a continuum of manual activity extending to artistic production. His work on Palaeolithic cave art, which dominates the final phase of his career, builds on parameters set out in the 1950s and 1960s, and indeed early works on figuration ( Bestiaire du bronze chinois (1936) and Documents pour l'art comparé (1943)) already use the methodology which characterizes his Préhistoire de l'art occidental (1965). Nevertheless, there is a qualitative shift in Leroi-Gourhan's post-war work in response to structuralism and in dialogue with his work on human evolution. Le Geste et la Parole (1964–5) represents an important point of mediation, describing the physiological foundations of aesthetic experience and the stages of development which precede figuration. Leroi-Gourhan argues for the normality of Palaeolithic art as an artistic tradition while insisting on its absolute otherness. The mind in the cave is capable of the most abstract and esoteric variations of form and content, but also represents an alternative world to our own.

Birds and bovids: new parietal engravings at the Romanelli Cave, Apulia

ABSTRACT The Romanelli Cave in south-east Italy is an important reference point for the so-called ‘Mediterranean province’ of European Upper Palaeolithic art. Yet, the site has only recently been subject to a systematic investigation of its parietal and portable art. Starting in 2016, a project has recorded the cave's interior, discovering new parietal art. Here, the authors report on a selection of panels, featuring animal figures, geometric motifs and other marks, identifying the use of different types of tools and techniques, along with several activity phases. These panels are discussed with reference to radiocarbon dating of nearby deposits, posing questions about chronology, technology and wider connections between Upper Palaeolithic cave sites across western Eurasia.

Siega Verde and the open-air rock art of the northern Iberian Peninsula (Spain)

Siega Verde was the third open-air rock art site to be discovered in the Iberian Peninsula, even before Côa and the controversy that followed that discovery. Its practicable size and the study carried out without any publicity allowed the analysis of a new reality that would change the interpretation of Palaeolithic art. From the start of the research, stylistic criteria were used to date the art in the absence of archaeological excavations. Although this has often been criticized, it meant that Siega Verde and Côa could be dated from Leroi-Gourhan’s Style II onwards. Excavations at Fariseu, a site belonging to Côa in Portugal, have proved that hypothesis archaeologically, as well as supporting the applicability of Leroi-Gourhan’s styles. Siega Verde is a good representative of Palaeolithic art in the open, on rocks by a river-bank or on prominent hills, but it is not the only form that can be catalogued as open-air rock art, because there are intermediate forms. These are found in cave entrances and in rock-shelters all over the Iberian Peninsula, especially in areas where little evidence of Palaeolithic art used to be known, such as on the southern Mediterranean coast and in Andalusia. This site possesses an exterior Upper Palaeolithic art ensemble, similar to the art found inside caves and of the same age, but in a different location. Formal relationships are usual inside and outside the caves and in both cases they represent a communicative code that did not need the dark and mystery to be expressed.

Lugar de paso, memorias antiguas. El yacimiento del Arroyo de las Almas (La Fregeneda, Salamanca) y su arte rupestre Paleolítico al aire libre = Place of Passage, Ancient Memories. The Site of Arroyo de las Almas (La Fregeneda, Salamanca) and its Open-Air Palaeolithic Rock Art

El yacimiento rupestre al aire libre del Arroyo de las Almas, en las inmediaciones del encuentro entre los ríos Águeda y Duero, presenta un conjunto de 600 motivos grabados, con una larga diacronía desde el Paleolítico Superior hasta la Edad Contemporánea. Presentamos una visión detallada de su arte Paleolítico, con 21 figuras documentadas en 5 rocas, grabadas por incisión, y que corresponden a 13 zoomorfos, 7 signos y 1 motivo indeterminable, además de grupos de líneas no figurativas. Los análisis formales y técnicos llevados a cabo y sus paralelos, nos permiten afirmar que son integrables, desde la óptica cronocultural, entre el inicio del Magdaleniense y el final del ciclo artístico Paleolítico. Este conjunto, formaría parte de la vasta red de yacimientos artísticos en la cuenca del Duero, en su mayoría con arte al aire libre, cuyas principales características de implantación sugieren una inicial función como lugar privilegiado de paso, entorno a la desembocadura de Águeda.AbstractThe open-air rock art site Arroyo de las Almas, close to the meeting point of the rivers Águeda and Douro, displays approximately 600 engraved motifs, with a chronology ranging from the Upper Palaeolithic to Contemporary Age. We present a detailed analysis of the Upper Palaeolithic art of the site, corresponding to 21 registered figures in 5 rocks, all engraved by incision and corresponding to 13 zoomorphic figures, 7 signs and 1 undetermined motif, as well as groups of non-figurative lines. The typological and stylistic analyses carried out and their parallels allow us to affirm that all of them are chronologically integrable between the beginning of the Magdalenian and the end of the Palaeolithic artistic cycle. This set was part of the vast network of artistic sites in the Douro basin, for the most part with open-air art. The main implantation characteristics of the site suggest its function as a privileged passage site, around the mouth of the Águeda.