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Ouvrages Année : 2021

ARKEOGAZTE n°11 : Animals in prehistoric art

REVISTA ARKEOGAZTE n°11 : Los animales en el arte prehistórico

ARKEOGAZTE ALDIZKARIA n°11 : Animaliak historiaurreko artean

Résumé

The animal selection and/or representation is a marker that clearly demonstrates the relationship between humans and the environment. It also implies an idea of appropriation and separation at the same time between humans and animals based on the awareness and the ability to symbolically represent something (VALERA et al., 2014). Concerning the rock art itself, we see in it “a record of changing environment. Alongside that is a record of how human beings responded to that environmental change” (CHIPPINDALE and NASH, 2004: 9). These changes are present in the selected themes and animals are a main subject to investigate human adaptation and their relationship with the environment and the landscape. When referring to the landscape, we refer to the social construct, well defined by Nash and Chippindale (2002: 6), that “is developed within each and everyone’s minds”. Indeed, it culturally relies on the mechanics of the mind, though it is natural in its physical construction and is certain in its location (CHIPPINDALE and TAÇON, 1998; CHIPPINDALE and NASH, 2004b). Therefore, we use this topic, focusing on the Basin of the Mediterranean Sea and its various catchments that surround it. In this work, we define two main chronological stages within a wider prehistoric past, each characterised by a unique set of zoomorphic figures. This special issue of Revista ArkeoGazte Aldizkaria is the first volume of two. It draws on research of a series of case studies on animal figures in prehistoric rock art. This research covers a range of different locations including Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, Norway, Negev, Gobustan, Egypt and different chronologies, together with the Palaeolithic portable art collection of central Europe. It aims to be a valid support for further studies. The contributing authors provide a synthesis about the animal depictions in rock art sites, address the diversity of rock art sites and animal depictions as well as the variety of approaches that the studies of animal depictions have undergone in the Mediterranean and surrounding areas. The second volume, currently in progress, will complement the missing chronologies and areas of study, finally providing a full picture of the animal figures in prehistoric rock art around the Mediterranean basin and the surrounding regions. This process clearly shows how the environment strongly influenced socio-economic systems and culture. The present issue is organised into two sections: hunting-fishing-gathering societies and agrarian societies; each address their respective local chronological sequences, allowing for the subject matter to be placed into a wider context; for example, animals as hunted prey, totemic animals, animal as part of a group narrative, animals as a palaeoclimatic and social marker and animals as cultural and ritual identity with each context applying both wider and narrower themes of investigation to the study. The volume starts with Mario Reis’s contribution about the Palaeolithic rock art of Portugal. This country, in recent years has assumed a major role in Palaeolithic rock art with its richness in open air sites, opposed to the presence of only one decorated cave. The paper offers a first quantification, by type and chronology, of the animal figures recognised so far in Palaeolithic art sites in Portugal. This paper is naturally followed by “Zoomorphic figures in the open-air Palaeolithic rock art of Spain” by Carlos Vázquez Marcos. Indeed, the technical and morpho-stylistic characteristics of the artistic representations discussed by this author have strong bonds with Palaeolithic parietal and mobile art of Portugal, more specifically with the one of the Côa valley. 7 sites mainly dated between Solutrean and Magdalenian periods and between the second half of the Tardiglaciar and the Early Holocene are described here. Keeping the focus on the Pleistocene art, we move westwards to central Europe, where, despite the presence of few and still debated parietal art evidence, there is a rich record of portable art since the Aurignacian, with the ivory figures of the Swabian Jura. In her contribution, Ewa Dutkiewicz, provides a discussion about representations of animals, taking into account the different raw materials, themes and comparing the faunal material of some of the sites where the portable art has been found, with animals used for daily survival. The second section includes two contributions about the Holocene rock art of Italy and France. In the last years, both Renata Grifoni Cremonesi and Anna Maria Tosatti have been dedicating their research to the study of the post-Palaeolithic rock art of the Apennine. Within their contribution, authors offer a systematic documentation and discussion of the known data about the animal figures in the Holocene art of Italy, excluding Valcamonica, which will have a dedicated space in the next issue. The list of the sites has strikingly increased in last years and has further confirmed the maintenance of place value through the time, with resignifications in historical times and connections with other areas. One of this, which is mentioned along the text and played a key role is the Mt. Bego in France. So, it comes Claudia Defrasne’s paper about the zoomorphic figures in the post-palaeolithic rock art of France, including the famous site at the border with Italy, the Mt. Bego. Despite providing a quantification of the animal figures, author approaches the relationship between human and non-human animals. Looking into the catchments surrounding the Mediterranean Sea, the contribution by Heidrun Stebergløkken takes into account two sites in central Norway to demonstrate how complex and dynamic the creation of rock art can be, suffering a potential resignification that reflects changes of the narratives, by adding or transforming images on the rocks. Jumping on the southern bank of the Mediterranean, Pawel Polkowski introduces the rock art of Egypt. This country, mostly known for its monumental archaeology, preserves a consistent prehistoric heritage too, including rock art as well. The author briefly offers an overview and characterisation of the main periods of rock art production, from the late Palaeolithic one of Qurta, to the Naqada period with the first agricultural societies. Within the palaeoenvironmental frame, the topic of animal is then discussed. Moving east to the Mediterranean Sea we have the Negev rock art, described in the paper by Davida Eisenberg-Degen, Lior Schwimer, Liora Kolska Horwitz and Ifat Shapira. Their contribution focuses on camel subject from four surveyed areas in the Negev to demonstrate how stylistic changes over time may be related to transformations in the economic exploitation of this animal and possibly to the introduction of a different camel breed associated with population movement into the region. The ninth and last paper is the one about an impressive open air rock art site at the gates of Asia, Gobustan in Azerbaijan. Sevinc Shirinli and Rǝhman Abdullayev review the previous literature about this open air rock art site including generalised, chronological, interpretative and stylistic approaches, focusing on the animal topic. The editors are grateful to the authors for providing such wide-ranging and stimulating contributions and to the many anonymous reviewers who gave up their time to assist with the volume’s production.
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hal-03807161 , version 1 (13-10-2022)

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Dario Sigari, Sara Garcês (Dir.). ARKEOGAZTE n°11 : Animals in prehistoric art. 11, 2021. ⟨hal-03807161⟩

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