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Rock art sites of Ribeira da Pedra de Asma 7, Santo Antão da Barca and Veado do Cabeço do Aguilhão, in sequential order. According to Figueiredo, Xavier et al., in press.
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The construction of a major dam in the Trás-os-Montes region of Northeast Portugal, has led to an unprecedented archaeological survey that included a specific study of rock art over an area of 3000 hectares. Over the past four years, the implementation and development of this study revealed that the number of rock art sites is much higher than init...
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Context 1
... this panel are eight motifs that refer to a group of lines presenting different directions. In the middle of these series of lines we detected a zoomorphic figure that represents a small caprid ( Figure 3). In terms of analogies, it is interesting to notice that this is the first figure to be found in the Trás-os-Montes area presenting these stylistic features: a less natural formalism, new shapes and silhouettes and greater predominance of the multiple traced incision (e.g. ...
Context 2
... of these figures stands out due to the concentration of its picked elements around the inner part of the body, which generate a sense of prominent volume, and, therefore, in our interpretation, suggest a pregnant female. Males seem to be absent from this group, which is interpreted as the representation of a matriarchal group (Figure 3). Considering the natural cycles of this specimen, and that the births occur between May and June, we may conclude that the figurines are representing the springtime season (Figueiredo, Xavier et al., in press: 197). ...
Context 3
... we find the representation of a male deer facing upstream, and looking towards the rock we have just described. The representation leaves no doubt that we are dealing with a male given the size of the antlers, the tail represented facing upwards and the stretched neck, suggest the rutting period, which occurs between October and December ( Figure 3). ...
Similar publications
Since 2014, archaeological surveys have been carried out in an area that lacked of previous systematic research. The area covers both margins of the Chubut river at the locality of Las Chapas. These works have registered eight sites so far, most of them are rock shelters and caves carved in the Marifil Formation with rock art (usually red monochrom...
Citations
... The authors suggest that the majority of these engravings date to the transition from the 4th to the 3rd millennium BCE [93]. Painted cervid figures are known, as is the case of Lapa dos Gaivões [94], but they are also found in the northern areas of Portugal, with cervids or deer hunting scenes depicted in megalithic dolmen orthostats [95][96][97][98][99]. Red deer associated with sun representations have been described in pottery and rock art motifs (e.g., [5,22]), and the possible association between the sun and polypod deer was recently discussed [15]. ...
Human–animal relations have been a fruitful research topic worldwide. The importance of deer in hunter–gatherer societies is undeniable, with cervids being commonly found in archaeological and past artistic records, with a notable amount of information recovered in the Iberian Peninsula. This relevance continues during Late Prehistory, but the attempt to discuss cervids under broader per- spectives and based on different types of data is not as common. We intend to approach human–deer relations in Central and Southern Portuguese Late Prehistory by considering the zooarchaeological records, both deer abundance in faunal spectra and their presence in “meaningful” assemblages and structured depositions, as well as the use of deer and deer body parts in other socio–cultural and ideological practices. The synthesis of available data shows that human–deer relations changed through time and space, with different abundances related to hunting depending on chronology and geography. The use of deer or their body parts as a resource of symbolic nature also varied, being included in food-sharing events, offerings, structured depositions, and graphic representations. Changeability is part of the different relationships, ontologies, and cosmogonies that humans and deer developed in the Late Prehistoric relational world.
... ej. Baptista, 2009Baptista, , 2011Baptista y Reis, 2011;Figueiredo et al., 2014;Figueiredo et al., 2016aFigueiredo et al., , 2016bFigueiredo y Xavier, 2020;Teixeira, 2016;Vázquez y Reis, 2019). ...
... La circunstancia de ser Cova Eirós el único lugar que, hasta el momento, alberga arte rupestre en Galicia es determinante para su selección como caso de estudio, a lo que se suma el contexto finipaleolítico al que se adscriben algunas de las representaciones documentadas en su interior. En el NE portugués se documentan representaciones de arte finipaleolítico en algunas de las estaciones del núcleo artístico del valle del Côa (Bueno et al., 2022;Santos, 2019Santos, , 2023Santos et al., 2015), en el abrigo de Parada (Teixeira, 2016), el abrigo de Foz do Tua (Teixeira y Sanches, 2017) o en algunas rocas del valle del Sabor -como Redor do Porco, Pedra da Asma 7 y Pedra da Asma 11- (Figueiredo et al., 2014(Figueiredo et al., , 2016bFigueiredo y Xavier, 2020). En el valle del Águeda, ya en Castilla y León, pero cerca de la frontera con Portugal, destacan algunas representaciones del Arroyo de las Almas (Vázquez y Reis, 2019) y Siega Verde (Bueno et al., 2007(Bueno et al., , 2009 (Fig. 3). ...
... La cuenca del Duero es un área sobre la cual se puso el foco de atención para este episodio gráfico (Bueno et al., 2007(Bueno et al., , 2009 y donde se encuadran las representaciones del NE de Portugal. Además de las estaciones portuguesas anteriormente mencionadas, los cérvidos del Abrigo do Passadeiro y Cabeço do Aguilhão, adscritos a períodos más recientes (Figueiredo et al., 2014(Figueiredo et al., , 2016bFigueiredo y Xavier, 2020;Sanches y Teixeira, 2014;Teixeira y Sanches, 2017), presentan características vinculadas a esta tradición gráfica, permitiendo plantear la posibilidad de que algunas de las figuras puedan ser más antiguas (Gameiro et al., 2020). Algo semejante puede suceder con uno de los motivos aquí estudiados (Fa01-02), que hasta hace poco tiempo fue atribuida a períodos más recientes (Figueiredo y Baptista, 2013), pero su semejanza con algunos ejemplos de arte mueble de Fariseu permitieron retrasar esa adscripción (Bueno et al., 2007;Santos et al., 2018). ...
La consideración del Noroeste peninsular como un territorio marginal respecto de la distribución del arte paleolítico ha cambiado en los últimos tres decenios tras el hallazgo de diversas manifestaciones gráficas en soportes muebles o rupestres -tanto en ambientes cavernarios como al aire libre-. Algunas de las evidencias descubiertas se pueden adscribir a momentos terminales del Paleolítico, encuadrándose entre el Allerød y el Preboreal. Con el fin de profundizar en el conocimiento de este estadio gráfico, se estudia un conjunto de figuras zoomorfas adscritas a ese período, localizadas en Cova Eirós y el valle del Côa. El análisis morfológico y técnico de las representaciones permite identificar paralelismos y particularidades que constatan la existencia de convenciones y recursos gráficos compartidos, al tiempo que aporta nuevos datos acerca de las características de este episodio gráfico y las relaciones entre estos territorios en el Paleolítico superior final.
... A plaquette depicting a cervid from Roc-La-Tour which was thick and thus difficult to break was damaged instead with the head being removed and thrown away (ibid.). Similarly at the Magdalenian site of Foz do Medal Terrace, Portugal, some fragmentation appears intentional, with heat implicated in some cases, and the re-using of some of the fragments produced [37,111]. Bahn [112] notes the difficulty in interpreting fragmentation patterns that could be caused by a number of sources, but suggests that intentional fragmentation in association with some aspect of performance is a viable explanation for at least some plaquettes. ...
The Upper Palaeolithic is characterised by the appearance of iconographic expressions most often depicting animals, including anthropomorphic forms, and geometric signs. The Late Upper Palaeolithic Magdalenian saw a flourishing of such depictions, encompassing cave art, engraving of stone, bone and antler blanks and decoration of tools and weapons. Though Magdalenian settlement exists as far northwest as Britain, there is a limited range of art known from this region, possibly associated with only fleeting occupation of Britain during this period. Stone plaquettes, flat fragments of stone engraved on at least one surface, have been found in large quantities at numerous sites spanning the temporal and geographical spread of the Magdalenian, but they have been absent so far from the archaeological record of the British Isles. Between 2015 and 2018, ten fragments of stone plaquettes extensively engraved with abstract designs were uncovered at the Magdalenian site of Les Varines, Jersey, Channel Islands. In this paper, we report detailed analyses of these finds, which provide new evidence for technologies of abstract mark-making, and their significance within the lives of people on the edge of the Magdalenian world. These engraved stone fragments represent important, rare evidence of artistic expression in what is the far northern and western range of the Magdalenian and add new insight to the wider significance of dynamic practices of artistic expression during the Upper Palaeolithic.
Palaeolithic stone plaquettes are a type of mobiliary art featuring engravings and recovered primarily from Magdalenian sites, where they can number from single finds to several thousand examples. Where context is available, they demonstrate complex traces of use, including surface refreshing, heating, and fragmentation. However, for plaquettes with limited or no archaeological context, research tends to gravitate toward their engraved surfaces. This paper focuses on 50 limestone plaquettes excavated by Peccadeau de l’Isle from Montastruc, a Magdalenian rockshelter site in southern France with limited archaeological context; a feature common to many art bearing sites excavated across the 19th and early 20th Centuries. Plaquette use at Montastruc was explored via a programme of microscopy, 3D modelling, colour enhancement using DStretch©, virtual reality (VR) modelling, and experimental archaeology, the latter focusing on limestone heating related to different functional and non-functional uses. While the limited archaeological context available ensures the results remain only indicative, the data generated suggests plaquettes from Montastruc were likely positioned in proximity to hearths during low ambient light conditions. The interaction of engraved stone and roving fire light made engraved forms appear dynamic and alive, suggesting this may have been important in their use. Human neurology is particularly attuned to interpreting shifting light and shadow as movement and identifying visually familiar forms in such varying light conditions through mechanisms such as pareidolic experience. This interpretation encourages a consideration of the possible conceptual connections between art made and experienced in similar circumstances, such as parietal art in dark cave environments. The toolset used to investigate the Montastruc assemblage may have application to other collections of plaquettes, particularly those with limited associated context.
