Des signes aux interprétations : études de cas sur l’art rupestre protohistorique dans le nord-ouest de la péninsule ibérique

Abstract

Starting from the premise that figurative art existed in the protohistory of the North-west of the Iberian Peninsula, which must be distinguished from the two best-known artistic styles whose origins date back to the Neolithic period (Atlantic rock art and Schematic rock art), various motifs engraved in rocks are analysed and discussed in the form of case studies (halberds, segmented circles/crossed wheels and antenna daggers or swords of Santa Tegra type). It can be concluded that (1) this art began at the start of the Bronze Age and continued until the beginning of the Iron Age; (2) consists of figurative motifs, sometimes, organised in the form of narratives; (3) it embodies complex relationships with ancestral motifs; (4) the introduction of certain symbols resulted from contact with North Atlantic populations (in the Bronze Age), while others are of Mediterranean origin and were introduced at the end of the Bronze Age/beginning of the Iron Age. Alongside mythologies of Nordic origin, there are also phenomena of original syncretism based on symbolic representations of power and celestial cults. The study of rock art is a promising field of research for understanding the ideological and religious world of the communities that lived in the North-west of the Iberian Peninsula during protohistoric times.