Un paisaje sacralizado por grabados rupestres protohistóricos e históricos en las hoces del río Mesa (Calmarza, Zaragoza) = A Sacralized Landscape by Protohistoric and Historical Rock Engravings in the Gorges of the River Mesa (Calmarza, Zaragoza)

Abstract

The studies on open-air rock engravings in post-Paleolithic chronology suffer from important deficiencies, which in the middle valley of the Ebro, have been overcome with the arrival of the third millennium.With the presentation of this work, the aim is to make known a new nucleus of rock engravings, located in the extreme southwest of the province of Zaragoza, in the limestone gorges of the River Mesa. Among the new rock engravings, the shelters with protohistoric engravings stand out, but especially those with a medieval Andalusian chronology and those with Christian iconography between the 14th and 18th centuries, which lasted until the middle of the 19th century and some scenes related to the first Carlist War in Aragon. The distribution of the findings, their typology and iconography and the associated archaeological remains, allow us to document an important occupation of the territory since the First Iron Age and the sacralization of the landscape through rock art, with survivals that are perpetuated throughout the Middle and Modern Ages, highlighting as a novelty the presence of an important set of Islamic epigraphic inscriptions that must be located between the 11th and 12th centuries.