A Mark along the Way: Schematic Rock Art and Communication Routes

Abstract

On the Iberian Peninsula, during the Neolithic age, there was a new cycle of post-Palaeolithic rock art: schematic rock art. This rock art style is said to date from the 6th millennium BCE until the end of the Bronze Age (around the transition between the 2nd and 1st millennium BCE). Schematic rock art has been interpreted from different approaches (religious, semiological, social) according to the different lines of research followed in Spain for more than 100 years. In this article, based on the studies linked to “landscape archeology”, we are proposing an interpretative approach of schematic rock art. For us, this rock art style would have a functional character, landscape marker, reflecting close connections between the places chosen as a support for schematic depictions and ones with survival resources or communication routes between territories.