Images of the past in the lands of Antequera, Málaga, Spain. Palaeolithic to post-Palaeolithic transition in Southern Europe

Abstract

Many examples are known, in southern Europe in general and in the Iberian Peninsula in particular, of ancient landscapes where the passing of time was marked on rocks with the symbols used by the people who transited by them. However, Andalusia and especially the area around Antequera is one of the regions in which this process can be followed most clearly, through the graphic sequences at some of the decorated sites. Palaeolithic art in caves and the open air, with a better-developed painted version than documented so far in the rest of the Iberian Peninsula, was the basis for the development of engraved and painted sites in the same regions in the post-Palaeolithic period.