Auga dos Cebros (Pontevedra, Galicia): A late Bronze Age II boat in the Atlantic façade of the Iberian Peninsula (1325-1050 BC)

Abstract

In Auga dos Cebros (Oia, Pontevedra, Galicia), in the Northwest of the Iberian Peninsula, three rock engravings of boats have been located, of which the first has a more detailed representation. It seems to be a boat with a wooden hull, of about 16 oarsmen, that has a mast in central position, with bow and stern raised. One of the options, since no upper deck is indicated, is that it is a cargo ship of the Uluburun type, ca. 1300 BC, nevertheless, seems to display a group of oarsmen by the presence of vertical lines in the hull, absent in the boat of Uluburun. This suggests a contemporary ship, but already with a deck, which begins surely from the Late Helladic IIIB, 1325-1185 BC, or the Late Cypriot IIC, 1300-1190 BC in the Aegean. This type of boat should not exceed the start of the Late Bronze Age IIIA or the Protogeometric in the Aegean, from 1050 BC onwards, when they were already common galleys with numerous paddlers and a developed ram, not present in the boat of Auga dos Cebros. The frequentation of the Pontevedra coast must be related to the fact that Galicia, and in particular the estuarine inlets in Pontevedra, was from the sea the most accessible alluvial tin region in the Iberian Peninsula. On the other hand, since the late 12th century BC, classical sources mention the foundation of the Melqart shrine in Gadir, ca. 1106 BC, one of whose functions should have been to facilitate the exchange of Atlantic gold and tin.