Astronomical symbolism in Bronze-Age and Iron-Age rock art

Abstract

Nearly all the Neolithic communal tombs of western Europe and the western Mediterranean have a well-defined orientation. In the west of Iberia, the great majority faced within the raThe best-known rock art from Late Prehistory is found in Scandinavia, the Alps, and Galicia, North West Spain. In this chapter, we explore its association with astronomical symbolism from three perspectives: the representation of heavenly bodies, the visibility conditions of the carvings, and their position on astronomical alignments. We also consider temporal variables and the impact of aspects of Indo-European ideology on the construction of the representations in their astronomical relationships.