A New Area of Galician Rock Art, Jorge Guitiàn

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Since there is a striking resemblance between the abstract rock art of the British Islands and Galicia in NW-Spainwe are proud to present an article by Jorge Guitin about recent finds in Galicia.This article was first published at: http://www.artepreistorica.itPermission was granted by the author, who recently became a member of our group, to republish his article and usehis fine pictures to illustrate it. Many thanks for that, Jorge!

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British Rock Art Collection

A NEW AREA OF GALICIAN ROCK ART(NW. SPAIN): SOUTHERN A CORUA PROVINCE

by Jorge Guitin

During the last years some papers introduced new rock art groups in Northern Galicia,beginning to change our peception of Galician rock art distribution. These new findings, usually

placed near the coast of Southern A Corua province, allowed us to think about an importantchange in geographical distribution of Galician rock art. This paper introduces some results ofthis work, focusing on new rock art groups as well as in the analysis of its location and itsspatial connotations.

Galicia (NW Spain) is a well-known rock art area. Since first papers appear in early 20thcentury, a lot of new rock art groups were published, specially during 1930's and 1960's-1970's, usually focusing on southern area of this region.

Pontevedra Province and Northern Portugal appeared, in traditional papers and dissertations,as the main focus of Galician rock art, with a huge diversity of stations and motifs, while

northern areas did not have more than isolated groups as Castrio de Conxo (Santiago deCompostela) or Laxe da Cabras (Riveira).

During the last years some papers introduced new rock art groups in Northern Galicia,beginning to change our peception of Galician rock art distribution. These new findings, usuallyplaced near the coast of Southern A Corua province, allowed us to think about an importantchange in geographical distribution of Galician rock art. Was not it possible to find more rockart groups in northern Galicia changing, this way, traditional theories?

Since mid 1990's the Grupo de Arqueoloxa Terra de Trasancos (Trasancos County ArchaeologyGroup) has found several petroglyphs near Ferrol, in the Northern coast, while exceptional rockart groups were found at Costa da Morte (NW Galicia). Basing in all these findings, we began a

field work trying to locate more groups in the province and stablish some new theories abouttheir location.

This paper introduces some results of this work, focusing on new rock art groups as well as in
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the analysis of its location and its spatial connotations.

Rock Art of Barbanza Peninsula:

Barbanza Peninsula is a natural county placed between Ra de Arousa and Ra de Noia, inSouthern area of A Corua Province. It is very Near of Rianxo Area, where in late 1990''s morethan 50 rock art groups were found.

In 1999 only six rock art groups were known in this region, most of them published byAgrafoxo Prez and Gil Agra. During that summer we found two new rock art groups in Baroaand at Portela the Gours, both in Porto do Son.

The petroglyph of Outeiro da Pedra Bicuda (Sharp Rock Hill) in Baroa, shows the depiction oftwo deer, a stag and a small specimen identified as a hind or an inmature deer. This group,than can be dated in Bronze Age, is specially interesting due to the stag''s pose, identified as arut attitude.

Portela de Gouris group is an historical group, probably made during Middle Age or even later.It is composed by more than 30 crosses of different types, and other unidentified motifs, and itcould be an old landmark.

In 2000 Manuel Mario del Ro published a book introducing a number of 13 new petroglyphsin this area. The most interesting of these groups is Esparrelle Petroglyph (also known asMonte Espieiro I Petroglyph), where two spirals are depicted near some deer representations

and other motifs.

During summer and autumn of 2000 several new rock art groups were found. Most of them areplaced in northern coast of the Peninsula (Porto do Son), but there are also some groups in thesouthern area (Boiro, Lousame, Riveira). Cupmarks and cup-and-ring are well represented, aswell as deer depictions. There are other motifs, as spirals, goats or human depictions lessrepresented in this area. Anyway, the number of known groups (more than 50 at the end of2000) and the diversity of motifs, seemed to confirm our theory about rock art distribution in ACorua province.

2001 was a transcendental year for our researches. In June a new book ''Arte rupestre doBarbanza'' (Barbanza Region Rock Art), written by Jorge Guitin Castromil and Xon Guitin

Rivera, was published. In it, a number of 99 rock art groups were introduced and analyzed.These new groups are cupmarks, cups-and-ring, crosses, deer, goats, hunting scenes, spirals,arms, etc. The huge diversity of motifs confirms our theory about Galician rock art spatiallocation, and seems to link Pontevedra province rock art with Muros rock art group(2) .
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We can, however, identify some tendences in Northern rock art distribution, that allow us todelimit some sub-areas:

- The Southern region of A Corua province, where Barbanza Pennsula is placed, has animportant number of rock art groups, with an important concentration near the coast. Themost important group of motifs is composed by zoomorphic depictions, specially diferent kindsof deer, but also goats, horses (riding scenes) and a dog. There are also a relatively important

group of cupmarks and cup-and-ring, while arm depictions are less common.- The inland has a minor number of rock art groups. There are not animal depictions, except inLaxe Negra (Ames), where a deer and a goat appear, and at a still unpublished rock recentlyfound at Fondao (Teo). The most important iconographical group is formed by concentriccircles and cup-and-ring, but there is also a rock art group with spirals (Monte Pedroso,Santiago), and an exceptional arm group (Castrio de Conxo, Santiago).

- Western coast, has a minor number of groups than Southern areas. Animal depiction andconcentric circles are well represented, with a huge concentration of deer depictions at Muros(Cova da Bruxa, Cova do Gato, etc.) and circles appearing in Muros, but also in Carnota andOutes. In Monte Naraio I (Muros)two labyrinth appear, as Laxe das Rodas (Wheels Rock),placed also at Muros, was identified as an astronomical calendar. Recent findings in Carnota

seem to increase the relative importance of this area, but we can not confirm these facts untilwe can visit the area.

- The Western inland has a small number of rock art groups. Most of them appear in A Baa,where 10 cupmarked rocks were found recently. In Pedra Ancha (Wide Stone), near Dumbra,is placed one of the most important Bronze Age arm depictions of Galicia, showing Swords andhalberds. There are also several isolated groups at Mazaricos.

- The northern coast is beginning to appear, since mid 1990''s, as a relatively important rockart area. Most rock art groups in this region have cupmarks or cup-and-ring marks, and thereis just one known rock with animal depictions in Laxe. A strange composition showing twohuman depictions, probably from Middle Ages, are placed near Coirs. The group of Chamorro(Ferrol), showing cup-and-ring marks, is one of the best known of this area.

Nowadays, more than 300 rock art groups are known in this province, and they seem to bejust a small part of total. Probably future researches will allow us, in the next years, to knowmore about rock art in this province, usually forgotten in traditional researches.

Documents

A New Area of Galician Rock Art, Jorge Guitiàn