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 Guitiàn 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!

This page is part of theBritish Rock Art Collection

A NEW AREA OF GALICIAN ROCK ART

(NW. SPAIN): SOUTHERN A CORUÑA PROVINCE

by Jorge Guitiàn

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 Coruña province, allowed us to think about an importantchange in geographical distribution of Galician rock art. This paper introduces some results of this 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, whilenorthern areas did not have more than isolated groups as Castriño 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 Coruña 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 Arqueoloxía 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 afield 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

the analysis of its location and its spatial connotations.Rock Art of Barbanza Peninsula:Barbanza Peninsula is a natural county placed between Ría de Arousa and Ría de Noia, inSouthern area of A Coruña 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 Pérez and Gil Agra. During that summer we found two new rock art groups in Baroñaand at Portela the Gourís, both in Porto do Son.The petroglyph of Outeiro da Pedra Bicuda (Sharp Rock Hill) in Baroña, shows the depiction of two 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 Mariño del Río published a book introducing a number of 13 new petroglyphsin this area. The most interesting of these groups is Esparrelle Petroglyph (also known asMonte Espiñeiro I Petroglyph), where two spirals are depicted near some deer representationsand 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 of 2000) and the diversity of motifs, seemed to confirm our theory about rock art distribution in ACoruña province.2001 was a transcendental year for our researches. In June a new book ''Arte rupestre doBarbanza'' (Barbanza Region Rock Art), written by Jorge Guitián Castromil and Xoán GuitiánRivera, 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).

Recently, during the first days of June of 2002, we knew that a number of more than 50 newrock art groups were founded in Carnota. We have not been able to visit the area yet, but thisinformation seems to confirm the theories unfolded in this paper.Some of the most interesting new rock art groups are:- Espiñaredo I: The only motif in this rock is a sword or a dagger that can be identified as aLate Bronze Age Model.- Rego de Corzo I: It is a complex composition of cupmarks, cup-and-ring, concentric circlesand isolated lines placed near a small river.- Outeiro de Campelos: Probably one of the most spectacular groups in the whole province.The vertical rock shows three stag depictions, while horizontal rock shows another stag and acupmark.- Campo Grande I: A big stag depiction (135 cm. long), near two small deer (hinds?)depictions. This group is very near of Campo Grande II and Campo Grande III, where anothertwo deer are depicted.There are also some small areas with an important concentration of rock art groups. Some of them are near a river or a damp field:- Rego do Curral de Baixo: This area is composed by a number of 8 rock art groups. Most of them show only crosses of different sizes and types, but there are also cup-and-ring marksand three stags depictions.- Fonte do Sendio Area: This area is placed near Fonte do Sendio village, and it is composed bya number of 6 rock art groups, all of them showing animal depictions. Probably the mostinteresting is rock Nº2, where two goats are depicted. This kind of animal representation isvery unusual, and it only appears in other three groups (two of them in Barbanza Peninsulaand the other in Pontevedra province). The other five groups show deer depictions. Near there,at the top of the mountain, is placed Pedra das Cruces (Crosses Stone), where many crossesand cupmarks are depicted.- Chan de Reis (Kings''s Plain) Area: This is probably the most interesting area in the wholeBarbanza Peninsula. This is a plain surrounded by eight rock art groups, which seems todelimit the area. They are all circular depictions, with single cupmarks, cup-and-ring, andcomplex concentric combinations. The location of the rocks, surrounding the plain, allow us totheorize about the use of prehistoric rock art as a signal code used to sign or delimit aterritory. Maybe it is not a valid hypothesis in all cases, but it seems to be valid in this concretearea.Nowadays we know more than 120 rock art groups in Barbanza Peninsula. This fact convertthis area in one of the most dettached of the whole province, and in an important reference forGalician rock art. We can now deffend the existence of an important area of rock art innorthern Galicia, extending from Ulla Valley, the Southern limit with Pontevedra province,across the western coast and the inland near Santiago de Compostela to the northern coast,near A Coruña and, specially, Ferrol.