Landscape Construction and Long-Term Economic Practices: an Example from the Spanish Mediterranean Uplands Through Rock Art Archaeology

• Published in: Journal of archaeological method and theory Vol. 21; no. 3; pp. 589 - 615
• Main Authors: Berrocal, María Cruz, López, María Sebastián, González, Antonio Uriarte, López-Sáez, Jose Antonio
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Boston Springer 01.09.2014; Springer US; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Alluvial soils; Anthropology; Archaeological research; Archaeology; Economic resources; Forest soils; Highlands; Land use; Landscape; Landscapes; Livestock; Material culture; Mediterranean Region; Neolithic Age; Pastoralism; Pastures; Petroglyphs; Prehistoric agriculture; Prehistoric art; Prehistoric economies; Rock art; Social Sciences; Spain; Vegetation; Economic resources; Mediterranean landscape; Neolithic; Rock art
• ISSN: 1072-5369; 1573-7764
• DOI: 10.1007/s10816-012-9157-0

We argue in this paper that Levantine rock art in the Spanish Mediterranean basin allows us to 'map' the economic landscape of its makers. Rock art would be the 'monumental' side of a dual process of landscape construction: on the one hand, rock art is the first 'cultural' action on the landscape beginning in the Early Neolithic; on the other hand, the first evidence of active modification of the Mediterranean vegetation comes from this period. But this evidence as well as other kinds of archaeological remains are still relatively scarce in the uplands; rock art is therefore the most complete type of evidence we can use to support an early use of the Mediterranean upland environment. We use statistical and geographical analysis, together with archaeological, ethnohistorical, and ethnographic sources and pollen data, in order to support the idea of early use and exploitation of the Mediterranean uplands since the Neolithic, and into contemporary times.