Rock art of Europe
Toward the middle of the twentieth century, new theories suggested that the cave art had deep links to prehistoric rituals promoting fertility and successful hunting.
Supporting that later interpretation, recent scientific studies have found a systematic sequencing in the representations of horses, aurochs (an extinct ancestor of domestic cattle), and stags that corresponds to the seasonal characteristics of each species that may be identified as distinctively related to spring, summer, and autumn.
Various different forms of late prehistoric rock art have been found in Atlantic Europe, the coastal region that extends from the Strait of Gibraltar up to the British Isles.
Although the art is characterised by abstract motifs it is sometimes found alongside figurative carvings, such as those at Galicia in North western Spain and a discovery made in Argyll in Scotland in 2020.
The carvings associated with the tradition of Atlantic rock art in Europe are often found in rural settings, in open-air landscapes and occur on boulders and outcrops.
[13] The associated motifs consist of cup-marks ( circular man-made depressions) often surrounded by one or more concentric rings that regularly feature an extending radial groove.
Many archaeologists and scholars have theorised on the purpose of the art but given its mostly abstract nature and little direct context for its presence on rock surfaces, it is difficult to form a conclusive explanation for it.
During the Early Bronze Age, which lasted from circa 2300 through to c.1500 BCE, various depictions of weaponry were engraved onto rock surfaces across Atlantic Europe.
[14] Found predominantly in the southern part of the Alps, in modern-day Italy and France, few examples of rock art have been identified from the northern slopes of the region, in what is now Switzerland and Germany.
[18] At Mount Bego, in southwest France, near the Italian border, over 30,000 illustrated figures have been discovered in the valleys and outliers surrounding the mountain, situated on the high-altitude slopes far above the agricultural land.
Archaeologists have dated to the images to the Copper and Bronze Ages, between 2500 and 1700 BCE, because many of the figures are depicted holding daggers and halberds which are stylistically consistent with this period.
[19] At Valcamonica and Valtellina, two lengthy neighbouring valleys in the south-centre of the Alps, archaeologists have estimated the existence of around 300,000 figures, with depictions or humans and other animals, footprints, steep-roofed buildings, wheeled carts, boats and a large number of geometric shapes, lines, spirals and crosses.
Although a few of the images found in Valtellina have been tentatively suggested to be post-glacial in date due to the Palaeolithic animal style they depict, the overwhelming majority of artworks are considered to be late prehistoric.
Some of the motifs, such as those of humans in an orant posture with arms upraised in prayer or adoration, have been considered Neolithic, with others being attributed to the Copper, Bronze and Iron Ages, the latter being the most numerous.
Results showed that the assayed bacterium on natural substrate was able to develop best at in situ temperature and that the addition of organic nutrients and perhaps phosphate enhanced its growth.
These results confirm a differential behavior of microorganisms between the laboratory and the natural environments and could explain previous invasion of fungi reported for some caves with prehistoric paintings.
