462 



NATURE 



[June 9, 192 1 



discovered by the writer, and is of importance 

 from the occurrence of horses, which have been 

 compared with one at Portel (see above) (Fig. i) ; 

 also by the occurrence of two painted birds (a 

 g;reat variety at all times in Palaeolithic art, and 

 above all in the Eastern Spanish group). 



Minateda is important from the great wealth 

 of paintings found there, among which are 

 animals long ago extinct in the region. There is 

 also a battle scene of men fighting (Fig. 2). Prof. 

 Breuil has been enabled, from a study of the 

 superpositions of the paintings, to unravel a very 

 large number of different styles. These do not 

 seem, however, to indicate any very great differ- 

 ence in age, or, if they do, we have as yet no 

 means of correlating them with deposits of Upper 





Fig. a. — Panel at the new rock shelter of Minateda (Albacete, S. Spain). 

 It belongs to the Eastern Spanish style, which is of Upper Palaeolithic age. 



Palaeolithic age, as the latter seem to be absent 

 from East Spain. 



The rock shelters of the Barranco de Vall- 

 torta are specially interesting for the number 

 of painted human beings which they con- 

 tain, exactly similar in style to those found in 

 Bushman paintings. The resemblance is startling 

 — in fact, a research student in ethnology at 

 Cambridge, when shown pictures of these rock 

 shelters without being told their provenance, 

 turned away, saying, "Oh, yes, those are some 

 more Bushman paintings." There are several 

 hunting scenes depicted. 



The object for which paintings of this Upper 



Palaeolithic, Eastern Spanish group were made 



cannot be determined with the same degree of 



certainty as in the case of Palaeolithic group i ; it 



NO. 2693, VOL. 107] 



is probable, however, that magic was at the 

 bottom of it. 



Group 3. The Spanish third group of Neolithic 

 or Eneolithic age. This group comprises scores 

 of rock shelters all over Spain. Examples are 

 also found in East Spain alongside the older 

 Spanish group 2. Where examples of both 

 groups occur in the same rock shelter, the ex- 

 amples of the Spanish group 3 are always painted 

 over, and are therefore newer than the Spanish 

 group 2. The style is altogether different, whereas 

 in the Spanish group 2 the animals at any rate 

 are naturalistic, even if the human beings are 

 more or less conventionalised. In Spanish group 3 

 there is no attempt at a naturalistic drawing at 

 all; the animals are often similar to what a child 

 of four would make, and even more simplified 

 than this, while conventions for the human form 

 are bewildering. For example, the human form 

 is sometimes represented by a vertical line from 

 which two pairs of oblique lines are drawn form- 

 ing arms and legs, or by the painting of a sort 

 of hour-glass, or by a circle with a vertical line 

 drawn through it, or again by the letter "D" 

 placed horizontally with a vertical line drawn from 

 it and dividing it into two segments ; an eye is 

 often indicated in each of these segments ; 

 although these figures often seem but remotely 

 to resemble a human form, a complete series from 

 an unmistakable human being to the most con- 

 ventionalised example can be made out. 



This Spanish group 3 is widely distributed over 

 Spain. In the south-west area limited by Cadiz, 

 Gibraltar, and Bobadilla, there are more than sixty 

 rock shelters decorated with this art. Further 

 east there is a large group in the province of 

 Almeria, with the little village of Velez Blanco as 

 a centre. All along East Spain this art occurs, 

 sometimes, as has been said, in the same rock 

 shelters, with examples of the Spanish group 2. 

 The Sierra Morena and its continuation towards 

 Portugal contains numerous examples of this 

 group, while further north, south-west of Sala- 

 manca, in the valley of Batuecas (mentioned by 

 Borrow in his " Bible in Spain " as a weird place, 

 full of queer legends), this Spanish group 3 art is 

 found in conjunction with some small semi-natural- 

 istic figures that are of rather earlier date. 



As in the case of the Spanish group 2, this Neo- 

 lithic or Eneolithic art is found painted on the 

 walls of fairly shallow rock shelters. The shelter, 

 however, must be sufficient to prevent the access 

 of damp, which, by promoting the growth of 

 moss, etc., would rapidly destroy the paintings. 



Certain pots dug up from deposits, dated 

 as being of Late Neolithic or of Eneolithic 

 age, carry engravings of the human form, 

 etc., conventionalised in the same way as 

 those found in the rock shelter. Pots of 

 this nature have been discovered by M. Siret and 

 Don Fdderico de Motos in the province of 

 Almeria, while Dr. Obermaier has described the 

 same kind of thing from near Madrid. The dis- 

 covery of these engraved pots enables us to date 



