ABSTRACT
Within the southeastern part of the Iberian Peninsula (Mediterranean Spain) was a distinct change in the artistic style of rock art and location. Advanced hunter-fisher-gatherers moved from caves and began to paint on the walls of rock shelters and overhangs. The rock art is usually dispersed across marginal land on exposed rock outcropping that lies sometimes close to settlement sites that date from the Bronze Age. The tradition is not only tied to the western Iberian Peninsula but also along a 3,200 km coastal fringe that extends from Portugal to the Orkney Islands, north of the Scottish mainland. The intensity of the preceding Atlantic rock art is replaced by a limited assemblage that involves settlement deposition and managed landscapes. Running alongside this limited assemblage is an array of artistic endeavours that include stone sculptures (of varying sizes), decorated ceramics and ornate metalwork.
