Cova Eirós. Primeras evidencias de arte rupestre Paleolítico en el Noroeste Peninsular

Galicia has traditionally remained aloof from Paleolithic art research, given the alleged absence of rock art and the scarcity of mobiliar finds. However, the abundant evidence of Upper Paleolithic settlement discovered in the last forty years pointed towards the probability of cave art of that chronology occurring in this area (Fabregas & de Lombera, 2010). The recurring presence of communities of Upper Paleolithic hunter-gatherers in eastern Galicia, the findings of portable art, evidence of long-range contacts and, mainly, the discovery of rock art in Northern Portugal, in very similar lithological backgrounds, underlined the anomaly of that apparent void in Galicia. The quest for cave art has been severely constrained by several factors: to start with, the dominance of a Paleozoic geological substratum where limestone formations are restricted to narrow strips in the Eastern Sierras and karst systems are little developed in comparison with other Iberian regions (de Lombera, 2011). Secondly, local research institutions did not show much interest about the Paleolithic. The increased activity of Galician speleologists in recent decades, could have brought to light eventual examples of cave art, were they so spectacular as some of the most famous sites in Cantabrian Spain. However, since no systematic, archaeologically-supervised, effort to find this kind of evidence has been undertaken, we cannot rule out the appearance of Paleolithic art even in caves known from old, perhaps containing hardly visible carvings or much-weathered paintings, as happened in the Cantabrian region (Montes et al., 2005). The sequence of Upper Palaeolithic occupations at Cova Eiros, ranging from its initial stages (32,000 BP) to the end of the Late Glacial (12,000 BP), and the various objects of mobile art discovered in these by water runoff, while the carvings executed directly on the bedrock are more resilient. This differential erosion may explain, in turn, the common find of zoomorphic anatomical segments or partial motifs. On Panel VIII, the largest concentration of engravings with complex associations, juxtapositions and overlaps is covered by a blackish deposit. The carvings reveal the orange clay underneath, thus enhancing their visibility against the support. Over time, these motifs would be covered by the blackish layer, offering again a dark and uniform surface for the realization of new tracings. This could explain the numerous superimpositions identified here and hint at the existence of several moments in the execution of the graphics.