Abstract
The mid-seventh millennium BP witnessed the emergence of a European pictographic language based on a common repertoire of abstract and figurative motifs. Although largely confined to passage grave communities occupying the coastal fringes of Atlantic Europe, the megalithic art tradition unified much of the Neolithic world from the Mediterranean to northern Scotland over a period of some 3,000 years. The art itself appears to have acted as a personal signature, unique to each monument and its builders, but drawing on a limited set of symbols. This chapter explores the geographic extent of this mainly abstract motif repertoire, and proposes that, over time and space, key symbols may have changed their meaning(s).
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | A Companion to Rock Art |
| Publisher | John Wiley & Sons, Inc |
| Pages | 125-142 |
| Number of pages | 18 |
| ISBN (Print) | 9781444334241 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 23 Jul 2012 |
Keywords
- Art and architecture interplay
- Artistic repertoire in burial-ritual monuments of Neolithic, on external panels
- European pictographic language and abstract, and figurative motifs
- Interpreting repertoire of rock art symbols, recurring in the Neolithic core
- Megalithic art, representative and abstract carved, and painted motifs
- Megalithic rock art, of the Mediterranean and Atlantic Seaboard Europe
- Passage graves, carvings in inner passage, role in the movement of the dead
- Rock art at the regional level