The art appears over a wide area, and was created over a period of several thousand years; it is widely accepted that it shows stylistic and thematic development that reflects a long evolution, at least some local variety, and changes in way of life, though agreement on the details of this development is a continuing process.
Painting techniques The artists appear to have used feathers, in a relatively complex painting technique, compared to the
art of the Upper Paleolithic, that produced relatively simple figures. Figures are often outlined, apparently after the main body was painted. Some figures are shallowly engraved rather than painted. The figures are relatively small, between about high, and in one or two colours. The paint was generally very thin, using mineral earths (often reddish) or
charcoal, and the paintings are preserved by a very thin transparent layer of limescale forming over them from water dripping down the wall. Some figures have more than one coat of paint, which has led to claims that they were repainted after long periods, though this seems not universally accepted.
Humans The human figure, which is rare in
Paleolithic art, acquires great importance in Levantine Art. The human figure is frequently the main theme, and when it appears in the same scene as animals, the human figure runs towards them. The painting known as
The Dancers of Cogul is a good example of movement being depicted. The most common scenes by far are of hunting, and there are scenes of battle and dancing, and possibly agricultural tasks and managing domesticated animals. In some scenes gathering honey is shown, most famously at
Cuevas de la Araña (illustrated below). Humans are naked from the waist up, but women have skirts and men sometimes skirts or
gaiters or trousers of some sort, and headdresses and masks are sometimes seen, which may indicate rank or status in a way compared by one researcher to North American
Plains Indians; figures sometimes seem to have a deliberate element of
caricature. Some war scenes distinguish between the sides in terms of physical appearance, or dress and weapons, though the interpretation of this is uncertain. Within one side, figures of greater importance may be indicated by more carefully painted figures with "exaggerated calf muscles and elongated thighs", or by
pantaloons that are "tufted" at the ankle; the ordinary "infantry" are shown as mere "stick figures". , tracing by
Henri Breuil There is a much better developed sense of composition in group subjects than in Paleolithic art, and animals running are shown in the "flying gallop" convention that would last in art until after the invention of photography. Human figures are also shown with very wide strides, or in a "flying running" posture with legs up to 180 degrees apart. The scenes depicted are often moments of drama; dead and dying men and animals are often shown, and sometimes battles between humans, which can include up to 44 figures. Scenes of human execution by archers, and in one case by hanging, can also be seen; these scenes of conflict seem to come from the later periods of painting, and from a more limited area "around the Gasulla and Valltota gorges" in the
province of Castellón. The archer's bow is given great prominence, as the top weapon of the period; some bows are very large. To solve the problem of how to convey the distance between an archer and his distant prey, some sites use a convention of showing the trail of the hunted animal, a sophisticated and effective solution. Some scenes with numbers of armed men appear to represent dances, and women are also shown dancing in other scenes, which they seem to have done with their feet still and using only arm and upper-body movements. A famous dance scene at the
Caves of El Cogul shows eleven women in skirts circling a naked man shown with an erect phallus. In the representation of the human body there are drawings of heads with certain characteristics: the
pear-shaped, hemispherical and
conical. The top half of the human body is shown naked. Sometimes a kind of trousers are worn; sometimes the genitals are seen and there are
phallic representations. The tools represented in Levantine Art are usually
arrows, sticks,
quivers and bags, and ropes, perhaps used as
lassos or trip-ropes. These objects are always associated with the human figure, except for arrows, which may appear lying around as though shots that missed.
Environment and fauna There is no depiction of landscape, and very little treatment of vegetation. An interesting exception is a depiction of mushrooms (possibly
Psilocybe hispanica) at Selva Pascuala. Animals, however, are very often represented, especially large mammals that are suitable prey for hunting, or that became domesticated (though they may not have been so yet); birds, fish (even near the coast) and insects are rarely shown, apart from the occasional spider and bees in honey-gathering. Some of the animals depicted are identifiable as belonging to species we can see in the present day, and the relative frequency of animal species shown has been used as evidence for dating. Some animals have been interpreted as exotic Ice Age species now extinct in Europe, but this is controversial. Some animals appear to have been overpainted to change their species, perhaps reflecting changes in fauna. The main species shown include: •
deer, •
goats, the animal most frequently depicted in the illustrations. •
boar •
cattle, often difficult to interpret; bulls are often hunted, but others may be domesticated. There is a bull that is possibly an
aurochs at Selva Pascuala. •
dogs, rarely depicted, but they appear to help in a hunting scene at Barranc de la Palla. Animals appear singly or in groups. A curious feature of the representation of animals is that they are generally drawn in profile but with
horns and
hooves at the front. The paintings may have meanings related to religion or at least "hunting magic", though it is also possible to see them as purely celebrations of a way of life, though including depictions of ceremonies that are religious.
Warfare , Spain. Iberian cave art of the Mesolithic shows explicit scenes of battle between groups of archers. A group of three archers encircled by a group of four is found in Cova del Roure,
Morella la Vella,
Castellón, Valencia. A depiction of a larger battle (which may, however, date to the early Neolithic), in which eleven archers are attacked by seventeen running archers, is found in Les Dogue,
Ares del Maestrat, Castellón, Valencia. At Val del Charco del Agua Amarga,
Alcañiz, Aragon, seven archers with plumes on their heads are fleeing a group of eight archers running in pursuit. ==Location==