Arco Centro De Arte

[Ariano Waiker]

Thesouthern Iberian Peninsula is a key area for understanding the timing and patterns of the Middle-to-Upper Palaeolithic transition. Recently, the excavation and study of new sites have provided new insights on this topic. The aim of this paper is to introduce Cueva del Arco, a site complex featuring distinct caves and rock shelters. Cueva del Arco is located at a short distance from the Almadenes gorge (Cieza, Spain) and preserves both Middle and Upper Palaeolithic deposits and assemblages, as well as rock art. Despite being known since the 1990s for its Palaeolithic rock art, systematic fieldwork was never undertaken at the site until recently. We here report the first results of a research programme that includes the systematic excavation of several cavities belonging to the Cueva del Arco complex, focusing on the location and context of the site, its stratigraphy and chronology, and site formation. Research at the site is still ongoing, but preliminary results suggest that the data from Cueva del Arco will provide new clues to the current debate on the transition from Neanderthals to anatomically modern humans in southern Europe.

The Iberian Peninsula is precisely where a good part of the new data is being generated making it possible to place the MUP transition at the centre of international debates. The data extracted from the DNA of the Neanderthals from the Cueva del Sidrn (de la Rasilla et al., 2014) and the dates obtained for samples of rock art and symbolism at various peninsular sites (Zilho et al., 2010; Hoffman et al., 2018) have made Spain the focus of the most advanced research. The persistence of these populations in the peninsula and their late disappearance is fully relevant to the fate of these humans and their replacement by AMH. These matters have made the Iberian Peninsula the core of the debate about Neanderthals (Finlayson et al., 2006; Galvn et al., 2014; Zilho et al., 2017; Wolf et al., 2018; Vidal-Cordasco et al., 2022). Additionally, there are new contributions related to various aspects of the subsistence and economy of Neanderthals, the complexity of these humans in relation, for example, to the supply of raw materials, and the confirmation of their marine diet as a complement to a terrestrial one (Bicho, 2004, 2004a; Zilho et al., 2020; Barbieri et al., 2022). Some of the main results that have had the greatest impact come precisely from excavations at sites in the southeast of the peninsula, such as Cueva Antn, Cueva de los Aviones and Abrigo de La Boja (Zilho et al., 2010, 2017; Hoffman et al., 2018).

In this paper, we present the site of Cueva del Arco, a recently excavated complex of cave sites located in the province of Murcia, southeastern Spain, which bears both Middle and Upper Palaeolithic deposits as well as rock art. Today, the site is known only through local articles or grey literature (Salmern Juan et al., 1997, 1998, 2018; Martn-Lerma and Romn Monroig, 2018). Besides being a rather impressive landmark, Cueva del Arco preserves a very promising stratigraphic record, which will be presented in this paper. This contribution is focussed on the stratigraphy and chronology of the site, as the complete study of archaeological assemblages is still ongoing.

The complex is found along the left (northern) side of the Barranco de la Tabaquera and consists of two distinct locations, Arco I and Arco II. The former includes five karstic cavities that have been named with capital letters (A to E). The origin and evolution of the karstic network from which the Cueva del Arco complex derived have not yet been studied. Nonetheless, the strong development of surface morphologies (dry valleys, sinkholes, rock shelters and caves with distinct size and shape) and the occurrence of cave sediments and speleothems encrusted along the walls and slopes of the Barranco de la Tabaquera point to the existence of a complex karstic system formed in the carbonate rocks outcropping in the area.

The geomorphological landscape around Cueva del Arco shows evidence of fluviokarstic dynamics (such as the Almadenes gorge) and strong karstic dissolution (dry valleys, sinkholes and Karren microforms are widespread in the surroundings). Around the site, rocky outcrops are dominant and no significant surface sediments or soil covers have been observed, with the exception of recent coarse scree deposits at the base of rock walls or occasional rounded cobbles, scattered in the valley bottom. Quaternary sediments have only been detected as infilling of karstic morphologies and cavities.

In 1993, three cavities with Palaeolithic rock art were discovered by the Almadenes speleology group in the vicinity of the Almadenes Canyon, namely Cueva de Jorge, Cueva de las Cabras and Cueva del Arco (Salmern Juan et al., 1998; 1999).

At Cueva del Arco, the rock art can be found in Cave E, a narrow gallery 1.5 m wide, 15 m deep and 8 m high. The motifs consist of two horse protomes and some geometric lines visible at the entrance of the cavity, a complete doe, and remains of a possible horse about 8 m from the entrance. The style of the horses, with marked ears, a well-defined jaw and a duck beak-shaped muzzle, allow us to ascribe these manifestations to the Solutrean, as is also the case for the doe (see Salmern Juan et al., 1998, 2018).

A few metres from Cueva del Arco there is a small karstic hole named Arco II, in which there are two wild goats represented frontally, several dots and other indeterminate signs. The style of the figures has allowed them to be assigned to the Upper Magdalenian (Salmern Juan et al., 1998, 2018).

The discovery of Palaeolithic materials increased interest in the site, because, as well as its rock art, it now had tangible evidence of Palaeolithic occupation and was one of the few sites on the Mediterranean coast of the Iberian Peninsula with both Palaeolithic occupation and rock art. This fact led to the idea of carrying out a general cleaning of the surface and the excavation of a small test pit to find the possible archaeological succession of the cavity in 2015. The results of this preliminary test allowed us to confirm the importance of the site and plan the systematic exploration of the Cueva del Arco complex.

In the seven field campaigns carried out to date, work has been done in two of the cavities making up the Cueva del Arco complex: Cave A and Cave D (Figs. 3 and 4). The archaeological assemblages recovered, the dates obtained and the documented sequence allow us to offer a reliable approach to the different human occupations of the cavities, corresponding to distinct periods from the Middle Palaeolithic to the early Neolithic periods.

Cueva del Arco: general plan of the site, reporting the loci Arco I and Arco II, main cavities (capital letters), excavated areas and position of rock art (modified after Salmern Juan et al., (1998); elaboration by J. Armellini)

The main excavation was carried out in Cave A, affecting about 50 m2. This is the place where the Palaeolithic occupations have been best preserved. In 28 m2, the base layers were reached and the entire preserved succession was documented. In the rest, the upper units have been excavated, leaving the Middle Palaeolithic surface at ground level.

In Cave D, an area of 20 m2 has been excavated in the campaigns from 2015 to 2018. At surface level, an occupation corresponding to the early Neolithic has been documented. Below this occupation, the recovered materials are dispersed and appear to be in a secondary position, although everything indicates that they belong to the Upper Palaeolithic.

Methodologically, the area of the various cavities has been gridded into squares with a 1 m side, and each of these has been subdivided into four squares with a 50 cm side, which is the base surface unit of work. The excavation was carried out using artificial spits 5 cm thick, always taking into account possible natural stratigraphic changes. It has been possible to document the contact between the Upper Palaeolithic layers and those of the Middle Palaeolithic across most of the area.

The materials recovered (lithic industry, bone remains, pottery, charcoal fragments, etc.) have been located three-dimensionally in relation to a general reference point and have been recorded individually. All lithic artefacts larger than 15 mm and bone fragments larger than 30 mm have been located and individualised. In addition, photographic documentation and a georeferenced 3D reconstruction of each of the layers have been carried out.

Meanwhile, charcoal fragments, microfaunal remains and other small items have been recovered manually during the excavation and sieving process, and sediment samples have been saved for flotation and recovery of all elements that can be analysed. Likewise, samples have been taken for the palynological and phytolith study, both in the stratigraphic succession and in combustion structures. Charcoal fragments for radiocarbon analysis were dry-collected during excavation and sent to two distinct laboratories for dating (ETH, Zurich, Switzerland, and VERA, Vienna, Austria).

In some squares, especially in the upper layers, burrows of small mammals (especially rabbits) have been documented, excavated and separated individually to avoid contamination of the prehistoric succession.

The main archaeological materials recovered, described in the following section, consist of remains of the lithic industry, animal bones and charcoal fragments, with the addition of some pottery fragments from the upper layers. Combustion structures are also detected in all layers.

The geoarchaeological study of Cueva del Arco has included non-systematic geological, geomorphological and soil survey around the site, field description of the deposits and sampling for archaeological micromorphology and other analyses.

The succession of Cave A is the most complete and the richest among the deposits filling the distinct cavities of Cueva del Arco. This is the reason why field campaigns have mostly been directed at the excavation of Cave A.

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