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ARTICLE

Copyright 2002 SAGE Publications (London, Thousand Oaks, CA and New Delhi)
Vol 2(1): 81108 [1469-6053(200202)2:1;81108;020598]

Representations of women in Spanish

Levantine rock art
An intentional fragmentation
TRINIDAD ESCORIZA MATEU
Departamento de Historia, Geografa e Historia del Arte, Facultad de
Humanidades, Unversidad de Almera

ABSTRACT
Key diagnostic features allow the sexual identification of figures in
Spanish Levantine rock art in a great number of cases. The analysis
conducted here suggests the existence of a sexual division of labour,
and that inequalities in this indicate that women were a socially
exploited group. The emphasis on hunting found in the paintings
responds to an ideology imposed by the dominant patriarchal order,
and underscores the fact that masculine activities had greater social
value. I argue that control over women is reflected in the scarcity of
representations such as maternity, the cancellation of sexual attributes, and the invisibility of female activities. The politico-ideological
strategy of concealment gave limited social value to women and their
role in creating the conditions for social life.
KEYWORDS
domestication feminist archaeology food production gender
patriarchy prehistoric economy representation rock art Spanish
Levant

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FEMALE IMAGES AND PATRIARCHAL THOUGHT

Interpretations of the female body in prehistoric art are socially constructed
and marked by a series of norms using the language of the patriarchal order;
men have presented women to be observed and revealed. This has meant
that most studies on the representation of womens bodies, from distinct
disciplines, present clear androcentric characteristics. From this basis we
can affirm that the consideration and contemplation of the principal female
materiality, the body, initiates from a different material and symbolic order,
that of the masculine gaze. It is for this reason that the images generated
appear as alien, strange and sometimes even uncomfortable for many
women carrying out research on female representations in all periods of
history.
Two crucial facts result from this situation. First, the absence of the body
as a principal reference for women as subjects, since this has been defined
by a different social subject (Irigaray, 1987). The second is the cancellation
of the female sex represented through the realization of historical interpretations that silence women as necessary subjects in the production and
maintenance of social life (Escoriza Mateu, 1995, 1999; Hachuel and
Sanahuja Yll, 1996; Sanahuja Yll, 1997a).
Historical and archaeological studies of images of women continue to
draw on premises derived in one way or another from a symbolic system
constructed and imposed by a masculine other that neither belongs to
them, nor refers to them. Women do not appear constituted as political
actors in the majority of interpretations (Muraro, 1994: 46).1 This implies
that the patriarchal order enjoys both the power to structure material
dominion over womens bodies, and to develop a symbolic order whose
function is to channel, exemplify and give meaning to the existing social
reality (Escoriza Mateu, 1999; Sanahuja Yll, 2001).2 In the case of the production of images of female bodies, it defines a priori, presents and regulates the meaning of the forms and/or patterns of representation, and the
expression of the contents with respect to the bodies represented.
All symbolic orders are born in a close relationship with existing material
conditions, and reinforce the patriarchal order in which they are continually reproduced. The double power of the patriarchal order, material and
symbolic, can be defined as a colonization that has usurped women
through the imposition of an image of the female body, attempting to
replace their knowledge of their own bodies. This has generated, among
women, a schizophrenia between what they really are and what is
demanded of them in order to be recognized as social actors. This has
resulted in a position of weakness, and has created the false expectation
known as the equality trap as the only apparent means of salvation. For
some authors, the strategy of equality seems insufficient, given that the

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present social order is not ours from the point of view of the difference
between the sexes (Irigaray, 1990). It also explains the rejection of the
recent vindication of the body as a starting point and a focus for reflection
in certain sectors within the feminist movement, as this would imply a return
to biological determinism. Thus feminism aimed at equality has encountered in the maternal body an impediment, even coming to see it as a transmitter of the patriarchal system (Rivera, 1996).
It is in relation to that, with the rejection of the body as a referent, that
we ask why the concept of gender enjoys such a wide diffusion and acceptance, especially in academic circles such as archaeology. Gender is presented as an analytical category exempt from the bothersome biological or
corporeal connotations presented by the concept of sex. The category of
gender defines genders as constructs specific to determined cultural ambits
or different societies, relating them ambiguously to the material anchor of
the body. In grammatical terms, from which the category of gender originates, there are three categories: masculine, feminine and neuter. However,
we are born into the body of a woman or of a man, and the neuter does not
exist as a material biological referent. According to gender archaeology
(Conkey and Gero, 1991; Conkey and Spector, 1984), genders are in
constant construction and depend upon historical contingency or particular
cultures. As such, the relations and behavioural patterns of gender do not
have a fixed essence, and are variable within and with time. This needs to
be set against the reality, that, from the moment of our birth, we are social
beings, enveloped in the bodies of men or women.3
Conversely, academic and power-holding circles remain controlled
mainly by dominant patriarchal thought patterns. For this reason some
feminist approaches tend to scandalize, appear incomprehensible and may
be labelled as unprogressive or outmoded.4 This arises from the fact that the
normal approach involves scientific discourses in which the paradigm of
neutrality is accepted, or in which the category of gender is used as an
alternative to that of sex, possibly in order to avoid a confrontation between
the sexes themselves (Colomer et al., 1994; Sanahuja Yll, 2001). It must not
be forgotten that the existence of a material difference, that of sexually
differentiated bodies, is something that the patriarchy has continuously
silenced, under the premise of a false human identity. This means, unfortunately, that gender discourse continues to collaborate in the maintenance
of the inexistence of an objective condition of sexual difference throughout
history, as such recreating a clearly patriarchal discourse (Rivera, 1994: 80).
There have been numerous criticisms and discussions surrounding the
use of the category of gender. For some authors, gender lacks the analytical power to confront and change historically existing schemas and paradigms. Gender includes, but does not name women, it does not represent a
real critical force, and it seeks academic legitimacy through feminist
research (Scott, 1988). From another perspective, some researchers

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concentrate on the opacity of the concept of gender, and even consider it to

be no more than a disguise, with a fluid identity (Butler, 1990). Finally,
Queer archaeological concerns also question feminist archaeologists who
legitimize and develop gender studies simply because they do not embrace
those theories that deconstruct gender and Queer sexuality (Voss, 2000).
In archaeology one of the greatest problems posed by the category of
gender is that it does not require a material anchorage. This results in a
resuscitation of the over-worked idealism-materialism debate (Colomer et
al., 1994), although in this case it is focused on relations between the sexes.
But, above all, as Sanahuja Yll (1997b) pointed out: The rejection of the
category of sex, due to the supposed biological determinism which it
implies, blurs the universal difference which it establishes with respect to
the reproductive capacity of the female sex. In this way, the use of sex as a
category, instead of gender, allows us to contemplate the body represented
as a social materiality and as an exponent of a sexual difference that establishes itself fundamentally in the framework of social production.5 We refer
to the creation of bodies, the basic production process through which
women allow and facilitate the continuity of social life.6 In this regard
Bocchetti argued that womens bodies are more body than mens bodies
for three fundamental reasons: firstly, because of their capacity to contain
one body inside another, a capacity which does not need to become a reality;
second, because of a determined means of relating with the maternal, in
which socialization plays a fundamental role; and, finally, through the fear
of being sexually assaulted (Bocchetti, 1996).
Consider the female body as the necessary starting point for reaching an
understanding of the social, political and ideological reality that surrounds
us. For this to occur, it is necessary to construct a world of meanings
different from the ones that have been established, to consciously flee from
the patriarchal symbolic system, which gives meaning to and reinforces the
reigning material reality. In order to germinate this change of meaning, it is
necessary to change the existing material conditions, since I feel that
materiality conforms or structures the forms of representation of the
symbolic. As Irigaray (1985) has pointed out, we have to make a double
effort: on the one hand we have to recover the female body, and on the
other, to rewrite it. This effort is necessary since women are not the subjects
of their symbolic order. Nor have they used the language that belongs to
them, or that represents them, since they have been represented and have
represented themselves by means of the language of the other (Cavarero,
1987: 49). Some authors have even suggested that women lack a symbolic
competence over the real, since their relation to reality is mediated by a
distinct discursive order that does not take them into account (Muraro,
1995: 108). We need to deconstruct the dominant patriarchal discourse, and
to un-authorize the logic of the forms of representation of womens bodies,
thereby invalidating the meanings that have invaded us.

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An example of this patriarchal domination can be found in representations of female bodies, which are never interpreted as being responsible
for fundamental production within the heart of any society, when they are
creators of life. Maternity has never been really valued as another form of
socialization for women, but the patriarchy has resolved that the generation
of sons and daughters should constitute the aim, and only end of womens
lives (Sau, 1991). This attitude is evident both in the interpretations resulting from historical and archaeological research, and in the forms and/or
patterns of symbolic representation generated in some past societies,
leading, in both cases, to their concealment. This is the case with Spanish
Levantine rock art.
A strategy widely used by the patriarchal order, both in the forms of
interpretation and in the patterns that structure schemes of representation,
is fragmentation. This can be defined as the creation of myths that take
some part of the female body as reference points. These fragments are
subsequently made exclusive in specific functions, attitudes or life objectives, a fact that always generates an incomplete socialization of women.
Thus, references are made to the virgin, the mother, the prostitute. These
categorizations constitute an intentional mutilation of the initial totality of
womens bodies, which the patriarchal order thinks of as being incapacitated by nature for the purposes of a total and full socialization. This loss of
themselves begins with the absence of and/or separation of a referential
body, that of the mother (Bochetti, 1996; Irigaray, 1981).7
From this patriarchal perspective, the mother is a uterus that gives life,
and thus allows the reproduction of the established political and social
order. The public woman is a necessary body, whose function is to give
pleasure and/or stimulate masculine sexuality. Martyrs, with the destruction
of their bodies, eventually acquire the spiritual force which they have
required, and lacked, throughout their lives. The character of the Virgin
Mary is an example of the most outstanding sacrifice and exclusion of
pleasure that could exist (Guerra, 1994). Such gazes proceeding from the
masculine logos have become politically institutionalized and have been
accepted in different branches of science.8

ARCHAEOLOGY AND REPRESENTATIONS OF WOMEN

Interpretations of the role of women in past societies, by means of the analysis of representations of their bodies, have fed the image of the ideal family
in accord with dominant patriarchal thought, such that women are converted into the key element of the home. The family is conceived of as an
institution with a universal character, even as the minimum unit of analysis,
an approach which should be considered to be sexist, given that there exists

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the possibility that some women and men may not necessarily be integrated
into such cellular units, as some authors suggest (Eichler, 1988). This criticism understands the family to be the social group in which the forms of
control over womens bodies within a patriarchal society are imposed
(Escoriza Mateu, 2000b).
Within the field of prehistoric archaeology, and in the case of Spain,
studies of the representations of female figures have been generally
reduced to an appreciation of their artistic value and to the analysis of
styles. This limits research to the image itself. The resulting approaches do
not take account of a fundamental issue: that archaeological objects in

Figure 1 Location of the main sites with Levantine rock art mentioned in
the text
13. Abrigo del Ciervo, Abrigo de la Pareja and Abrigo del Cinto de la Vantana
(Dos Aguas, Valencia); 4. Cueva de la Araa (Bicorp, Valencia); 5. Cueva de la
Vieja (Alpera, Albacete); 6. Covachos de la Sarsa (Alcoy, Alicante); 7. Covachos
de Los Grajos (Cieza, Murcia); 8. Abrigo de La Risca (Moratalla, Murcia); 9. Roca
dels Moros (Cogul, Lleida); 10. Barranco del Pajarero (Albarracn, Teruel); 11.
Cingle de La Mola Remigia (Ares del Maestre, Castelln); 12. Covetes del Puntal
(Ares del Maestre, Castelln); 13. Los Chaparros (Albalete del Arzobispo,
Teruel); 14. Abrigo Grande de Minateda (Helln, Albacete); 15. Barranco Segovia
(Letur, Albacete); 1620. Covacho Ahumado, Abrigo de Los Recolectores,
Abrigo de Los Trepadores; Barranco de Los Borriquitos, Cueva del Garroso
(Alacn, Teruel); 21. Abrigo del Arquero de Los Callejones Cerrados (Albarracn,
Teruel); 22. Cueva del Engarbo 1 (Santiago de la Espada, Jan); 23. Caada de
Marco (Alcaine, Teruel); 24. Cova dels Cavalls (Tirig, Castelln); 25. Selva
Pascuala (Villar del Humo, Cuenca); 26. Barranco de las Olivianas (Albarracn,
Teruel); 27. Cueva de la Higuera (Alcaine, Teruel)

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themselves do not allow us to understand their presence and their meaning.

Thus, it is not surprising to find an absence of studies relating these
representations to their respective archaeological contexts. In contrast,
outside Spain, a number of important feminist approaches have studied
representations of women in different societies. These approach the
images from a perspective that is not merely descriptive, and question the
role of women as social subjects and the use and/or social function of the
figures (Bolger, 1996; Brumfiel, 1996; Dobres, 1992; Joyce, 1993, 1996;
Meskell, 1995)
In prehistoric archaeology, we are unable to arrive at an understanding
of the prevailing meanings in the past, and the particular intentions of the
authors or authoresses. This limitation, however, does not stand in the way
of integrating artistic studies into holistic investigations of forms of social
life. Only by analysing the material conditions of the communities that
produce and/or give meaning to the figurative representations can we
explain them. Thus, it becomes necessary to establish transitive relations
between the conditions of the production of social life (social practices) and
their material, archaeological expression. In this way it becomes possible to
socially re-dimension the material images of womens bodies, considered as
instruments of specific ideological forms, with specific functions in relation
to the constituting elements within social practices.
A good example of this is provided by Spanish Levantine rock art.9 Within
this corpus are whole series of compositions and/or pictorial panels found
generally in accessible open shelters, situated on hillsides and rocky escarpments, and at the edge of the sea. Their geographical distribution is wide and
covers a broad territory, from Barcelona to Cadiz, including zones in the
interior such as Teruel, Cuenca, Albacete and Guadalajara (Figure 1).
There has been widespread debate regarding the chronology of Levantine rock art, although at present there is almost unanimous agreement that
this is a post-Palaeolithic art form (Alonso and Grimal, 1999; Aparicio and
Morote, 1999; Beltran, 1999). Recently Spanish Levantine rock art has been
located within the context of the Neolithic societies in the Mediterranean
zone of the Iberian Peninsula. The chronological framework of these
representations has been established in this historical moment since the
1980s, thanks to the discovery of the so-called macro-schematic rock art
(Hernandez and Centre dEstudis Contestans, 1982). Macro-schematic
representations have been discovered beneath Levantine-style paintings, on
the basis of which the latter can be considered to be later than, or at least
contemporaneous with, the former (Mart Oliver and Cabanilles, 1987). The
great similarity between macro-schematic art and the decorative themes
that appear in cardial-style ceramic decoration, on some of the earliest
ceramic products in the western Mediterranean, allows us to date this
artistic style to the early Neolithic. Levantine-style art can be identified as
corresponding to this period, or to the one immediately following it.

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There are certain problems in the chronology of Levantine art, such as

the lack of correspondence between shelters containing Levantine paintings
and inhabited sites, or the existence of superimposed paintings within a
single composition, which makes the interpretation of scenes more difficult.
Both questions can be clarified once an adequate chronology for the paintings has been established.10

WOMEN AND MEN IN SPANISH LEVANTINE ROCK ART

The human figure occupies a central position within the various compositional types of Levantine rock art. Documentation exists for a great
number of scenes in which women and men appear engaged in different
social practices and a range of different activities. Generally, the analysis
of the figures has been approached via the definition and systematization
of the forms represented, with a concentration on anatomical description
(Vias, 1982: 174). Thus, while some studies have focused on analysing the
dress and positions of the arms of the female figures (Alonso and Grimal,
1994; 1995), other studies have tried to establish a relationship between the
figures represented, the instruments or objects that they carry, adornments
and clothing in general, using these associations as a possible element of
chronological character (Blasco, 1980; Galiana Botella, 1985).
Previously, I have called attention to the interpretation of female
silhouettes featured on rock panels (Escoriza Mateu, 1996), arguing that
they do not identify women as social subjects. However, it was the context
of the women in those panels, and the distinct form of revealing themselves, which induced me to consider them more carefully. When women
appear in a composition, although they are situated at the margins of the
central scene, there is something that makes them different. In the face of
the aggression, violence, competition staging and death present in many
of the Levantine panels, principally protagonized by male subjects, the
images of female bodies produced, for me, a sensation of calm and
tranquillity. This suggests an important difference in the subjects displayed,
which may derive from a corporeal difference between men and women.
Traditionally, the women represented in the Levantine pictorial panels
have been identified, defined and socially signified in terms of the existence
of a number of a priori sexist stereotypes (Garcia del Toro, 19867; Jord
Cerda, 1974; Ripoll, 1983). In the discourse that resulted, these women and
the activities that they carry out are trivialized or even ignored (Beltran,
1966: 91).11 The scenes with male subjects have been at the centre of
research interest: the hunting drives, the groups of archers, the war scenes,
the military parades, the rituals with ithyphalic persons (men with
exaggeratedly large sexual organs). Studies stress the narrative character

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that these scenes present, in contrast to those in which women are documented, which are qualified as representing non-defined activities.
The women in the artwork can be recognized in specific interpretable attitudes, such as: static, passive or isolated (Andreu et al., 1982: 113). Thus, for
some authors, one of the sure indicators of a figure being female is the type
of activity being carried out, and the absence of arms, tools and/or work
instruments, which are considered always to be of masculine character
(Beltran, 1966: 90). Stress has been placed on the more common and more
diverse appearance of the male figure than the female one. As a consequence
of the limited impact of feminist studies in rock art at both the theoretical
and methodological levels, androcentric approaches remain in force (DiazAndreu, 1998). Themes that are important from a feminist perspective have
not been considered relevant. This is a problem that ought to be addressed
within the global framework of feminist archaeology. However, feminist
archaeology as it stands has focused more on the critique of androcentricism
in archaeological discourse, and not in proposing an alternative theoretical
and methodological approach. This should not stop us from undertaking an
in-depth analysis of the activities realized by the women in these panels.
In view of this dilemma one should highlight the contributions of a
number of authors who have offered an interesting analytical approach in
the analysis of Levantine art. Occasionally it has been said that egalitarianism was a characteristic of Neolithic societies. Following Sanahuja et al.
(1995), we can find important evidence in Levantine paintings that contradicts this proposed egalitarianism. We see the social power of men as a collective reflected in these paintings, in scenes of hunting or archers and group
fights. In contrast to this we find the limited presentation, and even the occultation of those jobs carried out by women (cultivation, harvesting), although
we know that they would have been more important from the perspective of
the satisfaction of alimentary requirements, which allows us to talk of the
existence of a certain level of exploitation of women by the adult men.12
Moreover, we know that in the Neolithic a considerable demographic growth
took place, a process that certainly had repercussions for the increase in
womens work, which extended from gestation, birth and suckling, to the
subsequent maintenance of the children. If there were no male compensations, understood in terms of work, womens quality of life may have been
reduced as Neolithic societies were consolidated (Castro et al., 1995: 182).

WOMEN IN SPANISH LEVANTINE ROCK ART

Levantine rock paintings are found in rock shelters that are almost always
situated on hillsides and/or rocky escarpments. These places were not
inhabited on a continuous basis. Rather, they were spaces dedicated to

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communication by means of symbols and/or representation of a whole

series of knowledge and experience (Lull et al., 1999). We can say that sociopolitical practices are expressed in these areas.13
The studies of activities represented in the Levantine paintings are
characterized by a non-systematic ascription of work to one sex or the other,
based on an ambiguous definition of the criteria for sexual categorization.14
In the face of this ambiguity, there exist two clear elements of sexual
representation: breasts and penises. These elements do not always appear in
the images, which implies the existence of asexual figures that cannot be used
in the ascription of activities to different sexual groups.15 Fortunately, there
is another way of identifying the sex of the figures by means of their clothing. In the case of women, the repeated presence of skirts, always found in
figures with breasts, allows us to consider this article of clothing to be an

Figure 2 Representations of women with possible digging sticks or

vegetable elements
13. Abrigo del Ciervo (Alonso and Grimal, 1994: fig. 2, 24); 45. El Barranco
del Pajarero (Alonso and Grimal, 1994: fig. 3, 910); 6. Cingle de la Mola Remigia
(Mateo, 1992: fig. 2, 3); 7. Covacho Ahumado (Fortea Prez and Aura, 1987: fig.
2, 21)

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additional element for use in sexual categorization, even in those cases in

which the breasts are not clearly defined, as happens with figures positioned
frontally. In the case of the men, we do not find any element of clothing that
is sufficiently widespread to use it as an element for sexual categorization.16
The Levantine representations indicate the existence of a series of economic activities in which women appear as the principal subjects.17 These are
productive activities that indicate the broad participation of women in the
economy, although represented in smaller quantities than those conducted
by men. They show women carrying out work related to the clearing and/or
cleaning of fields, harvesting and perhaps even sowing. In these they
appear bent over the ground, carrying digging sticks, poles and/or collecting vegetable elements.
These are representations of women involved in the production of foodstuffs (see Figure 2). Thus we see, in the Abrigo del Ciervo (Dos Aguas,
Valencia; see Jord Cerda and Alcacer, 1951: 21), in El Barranco del
Pajarero (Albarracn, Teruel; see Jord Cerda, 1974) or in the Cingle de la
Mola Remigia (Ares del Maestre, Castelln) where a woman appears
inclined forwards, holding plants or digging sticks, together with a figure
that suggests bull-like characteristics (Ripoll, 1963). Similarly, in the Cueva
del Engarbo I (Jan), a woman appears carrying a tool identified as a
hoe (Soria and Lpez, 1999: 10). Another figure in Covacho Ahumado

Figure 3 Representations of male agriculturalists

1. Cueva del Garroso (Ortego Frias, 1948); 2. Abrigo de Los Recolectores (Jord
Cerda, 1971); 3. Abrigo de Los Trepadores (Ortego, 1948); 4. Abrigo de Cinto de
la Ventana (Jord Cerda, 1971)

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represents a women wrapped in a long skirt associated with vegetable

elements (El Mortero, Alacn, Teruel; see Ortego Frias, 1948: fig. 15).
Although other figures (identifiable as male) are also shown engaged in
agricultural activities, no clear association can be established, partly
because in these cases the figures are asexual. More importantly, the
identification of the work tools has been incorrect. Such is the case of the
so-called man with a spade in the Cueva del Garroso (Alacn, Teruel; see
Figure 3), in which the supposed spade appears to be a type of lance and/or
arrows (Ortego Frias, 1948: fig. 15). Nor is it possible to identify as an agricultural tool the supposed hoe associated with the figure from the Abrigo
de Los Recolectores (Alacn, Teruel; see Jord Cerda, 1971), or the plough
and the spade of the individual from the Abrigo de Cinto de la Ventana
(Dos Aguas, Valencia; see Jord Cerda, 1971).18 I would highlight a
collection of figures from the Abrigo de Los Trepadores (Alacn, Teruel),
with objects in their hands and their arms outstretched, who have been
interpreted in relation to agricultural practices, but who should also be considered in relation to the contiguous bellicose compositions (Mateo, 1996).

Figure 4 Representations of the collection of honey and/or of individuals in

relation to vegetable elements
1. Cueva de la Araa (Hernndez-Pacheco et al., 1975: fig. 380); 24. Abrigo de
Los Trepadores (Fortea Prez and Aura, 1987: fig. 3, nos. 2729); 5. Covacho
Ahumado (Fortea Prez and Aura, 1987: fig 2)

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Hence we cannot talk of the existence of agricultural men as a representative theme.

Another activity represented is the collection of honey by asexual
individuals who hang from ropes or long branches. An example is the
famous scene in the Cueva de La Araa (Bicorp, Valencia) in which an
asexual figure, surrounded by what might be bees, and with a basket in its
hands, climbs up a cord towards a hole in the rock (Figure 4).19 Other cases
are the figure from the Cueva de La Vieja (Alpera, Albacete), another from
the Abrigo de Los Trepadores (Alacn Teruel) (Cabr, 1915: fig. 90; Ortego
Frias, 1948: fig. 11; Fortea Prez and Aura, 1987: fig. 3), and from the Abrigo
de Los Recolectores (Alacn, Teruel), in which it is not possible to be sure
what type of activity is being enacted (Jord Cerda, 1971). Because of the
asexual character of the figures, and the uncertainty of the activities which
they are carrying out, we cannot establish a clear relationship between economic activity and gender in this type of scene.
Women are also shown engaged in activities such as shepherding (Figure
5), evidenced in the Abrigo del Arquero de Los Callejones Cerrados (El
Rodeno de Albarracn, Teruel; see Collado et al., 1992: 1415) or in the Barranco de Las Olivanas (Albarracn, Teruel; see Hernndez Pacheco et al.,
1975). We also find female figures forming part of hunting scenes, although
in smaller numbers, as in the Abrigo de El Milano (Mula, Murcia; Alonso
and Lpez, 1987). Although they do not carry any sort of weapons or
objects, they might be acting as stalkers or beaters.

Figure 5 Representations of herding and hunting

1. Abrigo del Arquero de Los Callejones Cerrados (Collado et al., 1992: p. 15);
2. Caada de Marco (Escoriza, 1996: fig. 4); 3. Cova dels Cavalls (Vias, 1982: fig.
181); 4. El Milano (Eiroa, 1994: fig.11)

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With regard to the tasks of riding and/or training of animals, there are
scenes in the Cingle de La Mola Remgia (Ares del Maestre, Castelln), the
Abrigo de Los Trepadores and Barranco de Los Borriquitos (Ripoll, 1963;
Ortego Frias, 1948). But all of these cases show asexual figures, in which
occasionally the bare outlines lead us to doubt whether they are representations of people (Figure 6). There is added the problem of whether these
figures were added later (Mateo, 1996).20
There are some compositions, referred to as ritual, ceremonial, or relating to dance, in which both women and men appear. These are activities
that are difficult to interpret and have given rise to a great range of possible readings. They are certainly scenes of socio-political practice. An
example comes from La Roca dels Moros (Cogul, Lleida; see Figure 7)
where a group of women is arranged around a man-satyr, so-called by
Breuil and Almagro. Abelanet rejects this interpretation, and maintains
that the women are not in dancing positions, and that they are facing away
from the male character (Abelanet, 1986). This type of scene is repeated
in the Abrigo I del Barranco de Los Grajos (Cieza, Murcia) (Garcia del
Toro, 1994: 150), or in the case of Minateda (Jord Cerda, 1987). All these
scenes illustrate practices in which individuals of both sexes appear,
although their political and/or economic significance cannot be established
with certainty.

Figure 6 Representations interpreted as domestication and/or riding of

animals
1. Selva Pascuala (Escoriza, 1996: fig. 4); 2. Cingle de La Mola Remgia (Escoriza,
1996: fig. 4); 3. Abrigo de Los Trepadores (Escoriza, 1996: fig. 4); 4. Cingle de La
Mola Remgia (Escoriza, 1996: fig. 4); 5. Barranco de Los Borriquitos (Escoriza,
1996: fig. 4)

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REPRESENTATIONS OF MOTHERS IN SPANISH

LEVANTINE ROCK ART
There is a notable absence of representations of pregnant women in Spanish
Levantine rock art. This type of representation was very common in earlier
periods, exemplified by the images of the so-called Palaeolithic Venus
(Hachuel and Sanahuja Yll, 1996). Their absence in later work has had little
in-depth discussion. In the Levantine rock art there does not seem to be the
necessity for maternity or birth to be represented through images. We are
confronting women within a new and different symbolic and material order:
a patriarchal Neolithic order which no longer contemplates maternity
within the sphere of symbolic representation.
It is significant that, in Levantine art, the only labour that men cannot
engage in, maternity, is not represented. Since gestation and suckling are
productive activities for society as a whole, we have to conclude that a selection process in the representation of economic activities existed. With the
concealment of images of women, representations of men were more prolific. In many cases, the male sexual organs take on a more important role,
compared with womens bodies, which generally appear dressed, sometimes
with the breasts covered. Their sexual organs are never shown. With the
cancellation of the representation of the mother figure, there is also a cancellation of the sexual attributes of women. In contrast, we begin to find
other elements and objects of an ornamental character associated with
womens bodies. The sexual difference manifest in the Palaeolithic, in the

Figure 7 Representations of ritual and/or religious character

1. Barranco de Los Grajos (Mateo, 1994: fig. 2); 2. La Roca dels Moros de Cogull
(Hernndez-Pacheco et al., 1975: p. 63)

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reproductive capacity of women, was hidden in Levantine Neolithic

societys art.
There are several exceptional cases, due to the representational form of
the female body (Figure 8). The so-called Venus de la Valltorta (Covetes
del Puntal, Ares del Maestre, Castelln; see Vias, 1982: 165) presents a
body which is naked, and lacking in any ornamental elements. The other
image comes from Los Chaparros (Albalate del Arzobispo, Teruel; Beltrn,
1989) and shows a prominent belly, which at first sight reminds us of a pregnant woman, although the figures proximity to a group of archers, who also
display bulging bellies in profile, leads us to think that pregnancy is not
depicted here. Another female image appears in the Cueva de la Higuera
(Alcaine, Teruel) and, according to Beltrn, represents a woman in an
advanced stage of pregnancy. I would argue against this interpretation, since
it is impossible to see any anatomical correspondence between this figure
and the female body (Beltrn, 1995: 217).
It is precisely the absence of women as givers of life, together with the
fact that women appear only marginally in relation to scenes of a warlike
character, with fights and death, that leads us to think that the male collective controls the representations of life cycles. The protagonism of women

Figure 8 Representations of the female body

1. Mother and child from Barranco de Minateda (Alonso and Grimal, 1994: fig.
4, 5); 2. Women of La Risca 1 (Alonso and Grimal, 1994: fig. 7, 3); 3.Venus de la
Valltorta of Covetes del Puntal (Alonso and Grimal, 1994: fig. 2, 1); 4. Woman of
Los Chaparros (Alonso and Grimal, 1995: p. 10)

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in the creation of new individuals is eliminated, and they are left at the
margins in the final process of death, in which the protagonist is male. The
Neolithic, in this case, may represent the beginning of the culture of death,
replacing that of birth, represented in previous ages by the figures of future
mothers.
These important changes produced at the level of representation are
amplified by the appearance of scenes related to activities traditionally considered domestic.21 These are compositions in which female figures appear
together with children (Figure 8). In some cases the figure of a woman holds
a boy by the hand, her male product. We find them in the Abrigo Grande
de Barranco de Minateda (Helln, Albacete) (Jord Cerda, 1987: 19) and in
the Barranco Segovia (Letur, Albacete) (Alonso and Grimal, 1995: 16). The
representation of mother-son figures, rather than mother-daughter ones,
strongly implies that men were involved in the control and management of
the product, the sons, who are represented as future male subjects (Hachuel
and Sanahuja Yll, 1996). A case that cannot be ignored is the representation
of La Risca I (Moratalla, Murcia), with two female figures of different sizes,
probably two women of different ages. The idea that the smaller figure is a
girl can be discarded, given that her breasts are clearly outlined (Garcia del
Toro, 1994: 160).

CORROBORATING EVIDENCE FROM THE

ARCHAEOLOGICAL RECORD?
After analysing the types of compositions in the Levantine panels, we can
evaluate the information for food production at various archaeological sites.
We can also contextualize Levantine art in relation to the material conditions in those communities. Although it is still necessary to confirm the
precise chronology of the Levantine paintings, we can relate them to the
Neolithic settlements from the Mediterranean zone of the Iberian Peninsula.22
The transition from a hunter-gatherer economy to one based upon agricultural and pastoral strategies is a theme that has attracted a great deal of
research. This has been limited in scope because of the scarcity of radiometric series and because palaeobiological analyses have been relatively
rare among excavated sites.
In the entire Catalan region there was a clear preference for sites with
potential for the development of agriculture and for the exploitation of
forest resources. Palaeobotanical data indicate a degradation of the forest
areas at the beginning of the early Neolithic. Specifically, pollen analyses
indicate a gradual clearing of the forest areas as a result of human activity
(Molist et al., 1996: 783). The agricultural techniques employed have

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suggested rotation and the use of fire for preparation of the fields, a type of
agricultural development known as long fallow (Mart Oliver and Cabanilles, 1987: 118). These practices accord with the degradation evident in
certain zones, since the technique improves fertility but also degrades
wooded areas.
Archaeobotanical remains found in the Catalan area and in the Levant
indicate the cultivation of diverse species in these early moments of the
Neolithic. Among the cereals naked wheat and barley and hulled barley are
most common. For legumes we find peas, lentils and beans. The vegetable
remains recovered also corroborate the continuation of previous gathering
practices, evidenced by acorns and wild olives in the Levant (Bux, 1997:
150). If we also consider the presence of axes and hoes for clearing the
forests and grinding stones for the preparation of flour, then agricultural
production appears to be a clearly consolidated activity in the communities
which produced the Levantine art (Mart Oliver and Cabanilles, 1987).
Looking at the remains of fauna found, archaeozoological investigations
corroborate the presence of domestic animals. These always represent a
higher percentage than the wild specimens within the total assemblages of
fauna, suggesting that agricultural production was complemented by
important livestock resources. The principal domesticated species are
sheep, goats, cattle, pigs and dogs (Mart Oliver and Cabanilles, 1987: 118).
Moreover, analyses of the age profiles of specimens from some settlements
make it possible to verify that a meat-based diet was centred on domesticated rather than wild animals.
Hunting also continued to be practised at this time, supported by the
remains of wild animals found in the majority of sites in the Mediterranean
fringe of the Iberian Peninsula. On the basis of the previous data, hunting
must be considered to be a complementary activity. Mart Oliver and
Cabanilles have pointed out that its importance is not related to the
quantities of meat provided, but rather to the provision of materials such as
skins, hides, horn and so on (Mart Oliver and Cabanilles, 1987: 11821).
Finally, a recent study by Schuhmacher and Weniger (1995) analysed this
period of transition between two economic models. They used the archaeological record for the east of the Iberian Peninsula, between 8000 and 5000
BC (Epipalaeolithic and early Neolithic). Their study concludes that the
subsistence of Neolithic groups can be understood and explained by means
of the so-called mosaic model, which takes into account varied and diverse
modes of subsistence according to geographical zones. In some areas the
economy was more oriented towards hunting, and probably gathering,
while in others we find agriculture and pastoralism. This study invalidates
the proposition that hunting was the main economic activity in the Mediterranean communities of the Iberian peninsula. The archaeological evidence
suggests that during the early stages of the Neolithic a mixed economy prevailed based on agriculture and livestock. The role of hunting can be best

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understood as an important complement, but not as the basic activity that

the scenes from Levantine art seem to suggest.

CONCLUSIONS
According to the analyses carried out for the period BC 80005000, in the
eastern zone of the Iberian Peninsula, there was considerable variability in
the modes of food production in different areas. This contrasts with the
themes represented in the Levantine rock paintings, which demonstrate a
great homogeneity among the different communities, and give a primary
position to hunting as an economic activity. Rejecting the possibility that
these representations might correspond to earlier, pre-Neolithic times, this
suggests the existence of similar socio-political practices and ideological
schemata between the different social groups. They transcend the domain
of different economic strategies. The basis of the homogeneity of the Levantine rock art lies in the existence of shared social and economic relations,
which were favoured and reinforced by means of different mechanisms
(alliances between groups, circulation of products, social mobility due to
exogamy).
Given archaeozoological studies, hunting cannot be considered to be the
single and most important economic strategy developed by the Neolithic
communities who painted the Levantine panels. Livestock, fruit and wild
vegetable gathering, and agriculture contributed the greater part of their
diet. The emphasis on hunting found in the rock art suggests that it was a
response to an ideology imposed by the dominant patriarchal order, and
underscores the fact that masculine activities had greater social value.
The sexual definition of the figures in the paintings, while in some cases
problematic, does not prevent the identification of the subjects sexes in a
great number of cases. There are two clear attributes for use in sexual definition: breasts in the case of the women, and penises in the case of the men.
In addition, the repeated association of breasts and skirts allows us to consider this item of clothing as another attribute of sexual identification. I have
classified as asexual those images that do not demonstrate the above-mentioned attributes. This implies that those specific activities in which asexual
figures are engaged are not classified according to sex.
From the analysis conducted, I suggest that females were represented
carrying out tasks such as the clearing and/or cleaning of fields, harvesting,
sowing, and herding. To these we could add the creation of new individuals,
or the basic production and maintenance of sons and daughters. Furthermore, there are representations of women engaged in ritual, the expression
of socio-political practices. With regard to the male representations, presence in economic activities is much less varied, although it appears more

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frequently. Men appear in scenes that depict hunting, herding, war and
ritual. Other activities cannot be classified according to sex, such as the possible riding and/or domestication of animals and the collection of honey.
All of this suggests the existence of a sexual division of labour, and if it
does not necessarily imply exploitation, the existing inequalities in the
division of labour in the Levantine Neolithic communities indicate that
women were a socially exploited group. Women, although they share
activities such as herding with men, carried out more jobs than them. Those
jobs become more important from the point of view of diet requirements
for the entire community. But additionally, women also carried out other
tasks such as gestation, suckling and care of sons/daughters, the basic production and maintenance of individuals necessary to the continuity of social
life. For this reason, we can hypothesize an existence of control over women
that is tantamount to concealment in the Levantine, due to the scarcity of
artistic representations of a variety of activities such as basic production
(maternity), the cancellation of sexual attributes and, in general, a scarce
representation of the great variety of activities that they realized. The
politico-ideological strategy is to hide, and to give limited social value to,
females in relation to its work in the creation of the conditions for social life.
This new situation of control and exploitation may indicate that important changes occurred in the Neolithic, both in the cancellation of representations of pregnant women, givers of life, and in the great proliferation of
representations of men and their sexual attributes. This is a change at the
figurative level that implies the establishment of a different material and
symbolic order, that of the fathers view. This control over forms of representation would have been based on material dominance over women
that extended to the production of new individuals. In the Neolithic
societies that produced the Levantine rock art, I suggest that controls were
developed over women and were institutionalized by the dominant masculine power.

Acknowledgements
This article owes a great deal to M.E. Sanahuja Yll. Her ideas and suggestions have
been fundamental at the moment of tackling female difference and the complex
structure established within archaeological studies. This work is also indebted to all
of the members of our research team: Pedro V. Castro Martinez, Robert W.
Chapman, Sylvia Gili Suriach, Vicente Lull, Rafael Mic, Cristina Rihuete
Herrada, Roberto Risch, Montserrat Menasanch and Teresa Sanz.
I would also like to thank Manuel Carrilero Milln and Jos Luis Lpez Castro,
colleagues in the Department of History, Geography and History of Art of the University of Almera, for their comments on the article. Finally, thanks to Lorena Avila
and Isabel Quero, with whom I share doubts, hopes and friendship.
I would like also to thank Alex Walker, who undertook the translation of this
article.

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Notes
1 As Luisa Muraro (1994), a member of the Diotima Philosophical Group of
Verona University has affirmed, the patriarchate not only destroys feminine
genealogy and obliterates the figure of the mother-daughter relationship, it
also brings women into a masculine frame of reference.
2 While for some women (among whom I include myself) the system of
patriarchal symbolism has died, it is obvious that social reality continues to be
patriarchal (see Libreria De Mujeres De Milan [1996]). The patriarchate can be
defined in terms of masculine domination of sexuality, reproduction and female
work in the maintenance of life. On this basis, the exploitation of women has
served as a model for other forms of exploitation, in which women are also
implicated from a socio-economic perspective, and has given rise to a range of
societies, with their institutions, their religions and their codes, which have one
point in common: the cancellation of the maternal figure, and the systematic
exercise of coercive power as a basic point of reference (Sanahuja Yll, 2001).
3 For some authors, such as Wittig (1980), sex is, in itself, a highly valid cultural
construct, which goes well beyond a simple response to simple biological
requirements. By contrast, the category of gender demonstrates limited utility,
and a marked ambiguity.
4 We refer especially to the materialist contributions to the debate surrounding
sexual differences, which have been so influential for feminist women in
France, Italy, Spain and Central and South America (Diotima, 1987; Irigaray,
1990, 1992; Muraro, 1994).
5 According to the Theory of the Production of Social Life, the three objective
conditions in any society are women, men and material objects. The physical
expression of these three objective conditions is the basis of social materiality
(Castro et al., 1998, 1999; Sanahuja Yll, 1997a, 1997b).
6 Basic production or creation of bodies refers to the generation of new men
and women, the future workforce. Its recognition means considering biological
reproduction as being a specific and socially necessary work process, which
avoids the naturalization (concealment) of the same (Castro et al., 1999;
Sanahuja Yll, 1997a, 1997b, 2001).
7 For authors such as Muraro (1994: 46), the relation of recognition of the
mother constitutes the point of balance on which the birth of a new symbolic
order is based. The abandonment of the mothers body at birth truncates an
experience common to both, with the entry of the child into the realm of the
fathers law. For the woman, this represents an abandonment of herself
(Bocchetti, 1996). Nevertheless, other authors such as De Lauretis (1994) and
Butler (1993) have pointed out that to conceive of female sexuality as being
structured around the figure of the mother could result in a universalization of
the significance of women without taking account of the differences that exist
between women.
8 For some authors, the way of bringing about this change is to find ourselves,
and from this point to give meaning to our being women, and identify who
we are and what we really want. Only in this way can female liberation be
achieved, through practicing differences, and never hiding them (Cigarini,
1993).

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9 The terms Levant and Levantine refer to the Spanish Levant, the
Mediterranean coast of the Iberian peninsula called El Levante in Spanish.
The term will be used in this sense throughout the rest of article. In 1998,
UNESCO included the Spanish Levantine rock art, also known as the Rock
Art of the Mediterranean Fringe of the Iberian Peninsula, in its list of World
Heritage Sites.
10 The paintings have been dated by means of carbon 14 tests on samples of
organic material from the paintings, using the AMS system.
11 An illustrative example in this regard is given by some authors in relation to
representations of women who carry what might be digging sticks, which
significantly have also been interpreted as women with castanets for
accompanying a dance (Beltran, 1966: 91).
12 We understand exploitation to mean the social asymmetry that occurs when
the consumption, use, enjoyment or control of material conditions is effected
by agents who are alien completely, or in part, from those who are involved in
production and/or maintenance, without compensation being given (Castro et
al., 1996: 36).
13 Practices that express agreements or impositions, and whose objective is the
establishment of political and ideological forms that manage maternity and
articulate social life (Castro et al., 1996: 40; 1999: 17).
14 Although we are able to sexually differentiate the images according to the
established sexual criteria, we are unable to make suppositions regarding the
identity of their producers. What we can suggest is that these figures are the
result of a determined set of politico-ideological practices by means of which
an attempt was made to express, communicate and/or reinforce a certain set of
ideas. These last might be the result of an imposition by the dominant social
order, or they may result from points of resistance to and/or transgression of
the established norms. This last option avoids taking a position of
victimization with regard to women as an oppressed and/or exploited
collective.
15 The existence of a large number of figures that show no sexual attributes at all,
and in which it is not possible to identify elements of clothing (skirts) that are
associated with the female sex, prevents us from defining, biologically, the
bodies that are represented. This situation should not necessarily lead us to
think mechanically about the existence of a third sex as a non-definable
neuter. Interpretations of this type of asexual figure are highly varied:
adolescents, children, etc. Furthermore, these asexual figures cannot be
associated with any particular type of scene. Rather, they are documented in
almost all of the compositions that have been analysed. To force an
interpretation of such figures without any further evidence being available
introduces fairly wide speculation.
On the other hand, we must disagree with some authors (Diaz-Andreu,
1998) that the reason for the existence of a large number of asexual figures in
the Levantine panels is due to the fact that gender and its representation was
not a relevant question for these communities. This rather unfortunate
interpretation requires an explanation regarding why, if gender were not an
important question in these societies, the majority of the representations are
masculine, and why women are hidden in the figurative field. By contrast, sex

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16

17
18

19

20

21

22

Representations of women in Spanish Levantine rock art

was indeed an important question, resolved to the detriment of the female

collective, which was hardly represented, especially if we compare this
panorama with previous periods in which images of women, such as the socalled Palaeolithic Venus figures, were of great importance.
We have suggested that the analysis of the bodies represented is another
means of sexually identifying the past, together with the anthropological study
of bodies. Both approaches allow a greater understanding of the material
conditions in which women were immersed as a collective, and of the
differences between them, as well as the expression by which a whole series of
politico-ideological practices acquired their bodies as a form of representation.
As such, I am of the opinion that sexual identification is absolutely necessary,
not only of women, but also of men, because the activities that studies of
prehistory attribute to the male sex have also not been sexually identified in
many cases.
Practices that take account of the production of foodstuff and tools, destined
to satisfying the demands of social life (Castro et al., 1996: 38; 1999: 17).
The detailed profile of this figures face presents an unusual case in the context
of Levantine art, a finding that introduces doubts regarding its identification
with this style of Neolithic painting.
In the reproductions that have been made, the individual appears in some
cases with a type of short skirt, and in others without. This leads us to suggest
the need for a clarification of whether the figure is wearing an item of female
clothing, for which it will be necessary to revise the original tracings
(Hernndez-Pacheco et al., 1975, fig. 3801).
The identification of horse-riding activities in a Neolithic society seems highly
improbable, given the much more recent development of this activity. The
apparent helmet with a horse-riders crest at Cingle de la Gassulla appears to
correspond to the type of helmets used towards the end of the Bronze Age.
The need in every society to maintain objects in good condition demands an
investment of work that normally is not recognised as work, i.e. womens work
or domestic work (Castro et al., 1998, 1999; Sanahuja Yll, 1997a, 1997b).
Neolithic burials are still relatively little-known, which limits the information
available relating to the differences between the sexes. Research in the field of
physical anthropology can open up a path to understanding the differences
between the sexes in relation to life expectancy, quality of life, birth and death
rates, effects of work, general health and diet. If to these we add DNA studies
used to determine kinship, the potential for the study of the relations between
the sexes is extremely promising.

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Trinidad Escoriza Mateu is a lecturer in the Department of History,

Geography and History of Art, at the University of Almeria, Spain. She is
part of a research group focusing on the later prehistory of south-east
Spain and the Balearic Islands. She is working to protect the sites of Gatas
(Almeria) and the Son Ferragut (Mallorca). Her interests include feminist
theory, Levantine rock art and the representation of women in prehistory.
[email: tescoriz@teleline.es]