Ceramics and carvings

Ceramics and carvings. Galería del Sílex.

Galería del Sílex (Flint Gallery) is where 400 motifs in black and red paint and carvings have been found. This iconographic collection is distributed across 53 panels. The motifs are linear and geometric shapes (simple crosshatched forms and others with lateral appendages, grids, simple lines, strings of dots, dendriforms, tectiforms, zigzags, etc.) as well as anthropomorphs and depictions of humans and animals.

Each motif has been studied in detail to define its chronology, relate the carvings to the decorative motifs on the ceramics and date charcoal paintings with radiometry. Now we know that the timespan ranges from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age, and that the motifs are superimposed.

One outstanding figure is an anthropomorph which is also shown on a Bronze Age ceramic item: a large closed ovoid vessel with a medium height neck and a flat base. The motif depicted on this spectacular discovery is unparalleled in the rest of the world.

A team has been formed in the last decade to study the Galería del Sílex art work. It has already detected new motifs and conducted AMS datings which are pending publication. This young team is already beginning to bear fruit, with new interpretations suggesting that this anthropomorph is a woman who seems to be related to a warrior ready to fight, possibly interpreted as showing that the woman played an important role in her society as a shaman, responsible for the protection of each member of her community. This is a departure from the conventional myth that women were restricted to domestic chores. For the moment, these are still fresh interpretations which will be debated and contrasted in the near future.