Cantabrian portable art enjoys a long research tradition that has generated a vision of this phenomenon in which decoration seems to be determined by the type of artefact to be decorated and the context in which it participates. However, this conceptualization does not address the multiplicity of situations in which decorated objects were used. In the present work, both the iconographic variations in Cantabrian Magdalenian decorated objects and the diachronic changes in the use of the themes and artefacts are explored. For this, a quantitative analysis has been carried out and multivariate statistical tests have been applied on a sample of 293 objects that are distributed among 47 sites. The results point to a much more complex evolution of portable graphic activity in relation to the selection of the themes represented and the objects that were decorated.
FRAMING THE CASE STUDY: THE VISION OF CANTABRIAN PORTABLE ART IN PREVIOUS STUDIESFrom the beginning of prehistoric research to the present, decorated objects have been defined according to their purpose, functional or not, and to their more or less unchanging use. A series of artefact classes were established based on these two variables. At one extreme lie the long and short-term utilitarian objects, whilst at the other cluster artefacts without functionality alongside personal ornaments (
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.