Boats from the 4th millennium BC in the Strait of Gibraltar? Reinforcing the debate of Laja Alta rock shelter paintings based on the new chronological proposals

Abstract

The boat images from Laja Alta (Jimena de la Frontera, Cádiz) have been studied on a large number of occasions. Nevertheless, despite the abundant literature on the subject, there is no consensus regarding the typology of the boats depicted. The main reason for this circumstance lies in the absence of an absolute dating and the disparity in the tracings made. However, recent studies have dated the paintings around the IV millennium BC (Morgado et al., 2018). In this paper, we use this chronology as a framework for a nautical analysis. We conclude that the boats depicted in the shelter could potentially be produced and used in that chronology.