Prehistoric Rock-Art Site of the Côa Valley

41.033333333333 - 7.1166666666667Koordinaten: 41 ° 2 '0 "N, 7 ° 7' 0 " W

The Parque Archaeological do Vale do Côa is one of the most important archaeological park in Portugal. His inauguration took place in 1996, was the founding director of the internationally renowned paleoanthropologist João Zilhão. The park is located in the District of Guarda in the Northeast. The nearest town of Vila Nova de Foz Côa has about 3300 inhabitants.

Location and meaning

On the sloping banks of the river Côa the late 1980s, several thousand petroglyphs were discovered, whose age is estimated to be some 25,000 years. The carved into the shale pictorial and graphical representations show aurochs, horses, deer, ibex, but also goats and fish, over a length of about 17 kilometers. It is an open-air gallery with scenes from the Paleolithic era, as they had hitherto found only in protected caves and caverns. The focus of the presentations comes from the time of the Solutrean what speak stylistic comparisons with rock art from Southwest France and Cantabria in the first place.

Early 1990s was the Vale do Côa risk from flooding by a dam project, massive protests from scientists and the public were able to prevent that. Since 1998, the Valley is recognized as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. 2010, the World Heritage title to the adjacent Siega Verde in Spain has been extended.

Through the years, thousands of people took advantage of the rock walls as canvas and so, an extensive art gallery, which also works from the Neolithic Age, the Iron Age as well as some modern representations are to be found. The fact that the works of art have been so well preserved at the surface, is related to the pronounced Mediterranean climate of the valley, which has had a preservative effect.

In some representations can recognize the various techniques of individual age well: some representations of animals are drawn in dotted lines, which were initially directly, later carved indirectly with another stone as " a pillar " in the slate. This " mark " technique followed by the engravings, the "real" lines were. Even movements have to represent the Stone Age people by repeatedly drawing the relevant parts of the body tries: some horses have multiple heads and tails that mimic a particular movement.