Parque Arqueológico do Vale do Côa

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Prehistoric rock carvings in Vale do Côa and Siega Verde
UNESCO world heritage UNESCO World Heritage Emblem
Rock art in the Parque Arqueológico do Vale do Côa
National territory: PortugalPortugal Portugal , SpainSpainSpain 
Type: Culture
Criteria : i, iii
Reference No .: 866
UNESCO region : Europe and North America
History of enrollment
Enrollment: 1998  (session 22)
Extension: 2010

The Parque Arqueológico do Vale do Côa is one of the most important archaeological parks in Portugal. Its inauguration took place in 1996, the founding director was the internationally known paleoanthropologist João Zilhão . The park is located in the Guarda district in the northeast. The nearest town, Vila Nova de Foz Côa, has about 3300 inhabitants.

Location and importance

At the end of the 1980s, several thousand petroglyphs were discovered on the banks of the River Côa , some of which are estimated to be over 25,000 years old. The pictorial and graphic representations carved into the slate show aurochs, horses, deer, ibex, but also goats and fish, over a length of over 17 kilometers. It is an open-air gallery with representations from the Paleolithic , such as had previously only been found in protected grottos and caves. The focus of the representations comes from the time of the Solutréen , which is primarily supported by stylistic comparisons with rock art from south-west France and Cantabria .

In the early 1990s, the Vale do Côa was threatened by flooding caused by a dam project, massive protests by scientists and the public were able to prevent this. The valley has been recognized as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO since 1998 . In 2010 the world heritage title was expanded to include neighboring Siega Verde in Spain.

Over the millennia, people have used the rock faces as a drawing surface and this is how an extensive art gallery was created, in which works from the Neolithic , Iron Age and some modern representations can also be found. The fact that the works of art have been preserved so well on the surface is due to the downright Mediterranean climate of the valley, which had a conservative effect.

In some representations one can clearly see the different techniques of the individual ages: Some representations of animals are drawn in dotted lines, which were initially carved directly into the slate, later indirectly using another stone as a "paint stone". This " drawing technique" was followed by the scratch drawings, which resulted in "real" lines. The Stone Age people even tried to depict movements by drawing the relevant body parts several times: some horses have several heads and tails that imitate a certain sequence of movements.

List of World Heritage Sites

UNESCO ID Surname location Area in ha description image
866-001 Broeira map 4.57 Site with 15 rock carvings, which are distributed along a long slope on the right bank of the Côa. A few prehistoric horse representations are concentrated around the mouth of a small stream.
866-002 Canada do Inferno / Rego da vide map 10.09 Canada do Inferno contains the largest rock art panels in the Côa Valley. The rock carvings show animal-shaped and a few rare geometric and abstract motifs that date from Gravettien to Solutréen to Magdalenian . Canada do Inferno 11.jpg
866-003 Faia map 5.94 In contrast to the other sites, painted motifs predominate here. The only example in the Côa Valley of an both engraved and painted aurochs .
866-004 Faia - Vale Afonsinho map 3.03
866-005 Fonte Frieira map 1.57
866-006 Meijapao map 2.07 Small valley on the right bank of the Côa, with three prehistoric rock carvings. Geometric motifs, riders, weapons and animals were added to two of the panels during the Iron Age .
866-007 Penascosa map 22.32 On a steep slope above the right bank of the Coa are scattered 36 identified outcrops with rock carvings, most of which date to the Upper Paleolithic . Some of the park's largest boards, such as Rock 5 and Rock 10 , are located here. Horse figure with two goats
866-008 Quinta da Barca map 20.48 Rock 1 ("Spaghetti Rocks ") contains the highest concentration of superimposed motifs, while Rock 3 shows a male ibex with two heads
866-009 Quinta da Ervamoira map 9.53 River terrace on the left bank of the Côa, to the north of it there is a small group of rocks with traces of petroglyphs
866-010 Quinta do Fariseu map 10.09 16 Upper Paleolithic rock carvings with horse, ibex and auroch motifs
866-011 Ribeira de Piscos / Quinta dos Poios map 12.40 Contains some of the most beautiful drawings in the valley. A total of 42 identified panels are distributed along the last two kilometers of the Pisco and around the confluence with the Côa, most of them date to the late Upper Paleolithic. The rocks show human motifs as well as horses, ibex and aurochs.
866-012 Ribeirinha map 6.11 Granite overhang with late prehistoric schematic drawings, many red-colored, mostly human-like figures
866-013 Salto do Boi map 5.16
866-014 Vale de Figueira / Teixugo map 8.73 seven rock panels with pecked aurochs, striped deer and line-shaped engravings ("fingernails of the devil")
866-015 Vale de Moinhos map 4.57 In addition to representations from the Iron Age, the site contains rock drawings with horses, fish and a deer.
866-016 Vale de Namoradas map 3.70

literature

Movie

  • Côa, valley of 1,000 paintings. Documentary, France, Netherlands, Portugal, 2006, 52 min. Director: Jean-Luc Bouvret, production: arte , Summary of arte

See also

Web links

Commons : Parque Arqueológico do Vale do Côa  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k Parque Arqueológico do Vale do Côa - Sites. arte-coa.pt, accessed on May 11, 2015 .
  2. ↑ Núcleo de Arte Rupestre da Canada do Inferno e Rego da Vide in the Sistema de Informação para o Património Arquitectónico (Portuguese)