Prehistoric Rock-Art Site of The Côa Valley - Art

Art

The prehistoric art is either carved, incised or picked, combining various techniques, but rarely painted, utilizing the vertical schist slabs as canvass. These schist rocks, along the northern part of the Côa River, are large drawings in contrast with smaller depictions in other parts of the region. Their size vary between 15 cm (5.91 in) and 180 cm (70.87 in), but most are 40-50 centimetres in extension, often forming panels and compositions. The style often features bold lines, but many are touched with fine, thin lines.

The art near Faia, occupies several vertical panels of granite. Two groups of authors were identified in this region, comprising 230 carvings from the Epipaleolithic and Bronze Ages. The more archaic period of Côa corresponds to 137 rocks with 1000 carvings and rare paintings, by artists who concentrated on zoomorphic representations: equine (horses), bovine (aurochs), caprines and deer (the latter primarily associated with the final phase of the Magdalense period). There are also representations of fish, intermediary animals, along with a small group of geometric or abstract shapes (including lines and symbols in Penascosa and Canada do Inferno).

In one of the rarer depictions, there is a solitary anthropomorphic figure with phallus, dating to the Magdalenense period in the Ribeira de Piscos site. The artists motives are unclear, and the image appears isolated and over-drawn by other figures.

At the Rock Art Site of Faia, there are unique painted carvings, with ocre paint tracing the image and highlighting the nostrals and mouth of the figure. Other groups of carvings in Vale Carbões and Faia, dating from the Epipaleolithic and Neolithic, include zoomorphic designs, also painted with ocre.

There are also, Iron Age sites along the mouth of the Côa, in the valleys of the smaller ravine tributaries of the Douro. They include anthropomorphic figures and horses, in addition to some dogs, deer and birds, accompanied by weapons (swords, lances and shields). These armed warriors could represent scenes from battles or hunting parties. Generally, these images are stratified, with new designs drawn over the pre-existing carvings.

The last period of art dates from the modern era, and includes religious motifs, both anthropomorphic and zoomorphic figures, in addition to inscriptions, dates, boats, trains, bridges, planes and landscapes.

The importance of this prehistorical art site remains its rareness and extension; although there are numerous prehistorical art sites in caves, open-air sites are rarer (and only include Mazouco (Portugal), Fornols-Haut (France), Domingo García and the Siega Verde (both in Spain). Yet, the importance of the Côa Valley is the extent of these designs, which extend sporadically in a space 17 kilometres. Archaeologists acknowledge sites like this as open-air sanctuaries of prehistoric humankind.