Ancient Europe is well-known for its Paleolithic cave art at sites such as Chauvet Cave and Altamira Cave where ancient people painted magnificent images on the walls and ceiling. Paleolithic European art is not, however, limited to caves. The Cȏa Valley, cleverly hidden away in a remote area of northeastern Portugal, was used by the ancient artists to create petroglyphs—carvings and engravings on rock.
The petroglyphs, carved on scattered exposed rock surfaces along a 17 kilometer (10 mile) stretch of the Cȏa Valley, were discovered by archaeologists in 1992. There are over 1,000 rock art panels with more than 5,000 figures. In Exploring Prehistoric Europe, Chris Scarre writes:
“The Cȏa art consists of pecked and engraved images, showing in outline form the animals that populated this part of Europe at the height of the last Ice Age some 20,000 years ago. There may originally have been paintings, too, but if so, the paint has not survived.”
Stylistically, the rock art in the Cȏa Valley resembles the European cave art. Like the cave art, Ice Age mammals are most frequently represented. Most frequently portrayed are aurochs (wild cattle), followed by horses, ibex, and red deer. Other features, such as the swollen abdomens and the twist of the horns are also similar to art found in the cave. Chris Scarre reports:
“Archaeologists have used these features to argue that the Cȏa engravings must be contemporary with the decorated caves.”
Shown above is a panel of petroglyphs from the Cȏa Valley. Source.
Shown above is a detail showing a horse. Source.
The petroglyphs in the Cȏa Valley were done over a period of several thousand years. Stylistically, the earliest petroglyphs come from the Gravettian period around 25,000 years ago. The most recent petroglyphs are from the late Magdalenian period about 10,000 years ago. In general archaeologists recognize two eras of the rock art. George Nash and Sara Garcȇs, in article in Current World Archaeology, report:
“The earliest, between 23,000 and 20,000 BC, shows a variety of megafauna that includes wild bulls, goat, and horses. The second era has been recognized as dating between 20,000 and 18,000 BC, with further animal depictions and examples of muzzled horses, which suggest possible direct interaction with Upper Paleolithic hunter-gatherer communities.”
Archaeologists who have studied the petroglyphs have determined that they were made with four different techniques: (1) the artist formed finely incised lines with a sharp, pointed instrument; (2) the artist hammered a line on the stone face with a stone implement; (3) the artist used abrasion in which an initial narrow groove was worn into the rock to create a wider channel; and (4) the artist scraped the entire area within the outline of the animal which created a contrast between the animal and the surrounding rock.
Many of the figures are fairly large, with some as large as five feet long, and many over two feet long.
One human figure has been discovered. In general, human figures tend to be rare in Paleolithic art. Some archaeologists feel that the style of this human figure is similar to the human portraits found at La Marche in western France. The La Marche figures date to the Late Magdalenian period.
Dating:
Dating petroglyphs is always a problem. The images engraved in the rocks along the Cȏa Valley include the horse and the ibex, both of which went extinct toward the end of the last Ice Age. This shows that the art work is at least 10,000 years old. Some of the art styles on the petroglyphs is similar to that used on the portable art from Parpalló which have been dated to 20,000 years ago. The heavy weathering patina which covers the petroglyphs reinforces dating to the Upper Paleolithic. While there are a few people who still feel that the petroglyphs are relatively recent, the consensus of the archaeologists who have studied in the area is that they date to the Upper Paleolithic, 25,000 to 10,000 years ago.
At the present time, direct dating techniques which have been on petroglyphs in other areas have not been successful in the Cȏa Valley.
The Dam:
Archaeological sites throughout the world are threatened with destruction by development and the ancient petroglyphs in the Cȏa Valley are no exception. In 1989, plans were made to construct a hydroelectric dam and an environmental impact study was commissioned. The study concluded that there was nothing of great archaeological value in the impact area.
The petroglyphs were discovered in 1992, but this discovery was not reported until 1994 when work on the dam had already begun. Chris Scarre reports:
“The two-year delay in reporting the discovery of the art led many opponents of the dam to suspect a cover up. An international campaign was quickly mounted to try to halt the building work and persuade the Portuguese government to preserve the carvings.”
In 1995, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) sent in a team of experts to examine the art. UNESCO declared the Cȏa Valley petroglyphs to be art of world-class importance. After much political maneuvering, work on the dam was halted and the Cȏa Valley turned into an archaeological park. In 1998, the petroglyphs in the Cȏa Valley were designated as a World Heritage site by UNESCO.
