Discover more rock engravings in the Côa Valley

A team of archaeologists has uncovered a new rock with rock engravings at Penascosa’s site in the Côa Valley Archaeological Park (PAVC), one of the researchers involved in archaeological surveys revealed today.

“This discovery reveals not only the richness of the rock art of one of the most visited sites of the Côa Valley but also confirms the importance of continuing archaeological work, even in places that are considered very well studied or known,” said archaeologist Thierry Aubry, one of the professionals involved in the research.

According to the specialist in the Art of the Côa, the motifs of this new rock feature a style that is in fact more characteristic of more recent phases of the Upper Paleolithic, with an age of 18,000 to 12 thousand years, than those of the majority of the rocks of the site, with 25 thousand to 28 thousand years.

“The rock site of Penascosa was one of the first to be discovered in the Côa Valley, which was 1995. The aim of these surveys was to find contemporary remains of the Côa prints, and we ended up finding a more recent engraving, the archaeological potential of this site, “noted the archaeologist of the Côa Parque Foundation.

The new discovery thus ends up being “a surprise” for the experts, because it is a recorded rock “in a more recent period of the Art of the Côa.”

“This new finding demonstrates the diversity of a more classic site”, of the archaeological park, “where there are engravings about 30 thousand years old,” he said.

“The aim of this work is to verify the existence of some relationship between the altitude of the engravings on the site and its chronology, “said Thierry Aubry.

After 20 years on the classification of “Art of the Côa” as World Heritage, surveys in the Penascosa Site, within the scope of the “PaleoCôa” project, put the new find, which still needs interpretation and reading by the experts in rock art

“We have to finish the polls, which will continue for a few more days, so that we can find the archaeological context in which the new discovery is inserted, located in a more modern period, compared to what characterizes the Archaeological Park of the Côa Valley,” he emphasized the archaeologist.

Côa rock art, inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List since 1998, was one of the most important archaeological discoveries of the Upper Palaeolithic in the late 20th century throughout Europe.

During the discovery of the ‘Art of the Côa’, Portuguese archaeologists claimed to be manifestations of the Upper Paleolithic (from 25,000 to 30,000 years ago) and to be ‘one of the most fabulous archaeological finds in the world’.

Since August 1996, the Côa Valley Archaeological Park organizes visits to several nuclei of engravings such as Penascosa, Canada do Inferno and Ribeira de Piscos.