Abstract
The geomorphological context of the Côa Valley open-air Palaeolithic rock art offers a unique opportunity to analyse its stratigraphic relationship with preserved Quaternary deposits and to reconstruct those that may have since disappeared. Litho-stratigraphic units, discontinuities and their architecture are interpreted in the context of the valley’s evolution and its environment. The spatial distribution of rock art panels, chronological attribution of the rock art and their geomorphological context can help us to reconstruct the topography of the valley at the time of its production and to identify where rock art panels could be buried, as well as to establish their chronology.
Highlights
The discovery and stylistic dating of the pecked horse of Mazouco (North of Portugal) from the Upper Palaeolithic was the first step to the realization that open-air rock art of this period could have survived until the present (Jorge et al 1981)
Cardina/Salto do Boi was the first site of the Côa Valley where an Upper Palaeolithic human occupation was identified
Geomorphologic evolution of the fluvial system of the Lower Côa Valley The textural and structural description and the architecture of the studied sedimentary sequence, as well as the interpretation of the colluvial and alluvial processes and of their depositional environments, allows us to establish a stratigraphic correlation between different geomorphologic units of the lower Côa Valley (Table 1; Fig. 12)
Summary
The discovery and stylistic dating of the pecked horse of Mazouco (North of Portugal) from the Upper Palaeolithic was the first step to the realization that open-air rock art of this period could have survived until the present (Jorge et al 1981). It paved the way for new discoveries in Spain, notably in the nearby site of Siega Verde (Alcolea González & Balbín Behrmann 2006; Balbin Behrmann et al 1991), in Domingo García (Ripoll López & Municio González 1992, 1999) and in Piedras Blancas (Martínez García 1986-1987), as well as Fornols-Haut, in the French Pyrenees (Bahn 1985; Sacchi et al 1988).
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