Coa Valley Paleolithic art
Historical sources are the most important evidences which provide human beings about an idea of the past and the way of living of the ancient civilizations. There can be various kinds of historical sources like archeological sources, written sources and coins and currency sources. Among the archaeological sources, one can include monuments and ruins. A very significant source of history are the paintings and carvings and pottery which have been discovered often in the sites of old civilizations and these cave paintings often provide an extensive idea of the way of life and occupations and culture of the people of those times. The Coa Valley is the location which houses one of the largest open air Paleolithic art site in the world and definitely the largest in Europe. It was in the 1980s that the first engravings were discovered by the river valley of the Coa River in Vila Nova de Foz Coa in the north eastern part of Portugal. It should be mentioned here that following the discovery of these paintings, there arose a major controversy as the government was all set to develop a dam on the Coa River and in case of water overflow, the engravings stood the risk of getting damaged. However, timely intervention by all requisite authorities managed to stall dam construction and a park was built in order to preserve the exquisite works of art.
Most of these engravings are, according to archaeologists, about 20,000 to 10,000 years old and most of the crafts depict animal figures like those of bovines, caprines and horses. Several modes of abstract depictions and human representations are also to be found. The most significant characteristic of these engravings are that while there are innumerable evidences of cave paintings, these were probably among a few of its kind and the open air engravings are spread over a wide area.
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