The post-paleolithic rock art in Beira Alta (Center of Portugal) (original) (raw)

Both the districts of Guarda and Viseu are part of Beira Alta’s region. Viseu’s district has some geographic and cultural traits of Atlantic kind. On the contrary, the geographic and cultural features of Guarda’s district are more of a continental type. Accordingly, Guarda’s district can be better defined as Beira Interior, forming a unity with Castelo Branco’s. This geographic and administrative dichotomy is also a reflection of what we find in the archaeological record. In Viseu’s district we find a lot more of megalithic tombs and other burial mounds. On the other hand, Viseu’s district has a very special “package” of rock art. In here we can distinguish two different traditions - an Atlantic one and second one corresponding to an engraved variant of the painted schematic art that we find in Portugal’s border and in all the Spanish country eastward. We’ve been collecting, since 1997, in Beira Alta, evidence showing us that this kind of engravings can be even older than those of Atlantic tradition. In synthesis, it is possible to define 4 artistic cycles in Beira Alta: one that corresponds to an engraved variant of schematic art dated from the end of the IV – beginning of the III millennium BC; a second one integrated in the Atlantic tradition that should be dated from Early Bronze Age; a third from Late Bronze Age characterized by footprints, horseshoes, phallic motifs and other figures; a fourth dated from Iron Age characterized by the use of incision.