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The absolute age of the Côa valley rock-engravings: two physical-science studies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 May 2015

Extract

In December 1995, ANTIQUITY published contrary reports on the age of the animal and other figures engraved on open-air schist surfaces of the Côa valley in northern Portugal. João Zilhão (1995) contended that the figures, Palaeolithic in their look, are indeed of Palaeolithic age: they belong with the other Iberian sites where Palaeolithic petroglyphs survive on open-air surfaces. Robert Bednarik (1 995), using his own and others' physical-science studies, contended they were certainly under 3000 years old: the Palaeolithic presumption — and stylistic dating as a method — is false. We here print together two studies concerning the age of the Côa Valley rock-surfaces, and of the figures they bear.

Type
Papers
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 1997

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References

Bednarik, R.G. 1995. The Côa petroglyphs: an obituary to the stylistic dating of Palaeolithic rock-art, Antiquity 69: 87782.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zilhão, J. 1995. The stylistically Palaeolithic petroglyphs of the Côa valley (Portugal) are of Palaeolithic age: a refutation oftheir 'direct dating' to recent times, Antiquity 69: 883901.Google Scholar