September 12, 2011

Video: 'Côa o rio das mil gravuras' ('Côa the river of a thousand engravings')

Video documentary on this fascinating affluent of the Douro river and its many Prehistoric engravings, of Middle and Late Upper Paleolithic age. It is in Portuguese mostly (with some fragments in French or English), however it is very worth watching even if you do not understand the language because of the engravings themselves and the beautiful context they are found at. Each part spans some 15 mins:

Part 1:


Part 2:


Part 3:


Part 4:


Found via Pileta de Prehistoria.

3 comments:

  1. Sorry Maju. But I have to say it. Looks as though all of the rivers in the region are easily crossed on foot.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Maju, thank you so much for posting this wonderful documentary even though I didn't understand a word of French. If the art presented here is around 20K/26K to 30K yrs old? What were humans doing in other parts of the world? Why is it the oldest art in the world found in Iberia and southern France, but nowhere else? But then they try to tell us Iberia was only populated in the neolithic by sexy farmers? lol

    ReplyDelete
  3. Preservation and discovery. There's very ancient rock art AFAIK in India at least. Another reason may be cultural preferences.

    It is the same old debate about a conjectured "behavioral modernity" that is once and again demolished as unreal.

    Dances, songs, feathers, drawings on leather... don't leave any remains. And where there are remains, there must be someone who finds them and identifies them as relevant.

    ReplyDelete

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