Rock Art Research

This paper summarises very briefly the developments since 1995, concerning the controversial petroglyph corpus in the lower Côa valley in north-eastern Portugal. New dating evidence is presented and discussed. Archaeological research results and geomorphological models from the Côa valley are considered, including the excavations of several occupation floors, the results of a series of cosmogenic analyses, lichenometric data, new evidence about sediment terrace formations at Penascosa, and the archaeometric deductions to be drawn from this growing body of evidence. The problems of the newly discovered site at Fariseu are considered. Finally, the nearby but Spanish petroglyph site Siega Verde is compared, because of its distinctive similarities with both the rock art and the geomorphology of the Côa sites.