Côa Valley

Holiday Resolution

The Prehistoric Rock-Art Sites of the Côa Valley are open-air Paleolithic archaeological sites located in
west of Salamanca, Spain, and northeast of Tomar, Portugal.

The rock art at Côa was created over several thousand years, beginning in the Upper Paleolithic Era (40,000-10,000 BC) and continuing intermittently all the way to the 20th century AD. The themes of the earliest engravings are mostly of animals, especially mountain goats, horses, aurochs (wild hulls) and deer. The first three are the most common and are characteristic of the earliest phases of art in western Europe. There are also some rare engravings of fish and one instance of a human form during this period, at the end the Upper Paleolithic Age (at Ribeira de Piscos).