L’art paléolithique du Portugal une quarantaine d’années après la publication des gravures de Mazouco

Abstract

We propose a synthesis of what we know about the Palaeolithic imagery in Portugal. This synthesis is based on the history of research, on our own research in the Côa Valley and on some other sites and on a critical review of the 96 known sites. The synthesis will be organized by geographical regions and according to the territories defined by the origin of the lithic raw materials used on the occupation sites of the Côa valley. We present our interpretation of morpho-stylistic diversity of Portuguese imagery in the Iberian context, noting that during the Gravettian and until the Middle Solutrean, it presents similarities with the rest of the imagery of southwest Europe and that between the Upper Solutrean and the Magdalenian, the morpho-stylistic conventions reveal greater territorial diversity. The images of the sites of southern Portugal approach those of the Mediterranean area, those of the Douro basin are closer to the ones of the Franco-Cantabrian area and the images of central Portugal reveal a double influence. At the end of the Pleistocene cycle, we would once again witness a process of graphic homogenization on a European scale.