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Portugal: Ice Age rock art in the Coa River valley saved
In 1994, archeologists exploring northern Portugal's Coa River valley near the
town of Vila Nova de Fozcoa discovered a prehistoric art gallery chiseled into
an eight-mile stretch of gorge. Scholars consider the carvings the most
important Ice Age art in Europe outside of a cave. Thought to be 20,000 years
old, the rock art depicts roughly 150 animals in motion, including horses,
ibex, deer, and aurochs, a type of European bison that became extinct in the
17th century.
At the time of the discovery, construction had already begun on a $300 million
hydroelectric dam, which by its scheduled completion in 1998 would flood the
carvings under 300 feet of water. In an unprecedented show of cooperation,
archeologists teamed with a citizens' movement comprised of students,
environmentalists, and local wine growers (who feared the dam would alter the
area's climate) to block the dam project. Other area residents promoted the dam
as a way to boost the local economy, but after lobbying for a year under the slogan
"As gravuras nao sabem nadar" ("The engravings are not able to swim"),
the anti-dam coalition successfully convinced the Portuguese government in 1995
to abandon the project and instead create an archeological preserve to protect
the art.
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