Posted inIberian peninsula TRACCE Onl. RA Bull. 4 TRACCE Onl. RA Bull. HTML issues

The Côa Valley affair

Upper Palaeolithic sites

TRACCE no. 4 – by João Zilhão

At the request of the editor of TRACCE, I comment here on the text by Robert Bednarik published in number 3, May 1996, of this online rock art newsletter. I do it as a token of consideration toward the editor and the cooperative Le Orme dell’Uomo, an organization that played an important role in rallying international support to preserve the Côa Valley rock art sites.

Posted inTRACCE Onl. RA Bull. 3 TRACCE Onl. RA Bull. HTML issues

Why Rock Art?

Susan Reynolds The Canvaswriter

TRACCE no. 3 – by Susan Reynolds

I hated science. But I needed science, and the social sciences seemed less intimidating than the physical, so I chose cultural anthropology as “the easy way out.” I had raised my daughters and now I decided to follow one of my dreams, a university education. Now here I was, sitting in a darkened room, with 20 fellow students the age of my own daughters, with a strange little professor rambling on about rocks, dating techniques, the difference between skulls, Paleolithic somethings…

Posted inAcademics TRACCE Onl. RA Bull. 3 TRACCE Onl. RA Bull. HTML issues Valcamonica - Valtellina

Ossimo Chalcolithic site (Central Alps)

Ossimo 4 boulder

TRACCE no. 3 – by F.G. Fedele

The discovery of new engraved stelae at Ossimo Superiore in 1988 provided a long-awaited opportunity to excavate and study ceremonial Chalcolithic (or Copper Age) sites in Val Camonica and the central Alpine region (1). Investigations at the main site, L’Anvòia OS4, were resumed in 1993 and are currently in progress (2)…

Posted inAcademics TRACCE Onl. RA Bull. 3 TRACCE Onl. RA Bull. HTML issues

A question of style – Direct Dating vs. Rupestrian Archaeology?

Côa Valley, Canada do Inferno

TRACCE no. 3 – by A. Arcà, A. Fossati

If the battle for saving Côa Valley petroglyphs against the dam has been successful, another “fight” is now enlightened: the dispute between archaeologists who (unanimously) sustain the Palaeolithic age of Côa engraved rocks, and direct-dating researchers, trying to demonstrate their (very) recent antiquity.

Posted inAcademics TRACCE Onl. RA Bull. 3 TRACCE Onl. RA Bull. HTML issues

Some corrections about the Côa petroglyphs

Microscopic scanning…

TRACCE no. 3 – by Robert G. Bednarik

The member organizations of IFRAO, galvanized under the spirited leadership of Dr Mila Simões de Abreu of APAAR (Portugal), have succeeded in rallying sufficient international support to convince the government of Portugal to avert the imminent inundation of the rock art in the Côa valley.