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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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