Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 May 2015
In December 1995, ANTIQUITY published contrary reports on the age of the animal and other figures engraved on open-air schist surfaces of the Côa valley in northern Portugal. João Zilhão (1995) contended that the figures, Palaeolithic in their look, are indeed of Palaeolithic age: they belong with the other Iberian sites where Palaeolithic petroglyphs survive on open-air surfaces. Robert Bednarik (1 995), using his own and others' physical-science studies, contended they were certainly under 3000 years old: the Palaeolithic presumption — and stylistic dating as a method — is false. We here print together two studies concerning the age of the Côa Valley rock-surfaces, and of the figures they bear.