Quinta da Barca panel no. 3 (18,000-15,000 years)

The art of the Côa valley is one of the greatest open-air collections of Palaeolithic art in the word. Prior to its identification, it was largely assumed that the oldest human art was circumscribed to caves and rock shelters. The hypothesis that it is now being put forward is that the major part of the open-air rock-art has been destroyed by erosion, and only preserved in specific climatic and geological conditions like in the Côa Valley.
The Côa valley open air rock-art thematic and stylistic conventions present a lot of similarity with images preserved in caves and rock shelters from southwestern Europe. However, the Côa valley open-air has some specificities, namely the depiction of movement. This is achieved by the representation of a single animal body with two or even three heads in successive positions of its movement.