Ribeira de Piscos panel no. 1 (30,000-25,000 years old)

The Palaeolithic rock art of the Côa Valley was produced during a large span of time, between 30,000 and 12,000 before present. It is characterized essentially by the representation of large herbivores selected from the indigenous fauna. Horses and aurochs (ancestors of the domestic ox) are the most represented motifs but ibexes and red deer are also very common. Chamois and fishes are occasionally represented. Human figures are only present in rocks that were engraved between about 18,000 and 14,000 before present, and even so very rarely, in only two rocks of the Ribeira de Piscos site and on another two of the nearby site of Fariseu. The cold species, extinct at the twilight of the ice age, occasionally present in Central Europe cave art, are mostly absent from the Côa Valley.