The so-called rupestrian art is one of the areas of symbolic representation that most defies the limits of interpretation, both scientific and popular. One of its best-known manifestations are the compositions formed by geometric, anthropomorphic and zoomorphic figures, engraved on rock and whose original meaning usually escapes us.
The engravings in the Terva Valley are part of the so-called Atlantic Art, a symbolic manifestation that can be identified from the Vouga River to the British Isles and which is generally recognised to have been produced by the communities that occupied the territory between the 4th and 1st millennia BC.
PUB
Outeiro Gordo
The engravings are found on an extensive, flat granite slab that rises to the surface of the terrain, on the eastern edge of the hill, with a wide view over the Terva Valley.
Two motifs can be distinguished, about 3 metres apart and engraved by pricking and abrasion. To the south is a simpler, badly eroded motif and to the north is a more complex, well-preserved motif.
The first corresponds to a circular figuration, made up of the rest of two concentric furrows. The second is also a circular figuration, which is organised around a small elevation of the outcrop, at the top of which a circle has been grooved, completely filled with dimples, marking the centre of the composition, followed by two concentric rings also grooved and finally a sequence of four rings, also concentric, formed by aligned dimples.
Souto Escuro 1
Located on the western edge of the Leiranco slope, near the village of Bobadela, the rock engravings identified at this site are inscribed on a granite slab facing east, towards the valley, measuring around 14 square metres and partially fractured.
Scattered over the surface are numerous grooves and dimples, obtained by pricking and abrasion, which draw predominantly concentric and pseudo-concentric circular motifs, combined with dimples, curvilinear lines and more rarely rectilinear lines.
Due to their obvious stylistic harmony and internal connection, the motifs carved into this rock seem to form a compositional ensemble of monumental character, in which the three-dimensional expression of the representation is emphasised, through the obvious use of the topographical characteristics of the outcrop.
THIS route is not signposted.
Souto Escuro 2
Like the Souto Escuro 1 site, from which it is about 200 metres to the north, this site is located at the foot of the southeastern slope of the Serra do Leiranco, near the village of Bobadela.
The rock carving, obtained by pricking and abrasion, is found on a granite outcrop that flanks the road, an outcrop that has been fractured by quarrying. It consists of a single circular motif, drawn by the grooves of four concentric rings, with a central dimple. On the east side, four dimples occupy the space between the 2nd and 3rd rings, partially interrupting the groove.
Alto da Seara
Located on the left bank of the Ardãos stream, the rock engravings are found on a flat plateau that runs down to the Batocas lagoons and are inscribed on a granite slab measuring approximately 25 square metres.
The carvings, made by pricking and abrasion, include motifs made up of grooves that draw motifs that tend to be circular, curvilinear and rectangular. Scattered over and around the grooves are a large number of dimples, arranged in an apparently random way, or at least without us being able to recognise an order or pattern in their position. On the east side of the slab we can see a contemporary set of epigraphs, which read >1969/ DOMINGOS<.
More about the Terva Valley Archaeological Park (TVAP) here.
