Group Quaternary and Prehistory - Geosciences Centre (uID 73 - FCT),

"In several articles about rock art, the carved rocks appear many times refered as sanctuaries, but usually the reasons which allow this interpretation are never explained. Could a rock with only cup-marks or concentric circles be a sanctuary? Couldn’t those cup-marks represent only a counting system nor have a pratical function instead of a ritual one?
In the sequence of these questions, the author thinks that is time to elaborate some theoretic assumptions about when a place with rock carvings may be considered as a sanctuary. However, the present paper must be considered only as a preliminar approach to the subject. These assumptions are based on several examples from the rock art of different countries and will focus, for example, on funerary scenes, representation of ritual dances, cosmological images and symbols with a well known religious meanning, among other cases. Then, this makes possible to define a series of three criteria for a classification that will be developed in the text of the paper.
Key-words: individual sanctuary, colective sanctuary, ritual, methodological criteria"

Since there are many examples of astronomical representations in rock art it can be argued that one of the early cognitive abilities of Humankind was to observe the sky, producing, this way, several thoughts regarding myths and rituals. Although not being easy to find unambiguous images of comets engraved on rock surfaces such examples do occur, having some of them been studied not only by archaeologists but also by astronomers. In this paper the author presents some examples of possible comets and meteors depicted in rock art, with different chronologies, and analyses some interpretations given to these astronomical phenomena since early civilizations. Regarding cometary phenomena, the discussion of this article is also based on astronomical, geological and cultural data. As a conclusion, it can be noticed that the relation between astronomical events and religious thought in Prehistory is very close and therefore comets and meteors must have left a deep impression in the mind of the observers, due to the visual impact that they produced, being probably considered as manifestations of the gods.

"The author presents some examples of references to rock art sites which appear on European literature from the 16th to the 18th centuries and on drawings from the same chronological period. The aim of this paper is to contribute to an inventory of such documents, which are indeed important regarding the history of rock art studies, mainly because some of them allow information in terms of interpretation.
Besides the mentioned documents, the existance of popular legends envolving rock art may also be considered as an inicial approach to those traces from the past, having some of them probably a medieval origin.
In this article we cannot forget to refer the toponomy of some rock art sites, because in certain cases they are the consequence of what the vision of the engravings caused in the observers, being this way also a first interpretation, which is an approach."

"COIMBRA, F.A. (2005) – O pentagrama de Ribeira de Piscos (V.N. de Foz Côa) e seus paralelos no contexto da arte rupestre filiforme pós-paleolítica da  Península Ibérica. Actas do I Congresso de Arqueologia de Trás-os-Montes,  Alto Douro e Beira Interior. Côavisão, 7. Câmara Municipal de V. N. de Foz Côa: 145-157."

"Abstract: Some architectonic elements of the Hillfort’s Culture have motifs like triskeles
tetraskeles and others similar, whose systematic study becomes difficult due to several reasons.
After the few developed studies made until now two questions can be stressed: the chronology
of these artefacts, which in their majority have appeared outside their original context, and the
subject matter of being symbolic motifs or only decoration.
In this paper the author presents the synthesis of some years of research about this theme, trying
to contribute to spread some more light about the mentioned questions.
Keywords: triskeles, tetraskeles, Castro Culture, symbolism."

This article approaches the symbolism of the swastikas wich appear in Roman funerary stelae from the North of Portugal and Galicia, analysing their associations with the other iconography on the same monuments. The author makes some reflections about the funerary cult as an assistant for the understanding of the symbolic motives wich are present in these tombstones. Finally, he makes a contextual interpretation, based on the observations and on the analyses made during the text.

"Abstract:
The countless cases of astronomical representations in rock art around the world seem to prove that one of the early
cognitive abilities of non-literate people was to observe the sky. Indeed, the depiction of astronomical bodies like the sun, the moon
and, less occasionally, cometary phenomena, constitute examples of the cognitive processes of those early societies and allow
argument about their ways of thought regarding those celestial bodies, which become ‘translated’ not only into spiritual issues
(myths and rituals), but also in a pragmatic way in the use of calendars.
Key words: astronomical representations, sun, moon, comet, rock art"

This congress intends to gather, with the aim of sharing knowledge, not only prehistorians, archaeologists and art historians, but also other researchers that approach mythology, the horse domestication, its military use and the evolution and breeding of these two noble animals.
Both of them appear profoundly depicted in different cultures and civilizations, since Prehistory till today, in many examples of rock art, pottery, sculpture, mosaics, coins, architecture and painting, among other cases.
The horse and the bull, which share a common branch of the mammals' evolution tree, are also, through time and space, associated to several mythologies, appearing even with
divine characteristics among some peoples, as it happens with Ox Apis, in Ancient Egypt, and Apollo’s horses in Classical Greece, besides many other examples.
The congress is organized in general sessions and in thematic sessions, which are more specic, taking place at Golegã, the Portuguese capital of the horse, and at the neighbour
municipality of Chamusca, where are the biggest bull raisers. At the same time there will be a cultural program which will be soon available.
The organization is carried on by the Portuguese Centre of Geohistory and Prehistory and coorganized by five other institutions: Centre of Prehistory of the Polytechnic Institute of Tomar, Institute Land and Memory, Municipality of Chamusca, Municipality of Golegã, and the Iberian Museum of Archeology and Art of Abrantes. 
The oficial languages of the Congress are Portuguese, Spanish and English, but papers in French and Italian will be accepted if they will have an abstract in one of the oficial languages.

Rock 3 from Mana is located at half slope of a hill near the small river with the same name. The most striking engravings consist in a depiction of a hunting scene, where the prey is represented in a way that looks like running up hill, followed by five dogs and two horse riders.
The authors describe the spatial distribution of all these motives on the panel, analysing also their perspective and proportion and they consider the hunting scene also regarding the involving landscape, which helps to understand its location on the rock.
Regarding chronology, rock 3 from Mana is also studied considering the typology of the other engravings in the region. Other examples from European countries are analysed, noticing that usually when hunters ride horses they use spears and when they stand on feet they have bows. At Mana the hunter is on horseback and has a bow, which is indeed very unique in hunting scenes and has to do with the idea of the hero horseman (warrior- archer-hunter) as one of the dominant figures in the rock art of East Macedonia.